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Xenious said:
Then there is the one true terror of BTO. You can't order from someplace like Macmall and skirt sales tax. I'm cringing at the 8.25% I'm going to have to pay on my BTO just to get the features I can't upgrade to later. When buying a powerbook or G5 and a 23" monitor (you have to buy them at the same time to get apple care coverage on the monitor) its about $390 in tax. yuk.
-jim

I remember reading a post somewhere in MR that there is an online reseller who BTO's. Can't remember who it is for the life of me. Anyone????
 
Can someone explain the tax loophole and wish to save money anyway possible. I live in the Dallas, Texas area and their is an Apple Store in my county and city. I was about to order a 15" Powerbook online with Education discount but if I can learn about this tax loophole it would be a great help. And if their is something special about Florida taxes I have relatives that live their and could use them to send it to.
 
skinEman23 said:
Are you saying you don't have to pay tax if you don't build to order, or that you don't have to pay taxes if you order from some place other than apple?

I'm saying you may not have to pay tax if you order from some place other than apple. Apple is skillful and knows how much to charge you based on where you live. Macmall doesn't charge salestax except to three states. The catch I have is that you can only get some of the BTO options from Apple.
 
djkindred said:
Can someone explain the tax loophole and wish to save money anyway possible. I live in the Dallas, Texas area and their is an Apple Store in my county and city. I was about to order a 15" Powerbook online with Education discount but if I can learn about this tax loophole it would be a great help. And if their is something special about Florida taxes I have relatives that live their and could use them to send it to.

If you are using BTO which means you have to order from Apple, you're stuck. They charge correct sales tax based on delivery zip code. However if you are wanting one of the stock configurations, find an online retailer that doesn't charge sales tax to your state/city. I am 99% sure Texas is not charged sales tax from MacMall orders.
-jim
 
Then I was not misinformed. I know QE uses 3D textures, but I don't think it takes all that much. How many windows does a typical user have? Macosxhints.com has a poll right now that asking how many GUI applications people have running at a time. It looks like most people (68.3%) have 10 or less. Let's say you're driving a 17" external display from a 15" AlBook. That would require 9.2MB for the 2D stuff (1280x854x32-bit is about 4.2 MB and 1280x1024x32-bit is exactly 5MB). If you have 32MB of video RAM that gives you 22.8 MB free for textures. That's 2.28 MB per app, or about a 773x773 pixel region. I guess I can see people taking up that much, though it would be hard. Look at 64MB though. You get 5.4 megs per application, which means each of the 10 apps can take up about 1198x1198 before you fill the video memory. Running all of your GUI apps at approximately full screen resolutions? I don't think so.

Assuming the poll is the least bit accurate, it seems to me most people will be perfectly happy with 64MB. You can have 10 full screen windows before you fill up the video memory. 32MB still looks reasonable, and 64MB is plenty. Unless you keep a lot of windows open at once, I don't see anything to whine about.

edit: Oh yes, and I completely forgot about compression. With that, 64MB looks really really good.

eSnow said:
Quartz Extreme works like games and uses the video RAM to store your windows as textures. A 800x600 window occupies roughly 1.9MB. With 64MB, you can store up to 35 windows in video RAM before QE has to swap data out to main RAM (slow).

<snip>

Internal compression of the windows might alliviate the problem somewhat - but I am not sure if and when it is enabled
 
They plan to sell every Mac they have in the box

Borg3of5 said:
I visited my local Apple store a few hours ago, and they didn't have the new iBooks or PowerBooks displayed. When I asked the Apple Specialist he said they were selling them, but they were not out yet on display.
Ummm...did they not not they were going to start selling these today? What gives??!! Are they idiots? Or are they just still planning to redo the entire store when tomorrow they start selling RevB G5's?
Curious. :confused:
You haven't noticed how few iPod Minis you have seen OUT OF THE BOX. That's because the store (admittedly not usually Apple) is selling everything they can get their hands on, so there is no incentive to take any out of the box. Once an item is removed from the box, it becomes a "sample" "demo" or "display" item subject to a 10% or greater discount as an "open box" item.

