The iPhone is a very desirable gadget and something that people hold very near and dear. Some people will even wait days in line for the new one. Being that they’re highly regarded, that also means that thieves have their eyes on them.

In fact, just wearing the signature white iPod earbuds gives a thief the idea that you potentially have a valuable device in your pocket. One issue that’s been sprouting up with people stealing the smartphone, is that Apple support is unknowingly helping them.

The company relies off of the honor system and that’s definitely evident when taking the device into an Apple store where employees will help diagnose any problems, even repair the phone, long as it’s still under warranty, without needing much information.

Reuters has a story about one such issue:

“MIT graduate student Kayla Menard is among those who wants her voice to be heard screaming. She was sending a text from her 3-month-old iPhone while waiting for a train at Boston’s Park Street Station last month when someone snatched it from her hand and ran.”

“Days later she received an automated email that her damaged phone was repaired at an Apple Store. She went to the store to try to get back her phone, but they wouldn’t hand it over to her, and she was told there was nothing they could do. “Because I don’t have possession of the phone, they won’t help me at all,” she says.”

“Menard says she was astonished to find out that Apple wouldn’t help, even though they had her phone. Because someone else had brought in the phone, she was told, the store could not return it to her. She says she believes the thief was sold a new phone at a discount.”

Apple declined to comment on the whole ordeal, but it seems to be a real problem. What would you do if someone stole your iPhone?

iPhone Thieves Getting Help From Apple Support, Employees Not Aware is a post from: The Inquisitr

Workers at Apple’s Genius Bar may soon be freely roaming around Apple store locations thanks to a rumored move from their current stationary MacBook Pro units to portable iPad devices.

If the rumor is true associates will likely receive an iPad specific GCRM repair management tool which is already found on MacBook Pro systems and which will allow them to diagnose problems as they travel around Apple stores.

The move to the smaller handheld units could offer another benefit by allowing Apple to staff their stores with more employees as workloads have continued to increase for Genius Bar assistance with the growing popularity of Apple desktops, tablets and smartphones.

Other news from Electronista points to Apple no longer requiring printed receipts as part of their repairs process by instead allowing customers to sign on with a Geniuses iPad, thus saving time and more space.

The move to a more lean, more functional Apple Store environment would be directly in line with Apple Store makeovers that began this Spring with new signage brand new mobile apps. Apple stores in the US have also recently began a self-checkout program.

Would you be more excited about going to an Apple store if you knew more employees were there to troubleshoot your Apple devices while providing you with better checkout service when you decide to purchase new Apple products.

Apple To Give Genius Bar Employees iPad Devices As Part Of Store Makeovers is a post from: The Inquisitr

Apple has posted a link on its website to a video of the company’s memorial services for its employees to celebrate the life of its founder Steve Jobs.

The event, held last Wednesday in an outdoor amphitheater at Apple campus, was closed to the public. Reporters were even asked to stay away from the Apple premises during that time. The company also closed all its retail stores so that employees could view the memorial service via webcast.

The video which runs 81 minutes is Apple’s way of sharing to the public the company as they mourn the death of Jobs at the age of 56 on October 5 due to a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the past two weeks had been the saddest of his life:

“But I know Steve. Steve would have wanted this cloud to lift for Apple and our focus to return to the work that he loved so much.”

Cook also revealed that the last piece of advice that Jobs gave him was “to never ask what he would do, just do what’s right.”

Jobs’ wife Laurene Powell and former Vice President and Apple board member Al Gore were also present during the event.

Despite not being involved with Apple, how do you celebrate Steve’s life? Or is this just another passing of a great mind?

Apple Posts A Celebration of Steve’s Life Online is a post from: The Inquisitr

Apple is opening a new store in Hamburg and in celebration of that accomplishment a group of artists dressed in construction worker clothing decorated the building this week with a Microsoft logo.

The guerrilla marketing logo was placed on the building with “easy to remove” tactics to ensure the job didn’t turn into a lawsuit and at this time it’s still unclear if it has been removed.

It’s believed that the joke was meant to show how Microsoft’s own stores have yet to make it out of the U.S. due to “modest returns” on their initial stores which will probably greatly delay international store openings.

