“Today at Apple” kicked off this weekend with new in-store programming around the world, including Photo Walks and Kids Hour at all 495 Apple stores. From Getting Started with Coding to How To: Sketch, Draw and Paint with iPad, stores collectively hosted 4,000 sessions a day, including some with very special guests.
Being British, I have a story about tea. It goes like this: For my entire life, it had tasted wrong. Not bad, exactly, but not quite right. I tried all different kinds, and just about every brand I could find. I drank it without milk which made it taste a little better, and sometimes added lemon which pushed it a little more in the right direction. But still: tea tasted wrong and I had no idea why. Then one evening, my flatmate at the time asked me if I'd like a cup. I politely declined, explaining that it would make it hard for me to sleep. She replied that it was okay, she had caffeine free tea called Rooibos, from South Africa. So, a few minutes later, she handed me a cup of tea, and it tasted right.
Why did I just tell you a story about tea? What does that have to do with Apple? Well, the fact is that I had a very similar feeling the first time I used a Mac in earnest. Then it happened again with the iPhone. It's not just Apple products, mind you. The physics of a Mario game and the feel in the hand of an X-Box 360 controller also gave me this feeling. Recently, though, I haven't had this "Oh, this is right" feeling quite so much. I can only think of two examples, and they're so small that they probably qualify as "features" more so than "products".
It’s unclear at this point if Apple plans to introduce a similar pricing change in other countries, dropping the free trial in favor of three months for $0.99.
The new addition to the app however is the scanning of labels and wine lists. Yep, the app will see you label and then inform you what people rated it.