Apple Mac HQ

Living close to an Apple Store is both a blessing and a curse. I can walk to my local Apple Store in about 15 minutes. So needless to say, when I want an Apple product it’s a breeze to stop in my local store and get what I want. Getting what I want though seems to be the hard part lately.

In the past 3 months or so I’ve stopped by the Apple Store to purchase three items. I’m now one for three for actually getting what I stopped in for.

October: Macbook Pro. Nope, the store was sold out. Zero for One
December: Mighty Mouse. Yeah, I found one! One for Two
January: HDMI to DVI cable for the AppleTV I was going to purchase. Negative, no HDMI or HDMI to DVI cables. One for Three.

My advice is if you’re stopping by the Apple Store for something, call ahead! Consider this a PSA announcement for Apple goodies.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Apple has announced their Black Friday sale. These prices are only good for today and are valid online and at all Apple Retail Stores. It’s rare that Apple has a sale so get these cheaper items while you can.

Highlights of the sale include:
*Up to $31 off the price of either iPod Classic
*Up to $101 off iMacs and Macbooks
*Apple Bluetooth Headset for $108
*Airport Extreme Base Station for $158
*$11 off the price of iPod nano and iPod shuffle
*Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1 Waterproof Camera for $298
*$68 for iLife 08 or iWork 08

There are a ton of other items for sale so just head on over to your local Apple Store or the online store to shop. If you have an Apple enthusiast in your life then today is the day to shop.

Popularity: 29% [?]

I decided to stop by the Apple Store on my way home from work Friday to try to get one of those free t-shirts I wrote about the other day. I was going to make it to the store about 6:15PM so I thought I would miss any line if there was one. I was completely wrong! I forgot my camera, but Lenox Mall looked like the mall in this TUAW photo gallery from Knoxville.

I estimated there was about 150 people waiting outside the Apple Store with a number of people already in the store. The scene looked a lot like the iPhone launch but with about half as many people. I couldn’t tell from where I was standing, but I think the Apple Store was only letting in a number of people at one time and as people left, they would let more in. The Apple Store had a cop posted outside the store with Apple fans lined up and down the mall hallways (like this). I decided not to stick around since I needed to be home by 7:00PM.

I was able to make it to the store today and there was no line outside, unlike the day after the iPhone launch. Other than a little sign at the front door (far left in this picture), you couldn’t tell anything was going on until you got inside the store. I jumped on a Macbook near the front door and played around on Leopard for about 15 minutes. I liked what I saw, but I’ll probably ask for it as a Christmas or Birthday present instead of buying it. I just got a new MBP around mid September so I don’t really want to go through the hassle again of setting everything up again. I’ll be ready by December though!

If you’re curious what the Leopard t-shirt looks like, you can see it here.

Popularity: 42% [?]

The newest cat to the OS X pack will lauch this Friday at 6:00PM. If you’re one of the first 500 guests to your local Apple Store, Apple will give you a “speical edition” Leopard T-shirt. Though the Apple Retail page is sparse with details, I’m hoping the systems they have setup will all run Leopard as well. I’d really like to test drive Leopard before buying it. I’m leaning towards waiting until 10.5.1 hits, but I’ve been sucked in by the Apple marketing machine before so there’s a chance I’ll walk away with Leopard.

[Via TUAW]

Popularity: 38% [?]