You ask if Applecare is worth the cost. After some 30 months of use my iMac failed. The Apple Store replaced the logic board, video card, and power supply (this was on top the HD they had replaced within the first year of use). When it failed again even with all the new guts, they handed me a brand shiny new top of the then current model line iMac and threw in the Applecare on the new machine.
That would have been several months after the credit card warranty would have expired and for an investment of roughly $140 I received a $2,000+ machine with a larger screen, faster quad core processor, 3 times bigger HD, and double the RAM of the failed machine. I can cite several other instances where Applecare has paid off big time for me and my family and friends. Even better, Applecare attaches to the device and automatically transfers to a new owner.
You can't get odds like that in Vegas or anywhere else I know of for that matter.
