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Face it: It's an Apple world; you just live in it. Nowhere is this more evident than at the Apple Store, which opened in the summer of 2002 in a converted Soho post office. Since its inception, the impressively sleek store has been jammed with some of the most creative and attractive technophiles in the city (witness the crazy cruising scene). The advent of the iPod has only made the brand and the store that much more omnipotent. The first floor houses Apple's extensive hardware offerings: desk- and laptops and related accessories like speakers, headphones, iPods, and digital cameras. Customers are encouraged to test-drive the merchandise. Climb the central, skylit glass staircase to the second floor and poke around software, printers, scanners and other accessories; there's a children's station, too, with low tables, cushy spherical seats and computers loaded with the latest kid-friendly software. (Apple runs a children's camp on summer mornings.) You'll also find a tech-support center known as the Genius Bar (schedule an appointment up to 48 hours in advance online); a small-business center; an all-iPod corner; and the theater, which provides a wide and constant variety of free educational programming. Small free tutorials happen in the theater, and Studio Series classes occur in various other rooms. — Andrew Sessa