Loving Apple is Getting Expensive

Apple is a great brand. They were the first to put out a music player (the iPod) that really hit the mainstream. The iPhone was the first smartphone to offer the amazing touchscreen, apps and rotating display that people are starting to expect from their cell phones today. And Macs are arguably the best computers on the market.

But there’s a problem with the fact that Apple is so great. The problem is that they just keep making great stuff and it can become very easy to spend too much money on things that you might not need just because Apple is making them.

Apple’s Newest Products Apple has gone crazy lately with releases and announcements about new products. The iPad is the big new product that everyone is talking about.

Cheaper than a laptop but more expensive than an iPhone, this little tablet offers you the chance to view videos and enjoy gaming anytime right at your fingertips. The iPad was barely released in the United States when Apple made some big announcements about huge changes to the iPhone 4 OS. The new OS for the iPhone offers major changes that iPhone fans are going to want to have. And then there’s the brand new Macbook from Apple that followed immediately on the heels of the OS announcement.

There’s nothing wrong with Apple trying to put out the latest and hottest new technology. There’s nothing wrong with the company releasing item after item in order to dominate a market that is finally starting to experience some real competition. But it can be way too easy to get wrapped up in the hype surrounding these frequent new releases. Today you want an expensive iPad. Tomorrow you’re thinking maybe you need to upgrade to the new Macbook. And then this summer you might want to get a brand new iPhone so that you can take advantage of all of the features of the new OS. None of these things are cheap and they add up quickly.

Products Become Outdated before their Price Declines

The biggest problem for consumers with these constant rapid releases is that you never have a chance to purchase Apple products at a low cost. With many other types of technology, the price point goes down after the initial hype. For example, when DVD players first came out they were prohibitively expensive but now they’re available at a low cost for everyone. Likewise, 3D televisions are likely to be released at a high price but to drop quickly as competition enters the market. In contrast, Apple products change so much from one version to the other that you don’t want to pay for the outdated product.

A great example is the iPhone 2 OS. It’s a great phone. However, it can’t be upgraded to the full OS 4 version when that’s released. This means that you can go ahead and pay a lower price for someone’s used iPhone 2 OS but you won’t have the things that you want. By the time that OS 4 starts to drop in price, OS 5 will be released. This makes it difficult to ever get a bargain on older Apple products that makes it worth getting the older product.

Apps are Adding Up

Another big issue that we have to pay attention to as frugal consumers is the cost of apps and downloads. It’s really easy to access Apple apps. They’re increasingly popular these days for not only the iPhone but also for the new iPad. Although there are many free apps, there are also a lot of apps that you pay money for. The price can seem low but when you spend a little bit here and a little bit there and you’re constantly downloading new apps, that cost adds up. Plus not all apps are cheap. In fact, some are quite expensive. If you were to purchase the 5 most expensive iPad apps right now, you’d spend over £1100 ($1750).

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The World's Most Expensive Inexpensive Bible

Our friend, Maurice Earp, bookslinger at Blackwell Rare Books in the U.K., enjoys sending reports of bizarrely priced books found on Advanced Book Exchange (ABE).

I love receiving them yet I never know whether to laugh, cry, or call the book police. This is a job for Tombstone's favorite sheriff, Wyatt Earp, with whom Maurice shares nothing but surname and sharp aim.

Today's episode of Have You Lost Your Mind? concerns the the large-print edition of the Life Application Study Bible NLT, published by Tyndale House in 2009.

On ABE-UK, there are seven copies being offered by the same dealer, Beagle Books, of Milpitas, CA, USA. Act now, and a copy can be yours for only £66,989.21 ($103,292.55). Plus £3.25 ($5) for shipping.

At that price you figure they'd let the shipping cost slide but no. Holy Bible, Batman! It's a $30-$50 book in good to very good condition.

But, as always, a premium must be paid for fine/as new copies, hence the dramatic price for the Beagle copies. This beagle must have smelled a potential bonanza and bought a bunch of new copies.

When this edition of the bible was originally published - one year ago. Shrewd move. Or, perhaps, screwed move. Five years ago I had a leaf from a Gutenberg Bible pass through my hands. It was priced at $60,000. Here, you get the whole bible for a bit less than twice that amount. It's a deal of biblical proportions! Another dealer on ABE-UK, Michael Hollan, of St. Petersberg, Florida, USA, is offering another copy of this edition for the exact same price. It, too, is a new copy.

The other three copies being offered are, alas, in merely good to very good condition and are priced accordingly - $30-$50.

I suspect a data upload error to be the culprit. The days of rare book dealer as buccaneer are long gone. (The establishment of trade organizations like ABA, ABAA and ILAB put a halt to diabolical practices like irrational, stratospheric prices to harpoon the unwary and thus made the world safer for collectors).

Here's hoping someone at Beagle Books, Michael Hollan Books, or ABE-UK wakes up and fixes this. Insane prices do not inspire confidence in buyers. Not so by the way, new copies can be bought directly from Tyndale House for $69.99. There is a God.

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The top 10 most expensive places to rent

Somebody needs to tell the rental market that Britain is only just on the road to recovery and that growth is supposed to be slow and sustained. Because in some parts of the country, That’s according to flatsharing website spareroom.co.uk, which says that room rental costs, and their movement in the last 12 months, vary drastically depending on where you live.

