back to article Frisco fanboi frenzy on 'iPad Day'

To bag yourself an iPad on its day of release, you either have to have planned ahead or know the best place to shop. I didn't and don't. Unless you've been trekking through the high-desert Pamir Mountains in southeast Tajikistan, you knew that Saturday was the day that Apple's long awaited "magical and revolutionary" iPad went …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Big-nosed Pengie

    LOL

    Fanbois!

  2. Ben winnipeg
    Thumb Down

    lemmings

    what a sad day, what a bunch of fools!!!!!

    1. Haku
      Coat

      Totally!

      It's exactly these kind of people who would applause the opening of an envelope.

      Oh, wait...

  3. Martin Huizing
    Grenade

    Yeah.... I'll wait....

    ...till it was flown in from America to China, exchanged for an Apple notebook and put in the display of a friend of mine who handles in ipods, ipads and whatnots.

    I figure $350 would be a nice price for this little gadget. Jealous? You should be.

  4. Alan W. Rateliff, II
    Paris Hilton

    I take exception to the in-the-know assumption

    Actually, I have been spending my time working and in classes, not out hiking, and I was not aware that today was iDay.

    Frankly, did not care, either. Not that I hold any disdain for those who wish to wait in long lines for some new piece of hot kit. No, just not my cup-o-tea. Mind, I do not particularly care for on-holiday shopping either, like Black Friday and such. Although, if I decide I do want something -- like a SATA LightScribe DVD-RW for under $40 -- I know where the hidden registers are, so I am in and out of Worst Buy. (Interesting, another blue-shirt store.)

    In any case, I am neither allured by, nor have any allusions to the effect of, the iPad. Other than so long as it is the Hottest Thing Out There(tm) and will not support Flash, perhaps we will start to see fewer and fewer shitty Flash-only or heavily-laden websites.

    Paris, in and out on Black Friday.

  5. Reverend Brown
    Coat

    The Reg's money?

    I fully expected my commentard subscription money to go towards the magnificent Miss Bee's compensation package, not your Jobsian magical mystery tour shenanigans. Coat please.

    Also, my local Best Buy had a pile of 20-30 iPads sitting behind the counter. When they asked if I wanted one... eh. No thanks. Nice lady didn't look surprised at all. Magical indeed.

  6. jake Silver badge

    More productive ...

    The wife & I headed for D&S Produce (ds-produce.com) and picked up two dozen heirloom tomato plants so we can start our garden in a couple weeks ... If we decide we need an iPad (or other "look at me" bra/penis-enhancer/substitute), we'll get one on the used market for pennies on the dollar in a month or so, roughly when our tomatoes are starting to flower ...

    Watching the local news (KTVU), it's nice to see Steve's still wandering around in downtown Palo Alto, though ... He's not as much of an ass in RealLife[tm] as his reality distortion field would have you believe from Apple's advertising ... Sometimes I wonder why he allows his marketing department to depict him in the way that they do. Sad, really.

  7. Greg J Preece

    Holy crap!

    This *isn't* the top story on the Beeb!

    Oh, no, wait, there it is, every other link in the technology section. Including the usual "Apple are changing everything wowzors!" stories. Morons.

    1. Greg J Preece

      Bwhahaha

      I love how *any* post on an Apple related story that could be regarded as anti-Cupertino receives an inordinate number of downvotes. You lot are worse than the Scientologists.

      (That last bit will probably get me modded.)

      1. ThomH

        At the time of replying

        It's 11 upvotes to 4 downvotes. Could be a perception issue at your end?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meh..

    I love it, iPad buyer owns Mini... Speaks volumes.

  9. Prag Fest
    Go

    Fanbois

    Well yeah, I wouldn't have gone and queued up, but at least they're having a laugh, getting out the house and doing something. As opposed to sitting on their fat arses all day putting the world to rights on internet forums.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      @prag fest

      "sitting on their fat arses all day putting the world to rights on internet forums"

      That's a description of what you're doing, surely? (as am I)

      1. Prag Fest
        Thumb Up

        Roger That

        But of course of my friend, and I would never deny it. However, unlike 95% of the commentators on this site, I am self aware, which makes it ok when I do it.

