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Mac Lab Report

Visiting the Apple Store - Worth the Trip?

- 2003.10.30

I'm sometimes driven to walk into a computer store and buy stuff on impulse. The whole point of shopping in person is to respond to the packaging, pick up a box, decide you want it, and buy it right then and there without having to wait for UPS or FedEx or wrestle with online ordering forms.

You can try it now, while the thought's still fresh in your head. That's the whole appeal of the Apple Store to me - I don't go in there unless I intend to pick something up and go out the door with it.

My local Apple Store is in Walnut Creek, California, a site I suggested years ago when the Apple Stores were first introduced. Walnut Creek used to have a robust ComputerWare store, and when that chain folded there was a void created that the Apple Store has more than filled. By the time Walnut Creek opened, the postings of store opening photos and lines wrapped around the block had pretty much ended on the Mac Web. So I went in with a general idea of the layout but nothing specific.

In my three visits I have been steadfastly ignored by store personnel until I stepped up to the Genius bar with a question. (I must admit that I don't appear to have the financial wherewithal to purchase anything in the store, but still.) I ask each time if the Genius has heard of Low End Mac, and the results have been: "Oh, sure, I read it all the time," "I've heard of it, uh yeah, that's the ticket," and "No."

I also went to the Apple Store in Emeryville, California shortly after it opened. My experience there was much the same, and the Genius there hadn't heard of LEM either.

One thing I've notice about the Apple Stores is that they are very clean. Now, I'm a pretty messy person, and I am also - how shall I say this - very hairy. Hairy arms, hairy legs, beard, etc. As I've gotten older, I've kept all my hair, but it has moved from politically correct locations into more inconvenient places.

Apple Stores are not good places for people who shed hair like a cat. Neither are white iBooks good computers to own. Black arm-hairs in between iBook keys are almost impossible to remove. Anyway, not that you care about my shedding, but it makes Apple Stores and other places like that very uncomfortable for me. I'm afraid to touch anything lest I leave a fingerprint on it.

That may also explain why I get steadfastly ignored when I go into these stores - I don't fit the image of Ben Affleck scraping his arm hair off with a rock that the Store seems to emit.

With all that said, my last visit to the Apple Store turned out to be worth the 30-mile drive and sense of impending contamination that accompanies my visit. My PowerBook G4 power supply had died (for the second time), and I went to get it replaced. Without a receipt, they couldn't help me (okay, fair enough), but when I dug out an iBook hockey-puck power supply from a computer at school, looking for the receipt, they asked why I didn't just use that one instead.

"Huh?" I said. "I thought they weren't compatible. I read that on a technote once upon a time."

"The original ones aren't," said the Genius, "but this one is second generation and will run a G4 laptop just fine." Then she showed me the power specifications on the backs of the power supplies, which were identical. I experienced a BGO (Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious) and realized I'd been carrying my replacement all along.

"Thanks," I said. "you just saved me $80."

"No problem," said the Genius. "Why do you think your power supplies are failing?"

To that, I had an answer, and something those of you with Apple laptops should note. "It falls between the couch cushions when I'm sitting on the couch and overheats." Now, I don't think that should make a power supply overheat, but as we all know the white block power supplies get very hot while in use, and if they're insulated well it's entirely possible they're overheating and shorting out internally. A voltmeter confirmed my power supply was as dead as a doornail. (What's a doornail, and why is it dead?)

The Genius agreed, so I left to shop a little and wound up buying a copy of Keynote.

But that's another story.

Jeff Adkins is a science teacher who isn't afraid to state his preferences in computing platforms. In his classroom he has everything from a beige All-in-One to a a G4 XServe, and they all work together nicely. He calls himself the "poster child for technology integration" in the classroom. He was the 2006 Outstanding Educator of the Year for the California Computer Using Educators (CUE) organization. He also maintains a site for astronomy teachers at www.AstronomyTeacher.com.

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