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Microsoft Opens First New Retail Store in Scottsdale, Arizona

ed724 said:
I don't get your ranting about blowing off Snow Leopard because you don't have column view in spotlight ? You claim all browsers are crashing when you use the "Save as" command ? I tried for 20 minutes on Firefox and Safari, can't make it crash. Not saying yours isn't, just saying it's obviously not effecting everyone. If you really have good knowledge on how to use OS-X you wouldn't be letting these minor issues be such a burden to you.
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I can replicate the issue on different Macs and Adobe has noted it as well.

I was excited about Snow Leopard as well until I started using it. Things went down hill from there with a myriad of issues and pointless changes. I can't even do a clean installation of Snow Leopard without problems. The second I revert back to 10.5.8 everything works flawlessly.

My workflows were build on Tiger and barely managed to make it over to Leopard without workarounds that added pointless additional steps to get the same thing done.

Snow Leopard makes even more changes to Finder that no one asked for, Exposé, I'm somehow stuck with the Open/Save file dialog issue on all of the Macs I use, and I can't move my files over without losing years of work?

What's supposed to entice me to keep going? I spent hours installing, reinstalling, clean installing, migrating, and copying. My only solution I found was to upgrade from Leopard and have my browsers crash every time or clean install and lose my work.

Really? I'm going to stick with 10.5.8. You know the operating system that works?

Then you toss in some nonsense about OS X being superior to Windows. I'm another Mac user! What's the point in that? They user base is just taking a major turn for the worse when I get a fellow Mac user telling me how much better OS X is when I'm using OS X. What virtues are you trying to extol unto me? All that seems to happen is the same pats on the back to goad another Mac user into some pointless internet tough guy contest.

Suddenly your fellow Mac users are the enemy. You're either with me or against me. You get called out for being some sort of Microsoft plant, stock holder, and sympathizer. Gee, thanks. I'll just stick to using 10.5.8 on my MacBook thank you.
 
Necessity is the mother of invention & copying is sad.

When's the teacher gonna bust PC for peeking over Macs shoulder? It's ok PC, you can cheat off Mac. We all know PC's not smart enough, so lets give him the help he needs. Ha ha ha ha ..... so pathetic!
 
I guess George Blankenship is more like George Blankofideas.

I wouldn't be hiring him as a consultant anytime soon. The best he can do is a tawdry rip off of what he's already done for Apple?

This similarities of the stores will just further strengthen Apple's brand when people visit and see how hackish the Microsoft stores look. You better be spot on if you're going to mimic something so closely.
 
riverfreak said:
This similarities of the stores will just further strengthen Apple's brand when people visit and see how hackish the Microsoft stores look.
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Yep. The Anti-Apple Brigade on this forum argues, amazingly, that there are no similarities between the two stores. :rolleyes: But any regular Joe is going to walk past a Microsoft store in the mall and immediately recognize it for the cheesy Apple rip-off that it is. I just can't believe Microsoft couldn't put a little originality into it. It's astounding how they have absolutely no pride. I would be embarrassed to ape my competitor so closely.
 
I think a lot of you are also forgetting that the stores were not originally designed by Apple. According to Wikipedia, Apple hired Eight, Inc. to design its first stores.
 
neiltc13 said:
I think a lot of you are also forgetting that the stores were not originally designed by Apple. According to Wikipedia, Apple hired Eight, Inc. to design its first stores.
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And that makes Microsoft's carbon copy OK how exactly?

I don't believe anyone here claimed that Apple are architectural specialists. Only that Microsoft took what Apple did - or in this case had done - (to the letter) and duplicated it.

Par for the course really - I don't think any of us were all that surprised.
 
BAD time to start this; APPLE is well established-and is weathering the economic storm BUT
there isnt a crash in Commercial Real Estate for nothing
PC users are not as "into" their stuff-or to wit-they use MS-so I dont know if this will work
APPLE stores are kind of like an art gallery you visit for the experience and buy or not-but stats seem to indicate buying BIG TIME
YOu wont see people mobbing a MS store to touch the pretty $87 Dell 300 with Perspireon chip
wouldnt it be funny if they were forced by demand to have a small MAC section to deal with the BOOT CAMP users
MS cant do anything right except Windows and Office-and even those truisms are starting to disappear
Windows was a great OS-for the 20th Century
 
riverfreak said:
I guess George Blankenship is more like George Blankofideas.

I wouldn't be hiring him as a consultant anytime soon. The best he can do is a tawdry rip off of what he's already done for Apple?
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I can see him at his next client proposal:

"And here is my portfolio showing a couple of my recent projects."

"Um, that's the same project."

"Uh...actually it's two: one was for Apple and the other was for Microsoft."

*crickets*
 
is microsoft literally trying to play a parody of apple because it looks exactly like an apple store from the white walls to the wooden table with laptops on.

Do they think people are so stupid they won't notice?

oh yeh and the poster at the beginning looks exactly like the iphone poster with all the tiny app icons.
 
is this a powerbook?

so I was curious if steve ballmer was going to jump all over the NBC set when he was introducing windows so I watched this clip.

i couldnt tell if this was a PowerBook that NBC used to display the Windows machine? What do you think?

if you don't know what I am talking about with steve ballmer acting like an idiot - check it out.
 

