Mobile media goes wrong: a visit to the Genius Bar
Regarding the aforementioned mobile media, my new 15" PowerBook G4 arrived on Wednesday, but given the demands of full-time work and part-time attendance at the New School's Media Studies masters program, I only began to set up the new machine on Saturday evening.
The long story short: after a seemingly-standard setup (and thrilling automatic connection to free-floating wireless broadband); my computer was unable to turn back on after an obligatory restart. Upsetting.
I went to bed understandably frustrated, and called this morning to the AppleCare hotline seemed to implicate faulty RAM as the culprit. The visit to Genius Bar confirmed a corrupt 512MB card which is currently being replaced as I write this at the Scandinavian-inspired blond wood bar.
What's it like here? An amalgam of techie-service bustle, high-design styling, and constant marketing buzz. Apple's ability to stoke the cultish quality of their products is impressive, achieved through an emphasis on clean simplicity and a contrast with an easy target-- Microsoft's almost-laughaable similarity to the facist regime of your choice: Soviet Era Russia, Star Wars' Empire, Orwell's 1984 (obviously, given the famous Apple SuperBowl ad), etc. Of course they sell millions of computers and especially personal music devices, but they can retain their outsider status because there's such a bigger goliath on the block.
Sitting at the bar, most of the technical problems I've overheard are iPod related, but, interestingly, no issues with the new Nano. The line at the iPod bar sure is long, though, as is the line at the downstairs registers. Could they be doing $100K a day at the SoHo location alone?
Thought experiment: Compare and contrast the artsy rage of usually hipper- or geekier-than-thou Apple users in line waiting for computer help vs. the Type-A aggro corporate rage of PC users with computer problems.
The long story short: after a seemingly-standard setup (and thrilling automatic connection to free-floating wireless broadband); my computer was unable to turn back on after an obligatory restart. Upsetting.
I went to bed understandably frustrated, and called this morning to the AppleCare hotline seemed to implicate faulty RAM as the culprit. The visit to Genius Bar confirmed a corrupt 512MB card which is currently being replaced as I write this at the Scandinavian-inspired blond wood bar.
What's it like here? An amalgam of techie-service bustle, high-design styling, and constant marketing buzz. Apple's ability to stoke the cultish quality of their products is impressive, achieved through an emphasis on clean simplicity and a contrast with an easy target-- Microsoft's almost-laughaable similarity to the facist regime of your choice: Soviet Era Russia, Star Wars' Empire, Orwell's 1984 (obviously, given the famous Apple SuperBowl ad), etc. Of course they sell millions of computers and especially personal music devices, but they can retain their outsider status because there's such a bigger goliath on the block.
Sitting at the bar, most of the technical problems I've overheard are iPod related, but, interestingly, no issues with the new Nano. The line at the iPod bar sure is long, though, as is the line at the downstairs registers. Could they be doing $100K a day at the SoHo location alone?
Thought experiment: Compare and contrast the artsy rage of usually hipper- or geekier-than-thou Apple users in line waiting for computer help vs. the Type-A aggro corporate rage of PC users with computer problems.
posted by Simon Glick at 3:38 PM
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