Uniqlo, I was prepared to hand over money to you today

And you decided to stay closed on a Monday. So I spent it instead on Starbucks. No hard feelings, okay?

Coco Park Mall, Futian, Shenzhen.

For Chinese babies with more expensive tastes

About $320. Olé Supermarket, Holiday Plaza. Window of the World, Shenzhen.

Apple Store? No. Lenovo Store? Yes.

First one I've seen. Lenovo is selling a fair amount of phones in China and is arguably making the most exciting Windows 8 laptops thus far. Their own branded store isn't the worst idea in the world. So is this the next Apple Store or next Sony Style Store?

Central Walk Mall. Futian, Shenzhen

Why I happen to be such a big proponent of Apple...

Last week as I downloaded photos from my Fuzhou trip and was inspecting them on my computer, I noticed a small black spot which appeared in the same place on every single photo (I will put these up in a gallery of Fuzhou photos so you can see for yourself). I had never noticed it before as this was the first time seeing the photos blown up to their full size on a desktop monitor. It was either a dead pixel in the camera or a piece of dust that had infiltrated the interior of the camera casing.

I made a genius appointment online, crossed the border, and went to the IFC Apple Store. I sat down, explained my problem to the genius, he made a few notes, walked into the back, brought out a small box containing a new phone, erased my old one, and I had a brand new phone within 15 minutes of me entering the store. I never even had to show a receipt for the original purchase. Easy. I've had non-Apple technology failures that have taken a week or more to set up and finalize an exchange for. 

I'm a person that has emotional attachments to my gadgets, so it felt a little bit as if I had adopted a child, found out he had a knee problem and would never grow up to be a star football player, and decided to return him to the orphanage in return for a healthier child. I only had that first phone for a month and we had already shared some great experiences together. So of course I had to take some goodbye photos.

So goodbye old iPhone of only one month...

Even out of the box a month ago, this phone already had a few nicks in it. You can see two of them in this photo. There was a nick close to the border of the aluminum and white glasses below and slightly to the left of the "F" in FCC. You can also see defects in the aluminum in the right-half of the bottom aluminum-white glass border. No pictured is a big scratch in the aluminum ring on the outside of the phone. Foxconn!

Even out of the box a month ago, this phone already had a few nicks in it. You can see two of them in this photo. There was a nick close to the border of the aluminum and white glasses below and slightly to the left of the "F" in FCC. You can also see defects in the aluminum in the right-half of the bottom aluminum-white glass border. No pictured is a big scratch in the aluminum ring on the outside of the phone. Foxconn!

And hello new iPhone. I'm sure we'll share some wonderful adventures together in the future. 

No nicks or scratches on this one.

No nicks or scratches on this one.