        Plus, I'm always right.

        1. chr0m4t1c
          Thumb Up

          Handy

          "Plus, I'm always right.".

          I couldn't trouble you for a guess at the Lottery numbers for this Saturday, could I? Or even the Euro Millions ones.

          Thanks in advance...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      @Prag Fest

      No fat arses here but I found myself upnoting you...

      At least with the iPad I could read your posts in full daylight glory or on a trip to the beach..

      Cheers, it's Pub-day today!!

      GaB

  10. iamapizza
    Dead Vulture

    Why go outside?

    Surely these devices can be purchased online without the need for going 'outside' and interacting with other 'people' to create flimsy pretexts for Apple-related stories?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    So the queue in downtown was in purpose

    That's what I gather. They made sure the press saw it.

    1. Andus McCoatover

      Long queue for effect?

      Old nightclub trick. Slow 'em riiiight down, so everyone thinks there must be summat good inside, more people join the queue for a decent 'tsunami' effect, then finally a gorilla (bald head, shades, natch) lets you in and - a few quid down - you're faced with about 150 other suckers, a toilet that's flooding from last night, and a jukebox.

      Shit, this ploy is international.

      (Saw a similar effect in Moscow once, 25 years ago. My ex and I went to Moscow in February for a holiday...(Yeah, I know). Stood looking into the - then- 'Harrods-of-Red-Square' - GUM's camera shop window, amazed there was fuc*k-all there. Turned round to find a queue behind us!).

    2. Les Matthew
      WTF?

      @Andy S.

      Did you also notice a distinct lack of any women in the queues?

    3. JShel
      FAIL

      You're missing the point

      This is so when the fanbois next meet up at WWDC or a Trek Con, they can one up the others telling war stories of how they waited overnight to get their iPad, and it was horrifying the deprivations they went through - no more Red Bull?!?!?!, AT&T 3G clogged with the hundreds of fanbois tweeting about waiting on line, etc.

  12. JRH
    Thumb Down

    Choreographed Lines - nice

    Isn't this straight out of the Harry Potter marketing playbook? What next "hijacked" shipments of ipads and mistaken releases ahead of schedule..

    I know you can't polish one, so I suppose you have to roll it in glitter...

    1. Andus McCoatover
      Coat

      Nah. If you want a early copy....

      Just go to Shropshire.

      http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article78084.ece *

      (Methinks - any iPADS there I can get the cows to 'leave their Greenhouse-gas-unfriendly 'mark' on?)

      Oh, 'pads'. Pats. My bad. Got it, already.

      * Did find it a bit too fanboi when I read, in that distinguished rag - sharing the same stable as it does with the Thunderer - that "The two copies found without the distinctive covers which have already been previewed for the public were stuck together"

      Is JKR soo attractive??

  13. Giles Jones Gold badge

    App for that

    Simple, why doesn't Apple produce an app for the iPhone so you can see where has stock and where doesn't.

    It must be in their interests to sell every iPad possible.

  14. JBH
    Thumb Down

    Why did I read that toss?

    Can I have my five minutes back please?

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think i'll wait....

    till hell freezes over before i part wit h my cash.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    As usual...

    the same old "I'm not interested.. in fact so interested I read the article, got angry about it and then spent my time logging and composing a posting telling you how much I didn't care".

    Have to say I had a similar experience when I bought my iphone, huge queue at O2 store, wandered to the other end of the shopping centre to Carphonewarehouse, only 2 people. If you're that bothered then being bothered enough to go round the stores makes sense.

  17. Stuart Halliday
    Flame

    Does Not Compute!

    So what on Earth does the Register want an iPad for?

