Refurbished iMacs Available at Apple

Credit: Apple Inc.

If you are an Apple loyalist and have an unsatisfied thirst for an iMac, I have good news for you.  Apple is currently offering refurbished iMacs at tempting prices (e.g., $1,189.00 and $1,269.00).  That’s a savings of 20 and 15 percent off.  Looks to me like a terrific deal.

Apple has added refurbished models of the current-generation 21.5″ iMac to its Online Store in the past several days, offering a faster-shipping alternative to customers looking to get a desktop Mac.

New iMac models on the Apple Online Store list a lead time of several weeks to get delivered, while the refurbished models claim to ship in 1-3 days, with $200 and $230 discounts on the low- and high-end 21″ models respectively.

Apple Retail Stores list mid-March as the earliest time to pick up new 21″ iMacs ordered online, but Amazon.com claims to have both 21″ models in stock [$1,299 and $1,494] and eligible for Amazon Prime shipping.

27″ iMac models have yet to appear on the refurbished store, with the company reporting a 3-4 week lead time online and late March for in-store pickup. Amazon has the base 27″ model in stock for $1,799.

To be candid with you, I have a problem buying high-price ticket items in the United States, mainly because I can’t use the product’s guarantee.  I prefer to buy my stuff where I can see it, touch it, and rest assured I will use the product’s guarantee for when the products goes sour.

Recently I purchased a Vaio laptop and it came with a factory defect.  No problem, I took it to Sony Panama, and in less than four days, I got my computer back with a brand new motherboard.  How can I do that with a U.S. purchased product?  Even though the price may be slightly higher, I’m willing to cough my hard-earned cash on products in Panamanian computer stores.

I’m definitely interested on a low-end 21.5″ iMac, but the piggy bank is empty as this moment.  I’m a patient man and can wait until the time is ripe.  Meanwhile, my ole desktop HP will do the work.  Patience is still a virtue in this part of the world.  Take Care

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A Scarlet Mouse in Search of White Cheese

Snapshot of a recently acquired wireless mouse for my Sony Vaio laptop. The red color matches with the black and red color of the portable computer. I think it looks pretty cute. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

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Adding Portability to My Number Crunching Activities

In strange turn of events, I was contacted by the son of the previous owner of a large sugar mill where I worked as a Comptroller for three years when it was under the control of Bank of America.  His father had passed away and he was head hunting for a business consultant to help him in organizing several of his companies.

His father had recommended me, so he started searching for my whereabouts for several months unsuccessfully, until one day his secretary found my name on Facebook and contact was made.

We met, exchanged ideas, and finally agreed on a consulting agreement for a short period.  I’m feeling better from my dizzy spells and thought it would be nice to be useful again, plus extra pocket-money is always good news.  For about a month, I’ve met with his staff, setting up working schedules, and organizing investment projects.  It reminded me when I was 33 years old, full of life and dreams.

Since I had donated all my suits and ties to the church after I retired, my wife is helping me buying new business clothes.  In Panama people are very conscious of wearing formal clothes for business meetings—suit and tie.  I also needed a laptop for my follow-up meetings and keeping all my information in one place, without having to store hundreds of papers in my home office.

After researching on the Internet for zillion of options, I finally decided on a Sony Vaio 14″ laptop of the Series E14P, Model 14A15FLB.  It’s a powerful and aesthetic electronic device.  I unpacked it yesterday afternoon, and took several pictures during the process to share with you guys.  If you’re a techie, you might want to take a look at the following specs and pictures.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

• Weight:   5 pounds.  (A bit heavy for my taste.)
• Screen:  14 inches (1,366 x 768 pixels), Backlight LED technology
• Battery:  Up to six hours of use with standard battery
• Processor:  Intel Core i5-2450M, 2.50 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.10 GHz, Intel HM76 Express
• Operating System:  Windows 7 Home Premium Original, 64 bits
• Hard Disk Drive:  640 GB (speed 5,400 rpm)
• Internal Memory:  4 GB DDR3 SDRAM expandable up to 16 GB (speed 1,600 MT/s)
• Video Card:  Intel HD Graphics 3000, External:  AMD Radeon HD 7570M, 512 MB.
• Optical Unit:  Player & Recorder DVD
• Audio:  Dolby Home Theater V4
• Wireless Network:  Bluetooth standard version 4.0 IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Webcam:  HD, resolution 1,290 x 1,024 1.31 MP
• Dimensions:  Width:  13.4 inches, Thick:  0.88-1.31 inches, Height:  9.6 inches
• Color:  Black with red borders
• Guarantee:  One year
• Inside the Box:  One notebook sleeve with pockets, one keyboard skin, one lithium rechargeable battery, one power cable with adapter.

