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.

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!)