Yep, the Apple store is down
By Ryan Block 
posted Aug 15th 2007 10:30PM
posted Aug 15th 2007 10:30PM
Yep, we know the Apple store is down, so no need to continue emailing us frantically. Remember, just because Apple takes down the store when it's launching new products doesn't mean that just because store goes down new products are to be expected, ok?Update: Looks like we're back up as of about 11:14PM EDT -- anyone see anything new? We haven't.
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Just site maintenance. Don't worry....
Site's back up, they are now selling phones ;)
Never mind that though, in 2008 they'll be selling TV's O-O!!
Apple website is back...
Macbook and Macbook Pro come along with iLife 08 and iWork 08 30days....
awesome...
if they come out with a new macbook pro I am going to be so pissed off, I just ordered mine on Saturday.
Doesn't Apple have some sort of guarantee to replace a "new" one with the brand new one?
I ordered mine 2 weeks ago Saturday and they finally just tried to pull from my Credit/Debit card yesterday. It only did a pre-auth though and nothing has been taken out and it hasn't been shipped yet. They are starting to drive me nuts. But I must have patience. It will be worth it. I would sat this is a bug fix to the store though, nothing big.
There's always hope for a surprise new iPod...
:sigh:
No. Not like this.
Hahaha, man I keep wondering the same thing. Growing a bit annoyed and tired of waiting myself.
I never thought I'd hear myself say it, but I actually love it when companies release new products every year. Perhaps I'm just spoiled having the internet and up-to-date tech news on a daily basis? ;)
Why you gotta bring a man's hopes all down like that, Chris?
No, he doesn't. A new iPod would get its own Keynote without a doubt. That's why he said that
hah i was just wondering why this could be when i saw this on here. i waas hoping maybe a surprise release. hey i can dream cant i?
Maybe they just had to go to the bathroom.
If they did I'm sure Engadget would be there to report on it.
Oh my goodness. This has to mean that there is a new ipod coming!!! /sarcasm
i bet they are just gonna say that bluetooth headset will aririve within 1-2 days
Isn't it funny how a simple "maintenance" note has got everyone excited and stirring across the internet?
Brilliant marketing.. or whatever, as I'm sure Steve Jobs is silently enjoying this somewhere.
Everyone was excited? I guess something's wrong with me
"Everyone was excited? I guess something's wrong with me"
Weren't you slightly "stirred" then? After all, you DID make a comment.
*whistles*
the newest apple realease...iGlasses
ya thats it
You mean this?:
http://www.ecamm.com/mac/iglasses/
i hoping for 12 inch macbook pro.... well, at least til october. if it's not out by then i'll get a powerbook 12 inch and leopard. *sigh*
I'm pretty sure this is just the GarageBand JamPack, which is Apple's microphone for GarageBand recording.
It always made me wonder why they had to take down the entire store for an update... cant they just "flick a switch" and make the new site go live?
Or... do it at 5am?
Krolls, it's likely that many of the changes entail making changes to database entries, not actual HTML pages, since the site's pages are programmatically-generated using information pulled from the databases. Since these changes can't be made instantly (even with a fast SQL database, it can take many minutes to update thousands of complicated records), it's pretty necessary to take the site down (so no one is accessing the database), make the necessary DB updates, and then bring the site back up.
They don't want to do it at 5 AM because then all the DB administrators and developers and testers have to stay at work all night.
yes claj, but unless they were removing and re-adding their entire database, including all user accounts, it would not take more than a minute to add a new item or change some info in a database, if it seriously took this long to update a database, people wouldnt use them because there are faster ways, this is just apple's way of teasing all the fanboys and build hipe when their really is a new product slated, or apple just has a really shitty web department, but i dont want to go bashing apple since i just bought a macbook and im not partisan
Um, if you need to update every record in your database to update an online store, your DB administrator deserves to get sacked. In a real store (where you do not have fanatically loyal customers) or any application of a database, downtime means lost customers and therefore lost money.
Database management systems are extremely optimised and there is no technical reason why a website needs to be brought down unless you are making very major changes. Like the changes you make every two or three years when the software you're using has reached the end of its life.
This is a hype-making exercise and nothing more.
