"Genius" Misinformation

[mtfbwy]

I finally decided to try and get my one year old iPhone 4 swapped out at the Apple Store. The home button has been acting up for awhile but has been getting progressively worse. Strangely, it would not respond in the mornings and seemed to get better as the day progressed.

So, I made my appointment at my local Apple Store and finally got a swap but not before getting a bit pissed by the misinformation they are spreading. After first getting grilled on whether or not the phone had been in water or if my "kids had been chewing on it", the guy claimed that all of the apps displayed in the bottom task list were "making the phone unresponsive" so he closed all of them. I said that those apps ARE NOT all running and I shut my phone off every night. He said that the iPhone relaunches all of them when you reboot. Yeah, right. So all 100 or so apps in that list are running on this little phone? I told him if that is the case, there is a major design flaw with the OS. He said nothing and then tried to blame my woes on some application crashes in the logs. He then noticed I was running Skype and tried to blame the bad home button on that. I never use skype and I told him as much.

After fiddling with the button for another few minutes he finally decided that it was, indeed, a mechanical problem and swapped it out.

In general, I've never had a great experience with an Apple "genius".

 

[Hankster]

I brought my iPhone 4 into the Apple store about four months ago for apps crashing and the display getting buggy. The lady I met with was real nice. She ran a few diagnostics and saw my crash log, then just gave me a new phone. My father had an issue with his iPhone 4 also, they replaced it without even asking many questions.

The Genius Bar's experience is really based on who you get. Not everyone is a jerk or nice or whatever. Just depends on who you get.

 

[Dwalls90]

They are generally stupid, but kind, and ocassionally condescending. From my experiences at least;

Stupid, they didn't know what DFU mode was or how to enter it.

Kind, just friendly like most Apple store people.

Condescending,the typical know-it-all asociate that doesn't know squat.

That said I had issues with my home button and wasn't mean but was firm about the issue and they replaced it.

 

[macingman]

I finally decided to try and get my one year old iPhone 4 swapped out at the Apple Store. The home button has been acting up for awhile but has been getting progressively worse. Strangely, it would not respond in the mornings and seemed to get better as the day progressed.

So, I made my appointment at my local Apple Store and finally got a swap but not before getting a bit pissed by the misinformation they are spreading. After first getting grilled on whether or not the phone had been in water or if my "kids had been chewing on it", the guy claimed that all of the apps displayed in the bottom task list were "making the phone unresponsive" so he closed all of them. I said that those apps ARE NOT all running and I shut my phone off every night. He said that the iPhone relaunches all of them when you reboot. Yeah, right. So all 100 or so apps in that list are running on this little phone? I told him if that is the case, there is a major design flaw with the OS. He said nothing and then tried to blame my woes on some application crashes in the logs. He then noticed I was running Skype and tried to blame the bad home button on that. I never use skype and I told him as much.

After fiddling with the button for another few minutes he finally decided that it was, indeed, a mechanical problem and swapped it out.

In general, I've never had a great experience with an Apple "genius".

Contrary to what you think skype IS running in the background using a VOIP API. Any app optimised for iOS4 multtitasking (which is most) is using some of the system resources pherhaps not heaps but when there are a lot of apps running it adds up.

 

[heisenberg123]

They are generally stupid, but kind, and ocassionally condescending. From my experiences at least;

Stupid, they didn't know what DFU mode was or how to enter it.

Kind, just friendly like most Apple store people.

Condescending,the typical know-it-all asociate that doesn't know squat.

That said I had issues with my home button and wasn't mean but was firm about the issue and they replaced it.

yup you see them all over, best buy is the best for this you can fully know what your talking about but just ask questions to see how much the associate knows and they always act like they know everything even when they have no clue

 

[mtfbwy]

No. Skype only keeps running once you launch it. It does not launch on startup. No iOS app does that except the built-in apps.

Contrary to what you think skype IS running in the background using a VOIP API. Any app optimised for iOS4 multtitasking (which is most) is using some of the system resources pherhaps not heaps but when there are a lot of apps running it adds up.

 

[Madonepro]

No. Skype only keeps running once you launch it. It does not launch on startup. No iOS app does that except the built-in apps.