The funniest part of the stunt is that Apple retail store construction is typically closely guarded, although these pranksters managed to easily get by security and post a giant Windows Logo on a large portion of the building.

Here’s a video from the prank:

Apple’s New Hamburg Store Vandalized with Microsoft Logo [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

As an aside, I can think of no more off-puttingly inconvenient and unpleasant place for an Apple store than the already crowded and fast-moving Grand Central Station in New York City.

It appears, however, that rumors of an Apple store in the commuter hub that have now been dashed were actually just rumors in the first place, and there may have never have been plans to put up an Apple store in one of New York’s most trafficked spots. Given the nature of most visits to Grand Central (people either rushing in to work or desperately rushing away from the city) it doesn’t seem to be a super-intuitive spot even if it was briefly being considered.

TG Daily says the rumors were based on “speculation,” and adds:

Earlier this year, speculation began pouring in that Apple was in discussions with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the agency that owns Grand Central.

But apparently making such a move requires a very long and cumbersome approval process. At some point, it must have been too much of a hassle for Apple.

Could you see any need for an Apple store in this particular area? Would it be a convenience, or given the large crowds Apple stores draw, an overcrowded, understaffed nightmare?

No Apple store for NYC’s Grand Central station is a post from: The Inquisitr

In their defense, she was dressed somewhat provocatively.

[Failbook]

Someone who works at the Apple Store has a sense of humor is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’re looking to buy an iPad but opt not to carry a credit or debit card, you’re SOL on the whole new toy thing.

That’s what a woman named Diane Campbell found out after “scrimping and saving” to pick up an iPad. Campbell says that being disabled and on a fixed income, she planned out the purchase well in advance. Campbell felt the device fit her needs perfectly, with a lower price point and portability putting it within her reach, almost. She particularly looked forward to viewing some guitar lessons on YouTube.

Campbell says she finally scraped up the $600 for a basic model, and “proudly” attempted to purchase an iPad at the Palo Alto Apple Store. When she got to the counter, she was informed that only credit or debit cards were accepted on iPad purchases, no exceptions:

“It took quite a long time for me to just save up this small amount of money to go down and purchase one,” she said. “I had my cash in the backpack and I went up proudly to the counter and told them, ‘I would like to purchase an iPad.’”

She was at the Apple store in Palo Alto, about to pull out the big wad of cash and take home her first computer. Instead, she received a terrible blow.

“They said, ‘Sorry, we don’t take cash.’ And, so I looked at her and I said OK she’s kidding,” Campbell recalled.

ABC investigated the story after Campbell contacted them, but pointed out that there’s no law that states a company has to accept cash for a purchase. And if the comments are to be believed, Campbell isn’t the only one whose form of legal tender was denied for an iPad purchase. Customers who purchased Apple Gift Cards so the recipient could select their own iPad found out that the retailer won’t accept their own gift cards for iPad purchases.

While the hype Apple mounts around their products brings with it the silly purchase limits, forcing customers to sit on a $600+ credit for your store seems like bad business. Surely there’s a way to track people who use cash, too? Is it really absolutely necessary to treat everyone who comes into your shop trying to drop a few hundred clams as a criminal? That’s not even acknowledging the fact the the policy itself is elitist and distasteful- people in lower economic classes tend to lack access to credit and all the perks that come along with it. Alan Fisher, an advocate in California for low-income residents, commented on the policy:

“Apple is coming at this in a very heavy-handed way, and it means that their nice products are not being able to be enjoyed by people who already have many difficulties accessing the rest of mainstream society,” he says.

Do you find the policy understandable, or is Apple doing a bad thing?

[ABC via]

No credit card, no iPad, underbanked woman discovers is a post from: The Inquisitr

Rumors have been creeping around the internet that Apple is quietly limiting the number of iPads individual consumers can purchase.

