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Apple's amazing Tokyo elevator (video)

backstage.ilounge.com — Found in the Apple Store in Tokyo, Japan's Ginza district: as described more fully in this week's Overseas Report, Apple has now outfitted the multi-story elevator entrances in Ginza with video pillars...

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  • scottvc, on 10/12/2007, -24/+7omg what an elevator. you have to watch the video to see it in action!
    • ewok85, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19Lets get the facts straight - these screens are not in the elevators, they simply show an "elevator-like" rundown on whats on each floor. If you read the report they are simply showing on screens within the store near actual escalators to quickly let you know which floor has what. No doubt the elevators still suck as much as they did the last time I was there.

      And if you did read the article, its full of all sorts of mistakes - the nano is popular but the full sized 6th gen is equally popular as alot of people feel uneasy about the size of the nano. Their last mention of an advert in some random magazine is nice, but they don't realise that that exact same advert was displayed inside trains on the Yamanote loop line in Tokyo (a heavily used train) for a month. Not just one or two, easily a dozen per car, in all 11 cars, in every train on the loop (my guess would be around 60~ at any time) seen by 3.5million people a day. Not to mention that the prize for just about any competition and gift for signing up for something is an iPod anyway.
    • thiagoleon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I once went to a tall building called Sky City, in Tokyo. As the elevator went up 60 floors without stopping, the lights faded out, and a navy-blue glow and black lights illuminated the elevator's walls, showing stars and other things from the sky. Very cool.
    • ewok85, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Its called Sunshine City, in Ikebukuro. You got the city part right though :p
      (And yeah, the black light and UV-paint murial in the elevator is very cool)
    • FreonGrr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3The walls are decorated with fishes, stars and planets because there are an aquarium and a planetarium up there (aside from the pretty cool view you've got from there).

      Here is a (poor) pic I took when I went there: http://www.flickr.com/photos/freongrr/168838322/in/photostream/
  • antsinchk, on 10/12/2007, -10/+5Dam that is cool! I wanna live in Japan!
  • punkrockscks, on 10/12/2007, -8/+11dugg for pure badassness.
  • meefman, on 10/12/2007, -6/+38a flatscreen with very pretty apple-esque graphics in an elevator does not equal amazing

    i demand that apple makes elevators that travel in 6 dimensions
    • Harbinger67, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6/signed

      I fail to see how that is amazing at all. Techno-niftyness in JAPAN! NO WAI!
  • Silencer7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12When I was there (w/camera), a helpful sales clerk was on me within two seconds to tell me pictures were prohibited. Lucky iLounge...
    • rspeed, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3When was this? They apparently changed the policy about cameras a few years ago (in the States, at least).
    • gameguy43, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3RTFA, or even TFAdescription, this is in japan.
    • thiagoleon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Thats a big problem here in japan - you can't take pictures of almost any closed space. I once couldn't even send an email using my mobile phone from inside a museum!
    • knugen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3thiagoleon:

      So THAT's why japanese people take so many pictures when they're touristing (is that even a verb?)
    • richpav, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3In most stores they don't allow photography. (Isn't it the same pretty much anywhere in the world?) The trick is to scope out the place to figure out what you want to take pictures of first, do it quickly and discreetly, then politely apologize for your ignorance when you're told to stop. As long as you're apologetic and you stop when you're told, you won't get in trouble. In my experience it's street vendors (newspaper kiosks, ramen stalls) who yell at you as if they're one step away from punching you in the face.

      BTW, overseas tourists in Japan take as many photos of mudane things as Japanese do overseas.
    • UprightJoe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Thats a big problem here in japan - you can't take pictures of almost any closed space. I once couldn't even send an email using my mobile phone from inside a museum!"

      I went to a ton of museums when I was in Japan earlier this year and none of them banned photography outright except for the Studio Ghibli museum. Many of them would not allow you to use a flash or tripod though.

      As for taking pictures inside stores, most companies in the states have the same policy. In fact, there are a couple of upscale malls near me where you can't even take photographs inside the mall. I see security guards chasing people down all the time. It's pretty retarded. Most of the time it's just somebody shopping with family who is in from out of town or teenagers posing with their friends. The boundries between public and private spaces are being rapidly redefined here in some ways.

      I also felt like a bit of a dork walking around everywhere in Japan with my SLR hanging from my neck. I wondered if they thought all Americans walked around with cameras taking pictures constantly.
  • firemillen2, on 10/12/2007, -25/+4wow! makes me want to rush out and buy an ipod so i can be part of this cool cult.

    shut the ***** up fanboys. it's a ***** elevator.
    • floridiot, on 10/12/2007, -7/+10It's cool because of the panel, not cause it has iPods in it. lewzer
  • growlzor, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2I think I would forget I needed to get off, I'd just be looking at the awesome displays for each floor
  • ElGuano, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10I was there last year. The elevator doesn't have any buttons, it just goes up all five floors and comes back down, stopping on each floor automatically (best way to handle the high amount of regular traffic I guess). The LCD video in the link is just like a mall directory - it loops constantly and isn't any indicator of what floor the elevator is current on.

