The Chicago Apple Store

I’m writing this from the second floor of the Apple store on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. We spent the day with the guys from 37 Signals at The Building of Basecamp Workshop. I’m on a little iMac, and I have to admit it’s impressive…the store, I mean.

Everything is clear Lucite, bleached wood, and concrete. Even the stairs are translucent plastic of some kind. I gotta say — Apple has a thing for style. There’s a forty seat movie theater up here, but I have no idea what it’s for.

I just called Rob and left him a message that I was standing in his own, personal Nirvana. I better get out of here, actually, because some of these machines are looking really nice (but how do you live without a scroll wheel?!).

The iMac I’m on has a little camera on top of it, and it’s displaying real-time video of me, but I can’t figure out how to get it to take a picture. You’ll just have to take my word for it that I’m actually here.

Joe and I have a pizza waiting for us at the Pizzaria Uno on Wabash and Ohio. Gotta run.

By Deane Barker | June 25, 2004

Comments

Comment by Joe, June 25, 2004 8:05 pm

These things rule. Frickin’ Apple Store!
Comment by Deane, June 25, 2004 8:06 pm

I can’t get the damn CD-ROM drive open…
Comment by Dave, June 25, 2004 8:56 pm

Push the Eject button on the keyboard. It’s the one with the underlined triangle on it.

And about the mouse, just grab your favorite USB two-button scroll-wheel mouse & plug it in. It just works. I like the Logitech optical wheel mouse.

I’m jealous.
Comment by Deane, June 25, 2004 9:41 pm

Here’s how lame we are –

After a gorgeous deep-dish Chicago pizza and a few rounds of beers, we stumbled out of the pizza joint half-loaded and with our bellies full. We headed straight for Michigan Avenue….then crossed right over it and went back to the hotel.

We are now both writing code.
Comment by Rob, June 26, 2004 8:29 am

Thanks for the phone call. I must admit I’m surprised you didn’t burst into flames just walking into the place.

The movie theatre is for free presentations of various Apple products. When I was in the Twin Cities last winter I killed a couple of hours learning about Panther and Garageband. They teach more in depth classes there to. I imagine they’ll have Steve’s keynote from the WWDC playing this week too.

The camera that was looking at you is an iSight. It’s a web cam used with iChatAV so you can chat and see the person you are chatting with. If you would have taken the time to figure out what name you were chatting as you could have deciphered it and attempted to chat with other users at other Apple stores around the country. I believe they all conform to the same naming convention.

Don’t worry Deane, you’ll own one eventually. You try everything at least once.

Glad you had a good trip.
Comment by Deane, June 26, 2004 8:44 am

“Don’t worry Deane, you’ll own one eventually.”

I believe this is true. I will gladly go on record as saying that I really, really want one…but only if I don’t have to pay for it. I mean, I want an Audi too…

We’re having a very good year at the office. I’m tempted to ask for an eMac at the end of the year if it keeps up.
Comment by Deane, July 12, 2004 5:43 pm

I’m perusing the site on an eMac running Panther. It’s so pretty I could cry. Apple has got visual displays dialed in perfectly.