Most of the time, atleast when it comes to adding new products/features. It seems obvious why they would take the store down. Most companies announce new products ahead of time so consumers have the opportunity to wait and get the new version. So that company could "flip a switch" and simply add the new product.
Apple on the other hand doesn't generally announce new products. So they don't want someone placing an order for a product before it's announced and get the new version, or worse buy the old version 30 seconds before the new one comes out. Thus during keynotes and such, they take the site down so you don't go buying old stuff, or buy new stuff before jobs actually announces it.
At least this is my theory.
We've been over this before. We have this debate every time Engadget posts an article about the Apple Store going down.
Some people criticize Apple for taking the store down, when other stores don't need to do it. People say it causes loss of sales, angry people and all that jazz.
In the end, someone always suggests that Apple does it because it's exciting, and that comment is usually quickly voted Highest Ranked, probably because it reflects the sentiments of most Engadget readers.
And then someone else will comment about Engadget being Apple-biased.
@Fruition:
And then someone will describe how this happens every time, and someone else will comment on how someone always describes how this happens every time.
@patsy
lol, a winner is you.
I probably should have seen that coming.
So.. once again... if they are doing "simple maintenance" they why do they have to take the whole store down. I mean.... don't those drama queens know you can update code with out putting up a splash page? Once again... .htaccess anyone?
Because apple is apple, they have to be drama queens and take the entire site down for no reason at all.
The new iBill
Hopefully an early Leopard Pre-order and release date.
I know it's scheduled maintenance... There's no doubt in my mind. However, the apple fanboy in me gives me the unstoppable urge to reload the apple store relentlessly until something (ANYTHING) appears.
Hey
The apple store is down.
mike jones is down.
Maybe it's an update on the wireless keyboard shipping? Perhaps it got passed through FCC or something
All I wanted to do was order a mighty mouse tonight... guess not
Its definitely site maintenance, if you check the other Apple stores (http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/francestore/) they're still up.
The release date for leopard!!!
Actually, this is an experiment. A highly successful experiment, I might add. Ring the bell, give the dog some food. Then one day, you don't give the dog any food. All we ask is that you clean up your own drool.
Its up!
It's up, I can't see anything new
updated mac minis?
Again? They just updated them last week...
Dear god i swear the apple store is the engadget home page.
If you work at engadget your forced by company policy to keep it as your homepage. That or refresh it every 14 minutes or more.
That's odd. I've been on it a couple of times earlier tonight, and it is up right now AFAICT. They are due for updates to the Airport Express (the Extreme's been updated twice since the Express came out, jeez) and the displays before anything else. iPods shouldn't come out til September at the earliest (don't want to cannibalize back-to-school sales). An announce date for Leopard should be made really soon (if I were to bet, I'd say Oct. 23). They'll have some minor system bumps then, primarily to the Mac Pro and MacBook. A revamp on the MBP and iMac will come soon after in November, the mini won't be updated, and so on. And an iPhone upgrade will be announced w/Leopard (like it'll have iwork 08 integration or something). End of the year will see a next-gen AppleTV right before the holidays. There's my wager....
Imagine with me, if you will, if the Apple Store never re-opened. We would be kept in a permanent state of refresh-every-half-second-until-something-happens forever.
Apple website is back...
Macbook and Macbook Pro come along with iLife 08 and iWork 08 30days....
awesome...
I can't believe this is "news".
I agree, I can't believe you have to post about the apple store everytime it goes offline for a little while. I could see if this was an apple blog MAYBE then, but not engadget.
Yeh, but look how many replies there are for absolutely nothing. You people need to get lives. I'm having my butler reply for me since Paris H. is keeping me a little busy.
Have the MBP always been shipping with Nvidia 8600's?
My apologies, just noticed that it's been that way for a while. Must have missed that tidbit of the refresh.
I don't understand why some of you are complaining about this... This IS news, of course, what if the Apple Store does include an update whether signicant or minor? It's always good to have a heads up. Also, I'd say at least half the Engadget articles posted every day relate to PC's and Windows. I don't see why there should be complaint when there's an occasional post about Apple.
