by: George Starcher, Associate Editor

Today Apple rolled out changes on it’s web site altering how the Pro Care works. In addition they added a new service.

Pro Care: It is still $99 per year. But they took out the training option. You still get the full data transfer and setup option when buying a new mac, advanced genius bar reservations, priority in store repair queue and annual tune up/cleaning maintenance. They have also specified consultation on designing the best data backup strategy for you.

One to One: This is the training option they removed from Pro Care. It is also $99 per year. It can get you personal training sessions on all sorts of software and hardware topics and issues. The one training session per week limitation is still in the Terms of Service.

Personal Shopping: This one is a new addition to the Apple offerings. It is free. We all know how busy Apple Stores can be. So this leverages the Reservation System to schedule time with an in store Apple Employee to answer questions and help you make your purchases. Not a bad idea actually and better uses the existing reservation system.

I had Pro Care last year. It was actually handy in a couple of instances. I used it for some training on Pages. That got me oriented and started on the program. Next I used it for a repair appointment issue with my Powerbook. Now this was the most helpful for me. I live 30 minutes one way from the Nashville Apple Store. Being able to schedule during my lunch time and run my laptop down for what I knew would be leave for repair issue this worked out great. My whole day likely would have been spent if I had no ability to schedule the appointment. Lastly I did use the tune up on my Powerbook. Nice cleaning even of the debris that finds its way into your keyboard.

I will have to think long and hard if Pro Care is worth it any more. $99 just to be able to schedule appointments for potential repair issues is about the most I can justify. Even then what swung my decision to purchase it the first time was the additional training features. It sure is not worth twice the money to get the same options as before.