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CBS green lights 'Genius Bar' TV show
Apple's Genius Bar will soon be able to add 'entertainment' to its list of things it does for people, as CBS has given two thumbs up for a show pilot titled Genius Bar. The show apparently follows the employees of a place similar to Apple's Genius Bar and their adventures with "the cool, hip and beautiful" employees of a nearby Ambercrombie & Fitch-like store.Excuse me while I gag.Ok, and.. we're back from the gagging break. What on earth are these people thinking? Granted, Apple is flying high right now, but hold the phone. If Apple wanted a show to pimp themselves and their products, they could have conjured (or had CBS conjure) anything cooler than this: a Matrix rip-off where all the white and candy blue code looks like AppleScript, and the Agent Smiths look more like clones of Bill Gates, or a CSI spin-off where all the lab machines are Xserves and Mac Pros, and all the camera work in the field is done with MacBooks and iSights. Knowing CBS, the hip but slightly-too-arrogant Johnny from the Kinda-Genius Bar will have to cancel his date with Electra from Kimbercrombie & Fitch because he has to fix Heath Ledger's iPod. Ugh. But who knows - maybe the saving grace of the show might be that its straight-from-radio pop soundtrack will be available from the iTunes Store.
Apple upgrading online Concierge reservation system
It looks as though Apple's Concierge, their online system allowing for Genius Bar reservations, is undergoing a bit of an upgrade. There wasn't much warning, and we don't have any details of what shiny new goodies are going to debut, but it was an already pretty slick system that is bound to get even better if they're making this big of a deal out of it. Stay tuned.[Upate: Someone (no, literally: "someone") in our comments pointed out that Apple has already rolled out this shiny upgrade to some of their retail stores, and you can already access it at the San Francisco's store site. Looks like a handy new system.]
How Apple geniuses find out about new Apple products
I have been enjoying the 'Pure Genius' column over at Mac Geekery since they started running, and the most recent column is no exception. If you have ever wonder how much Apple Store employees know about upcoming products wonder no more (the answer is little to nothing). As always, misbehaving customers figure into the column. Am I the only one that is fairly pleasant to Apple Store Employees?Go hug your local Apple Genius, and tell 'em Scott sent ya.
Mac-wielding celebrities
ifoAppleStore is pointing to a great Flickr find today: A (blurry) snapshot of John Stewart bringing his iMac into the SoHo Genius Bar for service (how he managed to get an appointment there I'll never know). The picture reminded me of these shots of John Krasinski from NBC's The Office checking out an iPod in an unidentified New York Apple Store. Since we don't venture out of our secret TUAW offices in the gymnasium of the abandoned parochial school with any great regularity, we don't get to see many Mac-toting celebs in the wild. So, we're posing the question to you: Have you ever made such a sighting?
