This did make me laugh!

I am an Apple fan – anyone who reads this blog will be aware of that already. I do however like any tech – if its clever and works I don’t mind who makes it. My first entry to ‘gizmos’ was British – Psion PDA’s, they were fantastic and at the time world leaders, sadly time moves on….. and Apple make the best tech currently.

I have looked at the new Microsoft entry to the tablet market – the surface – it looks OK but the only time I have managed to actually get my hands on one in a store (John Lewis in Nottingham), it didn’t want to work properly! The much vaunted keyboard / cover didn’t seem to work very well at all – now this was probably a one-off, but how many not working iPad’s have you come across in a similar situation?

So I suppose the attached press clipping didn’t come as a great surprise to me – someone breaks into the Microsoft campus and steals Apple gear only! This does sadden me as Apple need some competition to keep them sharp, currently this is only coming from Samsung it would appear. Perhaps Microsoft will eventually move back into a ‘good place’, it just doesn’t feel likely at this time.

 

Apple crime wave

As a family we have been the subject of what seems like a local ‘Apple crime wave’ – two iPhones stolen from my stepdaughter (on separate occasions) when in town on a night out. Each time the phone was stolen from a zipped bag – so in a very professional manner! Discussions with the police also suggest that this is a growing problem, and despite iPhones being blacklisted as soon as they are stolen to stop them being used in the UK, they are apparently taken abroad, where they can be used – possibly something that Apple need to address?

Our local experience appears to be confirmed by the New York Police Department who earlier in the year highlighted that Apple-related crimes (thefts of iPhones and iPads) were increasing 10 times the 4 percent increase in other crime in the city.

The Police Department recorded 3,484 more crimes than for the same period last year, the increase in Apple product thefts: 3,890!

So watch out where you keep and use your smartphones and tablets!

 

Airbags for mobile phones – not such a daft idea?

Oops……

This sounds like a pretty weird idea on first look – but having had our first iPhone 5 casualty this week at work it has its attraction!

All of our smartphones now have motion sensors and can tell where they are and more importantly where they are going! The technology makes use of these motion-sensors to detect when it has entered an airborne state, so that a mini-airbag can be deployed to cushion its fall.

The idea comes from the technology department at Amazon, which won a patent for the protective system this week. As well as mobile phones, the technology could be used on electronic readers, including the online retailer’s own Kindle, as well as computer tablets and cameras. I am not sure how much bulk it would add to an item, and it would be no good for those who prefer a ‘naked’ iPhone. But, in a work environment forcing people to make use of the technology might just prevent so many breakages!

 

Phone networks – friend or foe?

The mobile phone is a part of everyday life now – the smart phone is rapidly getting to the same position – how many people do you know who haven’t got one?

The mobile phone operators are all keen to land us as clients – they make great offers to lure you over to them, but how is the service then? At work we received some interesting ‘care’ from Orange before we had even signed up with them – because of this we didn’t move to them from Vodafone – perhaps this should have made me think before going with T-Mobile for my daughters iPhone!

The deal was (is) good, and the network is great. But, once things go wrong the care becomes rather less ‘impressive’.

Daughters iPhone was stolen this weekend (second time – not good, but not her fault). So a replacement SIM card was required – not a massive ask you would think as we have a contract – but there is a £10 charge! They give them away free to new customers! Also the opening times on the EE website (which has recently been updated) were wrong for the Nottingham stores – but that is another story!

And it gets better, we needed a ‘fill in’ phone while we sorted out the insurance, so a cheap pay as you go was required. But, and there is always ‘a but’ – we had to add £10 airtime to a sim we didn’t want. I asked the question – “can’t you wave that on the basis that we have just paid £10 for a sim anyway” – apparently not!

So we went to Carphone Warehouse who were very helpful and let us use a pay as you go number on another network to do an upgrade and therefore pay only for the phone.

So brilliant service (and advise) from Carphone Warehouse, but money grabbing and greed from T-Mobile, Orange, EE or what ever they call themselves today. If I need another mobile who will I be going to do you think?

 

Street View is back!

You would have had to have been on a deserted island not to have seen the details of the Apple Maps debacle in recent months. Apple sent Google packing – they had previously had a close relationship with them over many things in iOS (the iPhone operating system). But, in IOS 6 they finally got rid of Google maps with its amazing detail and street view and replaced it with their own Map App – which was (and is) rather poor by their standards (actually by anyones standards!).

Heads have rolled at Apple and they have made a public apology about the Maps – a rare event from Apple. There is talk about them buying TomTom who provide the data to enable a faster solving of issues – time will tell.

But now we have Google Maps back on iOS (iPhone at least) in the form of a new app – and it looks great (much as it did before – but better).

It will be interesting to see what Apples response will be – the pressure is on!

 

Possibly predictable – but interesting!

I have had various comments about how numerous my ‘Apple’ blogs are from people I know, I make no apology – although it would be nice to get the same effect as my colleague Tim Garratt and his Jaguar blog! I still believe that the retail world can learn a lot from Apple and how they run their stores and staff them – they are universally seen as ‘the way to do it’, but recent data further supports that by showing just how efficient they are at selling!

Apple Stores are the possibly the envy of every other retailer on the planet. From their wonderful design to the constant stream of customers, they are all but universally a success. But, how much better do Apple Stores do than the competition? According to a new American study (and one assumes this would be the same the World over), they bring in twice as much in sales per square foot as anyone else in the market.

The research by RetailSales shows that Apple top the list of chain store productivity, pulling in $6,050 in sales per square foot of store. Tiffany the jewellery store come in second place, at $3,017.

