During my lunchbreak today, I checked out Tekserve, New York’s 15-year-old nerdvana for Apple loyalists too cool or stubborn to shop at the Apple Store in SoHo. I though it might be a good time to investigate it since it could get knocked upside the head by a rumored new Apple Store in the Flatiron District, located mere blocks away from Tekserve’s location at W. 23rd St. between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.
The architecture is pure Chelsea, with super-high ceilings buttressed by white-painted columns, brick walls, hardwood floors, etc. It’s totally geeked-out with a large bank of classic Compact Macs (those ones from the mid- to late-1980s with the CPU, monitor and floppy drive squashed into a stout, flat-faced, breadbox-sized unit) near the entrance. A shelf near the ceiling is crowded with antique radios, and in the back, they have a trio of working Compact Macs that display the “currently being served” number for the sales, repairs and pick-up/rental departments (you take a ticket when you enter). Cool! Retro signage and classic “Think Different” posters cover the walls. Decor includes a giant fishtank, a vintage working Coke machine, a metal spinner-rack of comic books to read while-U-wait, and lots of Macs on display to fiddle with, including several with impressive peripheral setups, like one hooked up to a full pro audio mixing board. The wait seemed long for any kind of customer service, but the hipster staff was smiley, helpful and genuinely friendly, which you don’t get a lot of in this city.
One reason for my visit was that my trusty PowerShot S30 seems to be busted. The display shuts itself off seconds after the camera is turned on, and more critically, it won’t take any photos. (Had you wondered about the recent lack of photos posted around here? Yeah, I didn’t think so.) One of the camera’s many dents has opened just wide enough to allow access to the camera’s innards and I surmise that some moisture or gunk got in there, fouling things up or shorting something out. At any rate, I half-heartedly perused Tekserve’s digital camera selection, but my heart really wasn’t in it. I did notice, however, that the good news is that I can get so much more (speed, megapixels, features and compactness) in a digital camera for the same price I paid for my PowerShot way back in 2001 or so. But the bad news is that price is still several hundred bucks. Boo. Time to start saving!