As is often the case, the policy is nebulous and the accounts of iPad purchase banninations vary widely. One of the first people to report a “no iPad for you” incident was a blogger who posted about the incident in an entry titled “How I went from Apple store newbie to lifetime ban in one week” on his blog, Protocol Snow. The young man says he was attempting to pick up a few iPads for friends on the NeoGAF gaming forum when he was banned at the Apple Store, probably by some jerk in a “Genius” shirt.

Below is a quote from the post- rather lengthy, but worth reproducing because it does a great job of conveying the frustration inherent in such a vague policy. (Quoting begins after Apple Store staff members disappear into the back and the dude trying to buy the iPads overhears them discussing his last store visit.)

Me (nonchalantly) — “Is there an issue?”

He’s still staring at his monitor and a few seconds pass before Guy #2 carefully says, “There is a limit to the number of iPads that customers can buy.”

Me (playing dumb) — “Oh, is that right? What’s the limit?”

Guy #2 — “Only 2 per customer.”

Guy #1 — “I’m sorry sir, but you have reached your lifetime limit of iPad purchases and will not be allowed to buy any more.”

Me (anticipating that statement) — “Is the iPad limit per person? Per credit card? Per household?”

Guy #1 — “All I can say is that you have reached your lifetime limit.”

Me — “What does that mean? Can I use a different credit card to buy it? I’m buying this for a friend.”

Guy #1 — “You are not allowed to buy this iPad.”

Me — “Uhh… is it ok if I have a family member or friend come to buy it for me? My reservation doesn’t expire until 6:00 PM.”

Guy #1 — “All I can say is that you have reached your lifetime limit.”

Me (suddenly realizing what he’s saying) — “Wait, what? Lifetime? What does that mean?”

Guy #1 — “All I can say is that you have reached your lifetime limit of iPads and will not be allowed to buy any more.”

Me — “I’m banned from buying iPads? I know there’s a shortage right now, but I can’t buy any more once there’s plenty of stock?”

Guy #1 — “All I can say is that you have reached your lifetime limit.”

In a post referencing the above incident, Cult of Mac says that a hospital hoping to purchase 100 iPads was told the lifetime limit was three, not two iPads. Doctors from the hospital had initially commented that an iPad would make their jobs (and ostensibly, the level of care they are able to provide) far more efficient.

Although no one wants to see popular tech toys put out of reach by eBay vultures or other predatory resellers, what if you’ve got four kids? Small business owners who might benefit from the iPad? Schools, or even homeschooled kids? If you like your iPad, can you not buy one for your mom and your boyfriend, too? It will be interesting to see how this pans out- and if you’ve been turned away from the counter without an iPad, we’d love to hear about it in the comments .

Need a few iPads? You’re SOL, says Apple is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well, we have a new “most compelling argument ever” for online shopping.

Bill Jordan was picking up an iPad at a Denver Apple store for a Canadian colleague and as the old adage goes, no good deed goes unpunished. Jordan’s mitzvah of obtaining an iPad for his co-worker ended in a permanent injury for him when overzealous iPad thieves ripped off part of the man’s pinky while stealing the device. Jordan had exited the Apple store and was walking down a mall stairway when the attack occurred:

“The next thing I know, I’m spun around. I see this kid…and he’s pulling (the iPad) out of my hand.”

Jordan says the Apple bag’s cords were wrapped around his fingers and he couldn’t let go.

“I never hear it coming, I never see it coming. I just remember this kid pulling and pulling and pulling and it got caught…took the flesh right off, the tendons and everything. There was nothing but bone.”

The injuries were on Jordan’s left hand, compounding the impact of the attack and subsequent pinky loss, as he is left-handed. Jordan was rushed to a hospital, where a doctor recommended amputation for the injury. Jordan, who moved to Denver from New Jersey to escape crime, hopes police will catch the two men responsible for the crime. Police plan to release surveillance video of the attack later today.

Man’s pinky partially severed in iPad heist is a post from: The Inquisitr

Is the high point of your day going to your favorite tech mecca aka The Apple Store nearest you? Ever want to take that experience home with you and cuddle up with it at night?

Well now you can. Sort of.

I present you with the Apple Shoebox Store courtesy of Frensleven and a downloadable kit priced more reasonably than a MacBook Air at $12 each.

