Mike Tyson Tattoos

That's 7pm here in the UK... Just when I get home from work! :)

Are any sites offering live feeds, etc?

6 (SIX) PM UK time :)

I'm a current employee at Best Buy and thought I'd offer my two cents on a few issues.

First, I don't really like Best Buy. I got a job there to work for around 4 hours a week to get the generous discount. It's particularly generous when dealing with open-box items. Even so, I am miserable leading up to heading in and I do not enjoy the time that I spend there. Thankfully, I have a good full-time job plus a lot of side work and I'm planning on quitting in the next month or so as the thrill of the discount has long worn off.

That said, I have no problem being very open and honest about Best Buy and my experiences there.

In regards to the iPad situation, I haven't been in since this issue came up and won't be in for awhile, so I don't really know what the buzz is on this matter exactly. I do know that they wouldn't put a freeze on selling new iPad 2 stock if they regularly had it for a random promotion, if only for the very reason that many think caused the initial problem: quota.

I'm betting 1 of 2 things happened:

1) They did indeed get in trouble with Apple for something. Sure, it's possible, and it's the easiest reasonable conclusion. I don't know why this would be though, and I'm skeptical about the whole hording thing. And again, this is coming from someone who has access to the inventory systems and all the places that would hide "horded" iPads. Plus, I have a good enough relationship with multiple managers (ones who know the score about Best Buy in an objective world...) who would be honest about this with me.

Generally speaking, when they say there are no iPads for sale, there are no iPads for sale. It's really that simple. Demand is real, and supply is lacking. When we have them for sale, they're in the cages, and this would occur after passing through the pre-order system. White Verizon iPads tend to be the ones most often available, usually just a couple, and they're gone almost immediately all the same.

Another factor in the equation though is processing shipments. I saw someone noted that after an open-box controversy between two customers, the manager was able to procure a new iPad 2 for a disappointed customer when apparently there were none for sale. Well, there probably weren't. He either bumped someone back on the pre-order list to be nice to the pissed off customer in the store or perhaps a shipment came in on the truck that had yet to be processed and he worked it out with the ops team to get them to process one so he could get it out. Oftentimes the managers do actually try to make the customer happy, even if it's somewhat unreasonable. The ops guys have their procedures, and it's rarely slimy in intent so much as rooted in overall efficiency, so sometimes a shipment won't go to the floor for sales until the next day because the processing takes time. If the manager pushes to work something out in that situation, the manager is doing you a favor and pissing off some ops guys to do so.

Anyways, on to the 2nd scenario...

2) This is what I'd really venture to bet is the problem: the pre-order system is a huge mess. It was a rush job authorized by corporate at the last minute and handled by less-than-informed employees who were also in a rush. From day 1 it was clear that problems were going to creep up, and they absolutely have. Nobody in store is happy about it. The employees don't like telling customers that they have to wait on a pre-order list, they don't like the 48 hour pickup window, they don't like having to deal with customers pissing and moaning and crying about conspiracy theories when only a 64 GB white Verizon iPad 2 is available once in a blue moon when a pre-order turns it down. It's not fun, for anyone, and unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it.

So what I'm guessing is really happening is that Best Buy is just digging out of this pre-order mess as fast as possible and skipping anything else until they get past the ramifications of a stupid decision. Considering there's little to skip seeing as supply is so low and we rarely have the most in-demand models available anyways, it's easier for them to just bow out of this for a couple of weeks and in a sense re-launch the normal sales when supplies are less constrained and they don't have a stupid pre-order process hanging over their heads. It's a cut and dry move that will allow them to gear up again in a more normal, focused way. Considering how things have gone there in the last month in dealing with anything iPad related, this might be the best decision for them.

