Calgary’s first (and Alberta’s second) Apple Store opened this past Saturday at 9:30am! Michelle and I arrived at roughly the same time as the Edmonton grand opening, and ended up being 33rd & 34th in line at 7:30am.

There were lots of similarities between the Calgary and the Edmonton Apple Store openings. First off, the first guy in line was the same. In fact, we noticed the first guy was already in line and prepared 8:00pm the previous day! The dimming of the lights, the high-fives, the cheer tunnel, the lack of sale-priced goods, and the XL Apple t-shirt by American Apparel were all the same.

All in all, fun experience, and my mom even saw me on TV! Greaaattt…

Michelle and I went to the Grand Opening of the Apple Store today! We arrived at about 7:15am and joined the other 14 people in line. The first guy was already there at 10am on Friday, and there were lots of people from the night before and even a guy from Calgary! The whole experience was pretty exciting – the line really started growing at about 9:00am, and by 9:30am the line looped around to American Eagle.

About ten minutes before the store opened, all the Apple Store employees got out of the store and high fived a few hundred people in line. They all returned to the store a few minutes later, where they started clapping and the store lights dimmed. At 10am, an Apple Store lady came out, thanked the crowd for coming, and started to let people into the store via the Apple Store employee cheer tunnel (I couldn’t find a better word)!

Michelle and I got inside the beautifully lit and clean Apple Store, where we bumped into Mack and Sharron. After browsing around and talking to some extremely energetic Apple Store employees, we left with our prize of Apple Store t-shirts (which were still being given out at 11am). See you at the Calgary Apple Store grand opening!

So you may have heard about the Apple Store opening up in West Edmonton Mall (the location is Disney Store and across from the American Eagle, on July 1, 2008). But have you heard about the one potentially opening in Calgary?

A search of the Job Postings yields positions for the new Calgary in Market Mall! So all but unconfirmed is the actual black wall with white Apple logo at the spot of the new location.

Visual map of all players

View the original spreadsheet

Yeaaaaah. Thats my new baby. You can guess what I was playing with all night…

Thanks Evonne, for picking the iPhone up for me.

Latest Statistics:
Record: 1 – 11
Spent: $19.08
Won: $2.49
Probability: 36.50%

[RUTR 2008 Progress]

Globe and Mail- Consumers aren’t as interested in technical specs when it comes to buying new laptop computers, instead they want “the pink one,” Dell Inc. chief executive Michael Dell told a group of Toronto business students Wednesday morning.

Rrrrright… Remember Dell used to be a $50/share behemoth, and is now barely trading $20 today.

Trust me – its not the because its the pink one.

[The Globe and Mail]

Canada’s iPhone wait continues; Rogers would ‘love’ to sell Apple’s device, but no release date set
Chris Fournier
Bloomberg
Vancouver Sun
Copyright © 2007 Vancouver Sun

MONTREAL — Rogers Communications Inc., operator of the only wireless network in Canada that uses the same technology as Apple Inc.’s iPhone, said consumers may have a while to wait before the handset goes on sale here.

While Rogers would “love” to sell the device, Apple hasn’t set a release date in Canada, Rogers’ chief operating officer, Nadir Mohamed, said at a conference in Toronto on Tuesday.

The iPhone may provide another boost for Rogers, Canada’s biggest mobile-phone company, whose sales are growing faster than rivals such as Telus Corp. and BCE Inc. The device, which combines an iPod music player with a mobile phone, will probably go on sale in Europe before Canada, Mohamed said.

“Europe is a market that is four or five times the size of the Canadian market [for Apple],” said Neeraj Monga, an analyst at Veritas Investment Research in Toronto. “I don’t think Canada is on their radar screens right now.”

There are no “current discussions” between Toronto-based Rogers and Apple, Rogers spokeswoman Jan Innes said. She wouldn’t comment on whether the two companies have already held talks about selling the iPhone in Canada.

Rogers shares climbed 47 cents to $46.59 in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. They have added 34 per cent this year. Apple fell $1.22 to $135.49 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.

Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., cut the price of the iPhone by $200 to $399 last week to spur demand for the holiday shopping season. The handset only works on the global system for mobile communications, or GSM, network. Rogers operates the only network of that kind in Canada, prompting speculation that Apple and Rogers may sell the iPhone together.

There haven’t been any problems negotiating the price of the device in Canada, Mohamed said.

“I can categorically tell you that that’s not the issue,” he said.

Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock declined to comment. The company said on Monday it sold its millionth iPhone.

The Google Zeitgeist recaps some of the more interesting search trends of 2005 (isn’t it great to be a search-engine superpower?), with timelines as to when the spike of information began to surface. Some of the more interesting parts:

• The Pope’s Passing – Searches for the Pope aren’t really popular, search-engine wise, until he passes away or a new one replaces him, [Link]
• Major Natural Disasters – Earthquakes are out – Tsunamis and Hurricanes are all the rage this year, [Link]
• Magical Domains – Harry Pothead Potter is less popular than Lord of the Rings… This year, at least, [Link]
• Digitization Continues – Maybe the iPod will eventually become as popular as the “mp3″, search-wise! [Link]

Interesting to read, and I bet some of them will surprise you! Who is more popular anyways, Martha or Trump…?

[Photo] Nokia 6125 – Open phone

Nokia is continuing to spew out the flip phones! This time it is the Nokia 6125 – a quad-band GSM phone with a 1.3 megapixel camera, 2 colour displays, bluetooth, PTT (push-to-talk). It also includes Macromedia Flash, plays MP3s, and video ringtone capability! Looks like a Samsung too…

Estimated price is 230 Euros, $325 CDN or $280 USD, in 2nd quarter 2006!

I got this phone last week Friday, and its so far been a joke – PC suite doesn’t work like it should and the firmware is even worse. In trying to diagnose this error (read: trying to FIX it), I:

• Called Fido first. The CSR tells me that its a software on the computer problem (after reading the exact error message to her), so I have to go download the new software. After I stall on the phone a bit, and using the time to install new software, it doesn’t get fixed. I tell her further that other 8801 owners from Fido have this problem. She tells me to call Nokia.
• Called Nokia. The CSR tells me Fido has locked a few features via firmware, but the PC Suite should work. He tells me to call Fido back to get instructions on how to get the firmware reflashed.
• Called Fido, and got a newbie CSR. He begins criticizing how the other CSR really should learn how to write full sentences, and at this point, I’m not really caring. He tells me to call Nokia, and then I tell him that I want to escalate the problem to a manager. He then gets an actual paper form to fill out, and wastes another ten minutes filling it out.

I am currently waiting for the manager to call me back (within 24-48 hours from yesterday), but I am about to refund my phone and get my sum of money back. There is nothing worse than ignorant CSRs…