Yes folks you to can now dazzle your friends with your very own Apple Store in your living room (iPhone is separate).

via Kris Abel

Can’t enough of the Apple store? Build your own. is a post from: The Inquisitr

Cornell University released a study recently that used Flickr to determine that the Apple Store in New York City is now the 5th most photographed landmark in the Big Apple.

The feat is made even more impressive when considering that New York is the most photographed city in the world, making the Apple Store one of the most photographed landmarks worldwide, the 28th overall most photographed site to be exact.

In a Cornell press release, researchers say they used a new technique to determine locations based on “visual, textual and temporal features.” According to Daniel Huttenlocher, Professor of Computing, Information Science and Business at Cornell.

“These methods reveal that both visual and temporal features improve the ability to estimate the location of a photo compared to using just textual tags.”

The release goes on to mention that this method could be used to help travel guidebooks automatically identify landmarks and provide other information about each site. [Gothamist]

Apple Store Is 5th Most Photographed Landmark In New York City is a post from: The Inquisitr

Richard Belzer, known for his role as Detective John Munch on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, is denying media reports that he behaved aggressively and allegedly assaulted an employee at a Manhattan Apple Store.

Belzer says he touched Apple employee Milan Agnew’s shoulder, but denies that he grabbed or shook her and says the claims are a ploy for attention. He also claims that he does not want the employee disciplined:

“She wanted attention and she knew who I was and I clearly didn’t assault her,” Belzer said. “It’s surprising that Apple would not apologize to such a high-profile, good customer. I’ve spent thousands of dollars there. I don’t want her to be fired, I just want her to seek help.”

Agnew, 21, told NYPD officers that Belzer attacked her in the store after a long wait for assistance. She denies claims that the actor’s status motivated her:

“I’m not star struck by anyone,” Agnew said. “I approached him like he was a regular customer. I asked how can I help you. He told me what he needed, and then before I was able to speak again, he lunges in and grabs my neck. It was no gentle manner. There is no gentle manner to grab someone’s neck.”

Agnew filed a harassment claim. Charges weren’t filed, but she may pursue the matter in a civil courtroom.

SVU’s Richard Belzer denies Apple Store attack is a post from: The Inquisitr

Some lucky people might get something slightly better than a Creme Egg in their Easter baskets this year- Apple has confirmed an in-store pickup date of April 3rd for the highly anticipated “magical and revolutionary” iPad. (Wi-fi models only.)

Wi-fi and 3G models have a later release date toward the “end of April,” and Apple will begin taking pre-orders for iPads on March 12th. The rest of the world, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK will have to wait until the end of April for their iPads, both Wi-fi and 3G.

US pricing is as follows:

iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB.

Commenters: are you going to be first on the list for the Easter iPads, or do you want to wait and see how the first buyers react?

[via Mashable]

Confirmed: iPad hits April 3rd is a post from: The Inquisitr

Does anyone else feel like they’ve been reading fanfiction on the iPad since the summer and now we’ve gotten the book canon and don’t know what to make of it?

I’ll admit it up front- I’m a reluctant ex-switcher. I needed more power than my dinky yet beloved iBook could provide and got a Dell last March. My life has been hellacious since. In addition to pieces beginning to fall off the thing almost immediately, it’s slow, ugly and doesn’t charge. My iBook had problems exactly twice- once when my ex stompled on it while I slept and once when my daughter accidentally pitched it onto a concrete floor. Part of why Apple has such a loyal fanbase is that their products suck way less than the competition. If I were a dude, I’d rather clap my dick shut in this very laptop than ever purchase another Dell. But enough about how Dell blows.

So, the iPad. Let’s get the collective giggling out of the way. Ha ha ha iTampon ha ha. Kotex hurr. Off the bat it’s a ridicucrunkulous name, and although it’s in line with the iPod line of MP3 domination, it sucks on its own. For a long time, women will not be able to parse the new Apple tablet from an aesthetically pleasing white cord emanating from their hoo-has. Silly Apple. Now on to the specs, and I shall partially be cribbing off of James from earlier, thanks dude.