All in all, Best Buy is Best Buy: a brick and mortar retailer lost in an internet-connected world. Best Buy isn't nearly as evil as they are lost and longing for the 20th century. Sure, there's a lot of margin on accessories, but it's because there's more often than not no margin on anything else. They don't make much money at all on TV's and Computers anymore. If they're on sale, and at Best Buy, almost everything is always "On Sale," it's likely at cost or within a few dollars of cost. There's little margin in the shrinking physical media world either. The only departments with major products that have margin still are appliances and for certain stores, musical instruments. This is why Best Buy will likely be dead in 5 years if they don't drastically change their business model. They did a better job at adapting to the new world than other electronics chains, but they haven't done nearly enough. It's not an easy business at this point though as it has as much to do with dealing with suppliers suffering the same pinch and customers who want to have it all but don't want to pay for it.

Also, in regards to stupid employees and sleazy mangers, yeah, they do exist. But more employees know their stuff than you might think. And there are quite a few managers who actually do care about trying to do a good job and help the customer.

As far as the employees, the biggest shock to me after working at Best Buy was realizing that so much of the supposed employee ignorance has more to do with incessantly having to dumb things down to the most absurd of levels with customers. 90% of the people who come in are nice people who just don't know much of anything about what they're buying. You have to learn to communicate on their level and not over-complicate things for them. It's easy to get stuck in that default mode and you have to actively snap yourself out of it on the rare occasion when you get customers who can actually hold their own in a conversation about the technology. And make no mistake, it's a huge relief for most of us when that happens because most of us that work there actually are pretty excited about the technology.

Now on the other hand, sleazy managers and supervisors can screw so much of this up. While most of the employees aren't making a career out of working at Best Buy, the sups and managers typically are on some level at least, and it takes a certain, umm, level of person to get, err, stuck, yes, at that level if you know what I mean. There's a lot of inconsistency in these types of people. If you get good ones though, they tend to hire good employees and foster a good environment for customers. My store has good management. It's the only thing that makes it remotely tolerable to me. The employees actually know their stuff and are honest with the customers. They also work as a team because the management pushes it and thankfully we don't have commission to muck things up. And customers do love us for it. You'd be shocked by how often a selling relationship turns into a friendship practically at our particular store. We get invited out after work all the time. Honesty goes a long ways, and when you're helping people save money by making sure they make a smart decision for their needs, it goes a long ways. And our managers are objective enough (and not locked into Best Buy corporate brainwash mode) to know that the only thing Best Buy has to offer over Amazon is the possibility of a good customer service experience. They do all they reasonably can to ensure that it happens.

But again, this simply isn't the case everywhere at all, and it so often boils down to the luck of the draw on management. Good managers hire good people leading to good teams leading to generally happy customers and good sales. Bad managers hire their dumb friends, play games with customers, lie, cheat, and usually they don't put up good numbers.

At the end of the day though, the good stores and the bad stores are equally screwed because the industry is a mess, the world is changing, and Best Buy corporate utterly and completely lacks the talent and leadership to be innovative in the 21st century. They refuse to reasonably acknowledge change, they're too scared to piss off manufacturers who have lines all across the store that vary dramatically when it comes to success and quality, and they're wildly inconsistent and disorganized with their processes and as they put it, "solutions." As said, if things don't drastically change, and I don't believe they will without a major shift in leadership, they'll be dead in 5 years. It's a sinking ship. I'll be happy to be out of there.

Again, I don't think they're near as evil and corrupt as they are just lost. When you're lost, things can get confusing real fast. Bear in mind that oftentimes when employees appear aloof, they're probably confused because corporate changes things all the time and does little to help keep us informed of these changes. Also, don't mistake conspiracy theories for sheer stupidity. Like we saw in this whole conversation, people will say some wild things. It's easy to think it from the outside. I can assure you from the inside, that oftentimes what looks like scheming and maneuvering is really just disorganization, stupidity and/or confusion due to the muddled processes and the ever-foggy way in which corporate outlines these processes.

I don't blame people for not liking Best Buy. I don't like them either. Just go easy on the guys on the floor and in the back. Unless they're the total goof-off employees which do exist, what you're pissed about is probably not their fault at all.

