Maybe it's just because it was my first column post-hurricane. But yesterday's column about the comparative experiences of a Windows laptop user and I both trying to bum free wireless access from outside the Orlando Apple Store has certainly garnered quite a bit of a response. And most of that response has been centered not around the poor Windows guy going through such contortions just to join a free, open, visible, non-passworded network, but instead around the simple act of gaining free internet access outside an Apple Store in the first place. That's pretty remarkable, considering that yesterday's column didn't even tell the second half of the story -- the part about what happened when my laptop's battery finally ran out.
You see, I was desperate enough to get caught up on four or five days' worth of backlogged internet-based work that I showed up at the Mall at Millenia a full three hours before Monday's online iPod Garage User Group meeting was to begin. This gave me plenty of time to get all kinds of work accomplished, and it was during this time that our WIndows-using friend came by and gained net access in twenty-three easy steps. But in the process of getting my work done, I chewed through enough of my PowerBook's battery that I realized (too late) that I had no chance of making it through the entire two-hour user group meeting before running out of juice.
Finding an electrical outlet became imperative, and I began scoping out every nook and crevice of the mall within range of the wireless signal. No dice. The mall is designed such that each store has electrical outlets tucked just on the inside of its storefront, not the outside. So what it came down to was that in order to plug in my laptop, I was going to have to go inside (and remain inside) the Apple Store for at least a few hours.
So I walked into the store, hoping that it would be nearly empty, meaning that I could probably do whatever I wanted to. And on a Monday evening, I wouldn't have expected this store to be all that busy, but it turns out that the whole place was pandemonium. It was loud enough in there that I could barely even focus on my goal of completely mis-using their store for my own personal gain. Maybe it was because so many people were without power are were looking for something to do. Or maybe the Apple brand really has become that much more popular in the past few months since I've been here. But either way, the place was hopping.
I noticed that there were electrical jacks embedded in the floorboard of the front display, so I just plopped down on the floor, leaned back against the inside of the storefront, pulled out my PowerBook, plugged it in, and went to work. I figured I'd just keep cranking along until one of the employees came over and politely hinted that I wasn't exactly a paying customer, and shepherded me out the door.
But you know what? It never did happen. At first I figured that they were all too busy with all those customers to even notice me. But three or four different times, store employees noticed me, made eye contact with me, and just sort of nodded at me and kept going about their business. Maybe it was because I'd done a good enough job of parking myself out of their way and out of the way of the actual customers. Or perhaps they were just cutting me some slack because they (correctly) figured that I was one of the hundreds of thousands of people around here without power.
But you know what? I've never met an Apple Store employee who didn't have an eye on Apple's big picture. And what I think is that they spotted a guy sitting there on the floor of their store, using an Apple laptop, jamming to an Apple iPod, and figured that I was just about the best advertisement that money could buy. I mean, what better living proof to all those potential switchers in the Apple Store, than a satisfied current Apple user stopping off to get some work done?
While I was sitting there, I looked on the Apple website to see when the store was scheduled to close that evening, and when it finally approached that hour, I grabbed my stuff and headed back out the front door in order to park myself out on the couch in the main mall area. I managed to stay there about another half-hour or so, before mall security guards finally made eye contact with me. And unlike with the employees in the Apple Store, these guys weren't exactly giving me that "feel free to go about your business" look. So, knowing that it was finally time to give it up, I excused myself from the user group meeting, packed up, and headed home.
Now I'm not suggesting that any of you go and camp out on the floor of the Apple Store with your own laptop as brazenly as I did, just to see what you can get away with. I certainly wouldn't have done it myself if not for the necessity created by the circumstances, and I hope that I don't have to do it again anytime soon. But it's nice to know that when you're in a pinch, Apple Stores are more than willing to allow you to do what you've got to do in order to keep your Mac experience a joyous one...regardless of whether they might be profiting from you at the moment or not.