    Btw, the Ginza store is great; it's listed in all the travel guides as the place to go for free internet access on (on Floor 5), so long as you can live with the weird JP keyboards!
  • dimsum05, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5wTfomFg!!!!shift111shift+1
    Why am I not living in Japan, again???
    Beautiful
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Because you don't know Japanese..
    • richpav, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5It's not as if all the elevators here in Japan look like that. 99% of them are quite plain, although you'll often (20-30% of the time?) find ones with a recorded female voice that announce the floors and when the doors open or close.

      Seems like a lot of people think Tokyo looks like the city in Blade Runner with hovercars and robots walking dogs. Or maybe I'm just so used to them I don't notice.
    • Silencer7, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2You may even find real elevator girls in nice Japanese department stores, whom are far superior to mere shiny displays IMHO.
      "Elebe-taa ga mairimasu..."
    • Citronjaune, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5God damn it... It's not in the elavator it's a screen on a pilar... Seriously... who cares about this ***** ? It's only an animation on a pilar...
    • Wyzard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Seems like a lot of people think Tokyo looks like the city in Blade Runner with hovercars and robots walking dogs."

      Well, there aren't any hovercars or robots walking dogs, but the cityscape at night certainly looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Go up in Tokyo Tower and look around -- lights all the way out to the horizon in every direction.

      (Speaking of Tokyo Tower, that's another interesting elevator to ride...)
  • TheDew, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1

    Slick.

  • zoltan, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1I wish my Ipod did that.

    I should have checked out an apple store in Hungary 2 days ago. Too bad I didnt think of it :(
    • awnr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There are no (Apple-owned and operated) Apple Stores in Hungary. Just like the rest of the world, there are Apple-certified "Service Providers" and retailers, but all of those use their own interior design and so forth.

      In fact, Apple only has their own stores in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Japan. There are stores rumored or in the works for France and some other large european countries, though.
  • emceepecks, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10No scratches?
  • noeljohnhoward, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7the first animation of the whole building looks like a giant G5
    • zoltan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2they have access to windex there too!
  • xtr3m, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7I bet that if it was done by a different company people would call it a waste of time.
  • digitallysick, on 10/12/2007, -12/+5Do you think the elevator has DRM?
    • astrosmash, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Yes. It's designed to keep people like you out.
  • liveinabin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0That elevator rules, I was in it a couple of weeks back. That whole building is SO minimal.
  • DrScript, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1yea i was in it too :) lol
  • geezusfreeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The submission is inaccurate, but I'm not going to mark it as such because the video is still cool, so simply no Digg.
  • RaisedFist, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1www.duggmirror.com
  • retawd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I expected more. It is no Wonkavator.
  • zoltan, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1id hang out in that elevator until someone kicked me out... where some headphones and tell people im trying to find the headphones jack
  • ComputerNap, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1It's like living in a futuristic movie!
  • badtz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I love Japan's modern/futuristic esthetic. This wouldn't fly here in the states, where wood trims and faux everything is considered "nice" ......
  • astrosmash, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2That's it! I'm buying a Mac and moving to Japan.
  • eN1X, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3They always have better stuff than us! EVEN FROM AMERICAN COMPANIES! :(
  • Spankov, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Ridiculous. It's just an elevator you idiots!
    It's like the Red Bull offices; everyone freaking out about how 'cool' they are. In a few years they'll look ridiculously outdated (I think they look ***** now TBH).
    And just imagine the dignity you'll have if you lose your job and you have to use that slide.
  • volcomguy32686, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2leave it to apple to have an elevator that doesn't have windows.
  • xatx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2whats a thanksgiving holiday without lots of apple spam. buried.
  • professorChaos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Friggin Sweet
  • JohnyD, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1OMG!! Apple is SOOOO cool! I mean... A FRIGGIN ANIMATION showing different floors?!@ WOWx0rz!! I tell you... Apple is leading the pack. I mean... their packaging alone makes me want to buy an iPod... and now an animation of store floors? I'd re-mortgage my house just to blow 50K there! I think I might buy another iPod just because of this story!

    Update: this is ***** retarded... insta-burried.
  • Darthgon, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0This is what mac idiots do. Get flashed by stupid elevator signs. This is retarded!
  • ewooding, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I have a feeling that APPLE did not create that, but the elevator manufacturer did... but hey... what do I know?

    IT'S AN ELEVATOR!
  • devilsanthem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Either way, I think Apple should get into the architecture business, I think Steve Jobs has a knack for that too seeing as in how he designed the Apple Store in Manhattan.
  • Wyzard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The summary is a little misleading: this isn't all that new. I was in that store back in May and the video pillars were there.

    The store itself is pretty cool, though. I haven't been in many Apple stores so maybe most of them look like this, but the Ginza one is all silver on the front with a big white Apple logo in the middle, so it actually looks like a Mac.
  • yannicwalter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0link down for me..
  •  

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