June Newsletter
     March 31,  2015       |   Santa Barbara, California                  

 
    
 
 

Most people change the oil in their car every 6 months.
We recommend servicing your Mac at least once a year.
It will make it faster, smoother and we can catch problems before they occur!

Keep the
Spinning Beach Balls
on the Beach
Where They Belong!





Buying a New Mac?


We can hook you up with a brand new
Apple computer
directly from Apple.
Same price,
delivered and installed in your home or office!  

Ask about our Concierge Service.  Our clients love it.


We also have
excellent condition
used Macs
from time to time.

Call or email when you're ready.











Things that make you go, "hmm..."


We Recover Data!


The AppleStore refers us. 
We're good. 
We have 20 years of experience. 
And we care deeply about your data.

Call us immediately if you suspect a failing hard drive. The spinning pinwheel, the spinning beach ball is often a sign of imminent failure!

Don't wait until it's too late!




Cracked Screen
Replacement:




We are proud to be the first place in town with Apple Certified Techs who started fixing your shattered iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro!







Windows?!  Seriously?!

Yes. 

Seriously.

Jeff does Windows.

Call or email for more info



BackBlaze
BackBlaze Off-Site Backup

Cloud Backup Made EASY.
BackBlaze.


BackBlaze is the best off-site (Cloud),
catastrophic backup plan
to protect you from situations like:
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to keep your data
safe from disaster.






We Install & Configure
AppleTV


Want to know
what all the fuss
is about? 
Call and order the future of TV in your home
for just $99!




What don't we do?

Plumbing.

We're terrible plumbers.

But other than that, we do it all.


Sounds cliche,
but we want to be
your number one Apple guys
in Santa Barbara.
We're local, we're fast
and we're the best!


Call and inquire
if you want to know more.
In the meantime,
assume that we
can take care of all of your
Mac and Apple needs.


 

 




Life altering decisions should not be taken lightly.

I’m the type to brew and stew about them a long time before knowing what to do. But once I get clear, I like to burst into a room and announce them.


“Honey, I’ve made up my mind!”

“You’re going on a diet?”

“Nooooo. I mean maybe, sure, but not today. Why do you always bring that up?”

“Because we now have an interest-free, unlimited line of credit at the Big and Tall shop?”

“Ouch. No. That’s definitely not what I want to talk about right now.”

“Okay, let me guess. You’ve decided to take on grooming this year as a daily practice?”

I’m starting to wonder if I forgot to do something really important. Hmm… Her birthday?… Our anniversary?... No… It’s March, so we should be good.

“Um, no. Am I looking unkempt?”
I was proud of myself for using the word ‘unkempt.’ I’m not sure I’ve ever said it aloud before. I felt it showed some vocab prowess and a future Scrabble move.

“Well, people do keep asking if you’re growing a beard or starring in a remake of The Lost Weekend.”

“It’s called ‘designer stubble,’ the Hollywood 5 o’clock shadow look.”

She looks at me askance and says, “You might want to revisit that with your image consultant. She phoned to say your shadow is quite white. More like a 5am fog.”

“I don’t have an image consult---Oh. You mean you.”

“That’s why I get paid the big bucks.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll shave more often. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about!”

At this point, if I don’t blurt, the odds of me completely forgetting why I entered the room, much less this conversation, are exceedingly high.

“I’m getting an AppleWatch!”

“Seriously? I thought we talked about this?”

“We did, but I’ve revised that conversation in my head and decided it’s a fine idea for me to get an AppleWatch.”

It’s important to sound resolute at this juncture and committed to my course of action. Any signs of doubt could easily be manipulated by my beloved adversary.

“And so now you see the wisdom of spending $400 on a watch?”

“Well,… $1200, actually.”

$1200?!! Dear husband. Tell me you’re joking.”

“I feel like I need to get the black one.”

“The black one? What does that even mean?”

“Sweetie, Apple even invented another color for this watch! It’s called ‘Space Black,’ probably inspired by its cousin, ‘Space Gray.’ It’s this black, brushed metal that looks really cool!”

“As your image consultant, I have to advise Space Husband that you will look fat in Space Black. Cheap, inexpensive plastic takes 10 lbs. off.”

“Really? Oh. You’re joking.”