The numbers were generated it appears simply by taking the brick-and-mortar sales numbers from the companies, and splitting it among the square footage of store space they occupy.

Apple is the only tech company to break the top ten, a section otherwise dominated by luxury and clothing products. Interestingly there are plenty of other retail chains that sell more than Apple on a per store basis, they just tend to be physically much, much larger. Apple stores are also often in very prime retail locations – so the rents are likely to reflect the footfall. So the data is not as clear as it first looks – but it makes a nice story…..

 

This isn’t how it should be!

Since Apple launched iOS6 the press has been full of the problems people have been having with the Maps app – until iOS6 was launched the maps (and aerial images in particular), on iPhone and iPad were provided by Google, and they were superb. At work we have all used the maps to great effect – finding properties, and getting an idea of the surrounding area was so easy. It was without doubt one of the ‘killer’ apps on the iPhone.

So the change to the current poorer mapping was a great disappointment, it also caused heads to roll at Apple, so they are obviously aware they have screwed up – but are they improving it?

Well today I looked at the aerial photos on my iPhone for the first time for ages (I stopped when I upgraded to iOS6) – and they were good again – almost to Google standards!

I was so surprised that I told colleagues at work. But, and here is the weird thing – on getting home I decided to show my wife (sad I know) on an iPad, but they were as poor as before! I checked on my iPhone and they were still good. And yes, both devices are running the latest OS, so it appears that Apple are running two versions of the map data (the aerial pictures are different – see the screen shots here) – now that is so ‘un-apple’ and perhaps shows why they have changed things at Apple headquarters.

Now all I need is good aerial coverage in maps on my iPad – will Jonny Ives sort this now he also has responsibility for software at Apple – here’s hoping!

 

Apple make a mistake?

As anyone who reads this blog will be aware, I am an Apple fan. Their products are the best out there, they work out of the box, look amazing and have a ‘feel good factor’ that no other tech items can muster.

I have recently moved over to a MacBook Pro at work after my Windows PC died (strangely just as I was getting discount vouchers through from the manufacturer!). The move to working on a Mac at work has been painless, I will not be going back to the world of Windows!

However I do think that Apple have recently made a huge marketing error. We have recently moved onto the iPhone 5 at work (and it is a great phone), but the connector has changed, it is now much smaller and neater, but here lies the problem. We have all been using the old connector for so long that we have leads in lots of places – work, cars, at home. And the modern smartphone is power hungry, so regular recharging is vital. So obviously when launching a new connector you would expect Apple to have the converter available straight away to allow the old leads to be used?

Well they have them on their website (£25!) but still with a 2 to 3 week delivery (and Vodafone still don’t have them). So it appears that Apple have launched a product almost a month before the adaptor is available – I can’t make my mind up if this is just a stupid mistake or arrogance – I really hope it is the first! What I do know is that remembering to take my one charging cable around everywhere with me is a pain!

Whichever it is Apple haven’t made any new friends over the debacle!

 

An uncharacteristic slip?

I am an Apple fan – no one would dispute that, and I would always describe their customer care and retail experience as second to none. however, I have finally caught them out – not in a big way – but they have finally made a mistake!

I have an old MacBook at home, one of the black early Intel chip ones. It is lovely, runs like a dream (far faster on Snow Leopard than my much younger Windows 7 laptop) and it is a family favourite now. It was the reason for my recent dealings with Apple.

My step daughter is the lucky owner of a new MacBook Pro on account of her A level results and imminent move to Loughborough University (well done Star). Setting this up and playing with it set me hankering after Lion on my MacBook (it won’t run Mountain Lion). Now upgrading should be easy, just visit the Mac App store and download it, except for the fact that Apple have removed Lion and replaced it with Mountain Lion.

I am sure I am not the only person who didn’t upgrade when they could have, so how was I to progress this? My initial call was to Jigsaw24 in Nottingham who were really helpful (thanks John) and confirmed that there was no way they could get me a copy of Lion, but that they would raise a case with Apple for me so that I could try to get it.

And this is where I finally get to catch out Apple! The case setup by Jigsaw24 worked and I was able to order a copy of Lion – I was told it was a download version so I would get two emails (just like the current Mountain Lion update) – but no emails arrived apart from an invoice and a ‘how did we do’ customer service email. This was strange I thought, so I left it 24 hours just incase it was an issue with mail. Still nothing!

So a call back to Apple care, who were again amazingly helpful, was made from which it transpired that I was being sent a disc copy of Lion. Strange because to the best of my knowledge it was always download only! This is not a problem, I will get my software, and being on a disc actually suites me (it’s an age thing).

This is not the end tot he story – two days later I actually received the download emails as originally informed – so it was a download after all!

But it feels good to have finally found just a tiny error in the Apple system – they must be human after all!

 

Apple retail – how it should be done!

I am increasingly becoming a grumpy old man – I make no apology for this, it comes to us all – and this is my time!

I have been known to be somewhat critical of retailers, it always annoys me when you go into a shop to buy something fairly substantial (expensive) and you know more about the product than the salesman! Car dealers are the worst example, but it is a general theme across retailing in my view.

There is one major exception though – Apple – they have completely nailed the shopping experience. Walk into one of their stores anywhere in the world and you will have a pleasant experience. The staff are friendly, helpful and not at all pushy. The last two items I have purchased from Apple stores have both been equally pleasant experiences – despite there being the best part of £1000 difference in price between them.

So why can Apple get it so right and other fail so badly? It may be that Apple demand knowledge of their staff, I don’t know, but their awareness of the product certainly enables them to converse intelligently with their customers – which is half the battle!

So a fantastic experience at Apple in Leicestershire High Cross Centre, which will ensure my return in future.