I have a friend; we'll call him Rich. Rich is a fanatical bargain-hunter. Not for himself, though. I'm not sure where his own money goes, but as far as I can tell both Nabisco and DC Comics see a lot of it. No, he's only a bargain-hunter when it comes to me. Specifically, when it comes to me and products made by Apple, a company that he does not particularly love. Whenever I buy something with the Apple logo on it, he transforms into a penny-pincher of such ferocity as to make the guys from American Pickers look like the guys from Pimp My Ride.

For instance, back in late 2005, when I bought one of the first-generation iPod shuffles, he was outraged on my behalf that I'd spent $99 on an MP3 player without a screen.

"You could go to Best Buy right now and buy one with an actual screen for just $119," he said.

"Yeah, but that's twenty bucks more," I said.

Two days later he tells me he found an MP3 player at Fry's Electronics for just $89. It didn't have a screen either, but it was cheaper.

"See, you wasted ten bucks! Bet you feel pretty dumb now!"

After I took out my earbuds and he repeated himself, I said "Well, that only has 256 megabytes. This has 512."

Three days later he knocks on my door at 9 a.m., which is like 4 a.m. for him.

"Okay, I've got it! I found these Korean-made, unbranded mp3 players on eBay. They have 512 megabytes, and a screen, and they come with earbuds, …" he pauses for dramatic effect. "They play Ogg Vorbis files."

"Okay," I said.

"Ninety-eight dollars! Including shipping!" he shouted.

So I promised him that if I accidentally swallowed my iPod Shuffle, I'd save myself a buck and buy his brand. Or his no-brand, to be precise.

"Are you buying one?" I asked.

"Oh, no. I just spent a thousand bucks on a grey-market Xbox 360, so I'm a little short right now."

Anyhow, Rich is still at it, helping me save money after I've already spent it. Now, keep in mind, I'm a tech writer, so I have all sorts of stuff. I have an iPhone and an Android phone. I have an iPad and an Android tablet. I have a Mac Mini and a Windows laptop. I use my Apple devices more than the others, but I'm far from shut out of the non-Apple world. Nonetheless, Rich goes into new paroxysms every time I emerge from an Apple Store.

Recently he told me I could buy a Samsung phone, a Samsung tablet, and a nice restaurant meal for the price of the upcoming 128-GB iPad. When I pointed out the Android Tablet in question only has 16 GB and that I wasn't planning on buying the 128-GB iPad anyway, he sent me a drawing of a sheep with a red arrow pointing to it and the word "YOU!"

At any rate, he can sometimes be useful. For instance, I told him I was thinking of getting an iBook, and within 24 hours he had tracked down an incredible deal on a Windows laptop. I wasn't actually thinking of getting an iBook, I just knew I could get him to find an incredible deal on a Windows laptop for me.

Similarly, one day I idly mentioned the rumors about a possible upcoming Apple-branded television set and he found a very nice deal on a Panasonic TV for me. I didn't even want a new TV, but it was such a good deal I went ahead and gave my old one to my younger brother and bought the new one. It's nice, and my Apple TV looks really good on it.

I'm mostly happy with my iDevices, price differences and all. But I'm also happy to make use of Rich's devotion to basically anything not designed in Cupertino. I hope Apple comes out with a car so he'll find me a great deal on a Corolla.

In fact, there's an experiment I'd like to try. If you're single and looking for love, drop me a line. I'll give you Rich's number. I bet if you tell him you're dating someone who works at Apple, he won't stop searching until he finds the love of your life working at Google or Microsoft. Just remember to invite me to the wedding.

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Born helpless, naked and unable to provide for himself, Lore Sjöberg overcame these handicaps to become dependent on his Twitter followers to help him come up with the names of reality shows.