TOTAL COSTS:

• Cost of Sony Vaio laptop:  $899.97
• Cost of wireless Logitec mouse:  $29.97
• Sales Tax (ITBMS – 7%):  $65.10
• Total Costs:  $995.04

PHOTO GALLERY:

Snapshot of the Sony Vaio unopened box storing the portable computer. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of the partially open box containing the recently acquired Sony Vaio laptop. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of the laptop’s notebook sleeve with pockets. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of the cover of the Sony Vaio laptop. The red shade is a reflection of my sweater. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of the open laptop with it’s jet black color with thin red borders. The screen has aluminum frames. Very stylish piece of equipment. I liked as soon as I saw it. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of the attractive backlit keyboard with the aesthetic red linings which glow in the dark. I love it.

Snapshot of the input for the power supply cable indicating a voltage of 19.5 volts. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photograph of the USB ports. It has four of them; two on each side. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of one of the two speakers of the portable computer. I want to try its fidelity as soon as possible. It has a Dolby home theater audio system. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Labels indicating the laptop runs on Windows 7 Home Premium and has a powerful Intel Core i5 processor inside. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of a special Web button to activate the Internet without turning on the computer. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of the arrow keys, (e.g., Up, Down, Right and Left). Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of an attractive red keyboard skin that perfectly molds to the Vaio isolation keyboard. The backlit function of the keyboard is not available when the keyboard skin is attached to the device. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of the enticing red wireless mouse which matches with the color of the laptop. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

With this baby I’m ready to return to work like the “good ole days”, plus I have a backup computer when the main one goes sour.  It has happened before several times.  After all it’s seven years old and the wear and tear is showing its ugly face.  Good Day.

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Obsolescence

As technology advances in strides, old products fall into obsolescence.  What do I mean by that?  Any good dictionary worth its salt will define obsolescence as “a process of becoming obsolete; falling into disuse or becoming out of date.” Example:  A policy of planned obsolescence.

Last Sunday, my old Sony RGB 23″ analog TV set went a stage further than obsolescence.  It just refused to function.  After being a member of the family for more than 28 years, my ole television set passed away.  While viewing  a  morning program called, Diálogo hosted by Luz María Noli, suddenly there was a bright light in the middle of the screen, and then it went  kaput.  After that nothing at all—nil, nix, null, naught, zilch, nada, zip.  I knew then and there, the venerable electronic tube was no longer part of the family.

Not having a television set, doesn’t bother me at all.  I can access most of my favorite programs through the Internet.  My main interests are news—all kinds of news.  I would define myself as a “newsaholic“, if that word exists.  For several months, I’ve been receiving my news through the following Internet TV stations, since we never bothered to subscribe to cable TV.

• BBC of London
• Bloomberg TV
• CNBC
• CNN Live
• MSNBC
• C-Span
• Al Jazeera
• Televisora Nacional TVN-2
• RPC Televisión Canal 4
• Telemetro Canal 13

All of the above are included in my browsers’ Bookmark Toolbar; so they’re only a click away.  The rest of the news I retrieve from Web sites such as Yahoo News, The New York Times, USA Today and many others which I will omit to save time, since the list would be too long.

When I purchased my TV set in 1982, Sony was the King of the Hill, Top of the Heap.  Under the leadership of charismatic Akio Morita, Sony was the juggernaut of the consumer electronic industry.  Sony stood heads and shoulders above its competitors with products such as the Walkman and Betamax VCRs.  Now, Sony has lost direction and is desperately trying to make a comeback, but Steve Jobs’ Apple is a tough cookie.