Those flatsharing in Sunderland will have been thrilled to have seen average monthly house and flatsharing rents drop by a massive 13.5% in the last year, for example. While private renters in Stroke are not so lucky, having faced rent hikes of 11.3% in the last year. The runners and riders.

Second only to Stoke in the rising rents league is Telford in Shropshire, where room rents increased by 10.8% in the last 12 months. Below are the 10 towns and cities to have seen the largest rises, noting the current monthly rent compared to last year’s figure.What’s interesting about this list is that half of the top 10 towns are in the North of England, where average monthly room rents increased by 1.5% over the past 12 months. And there are no towns or cities from the south of England - average monthly room rents in the region rose by just 0.6% in the past year.

So rents are rising fastest in the North right?

Well, what is even more interesting is that when you look at the 10 towns and cities to have seen the biggest falls in monthly room rents, that table is also dominated by the North. If anything the North is seeing more volatility in rents, while rental income is more stable in many parts of the South.Time to let?

If you have a spare room in your house the figures above may well tempt you to consider taking in a lodger. Indeed the money you bring in can go a long way towards paying your mortgage.

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Cubs Tickets Most Expensive in MLB

Numbers released Wednesday by Team Market Report show the Cubs beat out the Boston Red Sox for the priciest ticket in baseball, at $52.56. That's nearly twice the average Major League Baseball ticket price of $26.74. The report shows Cubs ticket prices have jumped more than 10 percent since last season, the second highest increase in the league.

It says a day a Wrigley for a family of four this season will cost about $330. That includes food and concessions. White Sox tickets, meanwhile, cost about $39 a piece. A family outing runs about $250, according to the report. The Cubs' home opener is scheduled for Monday afternoon, against Milwaukee.

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World`s most expensive Computer Mouse: Have a look

Can you guess the name of the World’s Most Expensive Computer Mouse? If you are thinking some technical name, then you are no where near. Interestingly, it is World’s Most Expensive Computer Mouse only.

It comprises of 18-karat white gold studded with 59 brilliant cut diamonds. If you go at the looks, you will not find anything extravagant.

The base is just like an ordinary mouse, which has few rare gems embedded in it. However, the presence of diamond matters and therefore it costs $26,730.

This innovative mouse is built by a Swiss manufacturer- Pat Says Now. This mouse is being advertised as a perfect gift for.

A 60th wedding anniversary (as diamond is the traditional gift for this event) and great choice for a 50th wedding anniversary (as Gold is the traditional gift for this event).

The World’s Most Expensive Computer Mouse comes in two designs- “Diamond Flower” designs and the “Scattered Diamond” design. Now, it is up to you, whether you want to buy the World’s Most Expensive Computer Mouse or a nice car within that range.

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Bishan maisonette could be most expensive HDB flat in Singapore

DID you ever think that an HDB flat could fetch $1 million? Well, it looks like prices are inching closer to that mark.At least for a choice unit in Bishan. A Singaporean couple, who own a rare Bishan executive maisonette with a roof terrace, have asked for a staggering $950,000 for the 1,860 sq ft flat, according to a Lianhe Zaobao article yesterday.

The HDB valuation for the unit is about $730,000. That means the sellers are asking for cash over valuation (COV) of $220,000. It was also reported that a buyer has offered $900,000 for the flat. That will make it the highest ever transacted price for an HDB flat, if the deal goes through. Prices of HDB flats reached a record high in 2008 when a 1,614 sq ft executive unit in Queenstown was sold for $890,000.

The interested buyer for the Bishan flat - a 45-year-old Singaporean businessman - is willing to pay COV of about $170,000 for the 18-year-old flat. The flat is in Block 286, Bishan Street 24, and boasts an unobstructed view of the estate.

There are only about 50 rooftop penthouses with open terraces in Bishan. The New Paper understands that the owners of the flat are still considering the offer.

The ERA agent who is handling the sale said the owners are currently working in Hong Kong.

They had bought the flat some 10 years ago for $750,000 and had renovated it.

The agent told Lianhe Zaobao that he put the unit up for sale on a website 10 days ago, but response was poor.

He got only five enquires and only one prospective buyer made arrangements to view the flat, according to the report.

But a few days later, the businessman viewed the flat twice and made the offer of $900,000.

The agent said the businessman and his family have been living in a rental apartment for the past year and want to settle down in a flat.

The agent, when contacted, declined to comment further saying it's not a done deal yet.

Resale flat prices have hit their highest level since 1990, when the HDB started tracking them through a quarterly index, The Straits Times reported last week.

Does this mean a $1 million flat sale is just around the corner?

Property agents think it's unlikely. Mr Eric Cheng, chief executive of ECG Property, said the Bishan maisonette can command a premium price because such units are rare and the location is good.

Million-dollar mark?

But he said: 'Generally, most HDB flats will not go beyond $750,000. I doubt any flats will cross the $1 million mark, at least not for the next two to three years.

'For $1 million, one can buy a condo unit, or even a small landed property in the Sin Ming area. The valuation for a top-end HDB flat is around $700,000, and who can cough up the $200,000 (COV)?'

C&H Realty managing director Albert Lu also thinks it's unlikely that any HDB flats will cross the $1 million mark any time soon.

He said: 'I think the $1 million mark will take a while to reach. HDB prices may rise, but not so fast.

'Will people pay $1 million for a flat' For $800,000 today, one can buy a private property, although smaller and not in such a central location.'

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