jlandd

rogifan_new said:

I think the stores should match the neighborhood they're going into. This store is very Brooklyn, imo.

I think that's the key. It's not a glass dome-like neighborhood. Apple I'm sure has a goal to make it work with the surroundings rather than blast them apart. Plus, most of the pictures I've seen have been pretty unflattering ones of the least nice looking side. Plus it wasn't a good day for pics weather-wise. The picture in rogifan_new's post is a better representation of what it looks like. It ain't bad. As mentioned, it is a bit like other NYC stores, especially 14th St. Which is still easier for me to get to, as a Brooklyner nearer to the Brooklyn Bridge than the Williamsburg. Really this store is to serve the immediate neighborhood and people driving in on the BQE from further out. It's not a big breakthrough for Brooklyn in general. For 90% of the borough Williamsburg is a bigger pain in the ass to get to than just going into Manhattan.

iTunes is out of control.  Can't stand it.  Just putting music and videos, not synced, from two MacBook Pros into two devices is an unmitigated nightmare.  

Apple bought "Embark NYC" to fold into Apple Maps and they have now shut off Embark NYC updates. How is NYC Subway in Apple Maps meant to work when an internet connection is required? Embark NYC pre-loaded subway schedules, a subway map and alerts. None of these features work within Apple Maps without an internet connection. Does Apple know that NYC subway is mostly underground and has little cell-based or WiFi connection. Apple, what's the strategy here? Who knows what they're doing?

It pretty ridiculous currently, but I'm assuming Apple is counting on the cellular updates and free wifi (thanks to Boingo antennae) to be completed in all stations as promised in 2017.  They say it's all installed except for 90 stations, but you'd be pretty lucky to be waiting for a train in Manhattan and have service based on my experience.  But they probably saved the hardest for last.  Or maybe they were confused by the figures that included the 40% of the stations that are above ground in the open air anyway?  Regardless, Apple says an offline transit map and schedule like Embark used to be is not what we should be using, so that's that.  I am, however, looking forward to articles abour subway wifi security breaching being the newest craze.

I used to lug my Mac Plus up three flights of stairs when they were in the attic-like location down the block for its endless stream of power supply and logic board replacements.  David Lerner was probably the nicest, most down to earth person running a repair business of any kind that I'd ever met.  

Rent putting them out of business is a bit of an oversimplification, though it surely is ridiculous trying to compete with big boxes who will plop a giant store in a neighborhood just to be there, regardless of the cost.  Their large space and prime location could easily be filled with anything from a home furnishings to 99¢ store, which the neighborhood needs not at all, whose corporate headquarters is in Dallas and has no limit or risk in shelling out higher than market rent because if they fail they just pull the pushpin from the map and stick one somewhere else.  

But the reality is that their niche became unworkable.  For one, Apple has moved away from hardware that can be upgraded. Also, there are so many Apple Stores in NYC now that whether or not one can argue they do what Tekserve can do it's inevitable that if you live on the Upper West Side or Upper East Side or the Village you would stop by an AS first and go to 23rd St. if you weren't satisfied with the outcome. I loved those guys but peripherals and accessories were more expensive there than anywhere else in town, and they rarely had a sale on those that could really be considered a deal.  I've gone in just begging to find a last minute Apple related gift for sometimes $50 sometimes $350 and just about always left empty handed.  B&H has ruled the roost for impulse hardware in midtown west and looks to continue.  You don't need to do what they do but if you sell $350 widgets you have to be at least within 10% on most.  And the Best Buy across 23rd St is no one's idea of a good computer store, but if one can find a good iPhone case there for $30-40 you won't sell many artsy print ones at $70.  Same for drives, portable, desktop or bare.  It made little sense to buy them at Tekserve.  Granted, the retail stuff was just something to put on the shelves and that the real business was in business setups and support as well as repair, but they needed to create a better Trojan Horse to bring in business customers than the retail establishment they had going on, I think.

As far as moving elsewhere where they could afford to purchase the building, they moved down the block from their previous location because that's where they were established, and they got a lot of business from people who either worked or lived not far from 23rd and 6th.  I can't think of any places in Manhattan where such a space wouldn't require a steep dropoff in people willing to shlep there and would have been a savings over 23rd St.   It probably became available and they grabbed it.  In hindsight we can say that such a huge, airy space with Grand Central Station-like dimensions was a misstep and that they might have been able to halve it down without affecting service, but who knows?

I wish them the best.  Really good people.

tallest skil said:

jlandd said:

Oh no, not the Constitutional Provisions claim. That’s only been stated on Trump sites...

Defense of the nation is explicitly outlined in the Constitution.
Funny thing about the Constitution is that it tells the government exactly what it can do. So when it says that the border must be defended, it means the border must be defended. No extra funding is even needed to do this.
Not only is it completely within his power to build a wall, it’s well within the legislative power to cut off all remittances.
Better get used to seeing that big, beautiful wall, then.

Funny thing about the Constitution is that you can't interpret it loosely and pose it as explicit, but I can tell you've got your fingers in your ears.    

When the Constitution says the border can be defended it's talking about war not lower and middle class illegally coming to the US because it's a better place to be.  The wall doesn't begin to address immigrants, legal and illegal, coming from elsewhere, and people crossing the border at Mexico is simply a distraction issue to the fact that illegal immigration is a  problem he has no clue how to deal with.  It's not, as you put it, defending the border.   Airports?  Ships?  Those need to be plugged up before Congress will pass it, and even though he's dying to make it his first executive order it would be shut down.

Trump has no idea how to make that work.  The wall is a joke.  It's a grand play of waving arms and shouting.

The wall is purely, 100%, Trump braying.   Do you have any idea of all of the many huge things he swore he would build over the decades, never did, and then back pedaled having said anything about them?