Apple iTunes Store Account Signup Process Needs Work

Software

Since getting my Apple iPhone 3GS last weekend, it seemed like as good a time as any to see what all the fuss was regarding the Apple App Store available for the iPhone.

I open up Safari on the iPhone and navigate to a site to download an application that I want to install. Following the bouncing ball to install the application, then find out that I need an iTunes Store account. At this stage, I figure this must be a very common scenario, so persist thinking it’ll be super smooth and it’ll be over with in a minute.

After gonig through the iTunes Store signup process, I then find out that they use the common two phrase signup process – signup and then verify. A little annoying as I haven’t configured any email accounts on the iPhone yet but am determined to follow the process through. After configuring the email account, I open the verification email and click the link to activate my iTunes Store account and am then told that I can’t complete this action on my iPhone.

I’ve opened my email on my desktop and clicked the link in the verification email. The web page opens but I am not presented with the normal ‘your account has now been activated’ type of message and the page isn’t thinking, strange. There is some small text on the page that says if iTunes didn’t open, open it yourself – which I subsequently did. At this point, I assumed clicking the link again was going to make iTunes do something – alas that was an incorrect assumption. I was viewing the ‘check your email to verify your account’ page within iTunes again – strange. It wasn’t until I realised that below that message there was a ‘Done’ button just sitting there with no instruction associated with it. After clicking that button, something happened and my account was verified.

What would have made this process that much smoother:

  1. If a user is creating an account for the first time on an iPhone, it’d be worth telling them that they’ll be sent an email to verify their account up front. That way they know they’ll need access to email on their iPhone to complete the process.
  2. If the Apple iTunes account signup process cannot be completed on an iPhone, either inform me that I can only complete 90% of the process on the iPhone up front or don’t let me begin it at all. By allowing me to start the process, the expectation was set that I should reasonably expect to complete the process as well which wasn’t possible.
  3. When clicking the link within the account verification email and iTunes doesn’t load, provide better instructions on what to do next. The page that loaded within iTunes wasn’t clear enough and I was left wondering what, if anything I should click on next to try and get my account verified.

These are all just small things in the grand scheme of things, however go towards making the user experience of using an Apple service that much smoother and would leave a nicer taste in the mouth of a lesser skilled user.

rediATM Follows The Crowd & Raises ATM Fees

Life

At the start of September I applauded rediATM for being, what I considered front runners, by not following the crowd and issuing a $2.00 fee to customers using their ATM network throughout Australia. You can imagine my disappointment when only a month later, I used the rediATM in front of Woolworths at the Upper Coomera City Centre and I was charged $2.00 for my time.

I have no idea what it costs rediATM to provide their ATM network throughout Australia, however I get the impression that it has absolutely no bearing on the $2.00 fee they charge. It isn’t an coincidence that nearly every ATM provider charges $2.00 for the service – it is a small amount of money that consumers hate having to pay but tolerate because it seems as though it is an inconsequential amount of money. This is the how the banks make literally hundreds of millions of dollars annually, charging lots of small fees which seem innocuous on their own, collectively annoying but still small enough that it begrudgingly dismissed.

For no other reason than I had a good feeling about rediATM until now, I would have used their ATM in front of Woolworths and ‘happily’ copped the existing $1.75 on the chin but felt good about it because they weren’t being a lemming.

Now that rediATM have increased their ATM to $2.00 like everyone else, I’ll make a point of not using it and get money out when purchasing at Woolworths.

Best iPhone Apps According to First & 20

Websites

I stumbled onto a neat site today named First & 20, which lets you show people how you have your home screen on your iPhone configured. The neat thing about the site is that it keeps track of how many times different iPhone apps have been used on a home screen, which essentially is like users voting for the best iPhone apps. The site doesn’t put any restriction on what type of application you use on your home screen either, just that you think it warrants being on your home screen, paid or free – it doesn’t matter. While looking through the different configurations I’ve just found a raft of useful iPhone apps that I didn’t even knew existed – so that’ll help me out for sure when I finally get my hands on a new iPhone.

iPhones & Unicorns

Hardware

After having my Samsung Blackjack for over two years, I’m out of contract and in the hunt for a new phone – and iPhone to be exact.

Last weekend I either called or physically over ten different shops on the Gold Coast looking for an iPhone to no avail. Initially I was calling different Vodafone stores over the Gold Coast and I got a consistent message – “we don’t have any but more stock is coming in constantly”. It wasn’t until I talked to Optus, 3, Crazy Johns, All Phones and more that I realised it was much worst than I had first thought. It appears a though every retailer is struggling to get any significant stock for the iPhone, having them delivered in dribs and drabs instead of by the carton or pallet.

I called the new Apple Store that has opened in the recently renovated Robina Town Centre and they had stock, which was great. Unfortunately it came with a caveat of sorts, I could have one right now if I bought it outright or I’d have to book in an appointment online for one of their iPhone specialists (read: standard phone consultant that knows the process of the major phone networks). I wanted to just walk in, like I would have to a Vodafone store and upgrade my phone but I couldn’t do that without buying it outright – which frustrated me.

While the Gold Coast iPhone stock is so low, I guess the iPhone is my unicorn.