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Apple Archive

The Apple Store: Westfarms

- 2001.11.05

The last weekend of October, we went up to the opening of the Apple Store in Connecticut, located in the Westfarms Mall (a very appropriate place for an Apple Store - it's a nice, upscale mall) in Farmington. We were a little late for the opening (in other words, the line was so long that we decided to have breakfast first and go back afterward). As we were coming back toward the Apple Store, we stopped in at Electronics Boutique (mostly video games), and I managed to find an old Mac painting program, Color It!, brand new for 87 cents.

Finally we got back to the Apple Store, and by then the line was considerably shorter. About 5 minutes later we were in the store. The layout is exactly how Apple has it pictured on their website - the pro section over to the left and consists of Quicksilver G4s and new Titanium PowerBooks, the consumer over to the right which was full with iMacs and iBooks. There is also a kids section which has several iMacs placed on a low to the ground, kid-sized table and loaded with games and educational programs; the music section which had iMacs, iBooks, and PowerBook G4s running iTunes; the digital photography section, which had a selection of different Macs set up with digital cameras; the DVD section, which had G4s running iDVD; and, of course, the theater, which was running a demo of Mac OS X on a Sawtooth G4.

The store had one iPod for people to look at, and the sales people were very helpful. I had some questions regarding the iPod and third party FireWire PCMCIA cards on my PowerBook, and they seemed to know what they were talking about (they said that there shouldn't be any problems using an iPod with third party cards). Someone else asked about using a VGA monitor on a new G4, and the salesman actually took the time to show him the back of a G4 and explain how on some models two monitors are supported on one video card, so that if he wanted he could use his older one alongside a newer one.

I was impressed by the layout of the store and the good use of the room. Everything seemed to fit very well into a mid-sized room without leaving too much empty space or crowding it. The sleek, modern décor of the room is very appropriate for what Apple is selling. It helps you to feel relaxed so that you can realize that buying a computer is not complicated at all. If you've ever been to the Apple Company Store in Cupertino, you may be reminded somewhat of that. On these new Apple Stores, the beautiful Aqua Mac OS X interface is demonstrated in the right side front window of the store, and a gigantic iBook shown on the other side to lure potential customers into the store.

Overall, the Apple Store openings are a great event. If you get the chance to go to one, you should. Bring the entire family. From the kids section, which contains many children's applications loaded onto iMacs for kids to play with, to the pro section, where they have 867 MHz G4s that load Internet Explorer in under 2 seconds (I probably spent about 10 minutes loading and reloading applications because I couldn't believe how fast it was), there is something for everyone.

Recent Apple Archive articles

iPods, notebooks, and other modern electronics more readily replaced than repaired, 12.07. Whether it's an intermittent failure or a broken display cable, more often than not it's cheaper to replace a broken electronics device than repair it.
Options for replacing your older iPod, 11.19. Whether you've run out of space on your old iPod or want features it doesn't have, here are your options in new and used iPods.
Could the $200 'green' PC with gOS Linux become a threat to Apple?, 11.14. The low cost, low power Everex desktop comes with a customized version of Ubuntu Linux, has a Mac-like Dock, and sells for $400 less than the Mac mini.
Leopard different, a bit buggy, but worth the upgrade, 11.02. Leopard on a Power Mac G4 and a MacBook Pro: It runs well on both computers, but each has some odd bugs, and some of the changes are a step backwards.
More in the Apple Archive index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 15" MacBook Pro Core Duo, Jan. 2006 - The first Intel-based MacBook launched at 1.83-2.0 GHz, had several teething problems.
Group of the Day: System 6 is the email list for those who choose System 6.
November 22 in LEM history: 99: Gradebooks - 00: Leveraging Apple design - Quadra 630 to Power Mac 5200 - 02: Laptop or desktop? - 04: SuperDuper: Quick, easy, efficient backup - Cross-platform programming for the rest of us - 05: Mac video surveillance on the cheap - Which OS is best for my vintage Mac? - No 'best browser' for the Mac - Sorry state of browsers for classic Macs - 06: Core 2 means cooler running 'Books - 2.0 GHz G4 upgrade
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