    It's just a big iPhone surely they've been shouting at us for the last few months. ;-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Does Not Compute

      >So what on Earth does the Register want an iPad for?

      El Reg being a UK puiblication probably ends its fiscal year on 31st March, the author being based in SF maybe forgot this and realised he hadn't used up his budget. Suddenly realising the folly of this, ie, if you don't use your budget it gets cut, ran out as soon as possible to spend what was left of his budget and doctor the receipt to show a pre-April date in the hope that the bean counters don't notice.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      So what on Earth does the Register want an iPad for?

      It has so many uses: urinal cake, toilet freshener... okay I guess that's just 2 uses.

  18. Eddy Ito
    Coat

    Petula said

    "When you're alone and life is making you lonely, You can always go - downtown"

    You see the whole point of going downtown is to be with people, queuing up would seem to accomplish that. Personally, I don't see how standing about among a bunch of people you don't know with the ultimate goal of buying a whatsit thistime magically makes loneliness go away especially when it's a device to assist in melting away the rest of reality, but there you go. On the other hand if you're an impatient antisocial freak trying to avoid the throng you can hit the mall and be fishing by noon... who knew.

    Oh the clouds are clearing, time to get my antisocial freak on and drown some worms. Ta.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How is it possible...

    That genuine human beings are behaving in this way?

    What are they sneaking into the water supply in Amercia? Seriously? What?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You'd have to be pissed

      They brew some good beers in Burton on Trent so I suppose that could account for the sudden demand for iPads in Mercia although I thought it hadn't been released here yet?

    2. chr0m4t1c
      Alien

      People queue for stuff all the time

      In the Post Office, in the supermarket, they queue up for concert tickets, nightclubs, pubs.

      They queued up for the Wii and for the Xbox 360.

      Usually it's because there's something they want (or need) that they either cannot or do not want to wait for.

      Sony would have loved for them to do it for the PS3. Microsoft tried to engineer it with Windows 95 and again with Windows 7 - unfortunately for them people stayed away in droves.

      Yes, you can often obtain these items by going elsewhere or waiting for the queues to die down, but you risk missing the concert or waiting for months for something to come back into stock.

      I suspect you to be an alien who does not understand our society. Come on, own up.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    hahaha I can taste the fear

    You poor terrified Apple-haters!

    You crack me up!

    LOOK at you all!

    hahahahha classic!

    The beauty is that there is NOTHING you can do to stop the iPad coming to dominate mobile computing!

    I am going to enjoy every whiney whingey little squirm you short-sighted numpties are going to make until you give up, deny anything you ever posted ANTI-iPad and buy one yourself.

    LOOK at yourselves - hilarious!

    1. Mick F
      Thumb Down

      fear?

      I'll buy a pad one day - but it will have Android on and, like the phones, will be dominating Apple in a very short space of time.

      Would never waste my money on another Apple product.

    2. Andus McCoatover
      Megaphone

      Fear? I laugh at it!

      "The beauty is that there is NOTHING you can do to stop the iPad coming to dominate mobile computing!"

      You've massively underestimated the sheer terror, courage and (bugle-blowing) power of the Salvation Army (shops). MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!

      iPad? I bet you'll see one or two in them next week...

      (Quote) Emma Chizzit: "Oh, here's a shilling. What does it actually DO?"

      (Icon, natch)

  21. J 3
    Joke

    Thanks

    What a nice documentary on the behavior of the Apple fanboi in the wild, thanks for that. Got to see any of their matting rituals, too? Oh, wait...

    1. Barry Lane 1
      FAIL

      @ J 3

      Oh yes. Our "matting" rituals are fascinating. We really cut a rug.

      1. Andus McCoatover

        ..We really cut a rug.

        I'm near bald. Not funny. Hate that bit at the hairdressers when they wave a hand-held mirror to see if I like it*, and I can't tell the difference between the mirror or my bonce.

