A Preview of the Meatpacking Apple Store

Comment about New Mac Stores and idiots

Wow, i can't believe the amount of comments on this thread; and people are so angry! Look, apple, like any other competitive and successful company, has a BRAND (starbucks, martha stewart, home depot). While some may say these detract from the 'mom-and-pop' stores (vis-a-vis Tekserve), that is the way of the global economy in today's society. Get used to it or move to a small in-the-middle-of-nowhere town (where, incidentally, you’ll still see a starbucks).

You are free to buy whatever product you so choose – mac or pc. If you're so against mac, don’t go there to use the clean, public restroom. Don't gawk at the technology you don't understand, and don’t beat yourself up over not having the bodies of the toned euro kids with spiky hair and expensive cologn.

Personally, I'd prefer to continue to stare in awe at the crazy 'how’d-they-do-that' technology that I don’t understand and covet the new and shiny products recently purchased by the cowhide-clad, slick-straight haired, $2,000 shearling-coated supermodel standing next to me at the genius bar asking me how many gigs of ram I have in my new macbook.

The Mac Pro parts and pieces can be swapped out and upgraded. Go read up on them at the Apple site, they're great.

I'm not at all concerned about hobbyists constructing their computers, the exact same way I'm happy to go buy a working car from a dealer instead of trying to build it in my garage. I want a computer that's dependable, sturdy, and functional, no assembly required. That's why I "drive" a Mac.

I don't use a Mighty Mouse (the standard-ship ones with "hidden" buttons) because I use high-end 3D and video software that has different requirements of my mouse. No drivers or anything needed, I just plugged my mouse (bought at Staples, nothing special) in and it works.

As for people demanding physical buttons? I'd say that every person that bought an iPhone disagrees with that statement. Plus, y'know, the hundreds of other touch-screen products on the market.

Kevin, what if I wanted to swap out the graphics card on a Mac desktop for the new one that just came out? Can I upgrade the processor? The extra dollars I was talking about for the same quality level have really more to do with very powerful desktops.

Most importantly, if you are a hobbyist, you cannot build a custom mac by buying all the parts separately.

And the mouse, why are they hiding the extra buttons if they are there? And that's not really an extra button, most people like physical buttons.

Are you sure the new store doesn't have public restrooms because they are usually kind of 'hidden' so that people don't really know about them. In both of the other apple stores, they have it like that.

Andoman, sorry to disappoint you, but the new store doesn't contain any public restrooms. Not a one.

Hey andoman, Apple has been including two button mice and two button trackpads for quite awhile now. Seems you missed it. (Hint: It looks like a one-button mouse, but it has two or even four buttons. It looks like a single space for clicking on the trackpad, but it knows about two separate fingers. And if you don't like the Apple mouse, any 2-button USB mouse will work.)

I also don't know how Mac laptops are less upgradeable than the IBM Thinkpad that I'm typing this on. Nor is the Mac Pro less upgradeable; all use standard memory, hard drives, etc. Only the Mac mini and iMac have upgradeability limitations, but no more so than the Gateway One or Dell One all-in-one computers.

As for extra dollars at the same hardware quality level, that's not true except if you're talking about the Mac mini, or no-name-brand, or special sales/coupons. I.e., the iMac is cheaper than the Dell One and Gateway One. And it's arguable whether any of them really match up on quality, as the MacBook Pro is the fastest Vista laptop there is (test conducted by a PC mag, not a Mac mag).

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Tekserve here. If you want to show off your new wardrobe and attitude amid expensive architecture while paying top price for your gear, by all means visit one of the sleek new Apple store. If you actually want to buy Mac stuff that works at a good price from a relaxed staff that actually knows what it's talking about and offers competing products, go to the REAL Mac experts -- Tekserve. (23rd Street, just west of 6th Avenue).

No; I do not work for Tekserve -- I've just been spending my money there for 20 years.

More to the point, these company-owned Apple stores seem a bit odd... Tekserve was there back when the Mac was struggling, Apple was hungry for dealers and support centers, there was no iPod, and everyone was convinced that nothing could possibly be better than a PC running MS-DOS. (As if Windows is much better...) Now that Mac is on the upswing, it seems weird for Apple to move in and compete against its loyal dealers.

BTW, yes, I too can get a computer cheaper via mail order, yet I STILL buy my Macs from Tekserve -- it's worth it to support a good company and know that they'll bail me out if anything goes wrong. (My latest Mac Book died in one day, which could happen with ANY electronics product. If I'd bought mail order I would have had to get a Return Authorization number, ship it back at my expense, wait a week, etc. etc. In this case Tekserve had me up and running the next day.)

Does Tekserve occasionally goof? You bet! Like every other service company I know of, occasionally things can go awry, but it's never happened to me, and until they muck up, I'll keep going back.

Glen

I'm just curious but do the Apple stores purposely employ sales people that look the same and act the same as the Mac Guy in the ads? I mean not the actual actor, but the smug, self-satisfied mac guy character. And they dress the same as that guy too.

In fairness Kevin, all the software you mentioned is 5+ years old. (there has been three major releases of photoshop and golive since)

At what point does Apple no longer have the ability to innovate by having to support legacy software - software they didn't even create. As far as I recall Photoshop 7 worked in Tiger, so I would check around - it may work in Leopard too. But if it doesn't - isn't it's Adobe's fault for not keeping your legacy software compatible? They've released more Photoshop versions than OS's Apple have in the same period.

I love your site for exposing the forgotten NYC - but sometimes you need to forget legacy software for the best. Additionally - there are a number of FREE alternatives to Photoshop and some cheap shareware alternatives that will easily best that out dated GoLive.

