Joining AT&T stores nationwide for the iPhone 3G launch, Apple retail stores in the US will open for business at 8am on July 11, according to information posted on Apple’s website. In addition to AT&T’s 1800 retail locations, American early birds will have nearly 200 Apple Stores available for their early morning shopping pleasure.
The stores began receiving 3G in-store displays today, according to Gizmodo, which also has a nice gallery of display photos. In-store demo units of the new phone are due in stores tomorrow and store employees have been instructed to download apps from the App Store on the morning of July 11th, according to a post at MacRumors.
My AT&T account tells me I’ll be eligible for a hardware upgrade on August 16th. I’ll probably wait at least until then to pick up a new iPhone 3G. And something tells me I won’t be disappointed.
Then again, I don’t have a sustainability agenda to push, as do a quintet of twenty-somethings calling themselves alternatively TheWhoFarm and Waiting for Apples, who began queuing up in front of the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan on Friday. The group is going for the Guinness Book of World’s Records entry for “longest time waiting in line to buy something,” according to Fortune, and hopes to persuade the next President of the United States to transform the White House’s 17-acre lawn into an organic farm.
It’s not clear what effect the group’s affinity for Apple may have on the company’s efforts to gain acceptance with Enterprise users.
I had the great fortune to attend an early screening of WALL*E, Pixar’s latest feature film, on Tuesday night. And, like just about every Pixar movie ever, it’s absolutely phenomenal. As much as I love Apple, I have to admit that the output of Steve’s other company is a lot more consistently excellent. Even more wonderfully, WALL*E is filled with references to Apple. It’s a fun bonus in an already great film.
Lots of people have remarked that Apple Design Chief Jonathan Ive was involved in designing EVE, the sleek, white, glossy robot that WALL*E falls in love with. As much as she resembles an older iPod, however, the cleverest thing about EVE is that she appears to have no seams in her surface, though they appear when she lifts her arms. There’s even one scene (pictured) where WALL*E tries to find her hand while it’s in locked position, and he struggles to find the gaps — an obvious reference to the notoriously difficult-to-open iPod or iPhone.
But the Apple references run deeper. Every morning, WALL*E opens up a solar array in order to charge himself up for the workday to come. Hilariously, as soon as he reaches 100 percent power, the classic Mac booting chime goes off. And it’s definitely the older sound — it’s quite tinny. I’d bet they taped it off of a Quadra rather than a current Mac.
One last Apple reference: WALL*E’s favorite way to unwind is to watch an old VHS tape of the Barbra Streisand movie Hello Dolly (it’s OK; it is actually totally weird, if in a sweet way). But that tape then plays through a circa 2006 video iPod, which WALL*E then magnifies with an enormous lens into a projection screen.
WALL*E: Come for the love, stay for the Apple in-jokes. What could be better than that?
Software retailer MacHeist, well-known among software buyers for its bundle deals, says it is offering Parallels for the “lowest price ever,” at $49 or $39 for previous MacHeist customers.
Parallels Desktop software for Mac is a Mac System Utility that allows users to run Windows and Linux side by side on Mac OS X without rebooting.
Original Photo: Brian Smith/Corbis Outline, Modifications: Leigh McMullen
UPDATE: I certainly got my facts messed up on this one. CP+B was not behind the “Get a Mac†commercials. There was a paragraph in the middle of page one referencing them in the Fast Company article, and I mistakenly interpreted this as an attribution to CP+B.
So to Alex and everyone at CP+B sorry for the mis-characterization.
To our faithful readers: Sorry for not checking facts more closely.
Alex Bogusky, the creative genius behind Apple’s “Get a Mac†campaign, has switched sides in the brand war between Apple and Microsoft.
According to a Junecover story in Fast Company, Bogusky is going to work for Microsoft.
His marketing firm, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, once credited the power of Macintosh computers to it’s ability to compete against bigger companies.
Newly relocated to Boulder, Co., Bogusky sat with FC’s reporter to discuss how CP+B intends to instill some “cool†in the Borg.
While The Cult can certainly appreciate the allure of the intellectual and creative challenge this endeavor presents to Bogusky and his firm, we have to wonder if CP+B isn’t also trying to corporatize it’s own image a bid to collect more blue-chip clients.
Leaving us to wonder: is $300 million of Bill’s dollars worth your soul, Alex?
You can read all about it in Fast Company on newsstands this month, or online here.
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