This Week at Apple Store

Interesting week this was for my Apple devices. 

Event 1

My iPhone 5S's home button crumbled under it's own weights. Lucky, it was still under warranty. But wait, mine was a Insurance Replaced Unit and the Genius told me if there was any 3rd party modification done on internals, the warranty would be invalid and I would have to pay for repair. Interesting that we must give consent to this even before they open-up the device.

I took the chance. It took the Geniuses 3 hours to find that 

1. The warranty was valid.
2. Device couldn't be repaired.
3. Device must be replaced.

At least I came back with a new working device.

Event 2

Much has been written about the Apple Refurbished program. Hey you get a like new device for a bit less. Then Why not!

Beware, as you must always, the devices could still be possessed by the angry souls of their previous owners, despite all the Apple Kaboom wash.

As you can see in this video that I uploaded, my iPad had a mind of it's own.

Good thing, I took it to an Apple Store where a Genius opined that "Refurbished" weren't really worth it :)

Note that, per Apple, refurbished items go through the same quality control as new items.
Sorry Apple, but something isn't right about that statement.

Apple Pay at Macy's (Freehold) - NO GO

If cashier can't tell Apple Pay from Pay Pal you know there is a problem.
The indicator at the NFC payment terminal was green and the phone beeped and vibrated
but no payment was registered. I tried it a few times, got frustrated. The cashier was not sure how 'phone' payments work. So I took out my card and swiped the old fashioned way.

Macy's was one of the first stores to support Apple Pay and it's been about a year since then.
Also, this method of payment is anything but faster. Every store where it "worked" required me to select Credit/Debit and then sign using the stylus.

So if you still remember the "demo" http://www.cnet.com/videos/apple-pay-demo-on-iphone-6-and-new-ipad/, just remember this is NOT how it works in real life.

UPDATE:

@abhinavspeak Hi there — unfortunately, at this time we do not accept Discover with Apple Pay. More info here: http://t.co/dfe0214u99 .

— Macy's (@Macys) October 11, 2015

How to not use Apple Maps in iOS9

It might be a subtle way to push users to Apple's own Maps app. The option to pick one of other Routing apps (e.g. Google Maps) have been pushed down. One needs to open the share sheet and tap "Routing Apps". 

Disable news from iOS 9 Proactive search

Hey, who is not annoyed by the "News Suggestions" in the new Proactive search in iOS9?

Just go to "Spotlight Search" in settings and disable "Spotlight Suggestions"

iOS WiFi Network Selection

It's a shame that iOS doesn't have a provision to set priority on WiFi networks. In case there are multiple networks available, there is no guarantee that the strongest network will be chosen. In my case it was between optimumwifi, the public network and my private network. My iPhone would always prefer connecting to the weaker network. How annoying!

So I renamed my private network to optimulwifi, just to make it appear before optimumwifi in alphabetical ascending order. And so far, that seems to have "fixed" it.