[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbSiK0ApsPg[/youtube]
I told you this morning that Apple has implemented in all its stores a new way to display the characteristics of the products on sale. Instead of the old cardboard boxes with technical specifications, there are now iPad tablets that have a special application in which all the information about the products are displayed. The respective tablets are specially made so that when the application with the specifications is running, the Home button does not work and the only way to make it work involves closing the tablet. The tablets are most likely running a new version of iOS designed by Apple especially for them, but the interesting part is that each store received tens or hundreds of such tablets.
In each store, important stocks of tablets of this kind were made, which now display information about Apple products, so several tens of thousands of tablets are now in the more than 300 Apple stores around the world. The idea is good, but I don't know if it's new method to find out information about the products will change the public's perception of the products tremendously.
- As noted, the home button does not work when the Smart Sign app is running so it cannot be exited. The only way to get the home button to work again is to reset the iPad using the home and lock buttons.
- The Apple Store App will be updated tomorrow, and will be available worldwide. It will support CTO orders, and should also be available as an iPad optimized app.
- The Display iPads have a different model number than the current iPad 2s. There has been some concern about the cameras: Is Apple watching us from HQ? Listening? Customers? Also, we've been told there is a bunch of security stuff on the new iPads. If they leave the Store they keep calling home with their Wifi coordinates.
- Apple is giving the old Pioneer tvs to one lucky Apple Employee per store. We had just upgraded all of them to new Sonys
- The iPads are charged using a kind of tape, which goes from the cable which enters the plastic casing, to the dock connector (you can hardly see it!). This charges the iPad and alarms it – if it is removed, the alarm will sound.
- There was some speculation about how the iPads are powered in the new display. They are connected via ribbon cables that hook into the dock connector. All the cables are custom made for each iPad, and also power the product they are advertising. All the content on the iPads is loaded from a server, nothing is stored locally except the custom application. The home buttons are disabled. We load them up, provision them to be signage iPads, boot the application, tell the iPad where in the store it's located and that's it. Apple can change prices and info live across all of retail
- We have one of the smaller stores in the market and we received 100 iPad 2's for the smart signs. The app that runs the information disables the home button on the iPad (obviously) and the image is all encompassing. If products move tables we won't necessarily have to move smart signs just tell the iPads to display different product information. There is a specially designed flat ribbon cable that powers the iPad, no inductive charging or anything like that.
