Imac 24-inch wins out over Vista

A client of mine had me help them fist find a new all in one computer for them to replace their old outdated windows pc that was running XP Home Addition. Of course I took to the web and went to Bestbuy.com to see what was the latest on all in one computers. The first computer I found was the Hewlett-Packard TouchSmart All-In-One Desktop w/ AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-52. This machine looked perfect but had one flaw. It had everything my client wanted but would only ship with the new Microsoft operating system Vista on it. Unfortunately this was the case for many other computers I found including the Sony VAIO All-In-One TV Desktop w/Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T2080 PC.

Vista was the only obstacle with my client. They didn't trust it and heard to many horror stories about it. Not wanting to force them into anything they didn't want to purchase I suggested taking a look at an Imac. I sent them a link to the fastest iMac ever, the 24-inch iMac on the Best Buy website. The liked the information they read on it so much they decided to go and see it in person at the local Best Buy store.

Well turns out that they fell in love with the Imac and decided to purchase it from Bestbuy.com and get a huge savings on their computer accessories by going to the couponchief.com and using a 15% off coupon.

My clients are now the proud owners of an awesome Imac 24-inch all in one computer and I have Bestbuy.com and the Couponchief.com to thank for it.

Online Poker and the IPhone

The World Series of Poker gave away a prize of 12,000,000 dollars last year to a single winner. Many of the players at the final table were online poker players. Poker has taken the nation by storm. When ESPN, a sports reporting station is putting full coverage on such a high stakes game you know it has gotten quite popular. With the popularity you now have so many choices when it comes to playing poker online that it sometimes becomes very confusing.

Well there is a website that can help you navigate through some of the mystery around what online gaming site to choose from while catering to a small but inventive group of people. http://www.macpokeronline.com/ is a website that teaches you about the exciting game of online poker. Yes, it is geared toward mostly mac users but it has articles and news stories about the online gaming industry as a whole that keeps you coming back for more information.

I for one don't own a Mac and really have not been too in a rush to get one until Steve Jobs unveiled the IPhone. I was so impressed with his demonstration of this nifty new cell phone I crossed over from my PC world and took another gander at an IBook to use for my blogging and creating videos for You tube .

What I ultimately found out is that online poker players are really big mac and pc users. But what really surprised me to hear is that mac poker players get more girls/women then the pc poker players. Well, I don't know if that is altogether true statement but I do know that if I had a Mac and wanted to stay current on all the happening in the Mac world when it comes to online gaming macpokeronline.com is the site for me.

The release date of my IPhone is not until June 15, 2007 but you can see and become more aware of all your online poker needs right now at macpokeronline.com

Traditional Shopping is Dead to Me

As a young boy living in the New York City, my mother took my siblings and me around to all the major stores to go shopping. I can remember walking through these huge buildings, floor by floor looking for the best deal my mother could find. With four children and on a nurses salary, my mom would go from one end of a city block to another just to take advantage of some competing sales one store had over the other. Oh and please don't let my mom have had a coupon she would cut out from the Sunday newspaper. That coupon was like a paper lighting rod that just had to get used before it was to expire at any cost.

Of course all I wanted to do was not be there--not be at any of those stores, because I knew at some point in time I would be left holding the bag. This is not a figure of speech. I was literally left holding my mother's bags of either clothes or groceries and she would be off somewhere in the store trying to pick up one last item. The most embarrassing part of it all was when she would forget an item just before we got to the cash register and I was left in the line in her place. She would tell me to stay in the line until she got back and of course she never got back in time. So there I was in front of the checkout cashier with no money and no mother in sight to rescue me from all the angry onlookers behind me waiting their turn.

Fast forward nearly 30 years and the intervention of the Internet and E-commerce. I am married now with two kids. I can buy just about anything over the Internet and never have to leave my home. If I want to shop at Target for my kids I can first go to http://www.couponchief.com/ and pick up a 10% off electronic coupon that will give me a discount when I finish my purchase at checkout. Not only can I shop online and get what I want without standing in any line but I can get a great discount on almost anything I purchase.

