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Line Forms At Apple's Always-Open Manhattan Cube

Posted by timothy on from the they-serve-the-best-anticipation-ice-cream-here dept.

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?

25 of 445 comments (clear)

  1. Mass Hysteria by Erioll · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's apple people. What ELSE could it be but mass hysteria? ;)

    1. Re:Mass Hysteria by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's apple people. What ELSE could it be but mass hysteria? ;)

      OS X and commodity x86 architectures living together?

    2. Re:Mass Hysteria by flyingsquid · · Score: 5, Funny
      It's apple people. What ELSE could it be but mass hysteria? ;)

      Yeah, but when we Apple fans do mass hysteria, it's in a hip, cool, stylish kinda way.

    3. Re:Mass Hysteria by Pollardito · · Score: 5, Funny

      nothing to see here. just a bunch of people seeking iGuidance, looking for an iPurpose to live

    4. Re:Mass Hysteria by Carnildo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Performance art, perhaps? Has anyone checked to see what Improv Everywhere is up to?

      --
      "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
    5. Re:Mass Hysteria by petermgreen · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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)

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    6. Re:Mass Hysteria by Mr2001 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.
      --
      Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
  2. The Time Machine by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this remind anybody else of the Eloi gathering to be taken underground by the Morlocks?

    --
    "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
    1. Re:The Time Machine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

  3. It's back! by fstolze · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!

    1. Re:It's back! by flyingsquid · · Score: 5, Interesting
      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.

    2. Re:It's back! by stableos · · Score: 5, Funny

      Anyone wanna come stand in the Zune line with me?

    3. Re:It's back! by argent · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't imagine Apple-manufactured tanks, made of polycarbonate and brushed alumninum rolling into Eastern Europe.

      They never do, not until it's too late.

  4. And verily, Our Lord Jobs Did Come Unto Them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And the Lord Jobs did address the faithfully assembled masses, saying "Unto you my loyal supplicants I do bestow the bounty of the 3G iPhone, that ye may use it at all times, and in sickness, and in health, and in times of pestilence and low bandwidth, and it shall comfort thee."

    And then did the Lord Jobs hand out the Holy 3G iPhone unto the chosen who harkened unto him, and it was good.

  5. Improv Everywhere? by Bryansix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe it's the same people who pulled off this stunt? http://improveverywhere.com/2006/04/23/best-buy/

  6. Re:Ah, the wonderful, screaming world of retail. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Twitter, you need to learn the basic rules of social interaction.

    That Apple employee did NOT care about your stupid canned lecture about Free Software(tm).

    They didn't demonstrate setting up dual-booting with Windows, not because there's a vast corporate conspiracy against Free Software(tm), but because the display was already set up with all the steps laid out, and the employee wasn't going to spend 3 hours of a workday setting up Free Software(tm) for the sole purpose of demonstrating software that works the same with any 2nd OS.

    The employees didn't like you, not because they're part of a vast corporate conspiracy against Free Software(tm), but because you went to an Apple store for the sole purpose of harassing employees about information you could have obtained much more easily with Google, JUST so you could give an absolutely retarded canned lecture about Free Software(tm) to an employee who didn't give a shit at all.

    They kicked you out because you were acting like an obnoxious prick, not because you were asking too much about free software and/or you were embarrassing them with your superior knowledge of software and/or they were ignorant or forbidden to tell what they knew. In the future, just shut the fuck up, 'kay?

  7. Apple's newest product... by hyperz69 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The ILine :)

  8. Twitter by twatt3r · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Hi, I'm Twitter! I refer to my^H^Hhimself in the third person! I bother a busy store about products they don't support! I have a journal!"

  9. The Onion by StCredZero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Line forms spontaneously at NYC Apple Store" It sounds like a headline on The Onion! I guess we've been at the point where The Onion sounds like real life for some time now.

  10. Meanwhile, at the Sony Style Store... by techsoldaten · · Score: 5, Funny

    Meanwhile, at the Sony Style store, 5 blocks away, the glow of HDTVs illuminated the vapid faces of salespeople in tshirts as they stared across the racks over empty aisles. Aisles of laptops, PS3s, CDs and other items went unpurchased, and no one was there to see it.

    Brand name computer stores are the outlet for those too weak to resist the urge to make impulse purchases in excess of a month's income. The fact Apple has been able to capitalize on this trend so well speaks to the fetishistic appeal of those shiny laptops and the absence of any real value in their products. Convinced the worth of something that is not even there, people are literally waiting in line to buy nothing.

    Truly, they are the dead.

    M

  11. Re:Apple... by Selfbain · · Score: 5, Funny

    Whatever is in there, it's the only thing I've ever wanted! - Fry

    --
    Well, it has never been successfully tested.
  12. Obligatory Borg Comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've never seen people waiting outside of a cube to be assimilated!

  13. Re:Ah, the wonderful, screaming world of retail. by mollymoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've never noticed twitter's trolling, assuming it exists. I have noticed the constant barrage of "you're a twitter sockpuppet", which is the only way I ever really notice the posts in question. So if twitter is trolling, they're not so trollish that they stand out above the background noise (I read at -1, so there's a fair bit of background noise). So, can you please shut the fuck up and stop polluting Slashdot with your whining? If I was a troll I'd have great admiration for twitter - they have succeeded where most fail in that every one of their posts gets numerous "stop trolling", "you're a twitter sockpuppet" replies. It's you and your ilk who need to stop feeding the trolls.

    --
    Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
  14. Re:Apple... by mrslacker · · Score: 5, Funny

    Guess you haven't seen this ;-)

    http://www.misterbg.org/AppleProductCycle/

    hth.

  15. They got a shipment of iPhones in (link) by 6350' · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://dvice.com/archives/2008/05/mystery_lineup.php

    "By the time we got there, the lineup was gone, but a couple of helpful Apple blueshirts told us what was what: It turns out that the lineup wasn't for the widely -- and wildly -- rumored 3G iPhone. The store got a shipment of current iPhones this morning, apparently a rare occurrence these days, and when word got out, some touchscreen-hungry folks got in line to snatch up the few that came in."