        OK, yes it was. Funny.

        Once a mate of mine had to share an hotel room with a bloke who sported a 'syrup'** . Goddammit, after washing it, he hung it on the end of the bed to dry........

        Now, ain't that taking the biscuit..

        * Try "Nah. Put it back". See what they say...

        ** For our more westerly cousins who've only been freed from the slavery of tea-drinking since 1776, 'Syrup' == 'Syrup of Fig' == 'wig'

    2. Arctic fox

      Always supposing.....

      ........their obsession leaves time for sex?

  22. Armus Squelprom
    Troll

    @ AC 16.31

    "The beauty is that there is NOTHING you can do to stop the iPad coming to dominate mobile computing!"

    mmm, yeah. Just like everyone's got an ipod, an iphone and a mac?? Be realistic, AC - Apple kit is aspirational and pricey, it's never going to dominate the market.

    1. Kevin Bailey

      In our local cafe...

      ...even builders and scaffolders have iPhones. And I don't think I've even seen another MP3 player apart from iPods.

      I think the iPad will be a huge success - it's ideal for non-techies who want the interweb - but can't be bothered with a normal PC/laptop - and that includes Macs.

      And BTW - I don't own anything made by Apple - just thought I'd point out that your statement doesn't ring true.

      Anyway - time will tell.

    2. Andrew Newstead

      Actually...

      it does seem every other person has an iPhone and an iPod, at least it seems so on the train I catch every day to work. Seems to be a fair number of Macbooks too, come to that...

      For the record the train is Derby to Chesterfield and back again, every day.

  23. DEAD4EVER
    WTF?

    ipad day

    seriously what is special about the ipad just for the fact its a bigger screen than the iphone except it isnt a phone haha seriously apple fans are so sad waiting in ques theyll get it then start moaning afterwards that its rubbish haha fact sad people in this world i mean really

  24. ikangai

    The iPad - a Tool for the Mating Season?

    there is a funny post on the iPad mania in an austrain newspaper: http://derstandard.at/1269448624253/Geek-Chic-Killer-App-fuer-das-iPad-Ein-Star-Trek-Logbuch?_seite=3&sap=2#forumstart

    the english translation can be found here: http://www.ikangai.com/blog/uncategorized/the-ipad-a-tool-for-the-mating-season

  25. Ian Wellock

    Navigation Choice

    I'm curious as to why you chose the downtown store to go to first, given the third one you went to was actually closer to your starting point?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      IT Angle

      This trip was ...

      ... on The El Reg bill. Apparently, if you'll excuse the expression, there's an App for that. Offering Journalists a Buffet an and Open Bar is so 2007.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Good Grief

    I think the whole "frenzy" over the iPad is to have something to make a frenzy about, in other words, the iPad itself is incidental. You'd think we'd get to the unboxing or actually using the thing, but nope, a sojourn about going store to store to get one, and there weren't that many people vying in the first place. And I guarantee by next week anyone who wants one will be able to get it. I seriously don't understand the fascination with Apple's things, no one I know personally cares or is even interested in the iPad, yet even the mainstream media has been fanning the hype for what little results they could get.

  27. Steve Evans

    May I be the 372nd to say...

    You sad feckers

  28. Barry Rueger
    Unhappy

    Glaring Omission

    I would like to protest the complete lack of references to feminine hygiene products in this discussion thread. It is, isn't it, about the iPad?

  29. Herby

    Frisco in in TEXAS

    If you are a proper person, the location in question is SAN FRANCISCO, or as us northern Californians simply say "The City".

    I have strong doubts that there is an Apple store in that part of Texas.

    1. jake Silver badge

      @Herby

      ::hush::

      Some of us use that little bit of info as a clue-filter ...

    2. themessiahbyhandel

      That part of Texas?

      Yeah, metropolitan Dallas is a barren wasteland in which Apples can't grow...

