wwchris

mayfly said:

This is the very definition of irony!
A single vehicle crash caused by distracted driving.
That likely means that the driver was texting on her Apple iPhone, which caused her to miss a turn or something, so she goes off the road and rolls at least once. Now the Apple Watch notes the crash, and tells the iPhone that caused the crash to call 911.

Using technology to mitigate the disaster caused by the technology. My brain is about to explode!

Given the crash happened at 4AM I would be more inclined to believe it was drowsiness issues (no alcohol was mentioned in the story, but that would have been my first reaction) over “distracted driving”.

Here is one of my favorites. We all know that Apple cords are notoriously bad and fall apart at the connection point. I bought a MacBook Pro for over $3000 and within a year, the cord had frayed and had exposed wires. I happened to be going to the Mall for something so I threw the laptop and cord in the bag figuring I could swap it. I get there and they tell me I have to have a Genius Bar appointment to have it assessed and the nearest one was 6 hours later (pre-pandemic). This Mall is an hour from my house so I'm not staying or coming back.

I'm like, "What do you mean "assess" you can see the cord is frayed, please just give me another cord."
"I'm sorry sir, we can't do that."
"Wait, what do you mean you can't do that?"
"Sir, repairs have to be tracked through the Genius Bar."
"It's not getting "repaired", it is a cord."
"I'm sorry sir, can you come back at 7:45PM?"
"No, I cannot, here's what I am going to do. I am going to walk over to the wall and I am going to buy a power adapter, then I am going to put this broken one in that box and return it. Or.... you can just give me another cord."
"Let me speak to my manager." 10 minutes later. "Ok, sir, we have checked you in for a Genius Bar appointment right now. The manger would like me to point out that this is a one time exception and you will have to make a Genius Bar appointment for any issues like this in the future. Do you have the laptop?"
"Sure, but why do you need the laptop?"
15 minutes of computer diagnostics and paperwork later.
"Here is your cord sir. We don't have any replacement units so I have pulled one off the shelf for you."

Holy crap, all this to swap out a defective cord with visible wires exposed? I was probably in there for 45 minutes. All with the attitude like you're doing me a favor?

Apple's customer service used to be topnotch. Before they figured out how much money they could make on overpriced repairs none of this was an issue and I felt like a KING at the Apple Store. I once when in with a busted click wheel iPod 1 month outside of AppleCare and they just handed me a new one. Now that was an "exception" and made me feel grateful and loyal.

The Genius Bar is one of the reasons I have started to lose appreciation for Apple products. I'm already paying a premium for these products, don't make me feel part of a herd of cattle being pushed into a grinder when those expensive products are defective.

battlescarred1 said:

With no user replaceable battery, I'm hesitant to buy another one. Would be nice to swap out a nearly depleted battery with a fresh one while on the go.

Have you had issues with the battery dying? Mine usually lasts hours even when charging the phone. Looks like the new features are being added to the old one with software anyway, so unless you need the magnet, not much reason to upgrade.

entropys said:

lmac said:

My biggest peeve? When I have my iPhone connected to my CarPlay unit, and ask Siri to play a song or artist that's on my phone, and Siri can't do a thing because it isn't connected to the Internet.

Ir isn’t that the phone isn’t connected to the internet, but that Siri preferences to Apple Music rather than your music library.  That is what I find annoying. I can’t use my phone for Apple Music on LTE, because work pays for the service. So I have a lot of music downloaded on it.  Siri has trouble finding that.

You know you can say, "Hey Siri, play XXX from my music." and it will only play music from your library rather than Apple Music?

Sucks, Gimlet has my favorite podcasts, but I'm not going to pay another $15 a month for another music streaming service to listen to them. :-(