Don’t put all your Apples in one basket!

We all have our favourite brands and, more often than not, we do ourselves a disservice by not venturing outside the comfortable walls of familiarity. I believe in finding and using the right tools for the right job. A fit for purpose ideology I have lived by - not just as a developer and creator of brands but also as a consumer. So whilst I love gadgets in general I am always looking for the right one for the right purpose. As an advocate of Apple it came as ‘some surprise’ to many that I ventured towards a Windows 8 phone rather than the latest Apple iPhone offering. What I wasn't expecting though was the feeling that iOS had some serious catching up to do.

The iPad mini: Is it worth it?

Now the hype has subsided, we ask the important question: Is the iPad Mini necessary?

Those Apple folks are good at what they do. They’ve taken over the world through a simple tactic; creating something “different and luxurious”, which perhaps more accurately means “turning business tools into a commodity”. They’ve created products that consumers didn’t know they needed. With the iPad Mini, though, they may have forgotten to include the business…

Simon Johnson - My Top 3 Websites

The web space we're invading!
Just some sites that Idealogy people are visiting that tick their boxes...

Simon Johnson - Digital Media Director

www.apple.com
Because I've been sucked into the Apple PR machine.

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/
I love stats, pictographs and all kinds of visual data displays.

http://theoatmeal.com/
It's funny, very funny at times.

Posted by Idealogy

Apple App Store

Apple now has strict new guidelines for developers to get software onto their forthcoming store: “No betas or demos and no upgrade pricing” - interesting moves (no beta, demo, trial or test versions allowed!!), but that should be a good thing for the consumer as only quality, tested, proven apps will make it onto the store.

On the positive side, there will be Apple’s rigorous (some would say extreme) testing process, which means only quality makes it online (quality meaning ‘working well’ rather than quality content) and that has to be a good thing. It also means that developers and clients need to focus on what they produce and why – and that’s also got to be good news for us all as consumers.

On the negative side, they are talking about being stricter on the UI (user interface) and anything that is complex or deemed to be ‘not good’ will be removed or not allowed. This could mean the end of many good apps that have been clever in the way they uses the touch interface, which is a massive shame in our opinion. Also, tight regulations on pricing and upgrades are going to be hard for some developers to work with, adapt and overcome we would suggest.

Apple’s stringent control always means that you can rely on well developed, quality apps that work and won’t cause your iPhone any heartache. Sadly, the same can’t always be said for the content some people produce in apps! The worry is that Apple are taking too much control and opening the door for Google to push past them - quality vs the mass market. We’ll just have to wait and see, but sadly, if the X-Factor is anything to go by, the mass market might win! Then again, Apple is the Porsche of the computer world…
Posted by Simon Johnson

iDespair* - A cautionary tale of online ordering with one of the world’s biggest e-commerce systems

The story has a simple, and some might say touching, beginning. A fathers pride at his daughter’s successful bid to go to University and his fear that she might walk off with the home computer, leaving her parents adrift in a seemingly empty world of cyber chat.

So, the task was to procure her a laptop with all of the software she would need for the next 4 years. What could be simpler? And where would the best Student deals emerge? I had to look no further than Apple – and here was my opportunity to migrate another family member into the Mac world, another nail in the coffin of PC Gates. I jumped at the chance – order a laptop for a new student and get a FREE iTouch. That would mean a net saving of over £150 on the price of the, lets be honest here, more expensive but perfectly suited MacBook. I felt the moral justification swelling in my bank balance.

Ah! The online Apple Store. What temptation. What a dangerous place to send a middle-aged man without proper assistance. I browsed and I shopped and then I shopped some more, and before I knew it I had a shopping list as long as my….well, it was quite long! So I stared at my credit card, a bead of sweat trickling from my hair line, and then, there it was – the Apple Credit Finance link – a gleaming phone number that would take away all of my problems, at a better APR than VISA…happy days!

I dialled and got through almost immediately to my guy Gerry, talking to me from sunny Austin, Texas, US, and telling me all about his pending holiday to see his folks in Idaho (wherever that is!). And that was the moment that life, as I knew it ended! Apple, ably supported by Gerry, Catrina, Lloyd and a cast of thousands at Barclays Credit Finance, successfully managed to destroy my perception of Apple over an 8-week period.

Lets cut to the chase here – I have recently cancelled my order in a rather robust and loud conversation with the unwitting Apple Europe employee, when he asked me to re-make my order and finance agreement for the 4th time, 2 days after my third delivery date had expired. But here is a brief summation: -

• I placed an order for over £1800 worth of stuff at the start of July, and because of a conflict in some of my address information (the billing address was different to the shipping address) I had to make 2 orders and go through 2 finance agreement questionnaires on the first day. Finance denied because of this conflict
• 2nd Order finally approved when I changed the shipping address to match the billing address
• 2nd Order cancelled on shipping day when Apple discovered that I live on an Island
• 3rd Order placed and new finance agreement completed and mainland shipping address re-reinstated
• 3rd Order then modified on line by Apple to state that shipping would be agreed at Shipping date
• 3rd Order cancelled by Apple 2 days after due shipping date because we hadn’t agreed a shipping address, which, if it was to the Isle of Wight, would also be cancelled because the VAT rate was different on the Isle of Wight (?)
• Apple dude phones me to remake 4th order and …well you know the rest.

So, what did I do? I walked 150 yards to the Apple Store in West Quay where a very helpful Store Manager listened to my tale and promptly sold me almost all of the stuff I wanted with a generous 15% discount. Why didn’t I do this before – good question? The truth is, the online offers got me in and encouraged me to make further purchases before the e-commerce kicked in and we all hit a wall.

So what’s the moral here? Well, if a business that boasts billions in online revenues based on 59p here and £7.99 there can’t join up the dots on £1800 orders then effectively they are the Computer world equivalent of Poundland. And I shouldn’t be so lazy when the real solution is so close. Just get off your ….!

* All reproduction rights to iDespair will go to the Steven Barnes Foundation for the impoverished supporters of Nooneshandonthetiller.com the forum for disillusioned Southampton FC supporters

Simon Johnson as IT director would like to distance himself from these comments as he is an avid Apple fanboy :o)

Posted by Simon Dover