The only "Worst Buy" I am against is the one in Owings Mills, MD where they discriminated against me just because of a small disability. Pending a court case with corporate on this matter.. and I used to work for them back in 2005 and left them on a great note. Eligible for re-hire.. then tried to go back to them(Owings Mills) and the manager was very disrespectful and also discriminatory.

I plan to have that store shut down permanently.

There is also no way of telling if you have a display with the newer specs or not, since there isn't another product code for this.
Oh yes there is.
See my Post #105 and use Chipmunk.

magic!

Sad to say, I think the Quicktime feeds were great, but even back when you were a tiny minority, you had to be lucky in getting on the Akamai bandwagon, and the stream was prone to big glitches. When Quicktime 7 (or was it 6?) came out, Steve wanted the HD treatment, and the audience got so big that the server charges would just be too large, and the whole operation questionable.

But I was at the Apple store when the G5 was announced, and it's that G5 that I got six months later. As for the excellent marketing idea of having the announced products available for sale, I think the perceived need for secrecy interferes too much with that. If they were shipping new Macs or iPods throughout the chain in the week before MacWorld, how long before some guy's cell phone takes a picture that ends up on, er, MacRumors?

:p

You know what I want?

A small UMPC tablet, multitouch and pen input. Really, not a replacement computer but something like a large PDA. Something I can take with me, sit and draw/paint, write blogs at WIFI hotspots, make notes in meetings, and work on my various writings (screenplays, short stories, ect), then come home and sync it up with my iMac. A portable alternative for someone who already has a desktop.

I am still new to this whole Apple thing...love my iMac I got a year ago...but I have no idea what to expect.

...
"I love practical jokes" is just another way of saying "I don't have the intelligence or sophistication to appreciate genuine humour, but I know how to hurt people".

Morons.

Practical jokes are very possible to pull off while being humorous and not hurt anyone. It's the dumb "jokes" that hurt people (if you mean physically). I've pulled practical jokes a lot over the years and the people I did it too took it very lightheartedly and went home unscathed.

That said, I do agree that maybe once (maaaybe twice) would have been a good chuckle, but the line was drawn and passed after they did it to the moto guy. They owe him a serious apology cause that's just too harsh to have things messing up in his face. He probably spent a lot of time getting his stuff together to stand up there and jabber on in the name of his company.

My .02$, I've never read Gizmodo and will probably pass up the opportunity seeing as how they don't have much regard for reporting the news as they do BEING it.

If they had coupons with the ads that would be good. Otherwise, I'm not sure why I'd want to download this app. There isn't much interesting about little micro ad banners.

Bummer, I really liked the iOS-style scrollbars. My favorite thing about Lion is the inverted scrolling. It feels more natural on a touchpad once you get used to it.

I agree. I am using scroll reverser on Snow Leopard right now and enjoy it a lot. After about a day or two it becomes more natural.

its a shame someone photo shopped these pictures because they could actually be an unfinished blank but now we wont know until June......

Why is Apple the only tech company that makes unique products? All the other big ones seem to just drop in behind Apple after they invent something... Examples:

�Phones that are designed to simply compete with the iPhone.
�Pretty much every non-Apple tablet.
�iMac lookalikes.
�I've even seem some unibody copy cats...

Why don't they try and come up with something of their own instead of trying to "make a better Apple product"? Its annoying... :mad:

So every woman on the pill suspends her womanhood? Every "woman" past menopause is just an empty shell?

Race and gender is pretty much non-comparable in this context.

Oh please. Explain to me why race is not a valid comparison?

Also, feel free to read a few more of the defining characteristics of a mammalian "female"...

"The mammalian female is characterized by having two copies of the X chromosome as opposed to the male which carries only one X and one smaller Y chromosome."

