Apple's Redesigned London Store Has Untethered iPhones (cnet.com) 76
Apple is putting a lot of faith into its customers' hands. The company is stopping the practice of tethering iPhones to demo desks. (It's a common practice, and pretty much everyone does it for their top smartphones). From a CNET report, which describes Apple's redesigned London store: Perhaps the most interesting feature of the store is that when it opens to the public at the weekend the devices won't be tethered to the tables as they were previously, and are in other stores around the world. Apple says this is to allow people to hold them properly, try cases on them and even see how they feel in your pocket. It's a bold move, especially given the lack of visible security in the building. We couldn't spot a single CCTV camera, although any phone taken out of the store will set off an alarm. If not returned, the phones will also be rendered unusable.
Maybe because (Score:3)
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Between cameras on the phone, a GPS, and cameras in the stores one would have to be pretty bold. Probably bold enough to snip the tether and run level of bold.
It'll be tracking by the time you get to the corner and bricked by the time you get anywhere else. Risk vs reward.
Besides, a couple missing phones is hardly gonna break Apple.
The better vibes will do Apple more good than saving a couple missing phones. I hate the tethered displays of everything now. Does that even work? It doesn't work for the pens in
Re: Maybe because (Score:3, Funny)
I hear they deter theft by installing an anti theft self destruct device which is accomplished by gluing a note 7 to the back.
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It would be relatively trivial for Apple to install a proximity app to lock the UI, but retain GPS, mic and camera and track the thief.
Anti-theft feature (Score:5, Funny)
I couldn't moderate this appropriately... (Score:2)
They're introducing the new Note 7 battery technology so the phones can be remote immolated if you carry them out.
What moderation is the intersection between "Funny" and "Flamebait, but in a funny way"?
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The Note 7 is always flamebait.
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And it's funny, too.
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They're introducing the new Note 7 battery technology so the phones can be remote immolated if you carry them out.
What moderation is the intersection between "Funny" and "Flamebait, but in a funny way"?
No idea, but I'm quite sure that easily-stolen iPhones with remote immolation technology would count as "flamebait".
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They may not work as a whole... (Score:3)
...but what a fantastic source of free spare parts!
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You never know. If someone is quick enough to pocket the phone and stick it in a RFID bag where it can't phone home,
Have the phone sound an alarm as soon as it loses contact to the store's WiFi.
Mobile Faraday cage? (Score:3)
I foresee a good market in mobile Faraday cages.
While I am honoured that they try this technology in London, really Liverpool is the ne plus ultra of the retailing world challenge.
They would need to replace all the phones every hour at the rate they will get scoused there.
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yeah, because london is such a cheap place to live in, you have to be extra wealthy to be able to afford an iphone. maybe you're also living in a reality distortion field, only of the "i'm such a poor victim, why do you call me racist scum"-variety?
Right. Maybe the statistics are racist as well. 12.4% of London residents are Muslim, with some areas at nearly 50% [telegraph.co.uk]. 28% of London residents live in poverty [bbc.com].
"We couldn't spot a single CCTV camera" (Score:4, Insightful)
We couldn't spot a single CCTV camera
That's the point -- In many stores you can't spot all of the cameras, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. The black dome that looks like it's hiding a camera might just be an empty dummy "camera".
Digital tethering is more effective anyway (Score:5, Insightful)
This shouldn't be surprising, actually. The market for stolen iPhones has taken a serious hit, because of Apple's iTunes account locking policies. You steal my iPhone, I immediately lock you out of it. If I'm feeling particularly adventurous, I might even go to the trouble of tracking you down, maybe even with a police officer in tow. "Your" stolen device is not only now a brick... it's also a liability. Would-be thieves know this; they'll get at most a few hours of use out of any iPhone that they steal, and likely only a few minutes, if they set off alarms as they're stealing it from a store -- and worst case scenario, (for the thief, that is) they're also much more likely to get jail time for their crime.
Now, contrast that with a physical tether, which can be snipped quickly and easily with the right tool. No contest.
On the other hand, now actual potential buyers will get the sense that Apple actually wants them in the stores, wants them to feel comfortable... and of course, wants them to spend money. So for Apple, this probably all makes perfect sense.
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Physical tethers for high-end stores also have alarms so when you snip them the alarm goes off right away. Either way, the iPhones are indeed bricks when stolen and quite honestly, the majority of people aren't thieves. And even if one gets stolen (perhaps for parts), I doubt Apple cares very much, they write the potential lifetime value of the phone (device + apps + music + recycling/resale perhaps ~$3-4000) off as a loss on their taxes.
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Physical tethers for high-end stores also have alarms so when you snip them the alarm goes off right away. Either way, the iPhones are indeed bricks when stolen and quite honestly, the majority of people aren't thieves. And even if one gets stolen (perhaps for parts), I doubt Apple cares very much, they write the potential lifetime value of the phone (device + apps + music + recycling/resale perhaps ~$3-4000) off as a loss on their taxes.
It's likely better for apple than actually selling the phone.