Contrary to what you think skype IS running in the background using a VOIP API. Any app optimised for iOS4 multtitasking (which is most) is using some of the system resources pherhaps not heaps but when there are a lot of apps running it adds up.

I'm afraid macinman is right, the purpose of multi tasking is to have the apps available when you want them, without having to reload them, to do that, the iOS has to commit resources to it to allow that to happen, if you have too many open, you'll lose some performance. Basically sucking up the RAM.

 

[heisenberg123]

I'm afraid macinman is right, the purpose of multi tasking is to have the apps available when you want them, without having to reload them, to do that, the iOS has to commit resources to it to allow that to happen, if you have too many open, you'll lose some performance. Basically sucking up the RAM.

this

if your jailbroken you can see how much free ram you have and if you kill the apps that are "running" your free ram is increased

 

[labman]

I just did this Monday. The Apple Genus I went too opened up there diagnostic tool and checked the home button. The tool confirmed that home button was not working all the time. he then exchanged my phone in less then 10 minutes. my only complaint is I lost my jailbreak shsh blobs and lost some game data lvl 40 infinity Blade I now have to start all over! but life goes on!

 

[localboy28]

Who cares what the genius thinks
You got your replacement, forget about it.

 

[petrucci666]

the guy claimed that all of the apps displayed in the bottom task list were "making the phone unresponsive" so he closed all of them. I said that those apps ARE NOT all running and I shut my phone off every night. He said that the iPhone relaunches all of them when you reboot. Yeah, right. So all 100 or so apps in that list are running on this little phone? I told him if that is the case, there is a major design flaw with the OS.

My brother is having the same problems with his Home button. The button didn't work all day, and guess what - when he arrived for his appointment, the button 'magically' started to work.

The genius also blamed it on the multitasking apps that were running in the background but he didn't get an exchange. An hour after the appointment, the Home button stopped working again so we won't stop until we get a replacement.


On the other hand, a few days earlier, I went in to get a replacement because my battery was very very weak, getting only about 3-3.5 hours of usage. They swapped phones in 5 minutes and now it can go for 7-8 hours.

I just did this Monday. The Apple Genus I went too opened up there diagnostic tool and checked the home button. The tool confirmed that home button was not working all the time. he then exchanged my phone in less then 10 minutes. my only complaint is I lost my jailbreak shsh blobs and lost some game data lvl 40 infinity Blade I now have to start all over! but life goes on!

Next time, use xBackup from Cydia. The best $1.50 I've spent in a long time!
You backup on the phone and then that file is saved in the actual iTunes backup. You then re-jailbreak and just restore your phone from backup, download xBackup again from Cydia (only this time you don't have to pay for it) and then restore the actual jailbreak backup file so that all your Cydia apps and tweaks get back in place.

 

[flipster]

My iMac was freezing, displaying artifacts all over the screen, and crashing.

Even though I had already had 2 hard drive replacements, and the genius insisted that I change it again because that was problem. I tried explaining to her that the artifacts on the screen were caused by a graphics card/logic board failing, but she still replaced the hard drive. Needless to say I got the machine back, and it was doing the same thing. I wasn't exactly happy.

My iPhone 4 had extreme yellow tinting; the replacement the "genius" pulled out of the box was still pretty yellow compared to my other friend's VZW iPhone 4's. He told me that it would look yellow at first because it had been in the dark for so long... I just looked at him like . Three weeks later, it's still yellow.

They are genuinely kind, and nice, but based off my experiences, I have no idea how they get hired.

 

[Kyotoma]

My iMac was freezing, displaying artifacts all over the screen, and crashing.

Even though I had already had 2 hard drive replacements, and the genius insisted that I change it again because that was problem. I tried explaining to her that the artifacts on the screen were caused by a graphics card/logic board failing, but she still replaced the hard drive. Needless to say I got the machine back, and it was doing the same thing. I wasn't exactly happy.

My iPhone 4 had extreme yellow tinting; the replacement the "genius" pulled out of the box was still pretty yellow compared to my other friend's VZW iPhone 4's. He told me that it would look yellow at first because it had been in the dark for so long... I just looked at him like . Three weeks later, it's still yellow.