Your Apple store can probably liquidate its entire stock of recently released BOOKS without taking a single one out of the box.
So, why should they?
However, if you buy it, they will open the box, let you look at it (customer satisfaction) and that's when you make sure it does not have even ONE DEAD PIXEL.

Until the RUSH is over, do NOT expect to see new product on display. At this point, people are going to buy the new Macs sight unseen.
 
A real reader!

afields said:
I can't believe I've read this entire thread...I'm such a dork. :rolleyes:
God bless and keep you, for you are one of his/her beloved. ;) Is "dork" another word for angel?

Did you learn anything helpful?
 
What is Wrong With Apple's Supply Chain?

I can't believe I ordered my new Pbook ten hours ago and it hasn't arrived yet!

What is going on at Apple?

Is Steve nuts? Who is VP of Production?

This company is sunk! Short the stock!

If I'd ordered from Dell I'm sure they would have hand delivered it by now! With a rebate for $1000! And an 18GHz processor!


Yours In disgust
 
Well thanks Apple

plan on getting a new 12 superdrive powerbook
im glad the ibook finally got a superdrive and that what i was hoping for but the power 12 is to good a deal

after you configure the ibook with superdrive it doesnt make since for me to get it for the small price difference between it and the powerbook

i called apple store in atlanta this evening and they have them in stock
can wait for shipping ill take the hour drive and bring it home myself

Besides the stock unit 12 superdrive is all i want AE bluetooth

isnt it true that if you have problem on a BTO apple it has to be sent in for repair but a stock unit can just be replaced

Hope the new 12 at 1.33 arent going to melt
bet they will be hot
 
I have a question: 333Mhz DDR memory is good stuff. Don't get me wrong. But does it make any sense to put it on a mobo with a FSB that maxes out at 167MHz? I mean, I imagine one of the things that differentiates the prices of Powerbooks and iBooks is the speed of the memory. Yet iBook-class memory in a Powerbook ought to do the job just fine, since the processor can only be fed at half the rated spec of the memory that currently ships with PBs anyway. I mean, couldn't we save a little money if Apple would disabuse itself of the notion that anything faster than the 233MHz memory that ships with the iBook is anything but complete overkill? Why are we being suckered to pay for this?
 
Interstate Commerce exemption from Sales Tax, mostly...

djkindred said:
Can someone explain the tax loophole and wish to save money anyway possible. I live in the Dallas, Texas area and their is an Apple Store in my county and city. I was about to order a 15" Powerbook online with Education discount but if I can learn about this tax loophole it would be a great help. And if their is something special about Florida taxes I have relatives that live their and could use them to send it to.
Sales Tax loophole in Interstate Commerce

You can avoid paying SALES TAX altogether if you buy a computer (or anything) over the internet in interstate commerce (between states).

TEXAN buys PowerBook over Internet from catalog retailer in California.
No California Sales Tax is paid by Retailer there because you are out of state (not in California) when you purchased it, and
No Texas sales tax can be easily collected on a Texan buying something out of state (not in Texas) since the transaction did not wholly transpire in Texas. It is an "interstate purchase". No sales tax.

Some states, including Texas, have passed "use tax" laws that attempt to collect taxes from Texans who purchase items out of state but do not pay tax in the other state or in Texas. The problem is that it is easy for a State to collect tax from a known retailer because that retailer has to keep records and have the State's permission (transaction privilege tax license) to do business.
Retailers are known Sellers.
You are not necessarily a "known buyer" falling within the provisions of the "use tax law".
You have to rat on yourself or volunteer to pay the tax. Duh?

(US tax loophole, states cannot charge Sales Tax on sales in another state, which is what Internet Sales out of the same state is all about. Understand?)

So the game is played by NOT BUYING a product from a retailer in YOUR STATE, but finding a SELLER in another state who will sell you what you want, and then SHIP it to your out-of-state address in Texas.

