4/3/10 Update: We’ve decided to hold this special open for a short time longer in response to the massive number of iPod repairs it has generated. FYI: We’ll also fix an iPod Classic LCD for the same price including the free battery. Thank you to our our loyal customers who have sent us multiple iPods and Macs to work on. To thank those folks and encourage more “double” iPod repairs we’ll offer a 15% discount off your second lower priced repair. With iPods sales down across the board, iPod & iPhone repairs are way up! Thanks for keeping MacMedics in mind. MacMedics is now fixing iPhone 3G broken screens for $89.95 and iPhone 3G S for $99.95. The Apple Store charges $199.

A broken LCD screen or audio only coming out of one ear bud in an iPod Video is never a happy thing, thankfully MacMedics is running a New Year’s anti-procrastinator repair special on replacing the LCD screen/display or your iPod’s headphone jack in the iPod Video. We’ll fix either of these common issues and also install a new factory battery at no charge. (We’ll only fix one problem or the other for this special price. If you happen to have both issues, our price is only $70.95)

Apple would love for you to buy a new iPod or iPhone, but with the economy and the financial crisis looming, repairing an iPod or iPhone you already own makes more sense then ever!

We’ll install a new iPod Video LCD screen OR an iPod Video headphone jack in your iPod Video and also outfit it with a new Apple factory battery for $55.95 (our normal price is $99). We’ll repair your unit the same day it arrives, and ship it back to you the same day in most cases.

We’ll make this super easy for our loyal readers. Just fill out this form and send your iPod in!

We’ll repair your unit and ship it back to you via FedEx Ground for free. That’s it!

This special offer cannot be combined with any other offers.

MacMedics is now also offering Apple iPhone 3G service and repair. Got a cracked iPhone screen/glass/digitizer?? Don’t pay Apple $199 to get it fixed! Come see us and we’ll do it same day for $89.95 for a 3G and $99.95 for a 3G S. Best of all, NO LINES or APPOINTMENTS here at MacMedics.

The MacWorld keynote was yesterday in San Francisco. As you may have heard Steve Jobs did not give the keynote, instead it was Apple V.P. Phil Shiller. The keynote is always highly anticipated by the Apple community, but yesterday’s announcements were not entirely exciting.

There was no mention of the latest version of Apple’s operating system, OS X Snow Leopard, due later this year. A rumored upgrade for Apple’s low-end Mac mini was also not announced. Nor was there any talk about a tablet computer or “NetBook”. There were four major announcements which we’ll give a brief overview here:

iWork ’09

iWork ’09 is available now for $79/single user and $99/family pack, or you can purchased it at a reduced price of $49 when you buy it with a new Mac.

Pages

Now offers full screen viewing of documents, dynamic outlines, and a new mail merge with Numbers, which can now connect with tables and lists in Numbers.

Numbers

Table categories and over 200 new functions will make spreadsheets easier to understand.

Keynote

New transitions, chart options. There’s also a new Keynote Remote application for the iPhone and iPod touch to control Keynote wirelessly with a preview of your next slide.

iWork.com

This is a new twist on iWork as Apple will be offering an on-line service to allow for document collaboration. The service will notify other people when you make changes to documents linked to the service. This will be a “paid” service, but fees have not been announced yet.

OS X 10.5 is required to run the new iWork application. Because of this fact Apple is offering a package of OS X 10.5, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09 for $169. This “Mac Box Set” will ship later month when iLife ’09 is also released.

http://www.apple.com/iwork/

iLife ’09

iLife ’09 will be available later this month. Upgrade costs are $79, with a family pack offered for $99. It will be included free of charge on all new Macs.

iPhoto ’09

- Faces: Addition of facial recognition to events. Photos can be tagged to recognize faces, as in Facebook.
- Places: Uses geo-tagging to find information about the location that the picture was taken. This meta data can be supplied either by cameras that offer built-in GPS, or manually inputed.
- Slideshow Themes: Uses facial detection to properly position pictures in a slideshow. There’s also newly included support for both Facebook and Flickr, a welcomed feature.

iMovie ’09

- Advanced Drag and Drop: For placing video wherever you want it in a movie’s timeline
- Automatic Image Stabilization: Helps reduce camera shake
- Video Effects: Brings back advanced special effects to iMovie
- Dynamic Themes: Context-sensitive menus for clips, along with animated travel maps

GarageBand ’09

- Learn to Play: Teaches how to play an instrument with video instruction from professionals & celebrities. Nine basic lessons included, with additional downloads available for purchase for $4.99 each within the program.

http://www.apple.com/ilife/

New MacBook Pro 17″ Unibody

Apple announced a new 17″ MacBook Pro which will be shipping later this month. The new 17” MacBook Pro has the same unibody construction as the 15″ MacBook Pro and 13″ MacBook, the 17″ MacBook Pro will be available for $2799.

Apple will also offer a $50 LCD option for a “matte” screen instead of the factory “glossy” screen that comes standard.

Like the 15″ MacBook Pro, the notebook includes both 9400M and 9600M graphic and a glass “clickable” trackpad. 320GB hard drive as a standard option with a 256GB “Solid State” drive upgrade available. RAM can be upgraded to a maximum of 8 GB of memory.

Apple is offering new technology in this unit with a non-removable “Zinc-Silver” battery. This may be the most exciting bit of news that was announced. The technical specs on this say that it will run for 8 hours! Apple claims the battery can take up to 1000 charges and will run up to 5 years. It will be very exciting if Apple brings this same technology to it’s other laptops.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

iTunes Plus with DRM free music

A major portion of the iTunes Store’s 10 million songs are now available DRM-free via iTunes Plus. The entire 10 million songs in the iTunes Store library will be offered DRM-free by the end of March ‘09. Apple will also offer an easy to use one-click solution to upgrade currently DRM enabled iTunes music libraries to iTunes Plus for 30 cents per song or 30% of an album’s price.

The iTunes Wi-Fi music store is now compatible with 3G, allowing iPhone users to preview and download the entire iTunes music catalog over the 3G cellular network. Downloaded songs via 3G are the same price and quality as over Wi-Fi.

Also, beginning in April, the iTunes Store will offer pricing in three different tiers ($0.69, $0.99, and $1.29) based on the different prices the music labels charge Apple for their music.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Catch the entire MacWorld Keynote here.

Get more info from CNN at this link.

MacWorld 2009 starts tomorrow. We’ll keep you up-to-date on all of the announcements. We’ll send out a MacMedics newsletter with the highlights (not on our list? Sign up here!). You can also tune into Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/macmedics.

There are a few rumors flying around about what might be announced, but so far it does not look like anyone has really credible evidence that something incredible is coming out. The rumor mill is talking about the Mac Mini it might stay and get a needed refresh, or it might go away. Also swirling in the mist is talk of a NetBook, a super low cost Mac notebook designed to go head to head with the $400 PC laptops. There could be an iPod refresh or new models released, but so far nothing has been confirmed.

If you’re into MacWorld rumors, this blog has a set that I pretty much agree with: http://tinyurl.com/8zbjdb

Steve Jobs is not giving the keynote this year, instead it will be Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. This will also be the last year that Apple will attend the MacWorld Expo.