Farewell Apple Store Webcam

Yep, it's official. On May 28th, 2008 at 5:07 PM, we turned off the AppleStore webcam after 16 months of faithful service.

Gary of IFO and TSP are hoping to have some compiled time lapse footage of the destruction/construction put together in the near future - but there's a lot of video to go through, so don't hold your breath.

Thanks to Axis Communications for making a great camera! Thanks to the folks in Cupertino for sending us cookies! And thanks to all of the TSP folks for, well, just being you!

From left to right: Ben P. (Business Acct Mgr), Ted D. (Sales Guru and Digital Imaging Specialist), Paulo R. (In-House Technician), Graham R. (In-House Coorindator), Me (Prez), Alanna S-B (Exec Assistant), and Robert H (Finance) - And the 18 others that didn't make it to the impromptu photo session...

What's Next for the Webcam?

So what's next for the Apple Store webcam?

Not really sure. The construction is complete and 1000s of people are piling into the Boston Apple Store a day. Tech Superpowers had a great opening day as well, providing breakfast burritos from Boloco for the 25 people in line at the break of dawn, and pizza and soda from Bostones for the first 100. We handed out hundreds of TSP stickers and took photos and videos of the huge line.

Chances are, we'll simply sign off and leave Apple, ifo, Architosh, and all of our faithful viewers to go about their usual business. But if anyone out there has a good idea about what we can do with the webcam, we're all ears.

Today's the Big Day

Lots of stuff going on - and a lot of other sources covering the big day.

Here's some links to today's coverage, along with some pics.

http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/boylston_street/index.html
http://www.techsuperpowers.com/files/AppleStore/index.html
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/boylston_street/photo5/index.html

In short: it's an amazing looking store. Congratulations Apple on opening the biggest store yet in Boston!

It's Official: Opening Day is Thursday

According to the Boston Globe - the opening day is Thursday, May 15th. Time is still unknown, but our guess is likely 6PM, like other Apple Store openings. Coincidentally, there's a little blurb about our little company in there too. ;)

That also happens to be an off-day for the Red Sox, so some people have been throwing around the theory that there might even be more of a tie-in with the Apple Store and the Red Sox beyond the Green Monster. I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that one.

For our part, we'd like to welcome the Apple Store and its 165 employees to Boston (it's the first one in Boston proper). Over the past year of coverage, we've met some great people, from the construction workers onsite to the folks in Cupertino in charge of the store's construction (who by the way have been using our webcam to make sure that things have been going according to plan).

We can wait for the opening on Thursday. It will mean a new chapter for our company (hopefully a good one), and even we have a couple things in store for opening day.

Green Monster unveiled

As many people have already mentioned, the front of the store has been uncovered to show a Green Monster-themed graphic.

In the back, the curbs in the alleyway have been replaced, back sidewalk has been poured, much of the debris has been cleared, and the crane that was used to hoist the large stone panels on the back of the store drove away on Saturday, after being parked there for what seemed like months. It definitely seems that the work is focusing more on the interiors now, as we've seen steel cages (reportedly for inventory) being taken in one piece at a time through the back door.

And in other Red-Sox/Apple Store related news, rumor has it a that a Tech Superpowers t-shirt is buried in the foundation of the Apple Store...

Construction winding down, Anticipation winding up!

Well, if the looks of the outside are any indication, the inside should be coming along as well. Today, it looks like they're looking to complete the back facade of the building - and onlookers report that the glass of the front facade is going in as well.

As construction nears what looks like the final stages, the mood at TSP is one of anxiety and anticipation: What will happen when the doors open? Will we get no more walk-in service customers? Will we get a boat-load of referrals from the Apple Store business consultants looking for a Mac professional services firm? Will the Genius Bar help us rent more laptops to people that have their machines in for service? Will this city block become "Apple Central" for Boston and New England?

Probably a little bit of everything.

TSP has been working on a two-year strategy to position ourselves as the perfect complement to a flagship Apple Store: a Mac-only professional services shop with hardware service, onsite, and remote support capabilities. And it looks like we're just weeks away from seeing if that strategy will work. That work has included some fundamental changes to our business and making some bets on where we think the Apple Store will take us - so while the future of our business probably doesn't depend on this store, it's highly swayed by its existence.

Here's just a peek at some of our new services, hopefully they will help Apple succeed not just with their Apple Store, but with getting Macs into brownstones and businesses all over Boston:

- Our Managed Macs managed services suite to support pro and business Mac users for a flat monthly charge
- Increased staffing of our onsite consultants, who are pros at Leopard Server and large deployments
- Increased focus on Data Recovery and Customer Backup services
- Hard drive upgrades for older Laptops and Desktops
- Beefing up our Mac-Friendly Hosting Services, perfect for small to medium-sized Mac businesses, and running on Xserves!
- Providing Offsite Backups for Mac Servers
- A larger Rental Pool of laptops for Apple Store repair customers
- And much much more...

Tell us what you think! Will we succeed or fail? Should we pack up and get out of Dodge, or brace for the massive influx of customers? Time will tell, but one thing is for certain: Apple doesn't keep us bored!

