Line Forms At Apple's Always-Open Manhattan Cube

SpectreBlofeld writes "According to EngadgetMobile, a line has formed in front of Apple's flagship Cube store in Manhattan. From the article: 'So word on the street (literally) is that a large number of people are queuing in line outside of Apple's flagship store on 5th Avenue in New York City — keep in mind the Cube is open 24 hours a day. Our intrepid girl-on-the-scene reports that the group is more than 60-deep, though most people seem confused about what they're waiting for, but some believe they're actually camping out for a 3G iPhone.' Prank, or mass hysteria?" I wonder if the crowd already has its own Flickr group set up -- if not, what are they waiting for on that front?

Comments

Re:It's back!

[flyingsquid]

People lining up in front of stores in the hope that maybe there will be something for sale that they are after - sounds like the Soviet Union to me!

I once visited the Apple campus at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino. There was a big open, quadrangular courtyard. Each side of the quadrangle had a huge banner, like 20 feet tall, displaying an Apple product: there was a iBook, a PowerBook, an iMac, and a Power Mac. The huge banners made me think of something the Soviets might have put up to glorify Stalin and Lenin at Red Square to celebrate the revolution. And certainly, Steve Jobs is a bit like Stalin or Kim Jong Il in creating a cult of personality, and you could argue that his product announcements are like the Communist Party rallies held in the USSR, China, or North Korea.

Obviously there are limits to such an analogy. I don't imagine Apple-manufactured tanks, made of polycarbonate and brushed alumninum rolling into Eastern Europe. And I don't imagine Apple getting the bomb, or starving millions of people to death, or locking PC users into re-education camps where they are taught how to use a mouse with a single button. Still, the way Jobs and Apple appeal to people is oddly similar to the way totalitarian regimes do.

Re:The Time Machine

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the first thing I thought of is the old Cold War story that a reporter in an Iron Curtain country decided to just wait at a door and see what happened, and shortly thereafter someone else joined him, and so on, until they'd accumulated a line around the block. It was always presented as some kind of myth about the Communist Mentality of mindless herd-like behavior or some similar propaganda deal. I guess this goes to show it's more like general human nature.

Re:Mass Hysteria

[petermgreen]

I guess it is a sign that i'm an electronics/computer geek that I don't consider a soldering iron and a decent selection of screwdrivers to be special tools. Putty knives are a bit of an odd tool to be using for electronics work but they aren't exactly an unusual tool in general.

And because there are realtively few models of mac it is generally fairly easy to find information on what order things come apart in (which is generally the biggest challange when working on laptops and similar IMO)

Re:Mass Hysteria

[Mr2001]

So I bought a computer I'll get at least five years of real use out of instead of a two year throw away HP or Dell. "Two year throw away HP or Dell"... what is that supposed to mean? Yes, of course it'd be a waste of money to throw away your HP laptop every two years - but it'd be an even bigger waste to throw away your MacBook every two years, wouldn't it? That's why you don't do that.

There's nothing stopping you from keeping a non-Apple product for longer than two years, you know. Hell, my Toshiba laptop must be at least 6 years old now.

As to replacing the phone, most people replace their phones every two years or so, the trendies replace them every six months. I'm certainly not discarding an 8 month old phone for GPS and faster networking. Sometimes buying the cheapest is not the best way to save money. In this case, however, there's a lot of room between "the cheapest" and an iPhone. For example, you could've gotten a feature phone that does 95% of the same stuff as an iPhone for 15% of the price, and you'd be able to keep it just as long as you're going to keep your iPhone.

See, buying something more expensive only saves you money in the long run if the cheaper one would need so much more maintenance or replacement that it wouldn't be cost-effective. But this isn't one of those situations. An HP, Dell, Toshiba, or any other competing laptop will last just as long as your MacBook (for hundreds of dollars less), and a Samsung, LG, Motorola, or any other competing phone will last just as long as your iPhone (for hundreds of dollars less).

There's nothing wrong with spending more money to get something flashy or cute or whatever, but don't pretend you're saving money this way.