I have no problem with transgendered/sexual/vestite/whatever, but to claim you are actually a "woman" when you were born with a penis, have two X chromosomes, and can not, nor could ever produce an ova is ridiculous.

Just as ridiculous as my original example which you decided to brush away with no basis other than it does not fit with your views.

You should have used Philip Endecott's code.

283509

EDIT: How do I make this look bigger? ^ this?

System Preferences sorted alphabetically has been around for awhile now. If I recall correctly, I think I even remember it in Tiger. Not sure about anything before that.

Today I've had some pretty interesting exchanges with other smart phone owners. I personally have an iPhone 4, I've had it for ages and love it. Pretty much everyone else I know has an Android phone of some kind. Now, people are always so damn keen to try and compete with my iPhone! I mean seriously, these people just come out of nowhere! I don't even show it off either, people just see me use it and start coming out with stuff.

For instance, one guy comes out with - "Oh so you have an iPhone 4, my HTC Desire is way better". When we ran some comparisons he was obliterated but refused to accept it lol. All I got was, "well you paid �500 for an overpaid Apple product that you need a case to use". Personally I've never had any antenna problems so anyway, moving on.

Another guy comes out with "You don't have a removable battery so if your phone crashes then you're screwed". Anyone here had their iPhone crash? If yes were you unable to get it sorted at an Apple store? This explanation didn't bode well with said Apple hater. :p

Some one else came out with "iPhone 4 is a brick". At first I thought he was joking but he soon turned serious, saying that the phone literally is shaped like a brick and has sharp edges which hurt your hand.

Another guy claimed that iPhones are awful because they don't have flash. To be honest, I don't really care for flash. The only thing I need flash for is Youtube which has its own app, and most shopping sites have their own dedicated apps anyway. Flash is a resource hog that would kill the battery. This of course was nonsense to the nexus owner.

I could go on but the shots people took just kept getting cheaper and cheaper, most reverting to "well you paid �500 for a phone, you must be crazy". I don't understand this. It seems that most people feel some kind of envy to me because I own an iPhone 4. Its pretty sad, at the end of the day its just a phone. But people actually seem to hate Apple because they can't afford their products. Most of them admitted that had the iPhone been cheaper they'd buy one, hence they can't afford it so they are bitter.

Anyone else experienced this? I get similar problems when people see my Macbook Pro lol.

I've never, ever had a conversation about my phone with a random person in the street - let alone conduct comparison tests.

I'm guessing from your thread that you porbably love the iphone a bit too much... Get out and enjoy the world. Perhaps leave the phone at home!

I don�t care as much about the Mac Phone any more. We�ve been talking about it for years. And with the exceptions of some phones that can play a song or two or three there has been nothing of the sort. Are we really supposed be filled with glee about an ipod that gets signal?

The level of interest on MR about the Phone (and many other things, new wireless, video pods, etc.) is clearly a reflection of consumer want for advancements in function and form. But again and again Apple never fully addresses these wants.

People on MR were probably buying into the early generations of the ipod. And although there were other mobile media devices that preceded them the ipods seemed like something different. That was October 2001 though. What has happened since? We�ve purchased other ones, which had more storage and different colors, but were the same thing. Do any of you see an end to this any time soon? Do you think the 6G and 7G will be anything but a little bigger and a little brighter? I know you want it to be, but will it be?

And this pattern goes for most of their other devices. Are the current Mac Book Pros much different than say a PowerBook G4 from several years ago? What functionality does the current MBP have that a PB doesn�t or can�t?

That�s only the positive side. The old PBs got crazy hot on your thighs. The new ones do the same. The next will do the same. The old batteries got terrible life after a few months of use. The new ones will be the same way.

Perhaps they have to sell to a broader base now, perhaps their focus is in large part on getting new people, converts. If that�s as true as it has seemed for a while now I�m ready for an Apple 2 to come. The idea wouldn�t be to supplant them. Apple 1 would be better than they are now at selling to the former Compaq buyers of the world. Apple 2 would give everyone on MR everything they want as soon as they want it.

