Apple Store Strategy

I don't like to bring up my grades much because I don't want anyone to feel belittled. However, I'm so damn proud of these grades, that I have to share my excitement. I don't think I've ever had to work so hard in my life, and these grades were close right down through the wire. It cost me dearly, as my regular readers already know, but at least I have something to show for it. Anyway, Wall Street Journal had a little blurb about the Apple store, and I thought it was something worth talking about. You know what their great model is? Employees who actually know what they're doing! Seriously, have you ever gone into an Apple store? They're so helpful and knowledgeable! They also know where to place their stores. This is the new one to be opened in New York City this Friday, and it's on Fifth Avenue. Other authorized Apple retailers (you have to be authorized because you must follow Apple's pricing) claim that Apple unfairly favors their own stores with shipments, but I don't see what's wrong with that. They created these stores because the other retailers weren't doing such a great job of showcasing Apple products, so why wouldn't they want more of their goods to go where they're used best? I'll admit that whenever I go to the Galleria in Houston, I have to hit up the Apple store.

A new reason to visit an Apple store is to play around with a MacBook, and it's doing pretty well on benchmarks. Granted, it's not as good as the MacBook Pro or iMac since those are better built (and pricier) machines, but it does dominate the G4 PowerBook in a number of areas. One more Apple thing, they mysteriously released a patch that ended up fixing cooling problems on the MacBook Pro. However, users had to figure that out on their own. Why would they try to hide the fix's purpose? Sony has been claiming that the PS3 controller can't have vibration because of the new tilt sensors, but Immersion (the company hammering Sony in the courts over force feedback) claims that they'd be happy to help Sony fix this problem when all the litigation is taken care of. I'm sure Sony would be too proud to accept this help, but the key thing is that it may be possible, yet Sony isn't doing it. That's not good. Satoru Iwata claims that he doesn't care much about beating Sony or Microsoft, but rather that he wants to attract more people to games. I think he could definitely coexist with either console since everything about the Wii is so totally different. Microsoft has released a tool to test your computer and see how ready it is for Vista, and the requirements are quite heavy. Any computer that's not at least Vista-capable is probably almost obsolete, but to be premium kind of asks for a lot. Lastly, Yahoo has unveiled a video search engine, but don't confuse it with Google Video. It does not host videos itself, but rather allows you to search a lot of free content already out there. I'm glad that they went in that direction rather than a Google Video clone.

I think the coolest movie thing today is the trailer for Fast Food Nation, which looks like it'll be quite a revealing movie. I hate fast food myself, so I'll be interested to see what I've been missing out on. There's also a trailer for Dreamworks's Flushed Away now, and it looks like it could be a cute movie. What's not cute is this new installment of Van Wilder they're planning on making. I smell a disaster on the horizon. It looks like Rocky Balboa will be released on December 22, but will it be worth seeing? AICN has a rather meh review of the movie as it stands right now, and it sounds as mediocre as I was expected. First The Contender, now this! Stallone just can't catch a break. I was an avid fan of Roald Dahl as a child, so I was thrilled to learn that Guillermo Del Toro will be adapting The Witches, which I actually have here on my bookshelf. It was quite a fun little book, but I'm not sure if he's the right director for the job. We're going to have to wait for a trailer to get a better idea of his take on it. Lastly, Kevin Smith, who has really been aiming to use the Internet as much as possible for free publicity, has done his first video mailbag over at IGN. He answers some burning questions from fans quite bluntly and humorously.

Now for the 3x Thursday meme:

1. Are there medicines you have to take everyday? If so, is it a drag?
Nope. I'm sure it would be, and I'm sure that one day I will have to, but I'll savor the time I'm healthy for!

2. Are you more of a Western medicine fan, or Eastern? Wny/why not?
Western, just because I'm not all that familiar with Eastern medicine. I don't see anything wrong with modern medicine other than the ridiculous costs (I wish our health insurance system didn't blow).

3. Are you one of those people who avoids doctors at all costs and just self-medicates as need be, or do you check in with a 'professional' from time to time?
I usually try to avoid doctors, but if I'm seriously hurt or ill then I won't really hesitate to check into ER. However, for little things, I just self-medicate.