If your iMac’s DVD drive stops working, it could take you a week to get it fixed…unless you have the extra-cost ProCare service, according to one blogger.

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It’s not clear how many iMac computers Apple is selling because of its included Photo Booth software, but it’s become popular with visitors, who use the software to snap their picture and e-mail it to friends right from the store. The photo album site Flickr and others have scores of Photo Booth photos posted, showing [...]

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Peter Burrows at BusinessWeek online has an Apple source who says the company has declared the Symbol portable computers and “EasyPay” program a success, and stores will continue to use them for quick customer check-out after the holiday buying season. The devices were introduced to help handle the holiday buying crush, but experienced occasional glitches [...]

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Thanks to Mark for a recon of the Perimeter Mall (Geo.), finding that the former B. Dalton Bookseller store on the second level will be vacant by Jan. 16th. He notes that it appears smaller than the Lenox Square store, but perhaps the same size as the North Point store in metro Atlanta.

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The changes wrought by democracy and free trade are no more obvious than in Hungary, a country formerly considered as far east in Europe as you could travel. Now, rather than being considered the last stop before Russia, the country is at the front of a huge economic boom sweeping the former Soviet Republics. It’s [...]

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Another blogger tells the story of his sick iPod shuffle and how it was quickly swapped at an Apple store.

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The ThinkSecret Web site has info about this year’s Lucky Bag tradition in Japan and participation by Apple’s retail stores. The story also says Apple is considering an expansion of the Regent Street store in London.

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The holiday season is a critical period for any retailer, so it was understandable that Apple attempted to accomodate the crush of iPod buyers at its retail stores by creating a special sales area and wireless check-out capabilities they dub “EasyPay” on their Web site. But now that gift-giving is over, it’s time to ponder [...]

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Ever since Apple announced a second Toronto retail store at Eaton Centre (Ont.), locals have been unsuccessfully searching the mall for a possible space. Speculation is that Apple will locate in the new expansion building to be shared with Ryerson University at Bay and Dundas Streets. Thanks to Christopher for photos of construction on this [...]

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Macromedia’s Flash product manager Mike Downey visited an Apple store on Friday to buy a gift, and was “pleasantly shocked” to find staffers with portable computers for processing purchases. Read his official blog about his speedy visit.

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The iLounge Web site has a comprehensive report on iPod availability and sales in Kuala Lampur (Malaysia), finding that few in the city of 1,750,000 appear in public with iPods. The report includes lots of photos of Apple resellers, authorized and otherwise.

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I spent my last available Christmas eve hours in Apple stores to survey the buying patterns–and it was pretty obvious. Visitor traffic looked like an ordinary Saturday, but the computer display counters were completely abandoned in favor of the POS counters and the iPod Express tables. People weren’t browsing today, but instead were coming in, [...]

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A mid-day power outage knocked out Apple’s inventory and management computer systems on Friday, and cut the company’s links to credit card processing networks. The outage forced retail store staffers to manually process credit card purchases for over 30 minutes, slowing the POS process to a crawl. Meanwhile, the already-long lines at some stores snaked [...]

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A blogger has good things to say about his Powerbook repair after he took it to the Menlo Park (NJ) store.

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There has been on-going chatter about leasing activity for an Apple store in Vancouver (BC), to open some time during 2006. According to real estate sources, broker CB Richard Ellis is brokering a deal on a street-level space near the downtown Pacific Centre, possibly next to the Hudson’s Bay Company store. You may know that [...]

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An Apple recruiter is making the usual rounds of Macintosh User Groups, asking them to publicize openings at the future The Pier at Caesars retail store in Atlantic City (NJ). According to the e-mail, interviews begin in January, indicating a Spring 2006 grand opening.

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There’s some dubious evidence from one financial analyst that visitors to Apple resellers are holding off on purchases of computers in anticipation of the switch to Intel processors in 2006. A story on the Forbes magazine Web site says that Pipe Jaffray analyst Gene Munster surveyed what he calls “Apple Computer specialist stores,” which are [...]

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I’m just learning that Apple reseller iStore opened last July on the second floor of the Banilad Town Center in Cebu (Phillippines), with an all-glass front window and many familiar interior features.

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Apple has created an Apple Store Event Widget to keep you informed of special events at your favorite retail store. Select a state on the back panel, then a specific store. Flip the widget over and it will display scrollable text describing all the special events at that store, selectable for the next 7 days. [...]

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Not every Apple store in the United States took the day off on Thanksgiving. On a MacDailyNews Web page, someone identifying himself at Robert A. Jones says he visited The Gateway (Utah) store on Thanksgiving day, and wandered inside to find about 15 other visitors strolling the aisles. One of the visitors told him that [...]

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