602warren

retrogusto said:

Even on a bad day, the online experience beats the in-store experience by a large margin. The last two times I bought an iPhone (one for me, one for a gift), it took around an hour in the store, despite the fact that I knew exactly what I wanted when I walked in the door. Both times I was in too much of a rush to wait for delivery of an online purchase, but it seemed crazy to me that I couldn’t just hand someone my credit card and walk out the door a few minutes later, the way you can in most retail stores when you know what you want, are ready to pay, and they have it in stock. Instead you find one person who can put your name on a list to talk to a salesperson, wait a long time for them, then talk to them, wait a while for the device to be sent out from a back room…

I’m hoping to never be in a position again where I have to buy a phone in a hurry, but sometimes your phone just dies and you don’t have a lot of options. I guess maybe the purpose is to force you to stand around with nothing to do but play with other Apple devices, in the hope that you’ll buy more stuff? It may also be faster if you buy online for in-store pickup, but I bet you still have to wait a while to talk to the person who can help you.

SAME. After doing delivery to home for several years I tried the in-store pickup for the 13 Pro - NEVER again. I picked up from Scottsdale Fashion Square and while the employees were nice and friendly - others in line were not. I can't remember what my exact pickup time was, but lets say it was 10a for sake of argument. People were in line trying and SUCCEEDING to pick up a phone who had scheduled pickup times much later in the day, sometimes several hours later. This of course caused things to get hectic because Apple is expecting X people between 10a-11a for pickup because that's all they scheduled. Apple employees had to comb through the line and start removing people who were in line too early, which of course caused a lot of entitlement issues. I lost count of how many 'Apple Shareholders' were being removed and would email Tim directly. "I got an email that says my phone is ready! See!! Here it is!! Go get my phone! Why do I have to wait until 4p?!" And that's edited for NSFW language.

Once I got inside the door and ready to get my phone, it was like you described, waiting for an associate to come by, ask me what I ordered, go get it...etc.  Im thankful the young lady stood there and waited until the phone turned on and I was able to make/receive calls on the new device, just to be sure all was ok. But she could have easily done this for 6-8 people at once while we all stood around a table, instead of just working with 1 person at a time. 

After that experience - I'll never pickup in store again for a launch day device.

JinTech said:

I am curious how the photo of the individual is displayed. Working in the service industry, checking IDs is a hassle because of a lot of fakes. This would help prevent any of that, so long as the individual shows you opening Apple Wallet and it's not a Photoshop job.

Just added mine to Apple Wallet. What the ID looks like in Apple Wallet is NOT what my physical ID looks like. Its almost like the Apple Card in that there's no information on it. Its holographic, says Arizona in the top left, has a cactus and some mountains in the background and has my first name and last initial. State of AZ seal in the bottom right. NO OTHER INFORMATION is displayed.

Tapping on the three dots in the top right brings up a prompt to Call AZ Dept of Transportation and visit their website. There's also a Remove this Drivers License and Drivers License info with a > menu. Tapping on Drivers License Info immediately runs FaceID - THEN I can see text fields with my ID information on it, and a selfie I had to take during the set up process. Name, address, phone, height, weight, age, expiration date, class, etc etc. are all there. Nothing that isn't already on the license is there.

Looks like tapping on the license in my wallet opens up NFC and would allow me to 'scan' in where available to verify my ID at the airport or bar.

If my phone is locked and I double tap the side button like I do for Apple Pay, I can choose the license by swiping the default credit card away. I select the license and there is the normal prompt "hold near reader". I cannot swipe out of the wallet into the rest of the phone - similar to using ApplePay. The only way to get to the DL info is to unlock the phone, tap wallet, hit the dots, and FaceID authenticate.

How this will work with a police officer pulling you over? Not sure. I would HOPE they simply have an NFC reader that verifies my ID and then I can hand them my insurance card, or show them my insurance card stored in AppleWallet. Typically officers want to go back to the patrol car and run your ID through the system - so that I would be hesitant of, and will carry my physical ID until I learn more about how that all works. But Ill absolutely use this at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport next time I fly. My boarding pass is already in Apple Wallet, so why not my ID.

