Jason Powell - Church IT and Other Musings

Apple Quietly Introduces Accidental Damage Coverage: AppleCare+

Like most geeks I was eager to see what the "real" final price of "The New iPad" announced yesterday would be after you added all the various options and such. As I clicked through said options in the apple store something caught my eye. There was an option for something called AppleCare+ … hmmm, never seen that before.  

I did a double take when reading through the description it talked about accidental damage coverage. Wha?? That's new!! … and something many of us have wished for!

Description reads:  

Every iPad comes with one year of hardware repair coverage and 90 days of telephone technical support. AppleCare+ for iPad gives you two years of repair coverage and technical support from the original purchase date of your iPad. And it adds coverage for up to two incidents of accidental damage due to handling of your iPad, each subject to a $49 service fee. With AppleCare+ for iPad, Apple experts can help troubleshoot issues over the phone, at an Apple Retail Store, or at other Apple Authorized Service Providers. They'll answer questions on a wide range of topics, including iOS, iCloud, wireless network connections, FaceTime, iBooks, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and other Apple-branded iPad apps. And if your iPad needs service under the plan, Apple technical support representatives can even set up a repair during the same call.

How to get AppleCare+

• Pre-order the new iPad and add AppleCare+ to your cart during the checkout process.
• Buy it within 30 days of your iPad purchase (available March 16):
  • At an Apple Retail Store (requires a Genius Bar appointment, inspection of the iPad, and proof of purchase).
  • By calling 1-800-275-2273 (requires proof of purchase)

So essentially it's $100 for 2yrs of coverage and $50/incident. That's pretty good insurance in my opinion.
A little more digging and I noticed a similar option now available for the iPhone as well [apparently this was introduced with the iPhone 4s, but it's news to me]. Cool! This is a GREAT option for the iPhone especially. I know in my family alone we've had 3 busted screens … 2 of which went to the genius bar for $199 replacements … ouch! That's several years back before I knew how to replace iPhone screens cheap and easy (iPhone 4/4s are not in the cheap/easy fix category BTW).

I asked our local Apple Business Team today about any accidental damage coverage being rumored for laptops. They said nothing yet, but this is likely a first step towards that.

If Apple were to offer accidental coverage for laptops that would be HUGE! As we've been transitioning more and more staff to mac laptops this has been a point of concern. With Dell we could get Complete Care and not worry if someone accidentally busted a screen, not so with our macbooks. We've already seen one busted 13" Air screen. Luckily apple replaced it at no charge, but the bill would have been $800.

Still not sure why Apple has made a big deal about this … it's pretty big news!

So what about you? If you're buying a new iPad or iPhone will you likely purchase this new AppleCare+??

Surprise IT Volunteer Award for Tom Templin

Every 2 years or so Granger Community Church takes a weekend to celebrate and recognize some of our outstanding volunteers. Men and women who get the mission, vision, and values of GCC and over the years have made a ginormous impact for the Kingdom through their efforts. We call them "Giant Killers" and surprise them Smooth Stone Awards … 5 Smooth Stone awards are presented at each service so this year that means 30 people across both campuses got an awesome surprise during the service :-)

The fun part is that this is all done in secrecy. We don't make any announcements that the Smooth Stone award weekend is coming and the folks getting the awards are clueless … muhwahahaha.

Couple years ago we (IT) got to recognize Dustin Hannifin for his contributions. Click that link for the old blog post on it. When I was asked this year if we had any IT volunteers that should be considered I immediately nominated Tom Templin. Tom started volunteering at GCC shortly after I came on staff in 2003. Hard to believe it's been that long & I can't imagine doing IT at GCC without him!

Here's a short blurb I wrote about Tom of which some made it into the actual weekend service:

________________

This person started volunteering on the IT team in the Fall of 2003. Back then we had no automated systems so we needed many dedicated volunteers to physically run around to computers and install updates, run checks, and troubleshoot issues. It soon became apparent that this individual was not only dependable and willing to handle small tasks, but had immense capacity and knowledge to tackle large complex projects.  For Example:

 

In early 2004 he was tasked to lead the research, design and implementation of a cutting edge campus wide private and public wireless system for GCC.  Allowing any wireless user to pull up granger notes on their portable device and take electronic notes.  News about this got out and received mention in the Saturday Evening Post and Network World Magazine.  Then again in 2010 he again lead the charge to replace our by then antiquated wifi solution with the secure, robust, high density solution over 400 of you (our weekend guests) use each weekend! He is now using the knowledge he gained from our implementation to install the same, albeit considerably larger, wifi solution for the entire PHM School district during his day job.

 

Starting in 2005 this person became our goto guy for IT projects at MC3. He worked alongside program instructors to implement and maintain the network, wifi, and computer lab the students and teachers use daily.

 

We also leverage this person as our purchasing agent for all things IT. He loves to go to bat for GCC and find THE rock bottom price for our technology needs. We estimate he’s saved GCC in excess of $100,000 over the past years!

 

This person plays a key role in our decision making process throughout all levels of IT from switching infrastructure, to servers, to applications. We leverage his knowledge and skills for all our strategic planning and initiatives.

 

AND just last Sunday he spent over 8 hours helping GCC IT staff move all our production servers and storage from GCC to our new colocation space at Union Station in downtown South Bend.

 

Honestly, I can’t imagine what we’d do without Tom … his value to our team is impossible to measure … not only is he a volunteer superhero but I also count him as a close friend and brother in Christ.
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Here's the video of the 7pm service where Tom was given his Smooth Stone award. Tom's part starts around the 12 minute mark.

Smooth Stones 2012 | 7 p.m. from Granger Community Church on Vimeo.

Not only has Tom helped GCC, his impact on Church IT has continued to expand as a more and more of our Church IT peers contact Tom to get quotes on IT gear.

It's so fun to recognize and surprise people like Tom. They are truly Giant Slayers.

Jan 28th - Mark Beeson (Founding Pastor) and Tom Templin

Justin Moore - Tom Templin - Jason Powell