Maybe the ones complaining are just jealous that even the smallest possibility of an update by Apple can cause so much hype, compared to those dealing with Microsoft. ;D
OK I like Macs as much as the next guy....OK truth be told Apple annoys me *Kicks his crashtastic C2DMBP* but that's beside the point. Does an Engadget blogger REALLY need to post every damn time the Apple store is down? IS this really news? Hell is it really worth even a Blog post? Engadget really needs to rein in the people who post entries. I mean would it fracking kill you to wait 30 minutes and THEN post if anything was updated?
Someone needs to have a good talk with Thomas and Ryan. The dynamic duo of the Apple Store is down posts.
Hi. I'm Ryan, and I run Engadget, so the only people to "have a good talk with me" about this kind of stuff is, well, readers like you. And our readers did talk to me -- by sending dozens of emails stating the Apple store was down. So I responded to the readers by doing a brief post.
Granted, it's not super newsy or really important at all -- which I thought I made clear in the 44 word post (shorter than this comment). In fact, my goal with the post was pretty much just to get people to chill out about the fact that the Apple store was down, since tech fans start to run amok at the idea of new Apple products. Apparently you didn't catch that. (Here it is again: "Yep, we know the Apple store is down, so no need to continue emailing us frantically. Remember, just because Apple takes down the store when it's launching new products doesn't mean that just because store goes down new products are to be expected, ok?")
Either way, we didn't delay any other news or stop up our process to do this post, so I'm not sure what the problem is.
P.S. http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/tired-of-iphone-and-or-apple-news-on-engadget/
Yes because ever computer I use through the day I have bookmarked to an alternate, very long, URL. I use about a dozen systems where www.engadget.com is pretty much where I go. Simply put Apple's web site being down is not news. As you yourself mentioned Apple does this to do house cleaning. All I'm asking is wait a half an hour and see what pops up. The result of the outage is blog worth, or may be, the act itself? Not so much.
If you are getting tired of the apple news then its simple dont read about it geez.... if people wanta post about it then let them!
May be apples releasing the idontcare
I noticed that the new iPhone ads are up.
Has it anything to do with the new iPhone ads that were mentioned on TUAW?
Please stop posting every time some grunt fixes a spelling error or changes some minor typo or adds a demo of a product no one wants.
Now, as for this "update page" being because the HUGE database requires so much updating that it takes 10 minutes or more to happen?
Just wrap the whole thing in a transaction and get it over with. Unless you're using I'm-too-good-for-transactions-MySQL.
New ipods are comming on the 4th of september ... not before. But hey .. don't tell anyone .. its a secret.
Last night the Macbook prices dropped $100 and Macbook pro by $200, also the additional ram for the Macbook was $135, I was in the market to buy but 10 minutes later the prices were all back up. I don't know if this means that new ones are on the way.
Maybe it is a secret .... isecret opps I wasn't suppose to tell !!!!!!
Damn it!!!! Apple maintenance is a news itself ahh!!!!
I don't understand why this is news for crying out loud?!? I mean seriously... I would understand if you posted a news article after the site was down and came back with new products or services, but making a post just because it's down is ridiculous. What's next, are you going to start reporting when Steve Jobs goes to the john?
You don't see any Mac users/Apple fans complaining about the mass of PC news do you? Seriously if you're too good to even stand a little bit of Apple news that pops up occasionally then don't even bother reading or posting a comment. It's that simple. Back to your holes now.
Made you look! :)
Dear Engadget,
Please wait until something happens before reporting it as news.
i think they added the highlights on the bottom
All the PC news is just boring though, "Asus comes out with a new laptop, includes features and specs in-box"
but everyone is supposed to get so excited about apple news. How many updates were there on the new imacs?? i dont see that many when a new HP laptop comes out... what makes apple so special that people act like its some sort of elite club or something where if you're in it, you rock...
engadget, i'm a big mac fan, but can we be done with these 'store is down' posts already? i dunno, maybe there are plenty of interest for these posts, but personally find kinda annoying.
thx.
System down don't mean new products. It's only a maintenance time. And no rumors for apple for now.
The "Why you'll love a Mac" section has been updated. Usually when they close the store that section goes down. Thats the only difference I see.