The PasteBoard

I did promise some video of the Apple Store Belfast opening event so here it is. I flatly refused to High Five but my son got caught in the moment and obliged the frothy mouthed store people. All in all it was a really interesting experience. Bumped into some old friends, reminisced about times past and how it was great to see the store actually opening. My spies who were there on Sunday reported that the store was totally frantic then too so the crowds did not die down.

It will be interesting to see if they can keep the momentum.

And while I did expect to chat to people I had never met before it was interesting to check out the wide and varied people who were there. A work colleague pointed something very interesting out on his trip on Sunday. He noticed that there were an awful lot of young people around. Teenagers and Twenty-somethings. I found that very interesting as a future pointer. Time will tell.

On my visit I bumped in to a very nice gentleman from Dundalk. Niall is a relatively recent switcher (2 years ago) and I couldn't resist trying to get a particular reason for this phenomenon. Well, it pans out like I said with my own friends who are switching. You get an iPod first and then it's like a virus. The same thing seems to have happened to Niall and his family.

It isn't like he went into it blind. His local Church and minister have Macs. He got the bug from there. I do find this very interesting because in my time I have seen quite a few guys in the clergy who are vehement Mac users. Some of them go way back to the 80's but that might be another story.

I took it for granted that he was originally a Windows user and that indeed is the case. What annoys me about people who criticise switchers or Mac users in general is we get labelled as 'zealots' as opposed to people who made a choice. But I was curious to find out what the core reason for switching was. Well, it turned out to be the reliability and ease of use argument. It could be debated between experts as to what machines are more reliable than others and indeed, experts the world over have been arguing as to which is the superior GUI, but you know what? All of that is totally irrelevant. If you go to a new device for reasons of reliability and ease of use, it will only be deemed a success if that is exactly what happens. In Niall's case, that seems to hold true. He is a happy user and like me is an avid iPhoto fan. iPhoto made real differences in our own family situation with the ease of getting pictures into a library and allowing us to show Granny and Granda. It was easy, but also it was professional looking. It was impressive and I suspect Niall feels the same way.

It is like I said before. Office? Aye, for work. All that stuff reminds us of work. It bores us. It does not engage us. iPhoto and the nice iApps seem to be engaging Niall and his family. So some vids in this post. The first will have chants of 'Belfast, Belfast, Belfast' by the Apple Store staff. I knew at that stage it was gonna be a bit over the top. Enjoy the videos and post your own stories of the day in the comments.

By the way, I have no clue at all what the guy on the left was doing wearing a crumpled velbet purple coloured coat. My daughter thinks he is a fashion victim. Sure, what the hell would I know? If you are that person and watching this, get a proper coat, son.