How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster • Hacker News Board

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#41

Post by the_watcher » Tue, May 07, 2019, 2:30 PM UTC

benatkin wrote: post #33

Two things that were features aren't anymore now that I moved to Miami. I'm tired of Face ID. Give me back Touch ID please. My sunglasses prevent Face ID from working when I have them on, and that's quite often here, and I don't want to switch to a light form of Face ID that doesn't check that I'm actually looking at my phone. Sometimes I temporarily take my sunglasses off to use Face ID. The cooling design makes my…

For others who see this and are willing to adjust the settings to use FaceID with sunglasses - just turn off Require Attention for FaceID [0].

Personally, I prefer FaceID (which surprised me!) to TouchID except in bed, when I desperately miss TouchID.

[0] https://www.imore.com/how-make-iphone-x-face-id-work-sunglas...

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#42

Post by CaptainZapp » Tue, May 07, 2019, 2:30 PM UTC

GeekyBear wrote: post #31

atonse wrote: post #4

My biggest complaint about the Apple Store is the long wait times when your computer breaks. You often have to wait for a few days to even get an appointment. But the award for the most asinine thing about the Apple Store is their insistence on not having a proper area to pay for things. So people just wander around wanting to buy something and not knowing where to pay for it. And they end up wasting a lot more time…

>The award for the most asinine thing about the Apple Store is their insistence on not having a proper area to pay for things. For small ticket items, you can scan, pay and leave without needing to interact with the staff. >Thanks to the Apple Store app, you can use your iPhone to scan the barcode of an accessory off the shelf and use Apple Pay to pay for it. From there, you can just walk out of the store with your n…

Well, yeah, thank you+) very much, I guess.

So same as with self scanning tills at supermarkets I'm now expected to do the work for one of the most profitable companies in the world, since they can't be bothered to have a proper checkout or hire enough people.

+) Not you, personally, obviously.

edit: reformat

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#43

Post by derefr » Tue, May 07, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

shadowfiend wrote: post #11

itronitron wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

store pickup is very convenient, although Best Buy and Home Depot have an even better service as you don't have to install an app or use Apple Pay

Confused… https://store.apple.com lets you buy anything, pay any way you want, and pick it up at a store, no?

Right; the only unique thing about using the Apple Store app is that it lets you scan UPC codes for small-purchase items when you’re already in the store, allowing you to just pick something up and walk out with it. For large-purchase items, it’s the same whether you use the app or the website. (Although I think that when you show up to a store where you have an item waiting for you, and you have the app running, it does some kind of automatic prompting or notification to staff or something.)

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#44

Post by atonse » Tue, May 07, 2019, 2:32 PM UTC

GeekyBear wrote: post #31

atonse wrote: post #4

My biggest complaint about the Apple Store is the long wait times when your computer breaks. You often have to wait for a few days to even get an appointment. But the award for the most asinine thing about the Apple Store is their insistence on not having a proper area to pay for things. So people just wander around wanting to buy something and not knowing where to pay for it. And they end up wasting a lot more time…

>The award for the most asinine thing about the Apple Store is their insistence on not having a proper area to pay for things. For small ticket items, you can scan, pay and leave without needing to interact with the staff. >Thanks to the Apple Store app, you can use your iPhone to scan the barcode of an accessory off the shelf and use Apple Pay to pay for it. From there, you can just walk out of the store with your n…

I have the app. It works really well if you are an Apple nerd like me. But not everyone does. Judging by the number of people that wander around, this is clearly a solution that sounded good at Apple's Silicon Valley offices but breaks down doesn't work in the real world. This is not an area that needed innovation for innovation sake. Just have a sign and employee assigned so you can go to them and pay for stuff.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#45

Post by wlesieutre » Tue, May 07, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #18

wlesieutre wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like a way for Apple to claw back even more than their 30% cut. Even if you have a successful app, now you have to take some of your money and buy the search ads for it, otherwise somebody else is going to be the first result when potential customers come to the store looking specifically for your app. You can try and drive traffic straight to your store page from outside sources to bypass that search, but t…

While I agree that ad sales are disheartening, App Store search has never been that great.

It's not perfect, but if I search for "GoodNotes" exactly by name it should give me GoodNotes.

The fact that the search results dedicate most of my screen to Notability (one of their main competitors) is some bullshit on Apple's part.

https://i.imgur.com/4T7sLXb.png

It would be one thing if I searched for "notebook" or "handwriting" or "notes," but I searched for a specific app by name and they're sending traffic to a competitor because GoodNotes "only" pays 30% of their revenue to Apple, and Apple wants even more on top of that or else a competitor gets their traffic.

