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November 22, 2004
48 Hours Later
It took me 2 whole days to get round to visiting the Apple Store.
Digression: like last year, I demonstrated my complete fiscal incontinence, picking up a cute-as-a-button dye-sub printer and a perfect geek handbag, and a lovely mini iPod sleeve. We resisted, with some difficulty, a tiny Mac Freeview box and the exquisite Solio portable iPod/phone/PDA solar charger (not much point buying that one in the UK in November, is there?).
The Hi-Ti printers are great; cheaper to buy than the portable HP photo printer that got a best-in-show, as cheap or cheaper to run; and, you know, dye sub is a much better technology than inkjet, not least because the prints are waterproof. Mine is destined primarily for instant printing of stereocards taken with our Loreo 3D Lens in a Cap; pictures straight from the camera would upset 3d purists for all sorts of reasons, but they don't call me Instant Gratification Girl for nothing. This is a toy for us, but as we bought our printer, a jobbing wedding photographer picked up the 8x6 one -- he can take it to weddings and sell people permanent, photoshop quality prints to take away at a cost-to-him of 70p each. So cool.
Anway, after the delights of Mac Expo, the new Apple Store was very nice too. The problem for me is that Apple products fall into three main categories; things I have, things I'd like (but can't afford right now) and things I don't really want. So unlike Mac Expo, chock full of tasty and unexpected delights, the Apple Store is a gleaming cathedral for a religion I'm already well bought into. Hey, it's cheaper than Scientology. It wasn't crowded now that there are no more goody bags or tshirts; just a very pleasant, well appointed computer store with loads of Mac stuff. Lots of signs saying 'take this home today'. I played with a U2 iPod, which isn't anything like as vile as it looks on the web, and with a Photo iPod; the photos look small and naff even having been carefully chosen for impact by Apple (photos are too small even on my TH-55 to be anything other than a curiosity). The iMac G5 looked splendid, though, as did the simply enormous cinema displays.
There's a theatre upstairs, where I caught a jolly entertaining talk by someone I discovered part way through was Andy Inhatko. At one point he asked for a volunteer -- nobody volunteered so he pounced on some poor woman. She was unkeen so he offered her a book. Still unkeen, and I was the first person to say 'I'll do it...er, does that mean I get a book?' So now I have The Garageband Book, and also learnt a great tip on how to get photos taken of you standing next to a famous person. Er, Andy, if you're reading this, can you post the photo from your mobile?
Posted by Alison Scott at November 22, 2004 10:39 PM