Holidays: In-Store Pickups Are Not Worth It If It Means Frustration

Here is a Bloomberg post about Holidays free shipping that struck a cord with me. Not all free shipping are the same but the post delved into something more important: in-store pickups. And not all IPSU ate all the same.

I've experienced them before. Going to Best Buy. Wal-Mart. Even Apple stores. And the one thing that makes them a hassle even if you get what you ordered more quickly and free than online shopping is that you still have to wait.

And I'm not talking about a couple of minutes. Tens of minutes. This is especially true for Apple stores. Move here. Line up there. Ten you have to wait until someone is free to help you. 

Just add bad and mentioned in the Bloomberg post is that you have to walk around the store to find out where to go pick up what you need. And most of the time, when you do managed to find someone to help you, they haven't a clue what you're talking about.

So far, Best Buy has the best of the lot because you just go tot he customer service area.

Retailers like Wal-Mart and Target are only starting to match Amazon with free shipping but they have an inherent advantage: brick-and-mortar stores. ISPU is their natural advantage. They need to exploit that against their online-only competitors. And they need to do a much better job at it.


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Mobile: Maybe Map Apps Like Waze Can Also Let Users Rate Safety

A woman was killed when she and her husband using Waze, the popular GPS mobile app, went to the wrong address.  Instead of leading them to a popular tourist distination, they ended up in the wrong neighborhood where their vehicle was opened fired upon by local criminals.

This has sparked great concern over the use of GPS apps in Brazil as the South American country is set to host the next summer Olympics in 2016.  Perhaps Waze and other apps can update their apps to allow uers to rate the safety and accessibility of maps and locations. 

Including myself, we've relied to eavily on technology especially the GPS that we take for granted we will be led to the right location.  For the most part, they do work as advertised.

Source:  CNN.

Apple Going All In To Gut Advertisers, And Kill Google

Source: TechCrunch

Apple means business. Google really need to figure out another solution to show ads or money elsewhere as billions if not tens of billions of mobile revenue on iOS devices will dry up as Apple moves to block ads not only in Safari but perhaps even within apps that serves up ads themselves.

Called"Been Choice", it works its magic through a combo of Safari and VPN voodoo. However it works, it'll serve as a huge disruption to the current status quo for app makers who rely on ads as their main source of revenue. And oh, the app also works on Facebook's own ads as well. 

As if it wasn't enough, content providers and publishers have already been running for cover and wondering what the future of publishing without the ability to serve not only adds but trackers as well. This app even works against Apple's own newsreader as well.

Why are the creators of Been Choice doing this to them, Google, trackers, and publishers ask. Well, they want to offer users the choice between blocking ads and being compensated for sharing their personal info and activities. So there is the angle. Compensation.

The are two modes. The usted can set Been Choice up as a traditional add blocker or sign into the app's VPN device where a deeper analysis is performed (but there is risk there too) through pattern analysis. That's how the app is able block ads even from Apple and Facebook. 

Then comes the earning mode that users can opt into and earn cash or gift cards from Amazon by sharing their data. And yes, the developers found that people are indeed willing to share info if they find that they are compensated for it. 

TechCrunch which obviously makes its money from ads and tracking us seemed more skeptical so its author should beer consider biased in this case. Otherwise, it's a good read.

This may have greater consequences for ad servers like Google in the long term of adoption is greater that expected. Already faced with a diminishing return on the desktop, Google will find itself squeezed even further. 

This will also have huge consequences for developers as well as app users. This could force a realignment of the app revenue s system that currently relies on ad revenue to generate income for developers in order to provide users with free apps. Perhaps, this is what Apple wants all asking if Apple comes its aggressive privacy push to root out all forms of ads and trackers. After all, Apple receives a cut off all apps paid but it gets nothing from free apps. 

Been Choice already has a 4-star rating on the App Store. Highly recommended.

Wearables Like the Apple Watch To Play Key Role in Cars

Though it is a no-brainer, but WSJ reports that GM (probably other car makers as well) will soon allow drivers unlock vehicles with their watches, specifically the Apple Watch.  You want to know what else wearables, and smartphones, can do for drivers? 

Just watch Knight Rider from the 80s.  Replace KITT with Siri.  You get the idea.  We are headed into that direction and beyond.  Just don't expect your car to go airborne when you tell Siri "turbo boost!"

For starters, GM will allow drivers to lock/unlock doors and to start cars remotely.  What else would you like to be able to control with your watches?

Carly Fiorina Likely Has Not Learned From Her Failures Enough To Succeed And More About Steve Jobs and the HP iPod

Here is a very good look-back post from Medium penned by the author Steven Levy who had written a book at length about Apple's iconic iPod and how Steve Jobs rolled over Carly Fiorina and HP to get the iPod into the dominant position it was years ago and even through today.  The focus came about because during the second GOP debate on CNN, Fiorina opportunistically mentioned Steve Jobs as his friend and to deflect her past failures and somehow linked them to Jobs' darker past. 

