The ‘Choose a Vista’ ad is spot on… even I don’t know what version of Vista to get. Though Apple does technically offer two versions of Mac OS X, the second being Server, the differences between the regular and Server version are clear (and all the versions of Windows they were counting don’t include the sever version).

‘Party is Over’ seems a bit of a low blow for Apple: Sure, you might have to upgrade your computer to run Vista, but the same is true for Mac OS X upgrades sometimes (though perhaps not to the same degree). The bit about software and peripherals not working is hypocritical too, since there are many examples of this on the Mac side. I’m thinking of particularly of the OS 9 to OS X transition and the PowerPC to Intel transition (though the later has been handled quite well considering it’s magnitude).

The ‘Genius’ spot is the best of the new bunch. The Genius Bar is a great resource for Mac owners and there’s not something comparable on the PC side unless you have a ‘PC Genius’ friend with lots of time to hep you. If only there were more cute female genii like the one in the ad!

The second link discusses some of the problems behind the committee’s decisions. The way I see it, it just seems like a bad idea for citizen commissions to be handing down such harsh demands that businesses (which provide lots of tax revenue) are disinterested in opening in Portland.

(Via Daring Fireball.)

Far be it from us to ridicule folks who desperately cling to ancient technology, hoping against hope it will serve their current needs… nevermind, let’s ridicule them. This pic was apparently snapped at the Genius Bar of an Apple Store, where the customer had brought in a Mac SE, circa 1988, asking for upgrade recommendations. The guy had apparently been using the machine, which runs at a blazing 8MHz (and this time that’s not a typo!), for his banking and for some bizarre reason he decided it was time to look into something a little beefier. Given that the Genius actually appears to be checking the machine out, rather than smirking knowingly and recommending that the customer turn it into a fish tank, we think there’s a good chance he told him to upgrade the RAM (the SE can handle a whopping 4MB) and sent him home. And then smirked knowingly to his fellow Geniuses.

I know I couldn’t have held back the smirk unil the guy left: I would have had to take a break in the AppleCare room and yell.

Allow me to propose a pair of questions about this. First, why is Glendale ranked second, and second, why am I happy about this?

The answers to these questions are somewhat intertwined but for some comparison purposes, allow me to explain why SoHo is number one. The SoHo store was, until a month ago, the only store serving my new hometown of New York, the largest metropolitan area in the nation. A store opened on Stanten Island recently, however this is out of the way for most New Yorkers, so the SoHo store remains the main Genius presence in the area (though this should change with the opening of a midtown store soon).

Compare that with the Los Angeles metro area which contains at least 8 Apple Stores (depending on how you count) with more coming soon. Glendale is located in the relative middle of these stores in the center of a triangle between The Grove, Pasadena, and Northridge. All of this would seem to indicate that the wait times at Glendale would be rather low, but that is ignoring one important factor in the equation: Quality of Service.

Now I’m not an impartial judge here seeing as I worked behind the bar in Glendale for several months of my time working at that store, but while I was there I observed one very important thing. The Geniuses at Glendale always go the extra mile. Indeed this is true of all the staff I worked with at Glendale. On several occasions, I was told by customers not only that they were surprised by the level of service they received, but that they were surprised by the level of service above that other Genius bars they had visited.

So why does Glendale have such long wait times at the Genius Bar? Because it has the best damn service you can get for free. Congrats Conan and Co. you guys rock.

PS: if you have a hankering to check out the Genius Bar at any Apple Store, I suggest you check out the details on the new and improved Concierge Reservation System (finally dividing the iPod bitches from the cool Mac peeps!).