WTF?
You can only spend it in the iTunes store. What a bunch of tight arses. They could have at least made it valid the apple store. How are you going to spend 10k$ on fart apps ?
An Apple customer nearly missed out on a $10,000 gift card from the company, after she was convinced that her daughter – who had downloaded the 10 billionth app from the iPhone maker's store – had received a "prank call". Cult of Mac reports that Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, took the call from Apple before promptly ending it …
Exactly, you can't.
They don't actually want to give anything away, you know. They just wanted the free publicity from El Reg and others -- the misunderstanding may or may not have been in some way engineered or anticipated by their marketing team, who knows?
I'd write my own fart app, set the price at $10k, then buy it. (Probably get a few idiots buying it too as a "joke" and forgetting that Apple keeps their payment details on file)
Then I'd go out and buy a dueling glove and slap Steve Jobs right in the face with it. I dare say the flesh from his cheek would probably fall off in the process and then I'd feel a bit sick and wish I hadn't done it. That's if he doesn't regenerate, liquid metal man style.
Then a dollar sign would flash up on his chest, he would shout "DIRECTIVE" in a weird robotic voice and immediately start bin raiding.
creepy motherfucker.
Try using humour next time.
For example, instead of saying """They offer an iTunes gift card as a prize in an iTunes promotion. Pretty straightforward as far as I can see (I guess being able to read helps). What exactly did you expect them to give as a prize, $10000 worth of bananas?""" which just makes you sounds like a Geography teacher after someone's pissed on your electric globe, try saying:
"""At least Apple weren't giving away $10000 worth of bananas, that shit would ripen your apples up like a motherfucker"""
Short and to the point.
Also, I would leave the "you can't read" material for the second date.
And now you know.
But in the US, a $10K iTunes "gift card" would come with a Federal Income Tax Bill as well as a State Income Tax Bill. Top Federal Income tax Rate is 35%, although the average taxpayer pays about 25%. If the unlucky sap happened to live in California, Apple's home state, you might hit the top State income tax rate of 10.55%, although the average California taxpayer pays about 9%. Most States have income tax rates that average around 5%.
I'm afraid you're sadly mistaken if you think the return on premium bonds averages out to be what you'd get in interest.
Online calculator here to show the comparison between sticking the money in a bank and sticking it on premium bonds: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds-calculator/
When betting in the UK you can pay tax on the stake, or the prize. Generally people go for the stake, which is a win-win for the exchequer and the gambler. The total tax take is higher, and the winner doesn't feel that (s)he got hit so hard, because the tax burden was spread across the losers as well.
Dunno about anyone else, but I get these kinds of calls all the time:
"Congratulations (in metallic recorded voice) you have won a prize" from a competition I didn't enter.
I'm not surprised that the lady cut them off. I've started getting abusive, at least if there is a human n the other end.
Over the pond, if they call me telling me I've won something, I act interested, and speak softly, more softly, until my voice is a whisper and the rep has turned up their phone volume all the way.
Then I blow the police whistle.
Then I carry on as if nothing has happened. Maybe I can get them twice.
I hate telemarketers. There's nothing like paying a phone bill to have someone call you when you're on the john, trying to sell you something you didn't want, or a charity scam, or get you to join some wacko cult, or give to some asswipe political party, or offer you a prize where all's you have to do is give 'em your bank account number. Then they have the 'nads to tell me it's free speech. If it's free, how the hell come I'm paying for it? Some of them you can't even hang up on -- they have an auto dialback on hangups. Fortunately, I usually get a second telemarketer to deafen. I'm just sharing the love...
Telemarketers are lower than p0rno spammers. It takes less time to get rid of them.
[/grumble][/fume]
From what I gather from the article, it's a freebie for the iTunes store (not the AppStore), which offers apps, videos, music, the lot. Honestly? For 10k bits of pressed metal, I'd vastly extend my music library, with the odd movie thrown in.
As for the tax situation, I have no idea how it is in the UK at this time; in the US it seems to depend on which state you are in and sometimes the phase of the moon and time of day. Where I live, all winnings from publicly-available lotteries and suchlike (which this falls under) are tax-free for the first year. So here, the winner would have one year to get rid of the gift value. OK... the complete works of the Beatles, to start with... then Led Zeppelin, Steeleye Span, Rush,... I don't think I'd have much of a problem getting rid of that money within one year, particularly if I also buy movies.
"From what I gather from the article, it's a freebie for the iTunes store (not the AppStore), which offers apps, videos, music, the lot. Honestly? For 10k bits of pressed metal, I'd vastly extend my music library, with the odd movie thrown in."
And then your computer/iGadget stops working, or your account gets reset, or a bunch of other things occur outside of your control that are frowned upon by Apple via some policy or other, and then you get locked out of that shiny new collection of stuff. Still, at least you didn't pay anything for it.
Yeah, this happens all the time. That's why Apple are universally hated by consumers and don't produce the most popular line of personal media devices.
Now, I'm as cynical as the next guy when it comes to the *cost* of digital distribution, but I've haven't heard any reports of lossage in a long while. FUD sensor tingling.
but the Federal Taxes don't change from State to State and all winnings are taxable as normal income. After that, state taxes are applicable as your state determines. This is simple stuff, not rocket science. Now, what I'm not sure about is whether or not gambling losses can be used to offset gambling gains. They certainly can't be used to offset normal income.Territories etc. might be different.
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I'd happily add to my music and film collection - and if its valid of the new Mac App store, could get through it in a day or 2
There is a similar compo available at Microsoft - apparently the 5,000 customer gets a free registry rebuild, a new virus checker and signed photograph of Monkey Man Bulmer, its probably still available