A friend of mine sez they should serve Moules/Frites at the Genius Bar. Homage to Markt.

If I get a new mac I'll have to upgrade Photoshop (I use 7, good enough for my purposes but not good for leopard), GoLive (6.0) and Fetch...adding a few hundred to the purchase price of the computer.

Would that Jobs recognize that people don't want to upgrade all their software when they buy a new system. That's not how it's played though.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Where's the meat?

Yes no upskirts...but think of all the

downshirts you can catch!

(pervie!)

Frosted, schmosted, you can still get a nice view. And the side rails are also still perfectly clear. Very few peepers would be standing directly below the staircase anyway.

Can we limit pc vs mac posts to 100 words or less please?

Boooo apple. I wanted upskirts. Boooo

Re: Upskirts. The glass is actually frosted - the same in all apple stores - so you don't see anything other than a shadow. Pervs.

http://flickr.com/photos/neps/148825439/in/set-72057594138660723/

Yes, indeed, that is a VERY serious upskirt peeping situation. Amazing. Wanna bet that the glass floors and steps get painted over by August?

By the way, the apple stores rank very high on my list of public restrooms in the city.

Macs work better, they have more features built into the operating system that are actually useful (that timemachine idea of backups). Its more stable, error messages actually tell you what's wrong instead of "CDH82782 error in the MPRW checksum." It's generally more intuitive.

But I cannot buy JUST the MacOS and stick it on any computer even though it runs on Intel. I can't build my own pc and put MacOS on it. It has no games, theres not much software, and no businesses run on it except Apple Inc., and almost the whole creative industry. It's not that customizable. And all the Apple laptops have only one button for the trackpad as a holdover for when people were too dumb to use more than one button.

Yeah you can do windows on a Mac... but then you just paid so much extra $$ for a machine you could have had for hundreds of dollars cheaper at the same quality level. Plus you gotta buy Windows. Macs look very nice but there's basically no choices in terms of hardware. Plus now we went back to windows again with all the same problems as before.

Right now its possible to get a hack that lets you use Mac Os on any intel pc. But its a hack, illegal, and could be broken anytime if Apple releases an update.

If Apple released an OS that could sell separately AND use most windows programs without booting windows... we'd have something. Doubt it will happen, so I'll have to keep using this busted, bloated mac-copied crap called Microsoft Windows.

So it comes down to which of these three shit choices is least shitty for your needs.

Apple: Overpriced, small selection, but nicely designed hardware running a superior operating system. Works with zero programs that you already own (unless you've had a mac before). Excellent included programs. Although some of the design seems to be built for morons (ships with 1 button mice, 1 button trackpad). Must buy Apple hardware. Not as upgradeable. Very expensive, time consuming to switch from Windows, must rebuy or redownload all your existing software. Machines capable of running windows legally. Few virus and malware problems because no one designs these things for such a small crowd.

Wintel machine: Competitively priced hardware with a huge selection, (homemade pc, quality stuff to budget, apple hardware) with a shitty, bloated operating system that is whole-sale copied from apple and mostly one step behind what apple does. Works with nearly every program worth anything and all your old programs will function. (Also works with most spyware and viruses). OS always delayed, but still ships with numerous bugs and issues. Machines are technically able to run MacOs, but apple refuses to allow this legally. No other choice for gamers.

OR try Linux, the bastion of nerds everywhere which can run basically as smoothly as Apple, comes with some software, is free, can run on nearly any machine (quality, crap, or vintage), but runs little to no commercial software, makes it hard to install new software, and you still need to use code to do lots of things. Nearly no program for it is original, everything seems reverse-engineered although some are very good copies. Not usually supported except by other nerds.

upskirts galore – can't wait!!!

jacque,

stuyvescent bikes was on 14th between 8th and 9th.

It's been amazing to watch the progress in the last 5 days - looking in on Sunday, it seemed they had a good 4 weeks of work left. The part that's open now is where Markt Restaurant was - the side that was the grungy Western Beef Supermarket isn't finished yet . . .

one could rip cd's and transfer them to one's Ipod at the store? learn something new everyday.

Yeah, the floor models work just like the ones in the box for sale. Insert disk. Import tracks to iTunes. Transfer songs to ipod.

one could rip cd's and transfer them to one's Ipod at the store? learn something new everyday.

Lots of euros at the soho store, saw an entire french family there, each one with a leica around their neck.

Is this store where Stuyvesant bikes used to be?

pushing my way through the crowd of people who act like they've never seen an iPod before.

I find the locals to be the biggest problem. Like the girl I saw a few months ago that decided the Soho Apple Store was the perfect place to rip her cds and transfer then to her iPod.

Take a closer look at the crowd in the Soho store. I know you guys love to hate Midwestern tourists but Midwesterners do not dress like the crowd at the Soho store. Those people are locals. And the tourists that are there tend to be European or other foreigners taking advantage of the weak dollar. You hear lots of foreign languages being spoken there. Fifth Avenue store does get tourists that are immediately let down after passing through the glass cube. I thought that store would have been much cooler architecturally.

wow, look at all that (architecturally) wasted space. geniuses indeed.

And that, folks, is what you're paying for when you shell out the extra cash to buy a Mac because you can't use a real computer.

Yeah...not for the afraid-of-heights.

Where's the longest GeniusBar in the country? Cupertino?

That glass staircase looks a little vertigo-inducing. Pretty amazing space, though.

Can't wait to check this place out. The existing Apple stores and Tekserve are pretty much past their capacity. Hopefully this won't attract quite as many tourists as the other two stores, so I can go in and get some help or buy something without pushing my way through the crowd of people who act like they've never seen an iPod before.

Pretty crazy space. It's really going to do well with the High Line opening.