You may have noticed that our banner is gone. We’re working on it at the moment and decided to just disable it for the time being. We’ll hopefully have it back up and running — better than ever — sometime this weekend. Thanks for your patience!

If you’re a frequent visitor of our website, you’ve probably heard us mention Square on several occasions. It’s a credit card reader that can plug into your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or multiple other mobile devices and allows you to accept physical credit card transactions on-the-go. We’ve been waiting since we opened for this option and it’s finally here. If you’re interested in more information about the company, head over to squareup.com to read more about it.

The transition to Square may be a bit slow — they’ve been bombarded with applications and they’re trying to sort through them all — so we may still have to run things through PayPal for a little while longer. At this point, we’re limited to $100 per transaction because of the sheer numbers they’re trying to process. Eventually that limit will increase and we’ll allow you to pay with a credit card whenever, wherever and however you want.

If you want even more information about Square, you can head over to our sister site CocoaTouchApps.com and read our detailed post. It answers many of the questions that Square’s site does not.

Rocky Mountain Mac Repair and our sister site Cocoa Touch Apps will be at the Aspen Grove Apple Store for the iPad release tomorrow morning. We’ll be holding off on the actual purchase of an iPad so we can grab a iPad 3G when they come out. Even still, we’re excited for the launch and can’t wait for the revelry of the fanboys, and girls, in line.

So, why did we choose Aspen Grove? Well, it’s the only store where you can actually get there early. Both Park Meadows and Cherry Creek open with the mall, so there’s no chance to sit in line and expect a good spot. We’re also teaming up with Steve Sande of TUAW (we have no relation, we’re just friends and Apple colleagues… Josh also wrote for TUAW last year) to cover the launch. We’ll be donning our RMMR garb and will have business cards on hand for the people in line. We’re not outwardly saying that the early adopters are going to break their iPads right away, but we want all of you to know that we’ll be fixing them if you do. We’re the best place in town for iPods, iPhones and Macs — so we’re excited to add the iPad to the list. Come down to Aspen Grove and say, “Hello!”

Be sure to follow us on Twitter to receive “Line-blog” updates.

We’ve embedded the Google Map to make it a bit easier if you don’t know where to find it.

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In an effort to bring you more content and helpful information, we’ve created a YouTube channel where we’ll host all of our videos and embed them here. We’re starting off the video frenzy with our iPad interview from January. We were lucky enough to be chosen by CBS 4 Denver to explain why the iPad could be the next revolutionary product from Apple. The video was taken from a screencast of their website because they don’t offer an embeddable video feature… maybe we should help them understand the necessity for such things. Anyways, we’ll be continuing the video trend with great tips and information in the very near future. So, check the blog often to see what we have for you!

See all of our videos at YouTube.com/rmmrdenver

We had a customer ask us why it costs so much (oddly, we’re cheaper than every other repair shop in Denver) to replace a 15-inch MacBook Pro LCD when we’re able to offer the 13-inch MacBook LCD replacement for $199. It’s a great question and hopefully this explanation will help people understand why there’s a difference between the two prices.

One of the questions that came up was this: “Why am I paying so much more for the LCD when it’s just a couple inches bigger?” The answer to that lies in two parts: the manufacturer and the screen resolution. All LCDs vary by price depending on the manufacturer… each model of MacBook or MacBook Pro could potentially have different part numbers depending on which LCD ended up in your machine. Your friend might have the exact same model laptop but your LCD might cost more. Our rates depend on those numbers. We are always trying to find the best deals so we can bring you the best prices, and if we can make it cheaper, we will.

Part two of that question is screen resolution. There may only be slightly more material in a 15-inch screen versus a 13-inch screen, but the manufacturing process is completely different. A 13-inch MacBook screen resolution is 1280 by 800, while the MacBook Pro is 1440 by 900 or higher. The MacBook Pro can go up to the 1920 by 1080 resolution. In reality, the 1280 by 800 LCDs are very inexpensive to make: I actually had a Dell machine about 6 years ago with a higher resolution LCD… so there’s nothing fantastic about Apple’s MacBook LCD. As soon as you get into higher screen resolutions like the MacBook Pro, the manufacturing costs go up as does the price we pay… which makes its way to you.

The other factor we need to consider is the amount of labor we have to put into each screen replacement. Thanks to trade secrets and the skills we’ve developed over the years, we can replace a 13-inch MacBook LCD in about 30 minutes (sometimes less). We can’t — and no one can — replace the MacBook Pro LCD in that same amount of time. There aren’t any shortcuts with the MacBook Pro LCD as it is glued into the display bezel. To properly remove it, we have to disassemble the whole machine and heat up the broken LCD to pull it out and put the new one in. That labor process takes anywhere from 1.5 hours to 2 hours… depending on how cooperative the display is. If you consider that our labor rate is $65 an hour, you’ll see that the price would increase by $100 just from the labor itself. That still doesn’t take the higher 15-inch display cost into consideration.

So, don’t be surprised by our discounted price on the 13-inch screen. We guarantee you won’t find a better price for that model in Denver, or our other LCD replacements for that matter. We just want you to understand that screen replacement cost is always dependent on the specific machine, not the screen size. We’ll also stress that our “Deals” are “deals” because they’re “deals.” Our suppliers have given us a deal because they got a deal and in return we get to give you a deal on the repair. We can’t make everything the price you want it to be, no one can… but we certainly do our best to try.