She does that a lot. She’s British. The British are so dry that they easily trick Americans into thinking they’re being serious, when they’re simply sarcastic. My sarcasm detector just failed. Again.

“Are you seriously considering spending $1200 on a WATCH? You can buy the new MacBook for the same price, or five iPhones for that! It’s a watch.”

“Well,… that’s the thing. It’s not just a watch, sweetie.” I feel my wisdom and confidence swell. “You can get email and texts on it too and I can send my heart rate to you when I’m feeling romantic.”

“What about the new iPhone 6 you carry at all times?”

“They work in tandem with each other. Like parent and child.”

“And so stands the uncomfortable metaphor… What are you going to do in a year or two when the latest generation of AppleWatch is thinner, faster, has a longer battery life, and can operate without your iPhone?”

“Um, sell it?”

“People would buy a used watch?”

“Sweetie, it’s not a watch. It’s an AppleWatch.”

“People would buy a used AppleWatch?”

Her emphasis is less honorific than mine with the light aroma of sarcasm.

“People love all things Apple, sweetie. All you have to do is put “Apple” or even just ‘i’ in front of any word and people will queue for miles just to see it. They will clamor to touch it. It’s a religious experience. Why do you think the AppleStores are all white? They’re Apple Chapels. I wrote an email to Steve Jobs years ago saying he should just call them that, but of course, the powers that be decided the boring use of the word ‘Store’ was somehow better.”

At this moment, I realize I may have gone too far and lost some of the earlier momentum and credibility I’d built up. I resort to the big guns.

“Besides, at Mick’s Macs we need to be up on all of the latest Apple technology if we’re to support our clients.”

That was unfair. I know.

I played my trump card and basically said: I have to buy it for work. Sometimes I’m not altogether uncertain I didn’t create this business for the sole purpose of giving myself the unrestrained justification to buy all of the latest Apple toys. I keep telling myself that I won’t upgrade everything, every quarter, but medical professionals suggest I appear to struggle with delayed gratification.

My wife looks at me with the tiniest hint of defeat when she says, “Well… if you need it for work, you should at least buy the cheapest one.”

“You mean the Sport watch, that doesn’t have the Ruby Safire Crystal protecting it?”

“Not unless you’re planning on getting stuck in Oz with no way home.”

“No, the Ruby Safire Crystal is the high quality glass and optics that Apple has just made. The clarity is insane.”

“You can’t see well enough to shave, but you need a high pixel count?”

Like Homer Simpson, the words just tumble out of my mouth unbidden, “Ruby… Safire… Crystal…”

“Beloved, I thought we’d been through all of this and discussed that it was a really silly waste of money.”

I love the way the English say the world “silly.” I would pay John Cleese whatever he asked just to say it. It’s way better with a British accent.

“Did we?”

Sometimes, when I don’t know what to say, I just ask a question to buy more time to think.

“Remember it’s mostly useless without an iPhone, right?”

“Is it?”

“Why not just use your iPhone since the AppleWatch doesn’t do anything you can’t already do on your phone?”

“Doesn’t it?”

She gives me the “don’t-try-that-nonsense-with-me” look, so I answer the question.

“Because it takes time to pull my iPhone out of my pocket when I want to check a text or an email. ”

“So your argument is that the AppleWatch saves you seconds?”

Exactly! See what I mean?! You’re getting it! The AppleWatch not only tells time, it saves time!”

“And how do you plan to spend that extra 30 seconds a week you’ll now have?”

“Dieting?”

“30 seconds a diet does not make.”

“Sweetie, the AppleWatch is wearable technology. It’s the future.”

“And the future means you have to take off your watch every night to charge it?”

“Think of it like we’re early-adopter pioneers.”

“One step forward, 2 steps back.”

“You know the gold one starts at $10,000, right?”

She gives me that look, smiles and walks away. I know when she sees my AppleWatch, she'll want one too.  We all will, one day.  I want to tell her there’s even a $17,000 model.  I yearn to share how Apple will give those who buy the gold watch a private, personalized 1-hour training session not just to show these lucky souls how they work, but also how to wear it in public and not make others feel like peasants.  I'm tempted to share all of this with her, but I think better of it.

At Mick’s Macs, our watches may never be golden, but we like to think of our advice that way.

All the best,

Mick

www.MicksMacs.com