As part of today's Apple online store downtime, the company appears to have rolled out an enhancement of its sales chat support services for those looking to purchase an Apple product. While sales chat has been available for quite some time through individual product pages, the changes include a revamped chat window with a more modern appearance.
As has long been the case, sales chat support is available only during certain times of the day and dependent on availability of chat agents.
Even more interestingly, Apple appears to be using its Brazilian store as a test market for even further enhancements that allow sales specialists to share their screens with potential customers to help walk them through a product's features. MacMagazine.com.brprovides an overview the process [Google translation], showing how users can participate in a virtual tour with the chat appearing along the right side of the browser window while the specialist shares his or her screen to walk through the product's features.
The report indicates that the screen sharing virtual tour feature is limited to the iPad 2 for the time being, but that the company has plans to extend it across its product lines.
Tuesday November 19, 2024 12:12 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Barclays analyst Tom O'Malley and his colleagues recently traveled to Asia to meet with various electronics manufacturers and suppliers. In a research note this week, outlining key takeaways from the trip, the analysts said they have "confirmed" that a fourth-generation iPhone SE with an Apple-designed 5G modem is slated to launch towards the end of the first quarter next year. In line with previo...
Sunday November 17, 2024 5:18 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple released the AirTag in April 2021, so it is now three over and a half years old. While the AirTag has not received any hardware updates since then, a new version of the item tracking accessory is rumored to be in development.
Below, we recap rumors about a second-generation AirTag.
Timing
Apple is aiming to release a new AirTag in mid-2025, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman....
Sunday November 17, 2024 3:03 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
While the Logitech MX Master 3 is a terrific mouse for the Mac, reports claiming that Apple CEO Tim Cook prefers that mouse over the Magic Mouse are false.
The Wall Street Journal last month published an interview with Cook, in which he said he uses every Apple product every day. Soon after, The Verge's Wes Davis attempted to replicate using every Apple product in a single day. During that...
Tuesday November 19, 2024 10:10 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1, minor updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating systems that debuted earlier in September. iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1 come three weeks after the launch of iOS 18.1.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Apple has also released iOS 17.7.2 for...
Wednesday November 20, 2024 3:42 am PST by Tim Hardwick
AT&T has begun displaying "Turbo" in the iPhone carrier label for customers subscribed to its premium network prioritization service, according to reports on Reddit. The new indicator seems to have started appearing after users updated to iOS 18.1.1, but that could be just coincidence.
Image credit: Reddit user No_Highlight7476
The Turbo feature provides enhanced network performance through ...
Monday November 18, 2024 1:07 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
In a research note with Hong Kong-based investment bank Haitong today, obtained by MacRumors, Apple analyst Jeff Pu said he agrees with a recent rumor claiming that the so-called "iPhone 17 Air" will be around 6mm thick.
"We agreed with the recent chatter of an 6mm thickness ultra-slim design of the iPhone 17 Slim model," he wrote.
If that measurement proves to be accurate, there would be ...
Tuesday November 19, 2024 10:52 am PST by Juli Clover
The iOS 18.1.1, iPadOS 18.1.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1.1 updates that Apple released today address JavaScriptCore and WebKit vulnerabilities that Apple says have been actively exploited on some devices.
With the JavaScriptCore vulnerability, processing maliciously crafted web content could lead to arbitrary code execution. The WebKit vulnerability had the same issue with maliciously crafted...
LOL. I live in Brasil. It's horrible to pay taxes like brazilian people pay. The government here in Brasil it's horrible. Is a government of corrupt politicians.
Thats the result of bad administration!!! Bad Government = Horrible Country
If you ever studied Tax Law, you would understand that, once a government approves additional taxation, it will almost never accept to relinquish it. Furthermore, Brazil is a federative republic - the President is not able to change the whole taxation system at will...exactly the same happens with the horrid tax system in the US - the only advantage is that taxes are still lower over there.
As for corruption, please stop this usual mongrel dog complex that affects many Brazilians - according to the latest Transparency International reports, Brazil's corruption levels are way better than China and Russia, better than most of the Americas, much better than most of Eastern Europe and Africa, and at similar levels as "rich" countries such as Italy. So try to put a little perspective into things instead of spouting the same blabla to non-Brazilians.
Good to see the Brazilian market leading the way once more - once the taxation of Apple devices gets to a more reasonable level there, the increasingly wealthier local consumers will be even more willing to buy from Apple than what they are already doing right now.
Next logical step: MAJOR Apple Stores in São Paulo, Rio and Curitiba - mark my words for this extremely important emerging Western power.
Well at the price they pay for Apple product, they at least deserve extra customer services.
Seriously how can people manage to live in Brasil with such taxes?
Just imagine what they could do WITHOUT excessive taxes, huh? In any case, the main burden talked about here is on imported electronics, which in any case can be fairly easily bought on instalments.
Moreover, Brazil has an extensive local industry for computers and the like, giving people the possibility to buy without incurring the same taxation as traditional Apple products.
Although this should change for the better once more and more iPads/iPhones are produced locally, the main issue depends on whether the average Brazilian consumer wakes up to the fact that what he pays is NOT ONLY due to taxes - companies love to put a huge mark-up due to those consumers' extremely high willingness to pay whatever price for a nice gadget. Ironically, they now face the same situation I see in Switzerland: people paying a LOT more just because they can and accept to - the traditional economic concept of welfare, if you will.
Besides, although there is still considerable poverty in the country, one cannot forget that Brazil has 190 million inhabitants, of which at least 30% can easily afford to buy the most expensive things...companies love that, especially for electronics and vehicles.