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Really now?

Well said

swajames said:
What a wonderfully original concept! I can't understand why no-one's ever thought of doing something like this before. Such innovative store layout and design. And as for the concept of the Answer Bar - well that's just a stroke of genius.
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neiltc13 said:
Sounds like they've got some nice ideas in their stores, like this one...

Are you guys going to keep bashing them for trying to make money (Apple's stores are only there to make money as well) or are you going to think about what they've got on offer and visit if you live close?
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That doesn't sound bad at all. Burn/print software in the back while you wait. Just hope they have a large variety to offer.
 
MichaelBarry said:
is microsoft literally trying to play a parody of apple because it looks exactly like an apple store from the white walls to the wooden table with laptops on.

Do they think people are so stupid they won't notice?

oh yeh and the poster at the beginning looks exactly like the iphone poster with all the tiny app icons.
Click to expand...

I just got back from the MSStore. My observations:

Layout/Furnishings/Retail Display Design:

Looking in from the outside, and after initially entering, there is absolutely no denying they used the Apple Store as a template. The layout is nearly identical, with a few very superficial differences.

The furnishings and finishes were done on the cheap, and it was easy to identify many areas where corners were cut as compared to their Apple Store inspiration. The legs of the much discussed display tables appeared to be made from inexpensive pine, or possibly oak, but had a really unattractive "wal-mart simulated woodgrain furniture" top surface. If I'm not mistaken Apples tables are solid maple. The floors appeared to be laminate as opposed to hardwood, but I could be mistaken. There was much use of formica and other laminates on ancillary furniture and displays, and the store had a strong smell of MDF.

The retail displays for individual machines don't really warrant mentioning as they are more or less identical to what you'd see in an Apple store. They did have a nice varied selection of PC's, but nothing worth a special trip -- soccer mom's will still do their PC shopping at Best Buy.

There was also the painfully derivative 'millions of apps run on Windows' window-display-that-wasn't-in-a-window positioned towards the front of the store. I wondered if someone experienced a brief pang of plagerists guilt and drew a line at actually putting the display in the window and then parked it in a corner.

The Staff/Miscellany:

The staff was plentiful, almost to the point of sillyness. They had clearly been programmed to be SUPER friendly and ULTRA helpful, but the overall effect was that of being swamped with "help" at a used car dealership. You can only say "I'm just looking around, thank you" so many times before it gets annoying. The plenitude of smiling, persistent Stepford Staff overshot 'helpful' and ended up a tad creepy to be honest. Imagine "clippy" transformed into a sales assistant.

Upon leaving I overheard some (clearly non-geeky) folks talking as they passed by the MSStore, and one of them gestured to the other and said "Oh, its like the Apple Store.".

'nuff said.
 
Eidorian said:
I can replicate the issue on different Macs and Adobe has noted it as well.

I was excited about Snow Leopard as well until I started using it. Things went down hill from there with a myriad of issues and pointless changes. I can't even do a clean installation of Snow Leopard without problems. The second I revert back to 10.5.8 everything works flawlessly.

My workflows were build on Tiger and barely managed to make it over to Leopard without workarounds that added pointless additional steps to get the same thing done.

Snow Leopard makes even more changes to Finder that no one asked for, Exposé, I'm somehow stuck with the Open/Save file dialog issue on all of the Macs I use, and I can't move my files over without losing years of work?

What's supposed to entice me to keep going? I spent hours installing, reinstalling, clean installing, migrating, and copying. My only solution I found was to upgrade from Leopard and have my browsers crash every time or clean install and lose my work.

Really? I'm going to stick with 10.5.8. You know the operating system that works?

Then you toss in some nonsense about OS X being superior to Windows. I'm another Mac user! What's the point in that? They user base is just taking a major turn for the worse when I get a fellow Mac user telling me how much better OS X is when I'm using OS X. What virtues are you trying to extol unto me? All that seems to happen is the same pats on the back to goad another Mac user into some pointless internet tough guy contest.

Suddenly your fellow Mac users are the enemy. You're either with me or against me. You get called out for being some sort of Microsoft plant, stock holder, and sympathizer. Gee, thanks. I'll just stick to using 10.5.8 on my MacBook thank you.
Click to expand...

Tiger really was a gem. Too bad UI looked like arse though.

I'm laying off Snow Leopard until 10.6.2 at least. Thats when Leopard was getting around decent. Never really cared for the column spotlight though.

---

Windows 7 looks nice, but the UI doesn't do it for me. The shiny shiny of Aero and the behavior of KDE put me off immensely...

If I wanted to use Linux I would've downloaded it!
 
So Freakin' LAME

You would think with all the smart people at M$, they could have at least come up with an original design.

However, I think they are trying to trick Mac users into going to their stores by mistake. Once a Mac user is the store, they bolt the doors and won't let you out until you buy a PC.
 
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