Sometimes search is bad because search is a hard problem and it's difficult to know what a user is looking for.

Apple knows exactly what I was looking for. They're just being dicks about it.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#46

Post by sombremesa » Tue, May 07, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

I went to buy a brand new laptop at the Apple Store, and despite knowing exactly what I wanted I had to wait for at least 20 minutes - when I walked in, I was told to wait until an associate was free (whereas in most stores I could just grab a product off the shelf and go check out), then I was ping-ponged around at least 2 other people (both of whom I had to wait for - 'just hang around this area and we'll send someone over' - they each spoke to me for less than a minute once they knew I just wanted to buy a thing.

What a hassle. The only reason I went brick and mortar at all was because of a promotion where you get a free headphone set, and I wanted to be sure to receive it.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#47

Post by pdimitar » Tue, May 07, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

GeekyBear wrote: post #31

atonse wrote: post #4

My biggest complaint about the Apple Store is the long wait times when your computer breaks. You often have to wait for a few days to even get an appointment. But the award for the most asinine thing about the Apple Store is their insistence on not having a proper area to pay for things. So people just wander around wanting to buy something and not knowing where to pay for it. And they end up wasting a lot more time…

>The award for the most asinine thing about the Apple Store is their insistence on not having a proper area to pay for things. For small ticket items, you can scan, pay and leave without needing to interact with the staff. >Thanks to the Apple Store app, you can use your iPhone to scan the barcode of an accessory off the shelf and use Apple Pay to pay for it. From there, you can just walk out of the store with your n…

Apple Pay still isn't supported in most of the world, sadly.

I'd kill to be able to just use it for all my payments but so far most of Eastern Europe is of no interest to Apple, it seems. (Despite the really big following they have around here.)

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#48

Post by benatkin » Tue, May 07, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

the_watcher wrote: post #41

benatkin wrote: post #33

Two things that were features aren't anymore now that I moved to Miami. I'm tired of Face ID. Give me back Touch ID please. My sunglasses prevent Face ID from working when I have them on, and that's quite often here, and I don't want to switch to a light form of Face ID that doesn't check that I'm actually looking at my phone. Sometimes I temporarily take my sunglasses off to use Face ID. The cooling design makes my…

For others who see this and are willing to adjust the settings to use FaceID with sunglasses - just turn off Require Attention for FaceID [0]. Personally, I prefer FaceID (which surprised me!) to TouchID except in bed, when I desperately miss TouchID. [0] https://www.imore.com/how-make-iphone-x-face-id-work-sunglas...

It's especially annoying if I want to install an app while I'm in bed, and the code won't work, and I have to enter a full password. If I switch to a password that's easier to type, that should be better.

Another thing - some sunglasses work with Face ID when its attention detector is enabled, because Face ID can see eyes through them. I'm going to see about it when I get a new pair of sunglasses, which I need anyway because having only one pair of sunglasses in Miami is kind of like having only one pair of shoes. The sunglasses that work with Face ID might become the ones I wear the most often.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#49

Post by bluedino » Tue, May 07, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

I love the store itself. The problem is, the ones closest to me are almost 2 hours away, and in HUGE shopping malls that are a pain to get in and out of.

They are packed, but if you make an appointment they usually get to you on time or even early.

Each mall also has a Microsoft store which is a sad abyss of emptiness.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#50

Post by stephenhuey » Tue, May 07, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

GeekyBear wrote: post #31

atonse wrote: post #4

My biggest complaint about the Apple Store is the long wait times when your computer breaks. You often have to wait for a few days to even get an appointment. But the award for the most asinine thing about the Apple Store is their insistence on not having a proper area to pay for things. So people just wander around wanting to buy something and not knowing where to pay for it. And they end up wasting a lot more time…

>The award for the most asinine thing about the Apple Store is their insistence on not having a proper area to pay for things. For small ticket items, you can scan, pay and leave without needing to interact with the staff. >Thanks to the Apple Store app, you can use your iPhone to scan the barcode of an accessory off the shelf and use Apple Pay to pay for it. From there, you can just walk out of the store with your n…

I'm a developer who switched to Macbooks in 2006 and I go into the Apple Store at least a couple times per year (the last time was weeks ago), and I have never noticed that was possible. Seems like a failure to market this option. I know it might hurt the aesthetic they're going for, but if they're overwhelmed even with legions of store employees, they might as well have signs trumpeting this to move people along more quickly.