My wife and I will be celebrating our wedding anniversary this June. What a perfect opportunity to purchase a wonderful piece of jewelry from Blue Nile and get Free Shipping on all my orders. So, you can plainly see why "Traditional Shopping is Dead to Me" because with the advent of the Internet, Online Shopping and now discount coupons from The Coupon Chief there is absolutely no reason, and I mean N-O reason for me to be left holding the bag in a department store line again in my lifetime.

Google Checkout "Gbuy" Has renewed my faith in them

I finally got the word from the Google Checkout here is the email that was sent to me today.

Hello Jeff,

Congratulations! Your request to remove your monthly payout limit has been approved. Effective immediately, your payouts will no longer be limited to $500 per month. We hope you enjoy the greater flexibility of your new payout schedule.

In accordance with our Terms of Service, your payouts may still be limited under certain circumstances. We may also request additional information from you in the future if your account status changes.

If you have questions please contact us by replying directly to this email.

Sincerely,
The Google Checkout Team


I was a little ... no a lot ticked off at them for putting me through this but I guess they had their reasons. I still would like to know how they made their decision. If anyone has any insights or have the same thing happen to them plase feel free to leave your comments.

Google Checkout "Gbuy" has me on Lock Down

I was so excited when the announcement first came out that Google.com was going to have its own version of a payment service. As soon as I was able I then applied and was amazed at the ease of signing up for the service. Then came my disappointment. After giving Google all the necessary information they needed to get an account I was put off by one major aspect of the payment process, GETTING PAID!

Turns out I currently have what Google Checkout calls a "Payout Limit" on my account.

Here are the findings when I click on the Payouts tab in my account

Your payout amounts are currently limited to $500.00 a month. To increase your monthly payout limit, upgrade your account.

We when I got to the upgrade your account link it just brings me back to my settings tab and does not give me any instructions on how to upgrade my account.

I have since emailed the Google Checkout team via their email form and I am still waiting for an answer. I did get a standard reply email that said that they currently have my account under review and will get back to me on their findings.

It has only been a few days since that email but I am still not happy with such a process.

Here are the official words from Google on why I have a payout limit from their own FAQ's

What's a monthly payout limit? How do I remove this limit?

A monthly payout limit is a restriction on the total amount of earnings you can receive at one time.

When you process transactions through Google Checkout, your payouts are sent to you according to the standard payout schedule. With a monthly payout limit, however, your earnings will be paid to you over a longer period. For example, say you have a monthly payout limit of $500. If your total sales in July equal $600, only $500 will be paid to you in July; the remaining $100 will be carried over to your August payouts.

Not all sellers have monthly payout limits. If you have a payout limit, the limit amount will appear on your Payout Summary page, Payout Summary Details page, and payment settings page. On these pages, you may also see a notification message asking if you'd like to remove your monthly payout limit. By clicking the link in the message, you can request that Google perform a simple review and remove your monthly payout limit so you can receive your payouts more quickly. (If you don't see these notification messages, you aren't currently eligible to have your monthly payout limit removed.)

To my understanding this is clearly a bad feature if it comes down to my account being limited this way. Let's look at their own scenario in a very possible sales transaction.
I have charged one of my customers say $2500.00 to create a website for them. They then goto my website and use a Google Checkout "Buy Now" button to complete the purchase.

According to Google Checkout they will only allow me to have $500.00 of that money this month and keep the other $2000.00 until the following month and only give me another $500.00 NOT the balance of my original transaction.

So I ask you does this seem fair.

Why can't I get all of the money that was due me from the beginning?

I hope Google Checkout has a good explanation for this, cause right now I won't be using this account anytime soon.

If you would like to get another oppinion on what Google Checkout is doing against the likes of Ebay/Paypal.com please check out Brent Leary's Blog.

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