Price

Okay, so this was a shocker- while most priced the iPad speculatively at between 800-1200 clams, some as high as 1800, the actual product came in at the unJobsworthy price of $499 to start, $829 at the high end. The entry level iPad’s rocking an unimpressive 16GB of memory, with 64GB on the high end. I anticipate this will be the most, if not one of the most, talked about aspects of the JesusSlate.

No camera

Not for shooting, not for webcam sex, this baby’s totally blind on the cam front. Bummer.

Accelerometer & digital compass

I have no idea what the first one is, and no idea what the point is with the second.

Speaker & microphone

…for ugly people who want to have remote sex. Isn’t technology fabulous?

Size and battery life

9.7-inch display, half an inch thick. 10 hours of use with a month of standby.

Arsenic, BFR, PVC and Mercury Free

Like you all give a frick. You know you’d have bought it even if every time you checked your e-mail a baby seal died and the device tore a hole in the ozone layer, you great big bunch of slacktivists.

How do I get to the internet on it?

Wi-fi and a 3g package at $29.99 a month for “unlimited usage.” Oh, plus 3G models will run you an extra $130 to start, on top of the price of your tablet. So, if you wanna run 3G on your iPad in year one alone it will cost you at least $490. Burn.

Watch out Amazon

It looks like Apple’s ready to crack the e-publishing industry wide open, like it sort of did by getting everyone to start paying for music again sometimes with iTunes. Let’s face it, while I dig the Kindle app for iPhone, the efforts with magazines and newspapers have been anemic at best, and it seems like Apple might be setting up shop in that underserved market. Instead of a boring old list, the iPad will present your books on a picture of a wooden shelf, which might warrant the $499 price tag all by its lonesome. I’d like to check out the iBooks app in depth before I pee all over it or declare it better than Jack White sex.

Overall, it’s unlocked (screw you, AT&T!), cheap for what it is, and Apple made it. While the critiques are coming fast and furious right now, I think this thing is going to find its niche immediately and dig in with claws. No one owns one yet, so we’ll have to make do with the clip below to give it a once over before the overnight lining up at the Apple store begins.

Video, via Mashable:

The JesusSlate is called the iPad: is it going to be awesome or suck? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Is the Carrousel du Louvre getting a Wok n’ Roll and Spencer Gifts, too?

A month after McDonald’s announced plans to besmirch the Carrousel du Louvre, the “upscale shopping mall” became home to France’s first Apple Store. Much like a chubby bunch of yanks outside a Walmart on Black Friday, throngs of French shoppers lined up outside the Louvre’s Apple Store, and just like when they’re obstructing Starbucks in SoHo and congregating en masse at the Broadway/Lafayette subway station, French people still have those big obnoxious backpacks when they’re still in France. Who knew?

Video below shows the hordes of French people waiting, the red-shirt-clad Apple Geniuses running into the store and high-fiving customers like a winning baseball team, and the massive crowd counting down (en Francais!) to the Apple Store’s grand opening fete. Interestingly, the store in Montpelier was ready to open first but waited in deference to the Parisian flagship.

Le Target can’t be far behind.

.

[Image]

Louvre gets France’s first Apple Store is a post from: The Inquisitr

Apparently, Facebook surfing was eating up too much computer time in Apple Stores. It’s a similar situation to the MySpace ban imposed at Apple Stores back in 2007. At that time, Apple explained the decision with the following statement:

“Nearly 2 million people visit Apple stores every week. We want to provide everyone a chance to test-drive a Mac, so we are no longer offering access to MySpace in our stores.”

Apple Store employees said customers would loiter “for hours” while using the social networking site.

It’s interesting that it took nearly two years for Facebook to become a big enough problem to warrant the same action. The latest stats from HitWise might offer some explanation: From January of 2008 to January of 2009, Facebook’s total market share within social networks doubled, shooting from 15 percent to 31 percent. MySpace, in the meantime, shrunk from 73 percent in ’08 to 57 percent in ’09.

The question, then, is what site will get the next Apple Store ban. Any predictions?

Apple Store: No More Facebook For You is a post from: The Inquisitr