When does Apple's back to school plan kick off?

[thisisjunk123]

I'm currently using an '04 Powerbook G4 that has finally started breaking on me, and when I say that I mean literally breaking. The joint that the screen opens and closes with detached itself from the back of my laptop, so now I have to prop it up against a 90 degree angle to get the screen to stand up properly.

Point being of this post is that my laptop is now immobile. It isn't safe for me to take out of the house and use for any of the stuff I used to use it for and now I'm finally in the market to replace this trusty ol' computer at last.

Looking at the spec for my Powerbook I'm floored at how underpowered it is by todays current line-up of Macbooks and Pros.

Here are the specs for kicks if anyone cares:

Processor: 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4

Memory: 256 MB DDR SDRAM

Bus Speed: 167 MHz

At any rate, this Powerbook has been trusty and reliable from a software and until recently, hardware stand point for over 3 years and now I'm contemplating picking up a MacBook to replace it sometime during the month of June/July.

I'm still a student at USF St. Pete and I'm itching to use my student discount as I did for the PowerBook ages ago. With that I'm curious to how much Apple gives you towards a new iPod when you pick up one of their laptops and if they include a free printer by some odd chance? I recently bought an iPod shuffle for when I jog and that little bugger is pretty damn cool. I used to scoff at them, because of their storage capacity, but when used for what they are intended for it's a useful little tool.

With that said I'm looking into getting an iPod touch when I pick up my Macbook and this brings me to another question which I'm sure nobody has definitive answer for. Do any of you think there will be price drop for the iPod touch sometime this summer? I know they are getting ready to do a revision for it this fall and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a price cut.

I remember vividly when I bought the PowerBook that I picked up a 3rd gen. iPod 20GB and we got a free HP printer with it. Granted the HP printer wasn't mind blowing or anything, but I'm assuming they only give you a printer when you buy a MacBook Pro these days.

I think it's safe to say that I will see a huge performance increase when I finally upgrade. Myspace and Yahoomail run like garbage on this Powrbook and I can't wait for the day to come when that isn't an issue anymroe.

Alrighty then, thank you for any replies and I hope yall are enjoying your Macs as much as I have for the past few years.

Apple offers a free printer, in fact, on the Apple Store after you select a computer (including the MacBook), on the custom configurations screen, it asks if you want a mail-in-rebate on a printer (one is only 99.95 or something, so its practically free). AppleInsider has reported that sometime this summer Apple will upgrade their MacBooks to Alumunum casing, so I'd wait til then.

 

[maduarte]

A quick search showed that in both 2006 and 2007 the Back to School offer was available between June 5 and September 15.

 

[SerenitySea]

Yeah, it's usually from beginning of June to September. Definately beginning of June though, because that's when I got my macbook pro and nano last year

How do the rebate forms work though? I didn't fill mine out myself, so I don't know. This kind of seems like an easy way for people to get free nanos, by buying the computer and the ipod, and then returning the computer. There's probably something against that. haha.

 

[queshy]

Yeah, it's usually from beginning of June to September. Definately beginning of June though, because that's when I got my macbook pro and nano last year

How do the rebate forms work though? I didn't fill mine out myself, so I don't know. This kind of seems like an easy way for people to get free nanos, by buying the computer and the ipod, and then returning the computer. There's probably something against that. haha.

And pay a restocking fee? lol
Also, you need to cut the UPC off the box.

 

[SerenitySea]

And pay a restocking fee? lol
Also, you need to cut the UPC off the box.

Oh, gotcha, that makes sense. lol.
I wondered that last year when I bought it, that it'd be an easy way for people to cheat apple out of a free ipod. But I was out of town when I realized that I needed to do the rebate, so I just had my roomate do it for me, so I wasn't aware you had to cut stuff off the box.

 

[queshy]

Oh, gotcha, that makes sense. lol.
I wondered that last year when I bought it, that it'd be an easy way for people to cheat apple out of a free ipod. But I was out of town when I realized that I needed to do the rebate, so I just had my roomate do it for me, so I wasn't aware you had to cut stuff off the box.

Nice roommate...filling the thing out is a pain in the you know what.
Apple is smarter than that....hah. They bank on people not filling out their form of death.