      It is populated with gobshites, but there is are Apple stores there. In fact, there's one in Frisco.

      http://www.apple.com/retail/stonebriar/

      1. Herby

        That part of Texas (Frisco)

        I stand corrected. Were there any long lines there on Saturday?

        But Frisco is STILL in Texas!

    3. frank ly
      Headmaster

      @Humpty Dumpty re. 'proper person'

      A good dictionary will give at least 15 meanings/uses of the adjective 'proper'. What's yours?

  30. A 31
    Headmaster

    why ...

    the antagonism ? I never get that over a product ... surely its up to the individual to buy or not

    who gives a monkeys what the brand is ?

    and who gives a royal f... about whether one has an iphone/ipad/nokia/duhdah/whatever ?

    and the antis are as bad as the pro apple/brand/bmw/walkers (put any brand in there)

    I heard anti apple, pro apple, anti bmw, pro bmw, the labelling of the mini-ipad guy

    what the hell is all this , any REALLY interesting comments ?

    For sure this article show, apple or no apple, that consumerism is a sad thing.

    People getting their tents out the night before to buy an entertainent devices ... I suppose Millet's probably gets better sales for pavement camping equipment , since going to a mountain does not provide internet connectivity :D

  31. Wize

    What day does it come out over here?

    I don't want one, I just want to pub crawl past them as they freeze overnight in their queue while I go for some pints of the cold stuff.

    Although I pity the poor revellers who join the end of the line thinking the taxi queue is taking ages to move.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Don't these people...

    ... have a iife?

    you know, wives, girlfriends? - hmm, probably not ;)

    Probably one of The Reg's more pointless stories - "I drove here, didn't like the queue, so I drove there and didn't like the queue either, finally, I drove over there and there was no queue"

    Outstanding journalism!

  33. Arctic fox

    Curious people

    I enjoy technology, very much in fact. Try to keep abreast and all that. However I do like to get out in the sunlight now and then, smell the flowers and so on. Phrases like "get a life" come to mind, regardless of which obsession we are talking about. Macbois are like any other cultists, no more no less.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Sheeple

    As a 25+ year veteran of Silicon Valley, I could have told you this was entirely predictable. 99.99% of the people (including engineers) in the area are sheeple.

    1. jake Silver badge

      @ AC 18:09

      As a 50ish year veteran of SillyConValley, I'm here to tell you that you are running with the wrong flock. As are the rest of the FanBois (of all kinds) in the Greater Bay Area. And all points elsewhere.

  35. Andus McCoatover

    Idea!! (Rich fanbois only)

    Now, who's gonna be the first idiot to tile his bathroom with i-NADS - OOPS - i-PADS?

    C'mon. Step up to the plate....

  36. Gotno iShit Wantno iShit
    Troll

    Good grief.

    What a truly sad fanboi our journalist is. Living equidistant to two iTemples he goes to the 'downtown' one first, presumably to maximise the chance of being observed waving his status symbol in the air as he leaves. Only after the lines prove intolerable does he proceed to the quiet backwater store that any male of the species in possession of a full set of three in his underpants would go to first. Not that a red blooded straight thinking homo sapiens would ever need to go to an apple store y'understand. I don't mind betting that mini you repeatedly mention is no such thing but in fact a lump of Bavarian fashion tax? A vehicle oh so big on the outside and oh so small on the inside, a vehicle with all the point to it of tits on a fish.

  37. tony trolle
    Coat

    used the regs money

    how do i get a job at the reg ?

    but would i want the review the iPad ?

    ONLY if i could take it apart !!!!

    removing pry-bar from coat

  38. Kevin Gordon 1

    Clubcard points

    I'll just go and pick one up from Tesco's when I do my weekly shop. Pint of milk. Check. Loaf of bread. Check. 7 cans of soup. Check. 7 microwave meals. Check. Crate of lager. Check. 7 packs of cigs. Check. Box of tissues. Check. iPad. Check. Job done.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like