Trade in your iPad
Trade in your iPad for a FirstTech credit—and use that credit towards a purchase of the New iPad or any of our Macs.
Use the value stated above as an estimate. We’ll need to see your iPad to confirm its condition. Your iPad should be in good condition, meaning it’s fully functional, but not necessarily brand new out of the box. We also need a working AC adaptor and cable.
Questions? Call us at 612-374-8000 and we'll be happy to help.
Open Box Special
Save $50
15-inch MacBook Pro Now $1849, was $1899
We have one MacBook Pro that is open box, saving you $50. When it's gone, it's gone.
- 2.3GHz Quad-core Intel core i7
- 4GB RAM
- 500GB Hard Drive
- SuperDrive
- Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display
- iLife '11 Software Suite (iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand)
- OS X Mountain Lion
- Full Apple Warranty (if purchased before 8/1/13)
Special Purchase
Special Purchase
LaCie USB 3.0 Drives
Minimus 2TB $119.99
The Minimus offers big capacity in a small, desktop drive. Get super-fast transfer speeds with USB 3.0. The strong aluminum exterior keeps your files safe and protected with an aluminum casing. Easy setup and automatic backup for both Mac and PC. 10GB of Wuala Secure Cloud Storage is included for one year to store and share your data online with industry-best security.
Rikiki 1TB $99.99
The LaCie Rikiki USB 3.0 combines the fastest interface on the market with perfect portability. The tough aluminum casing combines form and function; it withstands bumps and jolts, but its sophisticated style sets it apart from other mobile hard drives. With interface speeds up to 5Gb/s and a 1TB capacity, it offers desktop-sized storage in a pocket-sized product. Best of all, it's backward-compatible with USB 2.0, which means connectivity is never an issue.
Special Pricing on Discontinued Macs
MD213LL/A MacBook Pro with Retina display, 13.3-inch, 2.5GHz dual-core Intel i5, 8G RAM, 256GB flash storage $1599 was $1999
MC975LL/A MacBook Pro with Retina display, 15.4-inch, 2.3GHz quad- core Intel i7, 8G RAM, 256GB flash storage $1999 was $2199
MC976LL/A MacBook Pro with Retina display, 15.4-inch, 2.6GHz quad-core Intel i7, 8G RAM, 512GB flash storage $2299 was $2799
Apple Increases iPad with Retina Display to 128GB
Offers Twice the Storage Capacity to Create & Enjoy Even More
Incredible Content
CUPERTINO, California―January 29, 2013―Apple® today announced a 128GB version of the fourth generation iPad® with Retina® display. The 128GB iPad with Wi-Fi and iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular models provide twice the storage capacity of the 64GB models to hold even more valuable content including photos, documents, projects, presentations, books, movies, TV shows, music and apps.
“With more than 120 million iPads sold, it’s clear that customers around the world love their iPads, and everyday they are finding more great reasons to work, learn and play on their iPads rather than their old PCs,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With twice the storage capacity and an unparalleled selection of over 300,000 native iPad apps, enterprises, educators and artists have even more reasons to use iPad for all their business and personal needs.”
The fourth generation iPad features a gorgeous 9.7-inch Retina display, Apple-designed A6X chip, FaceTime® HD camera, iOS 6.1 and ultrafast wireless performance. iOS 6.1 includes support for additional LTE networks around the world, and iTunes Match℠ subscribers can download individual songs to their iOS devices from iCloud®.
iPad runs over 800,000 apps available on the App Store℠, including more than 300,000 apps designed specifically for iPad, from a wide range of categories including books, games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. iPad also supports the more than 5,000 newspapers and magazines offered in Newsstand, and the more than 1.5 million books available on the iBookstore℠.
Pricing & Availability
The new 128GB versions of the fourth generation iPad will be available starting Tuesday, February 5, in black or white, for a suggested retail price of $799 for the iPad with Wi-Fi model and $929 for the iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular model. All versions of the 128GB iPad will be available at FirstTech.