It would be great if the price went down. There should also be some updates, but concentrating on a lower price, as PCs that are the same speed are much less.

Ugh, good luck man...

WTF is so great about 'gestures'? There's nothing quite so miserable as barely bumping the fraking trackpad while typing and causing the text cursor to go flying off somewhere else or any other way of accidentally activating some of these gestures (the more you have the more likely you'll accidentally activate them at some point unintentionally). And while Apple trackpads feel better than many out there, nothing beats a mouse for certain operations, IMO. I'd take a mouse any day over a trackpad. Old fashioned? That's like saying a '65 Mustang with a 4-speed on the floor is old fashioned next to a modern Mitsubishi Lancer with paddle shifters. I'll take the Mustang ANY DAY over that.

Definitely disagree with you. I have my trackpad configured with loads of shortcuts, and I feel really limited with a normal Windows 2 button mouse.

Apart from the generic OS X defaults, I close, open, and refresh tabs, open links in new tabs, and switch to previous/next tabs, all without moving the cursor one inch.

For example, just a quick flick with 4 fingers in one direction or the other switches to the corresponding tab. Much faster then going up to the tab bar.

On my Magic Mouse, I have similar shortcuts.

This makes working on my Mac (and specially Safari) much faster, easier, and more efficient.

I wonder what the special promotion is.

Perhaps! New Hardware is coming out (iMacs???) and the promo will be a buy a Mac get an iPad for $X.

Please, indulge me. Thanks.

McDonald's be held responsible in the beating and the employees on duty at McDonald's be held responsible are 2 different things.

Oh sweet. Looks really good, can always do with a bigger screen!!

McDonald's be held responsible in the beating of a Human Being.

Please, indulge me. Thanks.

I agree with you on this- the comments were definitely rude.

But I still don't think you get my point (and this includes the guy who posted below my previous post). That it doesn't mean that the other person is jealous of you. Its this attitude that irks me. And its this very attitude that so many "fanboys" share. Why in the world would someone be JEALOUS of you because you have a $200-$300 phone or even a $1500 computer?!? And because you think others envy you for it, you end up placing extraordinary value on everyday material things. I mean, seriously, is this what you use to define your status in society, what kind of phone you carry? Are you really that shallow and materialistic? I honestly feel pity for you.

To the other poster. You were jealous of (or "hated") those who had iphones until you got one for yourself. Now you believe that everyone around you is jealous of you.

I understand, you buy something trendy, and it makes you feel good. Thats great, I'm not arguing with that, because you should enjoy everything you have. But its this faux sense of superiority that comes with it, that makes you believe that others are envious of you because you bought this gadget. Its not like you've won the Nobel prize or even drive a Bugatti Veyron, that would make someone want what you have. No, you bought a phone. A phone that lots of people already have. A phone that my housekeeper's 11 year old son has. And any Joe Schmoe can walk into any Apple store/Walmart/Best Buy and pick one up. And when the new model comes out, you'll buy that as well, because you're chronically unsatisfied with what you have, and somehow, you feel that owning this will raise you up above the rest of society. It is people with attitudes like this (the attitude of the fanboy) that Apple capitalizes on.

Take this as a life lesson -- set your goals higher. Don't be envious of the guy with the cooler phone.

Oh my, you really missed the point with this one. Maybe you are right and I'm exaggerating, but if someone flat out starts being rude to someone because they see them with something, then I'm struggling to think of a reason. By no means am I placing extraordinary value on it, what have I been repeating through every page of this thread? Its just a damn phone. Keep your life lessons to yourself and try not to be so condescending.

Also, reality is that there are a lot of people out there that get jealous of material things. Some people get jealous when they see others drive a nicer car, some get jealous when they see someone with nicer shoes then them. I perfectly understand the shallowness of the human condition. I'm simply pointing out an observation based on my own personal experience within the last few days.