Tag: Apple Store

Apple by Joe WilcoxDec 1, 201510:30 am

Microsoft Makes ‘Peace’ with Apple

Advertising rarely gets as good this! Microsoft sets the mood for the season in a new spot where its New York store staffers serenade Apple specialists for “peace on Earth”. A children’s choir joins the caroling, creating a classic! This is award-winning advertising in the making. Filming at night adds terrific ambiance, topped off with Apple 5th Avenue Store employees embracing their Microsoft retail rivals.

If Microsoft is the British Empire, then Apple is the American era. Oftentimes, the mighty are arrogant and condensing about their dominance, and it’s rare that they sue rivals for peace—from a position of dominance. The humbled fallen must adopt new tactics in the New World order. For Microsoft, that means cooperation. If nothing else, the commercial is a metaphor for the new Microsoft.

Apple by Joe WilcoxJun 21, 20159:49 am

Steve Jobs Who?

I shouldn’t be surprised, but…While in Apple Store the other day making a purchase, I chatted with the staffer helping me about the retail shop’s legacy. I don’t remember what influenced me to mention being at the original store’s opening in May 2001, which I covered for CNET News. “In Virginia?” She asked. I affirmed, Tysons Corner. “I have a picture”.

After which I fumbled like an old fart bringing up the image above from Flickr on my phone. She politely suggested the app, which wasn’t installed, as I clumsily used the browser. When I finally got the image on screen she asked, with some giddiness: “Is that Tim Cook?” Not cofounder Steve Jobs, who sits next to Apple’s current CEO.

Apple by Joe WilcoxFeb 6, 20157:06 pm

Anyone Calling This Article Clickbait Doesn’t Get It

In December 2014, I cajoled: “Writers, Own Your Content!” All my work-written blogs—thousands of posts—between mid-2003 and April 2009 are gone. The companies shut down the sites (because of acquisition and restructuring). Now, to prevent future deletion calamity, everything I want to preserve cross-posts here, as is the case with yesterday’s “Whatever Apple Was, It Isn’t Anymore“, which appears on BetaNews as “Apple’s core is rotting“.

Unsurprisingly, the BN version generated more reader reaction—119 comments as I write. You can consider the post as example of what I referred to two days ago when answering question: “Where are the Comments?” Most of the reaction to my stories takes place elsewhere. As such, I sometimes feel need to transplant some of the interaction here, as I did four months ago with post “Who’s the Troll Here — This Dude or Me?” I do so again, today.

Apple by Joe WilcoxMay 2, 20138:59 pm

MacBook Dive kills Drive

What a day. My daughter texts from class this morning: “My computer decided to self destruct. It just reset everything!!! This is a sad day. I think I just lost everything on my computer”.

Sadly, she predicted rightly. In her dorm room, the Epson Stylus is on top of a mini-fridge, where she set the laptop to print out schoolwork. The computer slipped and crashed to the floor, right before she left for the day.

Apple by Joe WilcoxFeb 3, 20112:31 pm

Apple's Gang of Four

Ten years ago—that’s right, 2001—Apple made four investments that bore fruit in a 21st-century success story. Everything that came afterwards, even iPad and iPhone, traces back to what I call the “2001 Four”.

Apple made these investments during difficult times. The dot-com bust rippled disastrously through the tech industry, the United States was gripped in recession and Apple’s stock value had collapsed. Shares opened at $343.72 today about four bucks off the 52-week high. Apple’s market capitalization was $317.21 billion at yesterday’s close. Going back in time, Apple shares traded for less than $10 a decade ago. As I explained last month, Apple’s fortunes have dramatically changed.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 14, 20106:42 am

Apple Blue Shirts

Yesterday, I stopped by the Apple Store at Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego. From there I tweeted: “WTH Apple Store Mission Valley; more employees than customers—at least 25 in blue shirts.” I snapped this […]

Apple by Joe WilcoxSep 29, 20094:54 pm

2001: An Apple Odyssey

It is not uncommon for bloggers and journalists to get hung up on the present. For Apple, there’s big noise about soaring stock price, even considering economic recession, and increasing demand for iPhone. But the past defines the present. For Apple, products or services launched in a single calendar year—and the consistent execution that followed—define current successes, including iPhone.

I contend that next to 1984, when Apple launched Macintosh, 2001 was the most important year in the company’s history.

Society by Joe WilcoxMay 25, 20078:01 pm

Apple Store Isn’t Your Space

Crave quoted an unnamed Apple Store employee: “MySpace is a big issue for the Apple stores because people come in, Photobooth themselves—using Macs’ built-in webcams—then stick their picture up on their MySpace account and loiter at machines for hours.”

Society by Joe WilcoxOct 2, 20052:04 pm

Apple Makes Good

With the tiniest of coaxing, my local Apple retail store replaced my wife’s ailing iPod mini. My daughter and I purchased it when the store grand opened, day before Mother’s Day, 2004. At the time, iPod minis couldn’t be purchased anywhere. But the store had a few in stock for the event.

Battery ran down over time, even though I took great care with the recharging. We’ve owned more than a half dozen iPods in the house; first one with battery problems. Few months back, when my wife eked out about two hours of playback, I took the iPod mini in to the store’s Genius Bar. The good folks there tested the device, which barely passed. Damn.

Society by Joe WilcoxSep 10, 200510:12 pm

The Mother of Invention

This evening, my wife, daughter and I drove over to Bethesda, Md., for an open house at Imagination Stage; my daughter decided to take an acting class there. Afterwards, we took a stroll through downtown […]