Special Purchase: $399 MacBooks
$399 MacBooks
FirstTech purchased a large quantity of these from a prestigious school with a meticulous IT department. Our techs have checked and certified each one. FirstTech backs these units with a 90 day warranty and for an additional $99, you can extend the warranty to one year.
- Early 2008 model
- 13.3-inch glossy widescreen display
- 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 2.0 GB RAM (upgradable to 4 GB)
- 120 GB hard drive
- Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard installed
- Built in wireless and iSight camera
- Comes with iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, iTunes, iChat, Photo Booth and the Safari web browser
- 90 day FirstTech warranty
Call us at 612-374-8000 or stop by to check out availability.
The Black MacBooks are Here!
FirstTech purchased a large quantity of these from a prestigious school with a meticulous IT department. Our techs have checked and certified each one. FirstTech backs these units with a 90 day warranty and for an additional $99, you can extend the warranty to one year.
- 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 2GB of RAM
- 250GB Hard Drive
- SuperDrive
- OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
- Upgradeable to Lion
- 2008 model
- iLife 09 installed
- 90 day FirstTech warranty
- Upgradeable to 1-year warranty for $99
Mountain Lion has arrived
Free Upgrade: The OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date upgrade is now available at no additional charge via the Mac App Store to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from FirstTech or Apple on or after June 11, 2012. Visit www.apple.com/osx/uptodate/ for details on the Mountain Lion Up-to-Date program.
System Requirements: OS X v10.6.8 or later, 2GB of memory, 8GB of available storage space. Don't meet the requirements? FirstTech can install additional RAM or upgrade your hard drive in no time. Please stop in or call us at 612-374-8000 for details. No appointment necessary.
Supported Mac models:
- MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
- MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
- Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
- iMac (mid-2007 or newer)
- Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer).
Mountain Lion introduces a ton of new features and updates to the already-exceptional Mac operating system. Here are some highlights:
iCloud
- Just sign in once on your new Mac with your Apple ID to set up iCloud in Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Messages, Safari, the Mac App Store, and FaceTime, and more
- With Documents in the Cloud, when you edit a document, the changes appear across all your devices
Notes
- Keep track of whatever's on your mind —include photos, movies, and links, too
- Pin important notes to your desktop so they’re easy to get to
- Single sign on to Facebook
- Share photos and links with comments and locations
- Facebook friends and profile pictures are added to Contacts
- Receive Facebook notifications
- Update your status message from Notification Center
Dictation
- Talk anywhere you can type
- No set up or training
- Works with the built-in mic
- Works with any app
- Supports English, French, German, and Japanese
Messages
- Send unlimited messages to anyone on an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or another Mac
- Start a conversation on your Mac and pick it up on your iOS device
- Send and receive contacts, photos, and even HD video
Notification Center
- Keep track of the new stuff that pops up on your Mac—new emails, messages, calendar events, reminders, and more
- Notification banners appear on your desktop and disappear quickly, so there’s no added clutter
- Use a simple swipe gesture, and the Desktop slides away to reveal Notification Center
Safari
- New Smart Search gives one search field for both web addresses and search terms.
- iCloud tabs makes web pages opened on your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or another Mac available on all devices
- Tab View shows all your open tabs
AirPlay Mirroring
- Wirelessly share whatever’s on your Mac to your HDTV using your Apple TV
- Stream presentations, video, web pages, spreadsheets, and more without ever plugging in a single cable
Reminders
- Create any type of list—even set due dates to receive alerts
- Organize tasks into custom lists
Sharing
- Use the Share button, found throughout apps in Mountain Lion, to easily share right from the app you are in
- Post to sites like Twitter, Vimeo, and Flickr
- Share links, photos, videos and documents using Mail, Messages, or AirDrop
Power Nap
- Keeps your Mac up-to-date while it sleeps
- Refreshes Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, Photo Stream, Documents in the Cloud, Find My Mac
- Time Machine backups and software update downloads happen when connected to a power source
- Silent operation—no lights or fans come on
Game Center
- Log into the new Game Center app to see all of your Mac and iOS games
- Track leaderboards and achievements
- Discover friends and games
- Play multiplayer games between Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
$19.99 from the Mac App Store
The Flashback Trojan–and what to do about it.