The INTERNET and CREDIT CARDS are what have made this possible.

Understand?

Apple Store online is the EXCEPTION to the rule, because it has a physical STORE or a legal presence in virtually every one of the 50 states. So, when Apple sells something online or in a Retail Store, it charges the tax associated with either that Store's Retail Location or your home (delivery) address if over the internet.

IBM, XEROX, GATEWAY, and other large retailers are in the same boat. DELL, however, has no physical stores (to the best of my knowledge), and should not charge tax on citizens of any state except where DELL's warehouse & business office is located - which is always at least ONE state out of 50.

Nevada retailers are cool because there is NO SALES TAX in Nevada!
So a Nevada internet retailer never charges for or pays any sales tax to any state.

TEXANS:
Do not buy from Apple (except in Nevada) or you will pay sales tax.
Do not buy from a Texas Retail Store or you will pay sales tax.
DO buy from an out of state catalog store and you will NOT pay any sales tax...unless you want to pay a "use tax".
Any question?
 
MacRAND said:
Sales Tax loophole in Interstate Commerce

You can avoid paying SALES TAX altogether if you buy a computer (or anything) over the internet in interstate commerce (between states).

TEXAN buys PowerBook over Internet from catalog retailer in California.
No California Sales Tax is paid by Retailer there because you are out of state (not in California) when you purchased it, and
No Texas sales tax can be easily collected on a Texan buying something out of state (not in Texas) since the transaction did not wholly transpire in Texas. It is an "interstate purchase". No sales tax.

Some states, including Texas, have passed "use tax" laws that attempt to collect taxes from Texans who purchase items out of state but do not pay tax in the other state or in Texas. The problem is that it is easy for a State to collect tax from a known retailer because that retailer has to keep records and have the State's permission (transaction privilege tax license) to do business.
Retailers are known Sellers.
You are not necessarily a "known buyer" falling within the provisions of the "use tax law".
You have to rat on yourself or volunteer to pay the tax. Duh?

(US tax loophole, states cannot charge Sales Tax on sales in another state, which is what Internet Sales out of the same state is all about. Understand?)

So the game is played by NOT BUYING a product from a retailer in YOUR STATE, but finding a SELLER in another state who will sell you what you want, and then SHIP it to your out-of-state address in Texas.

The INTERNET and CREDIT CARDS are what have made this possible.

Understand?

Apple Store online is the EXCEPTION to the rule, because it has a physical STORE or a legal presence in virtually every one of the 50 states. So, when Apple sells something online or in a Retail Store, it charges the tax associated with either that Store's Retail Location or your home (delivery) address if over the internet.

IBM, XEROX, GATEWAY, and other large retailers are in the same boat. DELL, however, has no physical stores (to the best of my knowledge), and should not charge tax on citizens of any state except where DELL's warehouse & business office is located - which is always at least ONE state out of 50.

Nevada retailers are cool because there is NO SALES TAX in Nevada!
So a Nevada internet retailer never charges for or pays any sales tax to any state.

TEXANS:
Do not buy from Apple (except in Nevada) or you will pay sales tax.
Do not buy from a Texas Retail Store or you will pay sales tax.
DO buy from an out of state catalog store and you will NOT pay any sales tax...unless you want to pay a "use tax".
Any question?
so what your saying is...?
 
MacRAND said:
Sales Tax loophole in Interstate Commerce
DELL, however, has no physical stores (to the best of my knowledge), and should not charge tax on citizens of any state except where DELL's warehouse & business office is located - which is always at least ONE state out of 50.


Any question?

Actually dell has started charging Tax to all (I think) states where it is applicable. This is true for both home and small business divisions. Not sure what their reasoning is. It used to be they did not charge tax in the home division for the reasonings you gave above, but recently changed their policy.
 
Nevada DOES have a sales tax.

Oregon, Delaware, Montana, Alaska, and a few others do not.

Go to the Apple store in Oregon.
 
