It seems funny now, but Apple's 2001 decision to open a chain of glossy white boutiques was thought to be pretty risky at the time -- there was no shortage of pundits declaring that the stores would fail spectacularly. (To be fair, no other manufacturer made it work except Sony, kind of. Read on.) Six years and several million iPods later, of course, the stores are a resounding success, and flagship stores are suddenly all the rage. Not every manufacturer's getting so lucky at the mall, however -- Randall Stross of the New York Times compared his experiences at a couple of Sony's 39 retail stores with a visit to an Apple Store, and came away less than impressed. Stross found both Sony outlets virtually deserted except for inattentive salespeople and security personnel, while the Apple Store was packed with shoppers and friendly staff. The Sony stores, according to the "retail consultants" Stross later talked to, are merely "places of stuff," a condition which makes them not "shop-able," while the Apple outlets "extend an emotional connection." Stross concludes that Sony would do better if they had a hit product (duh) but we think the real secret is something a little different (no pun intended) -- Stross quotes a consultant who says all you need to do is "absorb the fumes" at an Apple Store and you "feel like the smartest technophile in the world." Man, that RDF is some pretty powerful stuff, eh?

[Via TUAW]

While you gotta wonder who at the Gray Lady thought this thing up, the New York Times Garden Expert does seem like it might actually be kinda useful now that spring is finally here. Looking like a cross between a novelty fridge magnet and a circa-1993 RadioShack discount PDA, the Garden Expert contains 1000 answers to common gardening questions culled from the NYT's Garden Expert column, like "What flowers attract butterflies?" Not the highest of high-tech, but for $20 it's pretty hard to complain. And say, isn't a certain day coming up?

[Via OhGizmo]

Don't get us wrong, we have a special place in our robo-hearts for the Grey Lady, but you know we're gonna get a little chuckle about today's billowy two-pager on this totally new thing called QR codes that the Japanese have been using for, um, years. (And that we've been writing about for some time as well.) Still, we're not exactly balking since we do love QR so very, very much, and anything that could be done (including New York Times exposure) to faster integrate it into connected lives is something you know we're down with. Next up from the NYT's Japanese dispatches: a new phenomena sweeping the nation, an adorable character named "Hello Kitty".

Following last month's deal with web video publisher Brightcove, TiVo has announced another round of partnerships that will bring various on-demand video clips to broadband-equipped Series 2 owners, with a new service called TiVoCast. The company has been making moves in this direction for some time now, but this is the first time we're being offered content that we'd actually bother watching, including NBA and WNBA highlights, New York Times-produced video (featuring David Pogue's often-humorous reviews), advice from CNET, and a dose of hip hop culture from H2O, along with male- and female-targeted programming from Heavy.com and iVillage, respectively. The new content -- accessible from the "Showcases" screen when it begins appearing next month -- will not be available to everyone, however, as USA Today is reporting that neither DirecTV subscribers nor Comcast customers will have access to any of these value-added TiVoCast downloads.