Re:Digital tethering is more effective anyway (Score:4, Interesting)
It's even worse. The version of iOS those floor phones run is NOT stock. It's a custom version that has all the demo apps built into it. As a result, the app store does not work with it (you can browse, you can download, but the apps don't work), it's likely the phone dialer itself doesn't work and many other things. Heck, perhaps the WiFi is also locked to Apple's WiFi
And there's the Activation Lock, which will lock you out if you attempt to reflash it with the official iOS (via DFU mode, since I believe iTunes won't update it normally). So you really have a paperweight at best. Plus, I believe they auto-wipe themselves every night to clean themselves up of the day's usage.
Honestly, it would only be good for parts.
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Not a problem... (Score:3)
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Better hope the cafe next door doesn't have a microwave.
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Hopefully their power never goes out or their wifi signal doesn't get jammed or turned off briefly. Otherwise they will need to restock all the floor models.
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Does it matter? I am smarter than all of the schmucks at apple. By reading the summary, I can authoritatively tell you their non-tethered phone idea is poorly planned and disastrously implemented.
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That's a neat trick. Question, can Apple turn a pumpkin into a carriage? Thinking this further just never mind. That carriage would be useless if it had to stay in WiFi range of an Apple Store.
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One word (Score:4, Funny)
Courage. /slow clap
Bravo Apple... Bravo
Dead man's GPS switch? (Score:2)
They could even do something like install an app that locks out the phone if its taken a certain distance away or maybe even something tied to a handshake with a specific Wifi point.
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Which will be prone to false positives when the Wi-Fi goes down - which is inevitable in today's crappy lowest-common-denominator computing environment!
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Why? Apple has a lock through find my iphone as well as a way to force a phone to be enrolled through a specific MDM server. If any do go missing they do a remote wipe and ask for it to be returned. If the thief is stupid enough to try enrolling it, they'll know where from and who.
Jason.
Can't give them away (Score:1)
No 3.5mm headphone jack.
First the headphone jack, now this! (Score:3, Funny)
Apple just removed tethering from the iPhone! Totally ridiculous! Next they'll remove ringers, vibration, and screens, and we'll just have a black slab of glassy smooth...
Damn.. That will probably look really fucking good... Shut up and take my money!
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Apple just removed tethering from the iPhone! Totally ridiculous! Next they'll remove ringers, vibration, and screens, and we'll just have a black slab of glassy smooth...
Damn.. That will probably look really fucking good... Shut up and take my money!
That whole "screen" thing really does significantly contribute to the size of a smart phone. Removing it would be revolutionary; nay evolutionary; nay - it would be the iPhone 8:P
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Apple just removed tethering from the iPhone! Totally ridiculous! Next they'll remove ringers, vibration, and screens, and we'll just have a black slab of glassy smooth...
Damn.. That will probably look really fucking good... Shut up and take my money!
That whole "screen" thing really does significantly contribute to the size of a smart phone. Removing it would be revolutionary; nay evolutionary; nay - it would be the iPhone 8:P
You're left with the 3rd generation iPod Shuffle... less the headphone jack.
Apple missed the opportunity (Score:1)
Apple missed the opportunity to provide a new anti-theft feature, and make this store setup a demonstration of their
confidence in the new feature.
It would be pretty cool if they would make it so the phone would instantly 'lock out' when removed from the store and sound an alarm of its own, until brought back in.
Also, provide some kind of mechanism where a lost or stolen phone can be tracked through the cloud, including video footage from all cameras of the last 2-minutes before it was removed from al
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Apple missed the opportunity to provide a new anti-theft feature, and make this store setup a demonstration of their
confidence in the new feature.
Why would they need a new one? There is already a perfect one build into all European phones, you report it stolen and it stops working.
In Soviet Russia (Score:1)
In Soviet Russia, iPhone steals you.
A use for iBeacon! (Score:1)
Apple Store could keep constant track each phone's location using beacons. Once an iPhone leaves the table, a helpful employee could approach the shopper, ask if that is the model they wish to purchase, and then start the sales process. With enough beacons scattered, customers could be encouraged to bring a phone along while shopping for accessories. If this increases sales, Apple could afford to let a few bricks go out the door.
Tethers on phone always bothered me (Score:2)
When shopping for a phone I want to know how it fits in my life, and in my pocket. Perhaps this is not an issue with most phones but if I'm going to choose between the different iPhone models, which are larger than most phones, then I want to make sure the phone fits in the leg pocket of my carpenter jeans comfortably. That seems reasonable, no? When shopping for a new wallet I'll want to make sure it fits in my pocket too. These are things that go in pockets, people are going to want to see if they wan
I hope they're installing some softer floors (Score:2)
Theft isn't the only reason Apple tethers their display phones to the tables; tethering also serves to prevent drop damage. I'd inadvertently discovered this during a visit to the local Apple store, after previously having pigged out on some greasy pizza from the mall's food court. Thanks to the security tether, the slippery wayward iPhone simply did a bungee jump out of my hand, rather than an impromptu "drop test" on Apple's slate/stone/some-sort-of-rocklike-substance floor.
Of course, after a drop or tw
Walmart Gas Stations (Score:2)
Less than a month later and all of these notices were all covered up with large stickers, with a severe and non-nonsense font, white letters on a solid red background: "PREPAY INSIDE FIRST."
We should start a pool here. P