When the time is ripe, I’ll replace my dead tube with another Sony.  Somehow I feel nostalgically attached to this brand.  It has served me well in the past.  I have a gut feeling, Sony will recover its prestige and will be coughing out high-quality consumer electronic products in the future.  I hope I’m not wrong in this assumption.

Below are several pictures of my obsolete TV set, nested on our front lawn, ready to be taken to Cerro Patacón’s sanitary landfill.  These picture will walk me through memory lane in the future, reminding me of an era when Sony walked on water.

Photograph of our old television set ready to be taken to Patacón dumpsite. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

As I place these picture I feel a slight emotion of sadness. This electric appliance gave us many hours of enjoyment. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

From a distance the set looks in perfect conditions. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

The next morning when I returned from El Dorado, the set was gone. The table where it was perched in one of our bedrooms is now empty. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Thanks to the magic of the Internet, I can keep myself fully updated in what’s happening outside of Panama.  The only thing I miss is not having Netflix—that would be great.  Good Day.

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State of the Art Candle Light Compact Cameras

These cameras are shirt-pocket gadgets containing new sensors that are specially designed for low-light photography. (Credit: The New York Times.com)

For many years Madison Avenue was telling us that pixel crammed digital cameras was the way to go if you wanted attractive pictures.  This created the myth that cameras with the most pixels would take better pictures.  This myth has been debunked.  Now we know that pixel packed cameras are only needed if you plan to print large pictures.  For normal postcards and web images a 5 MB pixel digital camera will do just fine.

Currently the trend is to cough out cameras with redesigned sensors that are specially designed for low-light photography.  These new cameras mark an important step forward in personal photography.

Recently (at long last), camera companies have begun diverting their research efforts from “how to get more megapixels” to “how to get better photos.” They’re working on things that really do matter in a consumer camera, like sensor size, stabilization — and fixing low-light photography.  This is the case of the the Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR and the Sony DSC-WX1 ($320 and $350, respectively, before discounting).  With these state of the art cameras you can practically say good bye to the ubiquitous tripod.

Both cameras can choose the correct mode (close-up, twilight, portrait, landscape and so on) automatically. Both have only a screen—no eyepiece viewfinder—which makes them tricky to use in bright sunlight. Then again, both cameras are tiny enough to rattle around in a shirt pocket. Both offer excellent face recognition, meaning that portraits are almost always focused and properly exposed. Neither offers manual focusing.

For my blogging activities my Canon A720 IS is just fine, since most, if not all my photographs are taken in broad daylight.  Even though I have taken some photographs in dim light, the results have been satisfactory.  However, I know persons that like to take pictures at night and are having problems with their Canon digital compact cameras.  If this is your case, then this new option could be helpful to you.

I’m glad that camera manufacturers are now looking at other improvement areas besides more mega pixels.  Good Day.

Source:  Low Light Becomes a Highlight - The New York Times

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Global Recession Reached Japan

The financial meldown which started in the United States is spreading around the world like a prairie wildfire.  This time it hit Japan.  Japan’s government officials are accepting that the fortunes of the world’s second-largest economy rise and fall on the habits of consumers around the world.

Government data Monday showed that the economy contracted at an annual pace of 0.4 percent in the July-September quarter after falling an annualized 3.7 percent in the second quarter. That means Japan, along with the 15 European countries, is now technically in a recession, commonly defined as two straight quarters of contraction.

Behemoths like Toyota and Sony have seen their profits dwindle as a result of the financial nighmare floating over the globe like an epidemic.  But the worst may be yet to come.  Economy Minsiter Kaoru Yosano said current recession could carry over to fiscal years 2008 and 2009.

Since taking office in late September, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has unveiled two economic stimulus packages in an effort to cushion the blow. His latest 27 trillion-yen ($275.7 billion) proposal includes expanded credits for small businesses and a total of 2 trillion yen ($20.4 billion) in cash pay outs to households.

The overall picture of the world’s economy is not very pretty.  I would recommend that you stick to your basic expenses and save as much as you can.  There’s a bumpy road ahead and the light at the end of the tunnel is not in sight.  Good Day.

Source: Japan slides into recession, 1st time since 2001- Yahoo Finance

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