Grand Opening... still waiting for word

As usual, the mothership is quite quiet about the progress on the Apple Store. Even as an Apple Reseller, we have no idea when the store will open. Based on the progress being made on the outside and inside of the store, we're guessing it's still a couple months away, even though the apple logo has obviously been installed.

So while we're all waiting for word, we have been wondering - what could we do to make this Apple Store Opening grander than the rest?

At Tech Superpowers, we've been throwing around a new slogan: "We start where the Apple Store stops..." That applies to our hosting, consulting, even our repair services - there are just so many things that the Apple Store doesn't do - even with all that they do so well. But can we make it apply to the grand opening as well?

So what could we do to make it bigger and cooler than the rest? Overnight stays have been done. Grab bags. T-shirts. V-casting, Podcasting. Blogging while in line. C'mon - those were all being done back when they were selling Powerbook G4s in the Apple Store.

It's time for something as new and refreshing as the MacBook Air. What do you think? What would make it truly worth leaving the comfort of your own house for?

Should we bring out the Geek My Ride Lexus? Do some guerilla WiFi? Project the TSP logo on the glass using lasers? Got an idea - tell us!

Something big on Saturday?

We've been told by the construction guys to clear out our parking lot on Saturday, from 7AM to 4PM (ET), to make way for a crane - it must be a BIG one. They've been using a crane that sits in the alleyway to do some lifting over the past few weeks, but I guess this one must need a lot more space – our parking lot can hold 4 cars (2 x 2).

If anyone has nothing to do on a lazy Saturday, keep the site up and watch the crane do its thing...

Storefront Construction

Our Webcam is pointed towards the back of the future Boylston Street store, but this flickr photo shows the front of the building, with scaffolding going up to help erect the complex, 3-story glass storefront.

Webcam moving soon...

We're going to moving the webcam up a story soon to see if we can get a better view of what's up top, since the current view is now, well, boring. We'll be making that move at Friday around 9AM ET.

X-bracing, opening potential and roof garden

I suppose it is about time I start contributing some knowledge to this excellent blog. From the September 22 photos there is an excellent shot of the new Apple Store from the Pru. It appears that there is a two story high rear section above the store roof. All the structural bays (excepting the middle one) have diagonal steel bracing (x-bracing, that's not what it is called but what it looks like). This pretty much rules out any fenestration (windows) along those faces. This rear area is most likely the mechanical area for housing heating, ventilation, and  air-conditioning (HVAC). But I will say the one open bay has me thinking....

Could Apple possibly have a conference room up there, with a large window over-looking a nice roof garden (a la, the Chicago Store)?

I personally think Apple needs to insert nice conference-presentation-teaching facilities into their flagship stores. This will enable them to put on "business-class" events in a setting that has privacy and treats professionals like professionals. Some of the architecture related events that have taken place in the past in smaller stores are forced to use the "theaters" and Studio spaces, which lack seating potential for larger numbers. 

Parade Today!

It might be the Apple Store that everyone on this webcam is waiting for, but just on the other side of the building, the crowds are collecting to wait for the winners of this week's 2007 World Series. Boylston street is one of the main roads going from Fenway towards the Boston Common - and the Red Sox parade route goes right by the location of the Apple Store, proving once again that location is everything.

Maybe next year, the Apple Store employees can watch them go by again. :)

Concrete Pour On Floors

I'm catching up with the time-lapse videos, and noticed that the concrete floor pour began on Sept. 25th. The winter sun has moved into position to create some glare in the Webcam lens. But you can catch glimpses of the boom arm of the concrete pump in the back alley. Looking at several days, you can also now tell that the floors are all smooth and dark gray, rather than the corrugated steel that was visible previously. Otherwise it's difficult to see what work is being performed each day. Plumbing and electrical work are obviously being done, but you can't really see that.

Time-Lapse Archive Narrowed

Thanks to Mark for some dramatic alternate views of the store that show more than our 24-hour Webcam, including a front view, and a dramatic overhead photo in the shadow of the Prudential Building, showing how the store fits into the neighborhood, and the location of reseller Tech Superpowers behind the future store. By the way, I've done some housekeeping on the daily time-lapse videos. Videos now available for viewing are now only June through the current day (using the standard link http://ifostore.cachefly.net/boston/xxxyy.mov, where x=month in three letters and y=date in one or two digits). Also available is day one, day two, Feb. 26-28, and the recent Week of Steel showing the steel going up.

Up, Up and Away

The future Apple store is going up, up, up! In fact, it practically took off over a two-week period, right out of camera range. So we've re-adjusted the camera upward a bit to provide a better overall view of the construction, which is still continuing at a fast pace. What you now see at the very bottom of the frame is the sidewalk-level floor (ground floor?). You're looking slightly down at the second level, and you're looking directly across at the third-level floor beams. I have no idea why the upper floor steel is silver-colored and the lower floors a dark red. We can some concrete pouring for the floors, electrical and plumbing work, and eventually the walls of the building will go up. At that point, we'll have to switch to the live satellite view! I've extended the "house raising" time-lapse through Sept. 4th, but will return to daily videos on Wednesday the 5th.