August 2002
Welcome to NYC
I tried to go to the Apple Store in SoHo today, but it was closed because someone broke in last night and presumably robbed the place. Apple, meet NYC. NYC meet Apple.
The store definitely looked nice though. The store fit right into SoHo, with its minimalist interior. My theory about retail is that you can tell a high-end store from a low-end one simply by how much empty space the store leaves. By this metric, Apple is definitely high-end. Just as Apple use whitespace in their ads, they use clearspace in retail. Very on-brand.
Dedication to gadgets
One thing I forgot to bring up yesterday about my T68i is the ridiculous dedication people have to this phone. The T68 owners site focuses exclusively on this phone. Throw in the esato (for Ericsson phones), you have the makings of some robust online offerings around a phone.
I guess this shouldn’t surprise me after the sites that sprung up around the iPod like iPod Lounge and iPodding. People loving their gadgets coupled with low barrier to publication on the Web results in a ton of community sites around a product.
Gadget!
I just bought another gadget. I think this means I’m done for a while. I bought a new cell phone and it is great. I got the new Sony Ericsson T68i. It is completely buzzword compliant (Tri-band GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth, IR, etc.). All in a tiny, well designed package.
In addition to joy of getting the latest gadget, I get two other perks. SMS (meaning I get to do real text messaging) and getting rid of Sprint PCS. VoiceStream is 100 times better, if for no other reason than their customer service is nice and helpful.
Between the T68i, PowerBook, iPod, AirPort wireless networking, and TiVo, I have accumulated all the well-designed gadgets I need for a while. I hope so. I can’t afford anymore.
