There’s been a lot of complaints about the long lines and short supplies of the iPad 2. But there have some nice stories too, like the iPad that Apple sent to one man when his wife made him return it.
Here’s another great story.
Chris Reimer, who runs Rizzo Tees, an online tshirt business in St. Louis, tried to get an iPad 2 last week, without success.
While he was waiting in line, he tweeted his frustrations several times to his 52,000 Twitter followers. He asked where he could find an iPad 2 in stock.
Then last Wednesday morning, he gets an unexpected message from one of his followers, who he’d never heard from before.
The follower, Muljadi Budiman, says he’s in line at the Apple Store and would he like him to pick up an iPad 2? Budiman tells Reimer he’s not trying to make a profit, he just remembered that Reimer wanted an iPad 2.
Taken aback, and not sure if he wanted the 3G iPad or a WiFi model, Reimer declined.
But early Friday morning, Budiman pops up again. He didn’t get his iPad on Wednesday and he’s back in line at the Apple Store. Again, he asks Reimer if he wants an iPad.
This time Reimer says yes. He tells him which one he wants, gives him his cell number and wishes him luck. A few hours later, he gets a call from Budiman saying he’s got his iPad. They meet at a coffeeshop and Reimer gives him the cash.
“Wonders never cease, and Twitter never ceases to amaze,” Reimer wrote on his blog. “Why did Muljadi do this? He saw my tweet, asking if anyone knew of a store with iPad 2′s in stock, and thought he could help me.”
The pair chatted at the coffeshop for 30 minutes before leaving.
“I could have easily talked with him for another hour, but we both wanted to get home and play with our new iPads!” Reimer wrote.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
20 responses to “Good Samaritan Buys iPad 2 For a Total Stranger”
dopeness
Good stuff…if only more people would act this way…and be trustworthy in ALL of life…
“I could have easily talked with him for another hour, but we both wanted to get home and play with our new iPads!” Reimer wrote.
Wow, how sad is that…
Not so good news for the poor ****er behind the good samaritan who’s probably been queuing for hours.
I can’t wait for mine to arrive later this week, but I can’t help thinking that the photo was taken with the iPad 2. It’s kinda bad.
so one person who has been waiting in line got jipped out of his iPad 2.
Can a story be touching AND creepy at the same time?
+10
It was probably taken with the VGA front camera so they could get a prettier pose. The back camera will be better.
They could both rush home to Facetime each-other! … or something.