Roland Tanglao's Weblog

Chuff'ed to be on the #5 on the Now Public Vancouver list with Rebecca, Tris and whole bunch of fine folks including the blog father Darren, and Kris and Boris. Let's rock it as Tris said! More fun, more media, more insight, more, more, more! See you at BarCamp Vancouver tomorrow!

QUOTE from Tris - Most of Vancouver’s MostPublic list will be at BarCamp this weekend I’m sure

Congrats to everyone on the list. Now let’s rock it.

[From A View from the Isle by Tris Hussey]

END QUOTE

Well I went to FutureShop expecting more of the same old same old and I wasn't disappointed :-). Cleaner lines and better organized stuff but really not much different. Oh well.

Here's what I want: a store staffed by people who are all like the "Apple Geniuses" i.e. if I am looking for an iPhone lanyard strap, I could talk to an iPhone expert, if I am looking for a washing machine, I could talk to an washing machine expert. And there would be WiFi and computers so I could do my research in-house. I'd rather queue for somebody who knows what they are talking about than have to deal with three friendly people who don't.

I don't really enjoy dealing with staff who obviously don't have any product knowledge or who know less that what a Google Search would reveal. Unfortunately that's the norm for stores like these.

However, I am dreaming I know. I'll settle for a staff that isn't afraid to admit they know less than the customer and who are charming and friendly without being overly so.

And if anybody knows where I can get a lanyard case for an iPhone 3G, please leave a comment!

UPDATE: Vincent Janelle says that it could be that the Eye-Fi card is not approved by the CRTC.  Thanks Vince!

I am going on Darren's client Future Shop's blogger opening tonight and I know it's off topic but I have a question for Future Shop buyers: Why don't you sell the cool gadgets? Like the Eye-Fi card which IMHO is mass market (and to my knowledge has been available in the USA for over 6 months but is still unavailable from Canadian mass market retailers)  but still cool?

I have always loved gadgets. Ever since I have been a kid back in the 1970s I have been buying (via mail order) gadgets that were unavailable in Canada. Things are better now, since we have E-Bay (which I loathe, but that's another blog post) but we are still behind. Perhaps somebody should open up a retail version of TigerDirect.ca? I'd pay a premium to touch and feel cool gadgets that aren't officially available in Canada and to buy them immediately without suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous duty, mail order, e-bay and other annoying things like that.