The thing is that Jobs learned from his past mistakes, spent years in the woods finding himself again, nearly lost much of his wealth with NEXT and Pixar before Disney inked a deal with Pixar and Apple bought NEXT.  And he applied his lessons to turn Apple around with a string of innovative products like the iPod, iMac, iPhone, and iPad.  And even the Macs are selling better with each passing quarter in the post-PC era. 

Sadly, even for those who agree with Fiorina's politics has to admit that there was no second coming of Carly where she took charge of a company and made it better than it was when she took over.  As mentioned in the article, HP's stock jumped on news of her dismissal. 

The Medium was no doubt negative on Fiorina.  While you can dismiss her closeness to Jobs and her time at HP as a failed executive, you cannot question her rise to the top of Hewlett-Packard, an iconic company in its own right. 

Carly is successful as a person and did what she needed for her career.  The question is whether her management style is a good fit for today's political evironment in DC.  And one thing to consider before closing:  as president, Carly will be unable to buy another country to shore up the country's revenues.  That's good, right?

Macworld Review Shows Apple Tech Pundits and Bloggers Growing More Arrogant and Full Of Themselves

In an otherwise decent review of the iPhone 6S, Macworld UK (link here but nothing new you probably haven't read else where) love the iPhone 6S.  The chief complaint it had was that Apple did not increase the resolution of the iPhone 6S over the 6. 

Seriously?!  Seriously?!  Was Apple increasing the resolution on the iPhone 6S even on any rumor site's radar?  Not at all.  A quick search on Google showed that not one rumor indicated the possibility that Apple was going to up the resolution on the iPhone 6S.

And hey, pal, Apple ain't gonna change the 1080p on the 5.5" iPhone 6S Plus to 4K next year either.  Make sure you show your disappointment in your review next year, yeah?

This is just another example of what I see as an increasingly arrogance that tech pundits show for decades and Apple writers beginning to adopt this bad behavior.  Call out Apple for its bad cloud support.  I agree.  But looking for issues where there aren't any or ripping into Apple or another company whose products do not have all features they want or what competitors have.  Not like all those 4K Android devices are outselling the 6S, are they?

Call things for what they are.  Battery life?  Yeah, that's one thing Macworld could have complained about.  But 4K?  Even if Apple did put in a 4K without telling anyone, I reckon this reviewer probably would have complained about the lack of 4K because HE PROBABLY CAN'T TELL!

Oh, and if Apple had added a 4K screen, this dude would have complained about the shorter battery life. 

It just seems like Apple bloggers just have nothing to do since iPhones are doing so well these days compared to its competitiors that all they can do is bitch, bitch, bitch to get eye balls.  C'mon, guys.  You guys are smart and some of you are even decent writers.  Still with that.

iPhone 6S: Day 1, Meh But Still With High Expecations

If you're judging from the title of my post, you'd think I was not impressed with my iPhone 6S.  Well, it has been day one and I have not had a chance to go exploring new features like 3D Touch, snapping photos, and testing out the battery life.  I just had an ordinary day.  And for the new iPhone 6S at my side, there was nothing new to change my routine. 

I did snap a couple Live Pictures but was unable to share this new iOS feature because many folks with iPhones have not upgraded their phones or to iOS 9. So, it could be a while before we start seeing many live pictures being shared and viewed properly.  For now, it feels gimmicky.  Apple pushed it as a new neat feature but it does not feel like a must have.  But don't tell the other 12,999,999 iPhone 6S buyers that. 

But the fact that the new 6S out of the box works like just the 6 means that Apple has done well in allowing users from previous iPhones to transition well.  Swap out the sim card, transfer old data from iCloud or iTunes, and it just works a few hours later.  That is an incredible feat.  Something that is not easily done on Android especially if you're moving from one company's phone to another. 

One thing that did irk me just a bit was pairing with Apple Watch with the 6S.  I lost half a day's of physical data on the watch.  There does not seem to be a way to repair without resetting the watch.

One thing I noticed was how comfortable it felt in my hand. I previously owned an iPhone 6 Plus. And now with the iPhone 6S Plus which weighed just a bit more, for whatever reason, it feels great in my hands.  Perhaps it's pyschological. 

Now, I can't end the post without talking about battery life.  I'm not expecting great things especially given the talk around the tubes of web that the both models of the new iPhone have smaller batteries than their predecessors.  I reckon Apple has made enough improvements to both the hardware and iOS 9 to squeeze out additional efficencies to maintain similar battery lives.  I've adapted and have made peace with battery life expecations from all my devices, trying to preserve battery maintenance, and balancing my needs.  With the expectation that I will upgrade my iPhone annually, I have no issues charging the battery once a day when I have a light schedule or midway through the day if onset of battery anxiety hits.  Still, Apple, would it kill you if you stop making phones thinner every other year to increase the battery life? 

Same goes for the iPad.