Josh Carr
Owner, Rocky Mountain Mac Repair

The “Good Question” blog post isn’t done yet, but they at least posted the video online. I expect to help even more in the comments of the Good Questions article. Here’s hoping they actually link to the website! It looks like they’re a little behind the times and don’t allow video embedding… so I just have the link for you. It took me three times watching to spot the “Josh Carr, Mac Expert — Rocky Mountain Mac Repair” subtitle that was up for maybe two seconds. No biggie. I can at least say that I was on the news being interviewed for my professional opinion. As mentioned before, we did about 20 minutes of actual footage and another 40 minutes of conversation — they had a lot of questions. It was all cropped down into about 45 seconds of me. Good enough. Please hit the link below and watch your favorite mac guy give some insight into the Apple iPad.

Watch the video!

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to comment on today’s Announcement of the Apple iPad. It’s a new tablet computer designed by Apple. It’s a cool little device. Please read more about it at Cocoa Touch Apps. You can also read the site’s coverage of the keynote on their Live-Blog.

The spot will air sometime tonight during the 10 o’clock news on Denver’s CBS4. There will also be a teaser airing during the evening news. I will link or embed the video file as quickly as I have access to it for you all to watch. We shot about 20 minutes of actually footage, talked for about an hour, and it will all be cropped down to 2.5 minutes of air-time. Here’s to hoping that Josh doesn’t look too nervous or silly. He’s been on TV before, but never an up-close and personal interview. It was a great time, a lot of fun, it’s nice to be recognized for what some people would consider fanboy knowledge Have a great evening, and check back for that web-link… better yet, watch it live on CBS4!

After a long night of changes, I’m finally rested and ready to give you a detailed re-cap of what’s new. Some of these updates are simple or even behind-the-scenes, but all of them will make your user experience better. We know that there are other Mac repair shops in town: we stand out in many ways and one of those is keeping you connected. Let’s tackle the changes:

New iPhone icon at the top — we wanted to get the most important info out to you with the greatest ease. Lo’ and behold, there’s room for a phone number at the top. Happy dialing!

Shorter homepage text — one thing most websites do is throw too much information at their readers. Our old homepage was definitely guilty of that. We pulled out the redundant redundancy and left you with a little less filler and better information. We also made our logo clickable so you can see the detail work. If you haven’t guessed yet, the logo is made up of the letters from the new laptop keyboards on an aluminum background. Do you like it?

Certified Macintosh Technician Button — we felt that it was important for you to know that we’re not just some “dude” who fixes iPhones and iPods… we’re Apple-Certified and we keep our certifications up-to-date so you can trust that we know the latest methodologies and techniques for troubleshooting and fixing your devices. We do have to exist as a business for 2 years before Apple will allow us to be an “Apple Authorized Service Provider” so we can perform Apple warranty work. We’re willing to wait, but we’ll help you with upgrades and out-of-warranty work any day of the week.

User Accounts with Facebook Integration — this is a great addition for each and every one of you. You can now comment on posts if you have feedback or questions. If you sign up for an account, we’ll periodically send you emails about great deals and promotions. It will never be spam, only information that pertains to your Apple devices. You do not have to create an account to comment, you can just enter your email or Connect with Facebook to leave a reply. Only those with accounts will be able to use our new comment rating system (it’s just a limitation of Facebook, it’s nothing against you).

Social Sharing — at the bottom of every page you’ll find little bookmarks that will allow you share a post that you find interesting. Email, Facebook, Twitter: we tried to include every sharing possibility, but if we missed some, just let us know and we’ll get it added.

New Footer — We’ve added a new footer to the website to help make it a little more usable. On the left, you’ll see the 5 most recent articles from the blog. In the center we’ve listed links to our sister sites. The right side lists 5 random articles that you may or may not want to read. It’s just a random selection of everything in the archives.

That’s it! We hope that you’ll find these modifications very helpful as you browse our site. We get excited about the little things at Rocky Mountain Mac Repair. We show the same attention to detail in our web design as we do in every repair — it cannot be matched.

Josh’s rear window of his 4Runner. We’ve been shopping around for the best prices in window wraps and ended up with the picture above. We think it looks great and it’ll hopefully help people call us (we’re hoping for mac repair questions but it could be to yell at Josh for cutting them off). We ended up going with a graphics company called PGI Wraps for the install. Josh created the artwork and got it to them, they printed it and installed it within 24 hours. That’s the kind of service excellence Rocky Mountain Mac Repair expects and gives to its customers. If you’re interested in a great car wrap, you should really give Jeff a call… 303.548.5584

Disclaimer: No we weren’t paid to advertise for them, nor did we get any special discount. We were just thoroughly impressed with their willingness to help the customer and the quality of their work.

We’ve also purchase a few ads around the denver web space to bring our business to more people. We’re excited about where the business is going and can’t wait to see you in the store.

Thanks to the wonderful world of the internet, you can easily pay your bill from the comfort of your own computer.  We also have a terminal ready for you at the shop.  If you plan to pay for your repair with a credit card, just take the emailed invoice we send you and put the total (including tax, PayPal does not add tax again) directly into the box on PayPal.

If you have a PayPal account already, you can choose to pay with your bank account or with a credit card once you’ve logged in.  If you don’t have a PayPal account, it’s a safe and secure way to pay.  We’d encourage you to set one up so that you can quickly and easily pay for things online.

If you’ve been afraid to use PayPal because of experiences in the past, we understand — it’s a viable concern.  We’d like to point out that PayPal will NEVER ask you to give them all sorts of information from an email.  They way most people get accounts stolen is by just handing over their information to thieves.  Any email you receive from PayPal, will say “paypal.com”  The fake emails asking you to enter all sorts of information are from sites like “paypal.com.fakesite.cc”  You will always need to be careful and make sure the address matches who you believe is sending the email.  Identity theft is a serious issue, and it can usually be prevented by making sure an email is what it is before you reply with your life story