I dont understand why people are so eager to bring touchID back. Its certainly not more secure than FaceID and its not faster than FaceID either. The only reason I could think to bring it back is some sort of double authentication process to get your Drivers License, healthcare record or other super sensitive information to pull up from the secure enclave. First you have to authenticate with FaceID then confirm with touchid?  Just seems cumbersome to me.  

And now that we have solved the FaceID with mask issue by using Apple Watch, TouchID is really not needed. I cant imagine too many people with an iPhone DONT have at least a Series 3 if they wanted an apple watch at this point.

davidw said:

602warren said:

While I am typically 100% in favor of Apples 30% cut, I see where Fanhouse is coming from on this one. For example if Epic sells me a token pack in game for $10, Apple gets $3 and Epic gets $7. Pretty straight forward. Epic made the token pack, sold me the token pack and keeps the money from its sale. But for Fanhouse, if I purchase a $10 private social page from someone inside the fanhouse app, Apple gets $3, Fanhouse gets $1 and the content creator gets $6. The content creator made what I’m buying, not Fanhouse. In essence, the content creator pays Apples 30% AND the Fanhouse 10% fee, when Fanhouse should be the one paying the 30% because its their app. Fanhouse is proposing $9 to the content creator, $0.30 to Apple and $0.70 to Fanhouse, which may be how the ebay and amazon apps work. When I sell on ebay I am using the ebay platform and have agreed to ebays fees, but I certainly dont see a variation in my pay out based on whether or not someone purchased the item via the web or app, I just see ebay take their standard cut.

The same can be said for when I buy a Sony TV from Walmart or Costco or BestBuy, etc.. Sony made the TV I'm buying, why do I have to pay the retailers their mark up? 

It's because retailers  provided a service and made it possible for me to buy and pay for a Sony TV. And Fanhouse provides a service that  makes it possible for consumers to buy and pay for works from content creators. Neither Fanhouse or their content creators are non profit charities. They are in it for the profits. Just like Apple.

But lets be clear, Apple is not charging the content creators a 30% commission. Apple is charging Fanhouse the 30% commission. It's Fanhouse that is getting the money. Fanhouse then pay their content creators and takes a 10% cut for their services. Apple has no control on how much Fanhouse distributes to their content creators. 

If they could, the content creators can create their own app and bypass Fanhouse. Plus they would most likely be only paying Apple a 15% commission, unless they can generate over $1M. And if they can (generate over $1M), then for sure they do not have any reasons to not create their own app. But many, if not most, can't create and manage their own apps, plus not being able to get the needed PR that Fanhouse might provide. So the extra % they have to pay might be worth it. For most content providers using Fanhouse, without Fanhouse and Apple, they might be looking a 0%, instead of 60%. 

Does it matter whether Apple gets the 30% directly from the content creator or Fanhouse gives Apple the 30%? No, the content creator is still seeing that money go out of their pocket, but I see your point that Fanhouse is getting the money, then charging 10% on top of Apples 30%.

The idea of buying a Sony TV at Walmart doesn't quite track. Sony sells the TV to Walmart at a fixed cost, so Sony has their money up front. How much of a markup Walmart chooses to charge the end consumer doesn't affect what's paid to Sony. If Walmart marks the TV up $100, then decides to put it on sale 6 weeks later for $150 off then Walmart loses the $50, not Sony. If Fanhouse paid creators up front for content that they then 'resold' to consumers, that would more closely mimic your TV analogy.

While I am typically 100% in favor of Apples 30% cut, I see where Fanhouse is coming from on this one. For example if Epic sells me a token pack in game for $10, Apple gets $3 and Epic gets $7. Pretty straight forward. Epic made the token pack, sold me the token pack and keeps the money from its sale. But for Fanhouse, if I purchase a $10 private social page from someone inside the fanhouse app, Apple gets $3, Fanhouse gets $1 and the content creator gets $6. The content creator made what I’m buying, not Fanhouse. In essence, the content creator pays Apples 30% AND the Fanhouse 10% fee, when Fanhouse should be the one paying the 30% because its their app. Fanhouse is proposing $9 to the content creator, $0.30 to Apple and $0.70 to Fanhouse, which may be how the ebay and amazon apps work. When I sell on ebay I am using the ebay platform and have agreed to ebays fees, but I certainly dont see a variation in my pay out based on whether or not someone purchased the item via the web or app, I just see ebay take their standard cut.