The Firebare Blog

I am a video editor by trade. I first heard of Final Cut Server over a year ago, and was under the Impression that it was supposed to be released this last Fall. I was anxiously waiting for its release, and when it never happened, I slumped into a pit of anxiety wondering if it ever would. So, hopefully you can understand my excitement when I logged on to the internets this morning, and saw a nice message informing me that Final Cut Server is shipping (FINALLY!).

I’m not sure how many people will be too excited about this, but it could potentially make life so much easier for editors around the world.

Now to see if it does what it says it does.

Apple closed out the day with a 3.75% increase in stock value (+ $4.94) leaving them at a healthy $136.71 per share. This is a positive outlook for shareholders who have been negatively affected by the dramatic price reduction on the iPhone last week from $599 to $399. This change comes after the announcement this morning of Apple’s 1 millionth iPhone sold as of yesterday, September 9th, a landmark that took the iPod 2 years to reach.

I would not be surprised if we see a 16Gb iPhone on the market by the end of the year, perhaps as early as next month, fitting into the $499 price bracket, as well as major upgrades to the iPhone OS.

It’s amazing for me to think that in a mere 74 days, Apple has managed to sell one million iPhones! But according to Apple’s reports, the hit the mark yesterday September 9th:

“Yesterday, just 74 days after its introduction on June 29, Apple sold the one millionth iPhone. ‘One million iPhones in 74 days—it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,’ said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.”

Curious about how this is effecting Apple’s current stock value, I popped open my trusty stock widget in Dashboard, and to no surprise, Apple’s stock is up almost $3.00 while everybody else is down.

I personally wasn’t expecting to see this goal hit until the end of the month, but I don’t think anyone can deny that it has a huge part to do with two of Apple’s announcements at last Wednesday’s “The Beat Goes On” event. The first being the most obvious $200 price drop from $599 to $399 for the 8Gb model, and then the fact that you can now pick up a 4Gb model on clearance for $299! That’s a huge difference especially considering that one of the major criticisms of the iPhone has been the price. I can’t count how many people I heard say things like, “Who would want to carry around a $600 phone with them?” Well, you can’t exactly make that excuse any more, so it would appear that people hit the stores in multitudes. Stocking up for Christmas maybe?

The second influence is just a speculation on my part, but it’s something I have wanted for some time, and I know others have wondered about as well, and that’s the ability to buy songs while on the go. Some time back when Apple announced that you would be able to sync songs purchased with the same account on two different computers using your iPod, I thought for sure that a Wi-Fi iTunes store was imminent, but only time would be the tell. And that seems to be the case here. I’m not sure when Apple will make this feature available for iPhone owners, but my thoughts are, with over 1 million iPhones out there, it won’t be long.

And then, come next February, while I’m in line to get my coffee, I can browse what songs are playing in my local Starbucks, and buy them if I want. Can anybody say, “Brilliant Strategy”?

According to a Flickr photo posted by David Watanabe, it appears that Apple might start renting movies through iTunes.

Along with the picture, Watanabe added: “I was trying to report a problem via iTunes, and this pop-up for selecting a reason contains some interesting/revealing strings… looks like “RentalMovies” will be coming to the iTunes store.”

Adding a rental service to the iTunes store would be a great move for Apple, and one that I have thought they should do for some time now. If other iPod / iPhone owners like myself feel the same way about buying a $9.99 to $14.99 movie that can only be plaid on one of their devices, the option to pay a small fee to rent the movies for a limited time is very welcoming. The fact remains, I will not buy a movie just so I can play it on my iPhone, but I might be inclined to consider renting one if the service was available to me.

This is one rumor I definitely hope is true!

I purchased my iPhone a little over 2 weeks ago through Apple’s “Refurbished iPhone” section on their online store. I was probably thinking the same thing you are, “They already have refurbished iPhones?”. But, after a little research, I found out that Apple treats them as new, so I would have all of the same Apple Care options as if I was buying a brand new one; it was just $100 cheaper at $499 fo an 8 Gig iPhone! So, of course I took the cheaper option. And then, this last Wednesday, Steve Jobs had to make the one announcement I didn’t want to hear: a $200 dollar drop on new iPhones, I couldn’t help but feel the nation wide “D’oh!!” felt by all early adopters.

The second blow came when I found out that I was outside of the 10 day grace period to receive a credit on the price change. However, as I was reading all of the hype about Steve’s decision to give a $100 store credit to everyone outside of 10 days, the light at the end of the tunnel started to come back. And then, I read something about Apple extending the 10 day period to 14 days, the exact amount of time since I had purchased my iPhone! But the big question was whether or not this offer would be extended to my refurbished phone, but I just had to find out!

After a very long, yet highly worth it, hour long wait I was finally able to talk to a Customer Support member, and found out that I did qualify for a credit, but since I had purchased my phone refurbished it would only be $150. Good enough for me!

It feels good to know that I only paid $349 for my iPhone!

So, if you’re a proud owner of a refurbished iPhone, and paid $499 like myself, get on the phone and see if you qualify to get your $150 back. And if you can’t do that, at least try for the store credit. It’s worth it!

(note: While on hold, I learned that as long as you’re on a wi-fi network, most of the iPhone’s features like YouTube, Mobile Safari & even the iPod still work when you’re on the phone!)