Too bad they didn't get the 1.5 in the 12 inch pbook. They are probably trying to cripple it so people buy the more expensive 15 but if they had gotten the 1.5ghz in the 12 inch, that 12 inch pbook would be a huge competitor for some of the ultraportable notebooks in the Windows world. I mean 1.3 is good too but 1.5 would have given it an even greater boost. Even at just 1ghz many notebook reviewers had the pbook competitively placed in rankings. Apple should have made the second model 12incher have a 1.5, oh and backlit keyboards across the whole line.
 
The reason the memory is DDR333 is because that is Double the Data Rate of the FSB. The memory speed is determined by the FSB speed. You can't put DDR266 memory into a system with a 167 MHz FSB. The end result is that the memory attempts to run like DDR333 memory, and it's likely to crash.

Anyways, no, you're not losing anything. Just like with processors, the clock speed is not everything. There's other factors that affect the speed of the bus.

Spazmodius said:
I have a question: 333Mhz DDR memory is good stuff. Don't get me wrong. But does it make any sense to put it on a mobo with a FSB that maxes out at 167MHz?
 
New PowerBooks and MPC7457 chipset ?

Does anyone know if in fact the latest generation of Moto chips, I believe its the MPC7457 made it into this latest revision of the PowerBooks ?

You know the one thats supposed to throttle chip speed based on user demand and conserve battery life etc.

Buying a 12' for sure this week...

Thanks
 
clr900 said:
Too bad they didn't get the 1.5 in the 12 inch pbook. They are probably trying to cripple it so people buy the more expensive 15 but if they had gotten the 1.5ghz in the 12 inch, that 12 inch pbook would be a huge competitor for some of the ultraportable notebooks in the Windows world. I mean 1.3 is good too but 1.5 would have given it an even greater boost. Even at just 1ghz many notebook reviewers had the pbook competitively placed in rankings. Apple should have made the second model 12incher have a 1.5, oh and backlit keyboards across the whole line.

I have been researching ultraportables for quite some time and I can assure you that the 12" PB IS a huge competitor in the ultraportable market. Try to find a PC with an 80 gig 5400 RPM hard drive, dvd burner built in, good battery life, and a small, light package. You will only find a couple, and they will be poorly made and over-priced. Trust me, I've been looking into it for the past six months.
 
devman said:
I'm from Australia
Commiserations, guess some people are just born unlucky.

It would burn me too if I had ordered a new PB only for a refresh to occur prior to even receiving the one I ordered. Good luck on getting some kind of resolution. Of course the Buyer's Guide has been suggesting the PB was reaching the end of a cycle. So either you really needed the PB you ordered, in which case you commited to spending the money to fulfill a need, or your desire outweighed your common sense. If the first is true, despite feeling hard done by you aren't really any worse off, if the second is true I won't preach, I've been in similar situations.
 
eazyc10 said:
Actually dell has started charging Tax to all (I think) states where it is applicable. This is true for both home and small business divisions. Not sure what their reasoning is. It used to be they did not charge tax in the home division for the reasonings you gave above, but recently changed their policy.


Here's a situation. I live in Washington DC. There are no Apple stores in the district, and we are treated as quite an obscure address for billing, etc.

So do I have to pay sales tax if my delivery address is DC, but the billing address is NJ? If anybody actually knows the answer please let me in on it.

ps- PowerMacs?... Rev. B?... Who said that?... :)
 
mateybob said:
have they improved the 12" pb screen in this update?

i heard it was somewhat poor before.. :confused:

I was hoping that the 12" screen would be updated... but I don't see any evidence that it was. I wouldn't say that it was poor, though. It just wasn't up to par with the other powerbooks. It shared the same screen as the 12" ibook.
 
MacMyDay said:
Has anyone mentioned that the 15"+ PowerBooks now have better graphics as standard then the highest end PowerMac? Not too sure what to say about that.
The 15" PB has a better graphics *card*, it's still the same old screen. Two reasons I'm waiting for the G5, the processor and a better display.
 
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