Archive for year: 2011

It was time.  My old and quite amazing, life-changing 2008 Macbook Pro took a turn for the worse last week. It started shutting down unexpectidly and its boot screen started showing massive signs of random pixelation upon boot.  It became apparent that my boot issues coupled with my frequent computer crashes, screen freezes  and the dead pixel that left a trailing red line on my beautiful 17-Inch HD monitor that it was about that time to truly consider a new laptop.  But the type-A entrepreneural Fix-It mentality immediately kicked in to defend my bank account as it usually does, regardless of the purchase price or affordability of the item.

So, I found myself at my local Apple store waiting in a notoriously long line of Apple Freaks, dying to hear the call out “Mr. Jonathan Strietzel” or “Strietzel” for at least 30 minutes after my scheduled appointment. After an unfortunate wait, I found myself talking to the most genius of the Genius Bar crew within minutes at my local Apple Store at the Beverly Center.  After a short series of texts, external boots from their secure HD, they only had one verdict.  Logic board was dead or at least it was dying quickly and had very little time to live.  My Genius quickly advised me to take immediate action and to get all of my stuff in order, to notify my Macbook Pro’s Next-of-kin, back up as much as possible, get my Macbook Pro’s will up-to-date, because even with all of his pure Apple Geniusness working at full god-like force, he would be unable to repair and save my once $4,000 Top-of-the-line Macbook Pro. Except for one potential solution….

So, the Genius of the Geniuses at Apple proceeded to tell me that he did have one potential remedy for my poor Macbook Pro’s unfortunate and dire situation.  He then proceeded to tell me that he had found a donor that would be willing to donate a new Logic Board so that my Macbook Pro would have a new shot at life.  He broke the sad and uneconomical news to me that the donor logic board wasn’t quite a donation at all, but that it was in fact a “Donation” from Apple Corporation that actually came with a steep “Donor Pricing” of $500-$600 (Including his very own “Genius” services to install it).  After a brief discussion the Genius of the Geniuses confessed to me that he could not guarantee me that my logic board was the true culprit in this whole Computer freezing, shut-down and screen pixelation debacle.  So, not only was I going to risk spending $500-$600 on a new Logic Board for my once stellar Macbook Pro, I was not even guaranteed that it would fix the problem.  At $500-$600 for a “potential fix”, I immediately went into my typical and entrepreneurial calculations and efficiency mode and quickly came to this realization.

• Macbook Pro Potential Fix (Logic Board Purchasing and Install): $500-$600, Success Probability %50 at best. Still a terrible dead pixel on the beautiful 17-Inch monitor.
• Purchasing of a new base-model 11-inch Macbook Air: $999, Success Probability %100, Usability and Efficiency due to small screen size: Decent, New crystal clear screen.. not to shabby
• Upgrading from the base model 11-Inch Macbook Air to the standard 13-inch Macbook Air with 125GB SSD at $1299, Success Probability %100, Usability Efficiency %100, Spread: $300 from the base 11-Inch Model and $800 from the potential but risky logic board fix, even larger and more amazing 13-Inch Screen: Awesome.
• Ambitious thought Jumps in: Just go all out and go for the high end Macbook Pro at $2500, but, suffer the slowness of a non SSD Drive with moving parts.  Moving parts are “So 2009” in my brain so, the only realistic jump from the SSD Macbook Air series would be to upgrade the Macbook Pro 17-Inch to a full on 125GB SSD, driving the price to just shy of $3000.  I also would have the ability to play CD’s on the Macbook Pro’s Optical drive, but, just as with moving parts, CD’s are “So 2009” as well.  We all know everything is moving to the cloud and having another piece of hardware with moving parts that your toting around on a daily basis is a 2009 formula for future disaster.
• Quick Ideology Review: I quickly validate if spending $3000-$4000 on the super of the duper portable laptop machines that Apple has to offer is economically viable and reasonable for me and I very quickly came to this calculation.
• Macbook Air 11-Inch $999 – Macbook Air 13-Inch $1299: Spread $300
• Macbook Air 13-Inch $1299 – Macbook Pro (Anything less than 17-Inch): Didn’t matter, At the Macbook Pro level, in my opinion, its 17-Inch or bust. Go big or go home  😉
• Macbook Air 13-Inch $1299 – Macbook Pro 17-Inch $3000 (With SSD): Spread $1700
• Facts: New Macbook Air 13-Inch = Cool, Super lightweight, no moving parts, Nice screen (No dead pixels) all at a $700 premium over a “Potential” fix of the Logic Board of my old Macbook Pro
• Facts: New Macbook Pro 17-Inch = Awesome large and beastly machine, HD to the max, Powerhouse Laptop, Moving parts (even if I Upgraded to the SSD, the Optical drive would still be moving away) but at a $1700 premium.

STRIETZEL’s CHOICE: Macbook Air 13-Inch, 125GB SSD (No need for the larger as nearly NOTHING is stored locally on my machines anymore due to amazing cloud-based services such as Google Apps (Email, Calendar, Contacts etc..), DropBox and Apples new App and iTunes Store that records all of your purchases in the cloud and with the coming advent of iCloud, it will be even more obvious to average consumers soon that buying larger local storage devices for your laptop simply doesn’t make sense. Its all about fast processing, lightning fast data retrieval, no moving parts, and file accessibility (storing all of your data in the cloud).

The sun will set in the desert on September 29th and will  be ushering in a new day in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada.  Office doors will be closing, lights turned off for the weekend, bags will be packed and after a brief car ride to the local airport, entrepreneurs and philanthropists across the country will be headed toward Sin City for a one-of-a-kind summer close-out gathering starting at 6pm on September 30th.  Its not for the typical bachelor party or vacation getaway, but for something worth so much more.  Amazing individuals from across the country will be coming together at the 2810 private resort in Las Vegas to gather with like minds for a relaxing summer close-out weekend unlike any other.