Trojan-Downloader:OSX/Flashback.C poses as a Flash Player installer and connects to a remote host to obtain further installation files and configurations.
So what do you need to know about the Flashback malware that's been in the news lately? News reports suggest that up to 600,000 macs might be infected by this malware. A couple bits of information.
First off, it's not a virus. A computer virus is a small piece of malicious software that can spread from one computer to another without any intervention or action from the user. This is a piece of malware that get's installed on your computer by visiting a website that hosts the program. If you haven't visited one of these sites, you cannot get this program.
Apple has a knowledge base article with more information.
So what does this software do if it manages to find it's way onto your system? So far it only intercepts your search results in your web browser for their financial gain. But it does have a mechanism for downloading more software, so it's important to remove it.
April 12 update: Apple just released a Java update that removes this malware. Just click here. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5242
So how do you check if you have it? Kaspersky has a free flashback removal tool that will check for an infection as well.
One last step for everyone to do is to run Software Update (found under the Apple menu on your Mac) and run any Java or security update you see there. This will prevent you from ever being infected by this malware (and always a good idea to make sure you are up to date).
Thunderbolt—and why it’s important.
By Fred Evans
Apple introduced a new connector on Macs last year called Thunderbolt. For most people it was just a new name for the old Mini Display Port connector. And why not? It looked the same and all the mini Display Port cables and monitors plugged into it worked just like they did before. But hidden underneath the same small port is a truly fast and versatile new expansion technology.
Apple and Intel developed Thunderbolt with the idea to make a new standard for a very fast input/output technology supporting just about any type of device you can plug in, not just monitors. Thunderbolt technology is amazing—the speed and versatility (supporting high-resolution displays plus high-performance data devices through a single, compact port) make it clear that this is the next generation I/O technology available today.
It is important to note that the Thunderbolt port is backwards compatible with the Mini display Port. So any monitor or adapter you have plugged into your old Mac with a mini Display Port will continue to work just fine in your new Thunderbolt equipped Mac. But it's important to note that the reverse is not true. Thunderbolt devices will not work with older mini Display Port equipped Macs.
How fast is this new technology?
How about 20 times fast than USB 2.0? Or 12 times faster that FireWire 800? Thunderbolt uses two independent 10Gbps channels so you can daisy chain multiple devices to the same port without slowing down or needing a hub or a switch.
So all that sounds good, but what can you plug into this amazing port today? Let's take an overview of what's available to order today.
Current Apple offerings
Apple’s stunning 27" Thunderbolt Display features the same high quality LED display, FaceTime camera and MagSafe power connector as the previous 27" mini Display Port display but adds more expansion capabilities. You get another Thunderbolt port for adding more Thunderbolt devices, three USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port and a Gigabit Ethernet port. The essential Thunderbolt Cable is needed for all other Thunderbolt solutions.
Store solutions from LaCie and Promise Technologies
Promise makes their Pegasus RAID systems with storage capacities from 4-12TB and starting at $1149.00 for the 4TB solution. LaCie makes both their Little Big Disk and their 2Big RAID drives in Thunderbolt versions. The Little Big disks come in both spinning hard drive versions of the lighting fast SSD drive version. The 2big RAIDS range from 4-8TB and start at $649.
Sonnet Technology makes a very useful adaptor for Thunderbolt. They have their Echo ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adaptor allowing ExpressCard/34 devices to plug into your Thunderbolt ports. There are a variety of ExpressCard/34 solutions that work with this adaptor including FireWire 800 adapter, ESATA cards and memory card readers.
There are many more products announced that will start shipping soon. We'll cover those in future newsletters as they become available.
