Apple has dropped to a new low for me. I have never had much interaction with them in the past. I recently purchased an iTouch because it is not yet possible to buy an iPhone without a 2-year contract from AT&T. So I purchased the iTouch to get an idea of how Geogad will look thought the iPhone/iTouch interface. The sales person mentioned something about a software update, but I was not worried. After all, I had just purchased a new iTouch and the iPhone App store had been in business for several weeks. Any required software should be included on the iTouch. If not, it should be easy to upgrade. I upgrade my iPods all the time with iTunes.

Turns out that to upgrade the ancient 1.1.15 version of the iTouch software to version 2.0.2 (the numbers indicating a huge change in software), I would have to pay an additional $10. I have never bought a new piece of computer hardware and then got charged extra for a required software upgrade.

I spoke to Scott, the manager at the local Apple Store. To him and Apple, the software upgrade is not required to use the iTouch. It is required to use the iPhone Apps store, but they do not view that as an important part of the device’s operation. But it is vital to me.

Scott said that he was not willing to upgrade the software for free, but he was willing to let me bring the device back and waive the $30 restocking fee. So he can’t waive the $10 software, but he can waive the $30 fee. I have a bad feeling that when I bring the device back to the Apple Store that there will be some reason that he will not let me return the device at all. Combine it with the cost and time associated with driving back to the store multiple times, I think that he really made this offer because he thinks that  he will never have to waive the $30 restocking fee.

Apple’s nickle and diming me with this little and annoying fees make me think that there will be many problems with their devices for Geogad. The devices have been designed and sold in such a way that the device does not work the way that the customer expects without additional payments. For example, the iPhone does not seem to have the capability to record video even though it has a camera. Even the lowest end phones can shot short video clips. I understand why Apple did not include this basic functionality, but it is very tiring to deal with these expensive devices that are so purposely limited.