Genius Bar

I made an appointment last Friday for the Apple store Genius Bar today. I’d been stuck on an iPod Touch firmware upgrade and wasn’t sure what to do. It’s a 15-20 minute drive up there, but I could combine this with other errands, and I need it for teleprompting. In fact, I depend on it some days.

I got there, and I had someone ask if they could help as I walked through the store. At 10:27 in the morning it was quiet, but busier than I expected. I said I had an appointment and they pointed me at a person to check in. I did, giving my name, and they put me in the Q.

There are lots of monitors in the store, and here’s one behind the bar that shows who’s next for iPod/iPhone help, rotating with the Mac queue, and helpful tips on how to use your devices. I learned a few things last time just watching the display.

The lady in front of my was struggling with her iPhone, and I’m not sure I would have had the patience, but the guy did a good job of explaining things to her and helping  her out.

Finally it was my turn, I explained what I’d done, and he said he’d try a couple things. First he wanted to flash my iTouch back to base with his MacBook, and then upgrade it.

To check on my purchase, he had me sign into the MacBook with my account, and the upgrade appeared. He downloaded it and fixed up my iPod. To be honest, it wasn’t that simple and required a couple of flashes to take. He said that likely my downloaded image was broken somehow, and I could have deleted it and tried again, but I didn’t think of that, and it was worth the time for him to fix things. He even gave me power to charge my laptop while he flashed things. I worked for 10 minutes, doing a little writing while it was working, so it wasn’t a waste of time. We did a partial sync, which worked, and I was out the door, my iTouch working again.

I checked out the iPads on the way out and they are cool. Not sure they work for me, but they are very, very cool.