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I went to the Apple store...

Avatar Terry Willis
A day at the shops. Normally, a shudder passes through me. My daughter (16) and wife (Sorry can't say!) wanted to go shopping, not just any shopping, clothes shopping! "Southampton, we'll go there", "We can go in Next, BHS, TopShop, ..."

Suddenly things were'nt as bad as I thought, a great weight lifted from me. I can put up with Soton shops as I can wander off, and instead of hanging conspicuously around womans clothing shops I can visit the APPLE store and John lewis (Who have a good range of Apple goods).

Now, my keyboard had been playing up for a while, sticking keys and the like, so this was the ideal opportunity to call in to our favourite store and check out the new keyboards. Luverly! ...and guess what, that's exactly what I'm typing this article on, MY new Apple keyboard.

Turns out they were great, and at £29.00 how could I resist. A bargain, well, compared to other past more expensive purchases from the Apple emporium anyway.

The new keyboards is not dis-similar to my Powerbook G4 (I know, a little dated and due for an upgrade soon) keyboard. A fairly soft touch, full size white keys on the brushed aluminium backing. I seem to be quite careful with it at present, but I am finding the touch and feel excellent for my type of typing.

Appearance wise, it's difficult to fault. The usual swish design styling that Apple seems to be great at, along with the technical know how to push the boundries forward. Only longer term use will tell if my purchase will stand the test of time. I have little doubt that my shopping trip purchase will come up to my expectations.

Re: I went to the Apple store...

Avatar Mick Burrell
Went through a similar exercise a couple of months ago Terry, I agree with your findings!

Re: I went to the Apple store...

Avatar John Surtees
Must admit to being a little disappointed with the West Quay Applestore at first. But since the wonderful WAGS Sunday morning treat a while back, I realise its the time wasters and kids that are the problem.

With the amount of people it attracts, the store could easily cope with being twice as big. But as you say Terry, it does make West Quay bearable.

It's amazing to think that when the Mac first attracted my attention, it was a case of:

1.     Making an appointment at the Applecentre on Whiteley Industrial Park, be shown what they thought you needed (a IIsi) and then wait for the quote to come through the post. Or do as I eventually did;

2. Mail order, in my case, from Heritage Computers an outfit in Woodley near Reading. As they were a little bit tardy in sending it, I thought I'd go and collect it, and found myself looking for an address, which started 'The Studio' blah, blah. It turned out to be an end of terrace house on a modern housing estate and 'The Studio' was the garage in the back garden. As they received orders, they would order the basic Mac from the USA, have it airfreighted over, add some (in my case) second hand memory. Nice bunch of people though – and cheaper than anyone else.

For software and other stuff it was up to Sutton to Macline. Wait to be let in by the security man in the foyer then go upstairs were all the staff were sat in front of SE30's doing telesales. A bigger mess you'd be unlikely to see. But a great bunch of people. Or much the same at Mygate in Lee South East London. Sadly now both absorbed into the faceless Cancom. What a dreary bunch.

It's great to be able to be able to pop into the Applestore or Solutions, but there was a certain sense of adventure to buying a Mac a few years back, that's missing now.

As to the keyboard. It's the first Apple board in a long time that for me, has any appeal. At last somebody has given a bit of thought to usability, but I think I'll stick with my noisy old Matias Tactile Pro for the moment. You can't beat a 'click clack' for letting you know when you've hit a key.

Re: I went to the Apple store...

Avatar Lionel Ogden
When I bought my first Mac, only about seven years ago, I had to make an appointment to see an iMac with a reseller whom we cannot mention on this site but who now is no longer operating. Two appointments later I still had not seen an iMac. So I went off to PC world who by then had started to sell a few Macs. Even then I could not see the model I wanted and had to return a fortnight later to collect it.

Now we have two excellent stores in Southampton and Bournemouth together with John Lewis also iwhere you can see and try the whole Mac range together with all the other tempting Apple goodies. My recent purchase of a recent model iMac was much simpler.

Re: I went to the Apple store...

Avatar Thomas Maude
Hi Terry / Lionel I'm about to buy a new imac from either the Southampton or Bournmouth stores soon ( we have to go to a strore as we are buying it with a student discount) do you know if either of the stores are open on a Sunday? ie this Sunday ! if one of them is then there is a possibility we could do it this weekend otherwise I would have to wait about three weeks till we are all together.
Kind Regards
Tom Maude

Re: I went to the Apple store...

Avatar Mick Burrell
Southampton Apple Store is certainly open on Sundays as is John Lewis - also at West Quay and offering a 2 year guarantee.

Re: I went to the Apple store...

Avatar Thomas Maude
Hi Mick - thanks for that advice - has anyone used the Bournemouth store ?
kind regards
Tom
 
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