They are genuinely kind, and nice, but based off my experiences, I have no idea how they get hired.

At that point I would try Apple's Online Support.

 

[heisenberg123]

I just did this Monday. The Apple Genus I went too opened up there diagnostic tool and checked the home button. The tool confirmed that home button was not working all the time. he then exchanged my phone in less then 10 minutes. my only complaint is I lost my jailbreak shsh blobs and lost some game data lvl 40 infinity Blade I now have to start all over! but life goes on!

ahh dang you should of got appbackup it creates a backup of the games you choose then you ssh the folder it makes to your computer, rejailbreak download app backup again then ssh the folder back on the phone

used it for the first time yesterday becasue i wanted to do a new device restore and it worked great

 

[sporadicMotion]

Geniuses are not geniuses. A friend had a new MacBook Pro that beach balled perpetually. The "geniuses" couldn't find anything in console so presumed it was fine and refused to do anything about it.

We plugged in a firewire audio interface, caused a couple kernel panics to show up (which can be done on any macbook pro '09 and up) and the MacBook Pro was finally replaced.

Some are good. For the most part though (in my experience), they have NO clue what they are doing... only the quick tips they learned in Apple 101.

This was the Pacific Center Apple Store in Vancouver. If you're ever in there, there is an older gentleman "genius" with an easter european accent. He is actually REALLY good so try to get him He actually knows what he's doing.

 

[azk]

I've had a problem with a genius before.
Had my iPhone 4 for about 3 months I think, and I realised a dead pixel on the screen (yeh, I know I'm very picky). So I booked an appointment and went. The guy must have been new because the other employees were telling him what to do but basically, he claimed that iPhone's had to have at least 4 dead pixels on the screen for it to be swapped out. My reaction,
So I left without causing a fuss and later rang the iPhone helpline, who are much more informed advisors. The kind lady gave me an article number to quote so that when I went to my genius appointment (which she booked for me) I could point the genius to an article that states an iPhone could be swapped out in the case of any dead pixels or something like that. So in the end I did get it swapped out, but I was surprised when the genius said I couldn't get it fixed in the first place. Just thought I'd add my experience

 

[pezasied182]

No. Skype only keeps running once you launch it. It does not launch on startup. No iOS app does that except the built-in apps.

Aps in the background do use memory and drain your battery faster even if they are just sitting in the multi-task bar

 

[kre62]

Aps in the background do use memory and drain your battery faster even if they are just sitting in the multi-task bar

No one is disputing this. You and the other poster missed the point that this guy was talking about apps running after the phone is rebooted. And he's right, there are no apps that launch on startup.

Skype will not auto launch when you start up the phone. You have to run Skype first, by tapping on it, and then it will be in the background until you force close it off the tray, restart the phone, or run out of memory (so iOS closes it itself).

 

[PNutts]

The home button has been acting up for awhile but has been getting progressively worse. Strangely, it would not respond in the mornings and seemed to get better as the day progressed.

I said that those apps ARE NOT all running and I shut my phone off every night.

This comment isn't entirely directed at you, but I don't get the resistance of folks connecting home button issues to the OS. The button is just a switch that tells the OS that it's been pressed. What happens next is electricity and magic smoke. My expectation is that a switch problem would not start bad in the mornings and then get better during the day barring any ridiculous scenario that he works in an iron foundry or meat locker. I guess a test would have been to shut the phone off during the day and see if the button is immediately problematic upon restart. Anyway, that's my $.02. Glad the OP got it resolved.

 

[Dandrews524]

sorry to hear about your bad experience with an apple genius, but not all of them are bad. i just had a water damaged iphone 4 swapped out free of charge because the genius i had was super nice. dont get discouraged, there is some nice ones out there

 

[mikelegacy]

I'm telling you, the Apple Genius bar staff is 9/10 a bunch of idiots.

Occasionally I get a good visit, but most likely not. They wouldn't hire me, but they will hire people who can't get the phone in DFU mode, or don't realize that the apps in the multitasking bar are FROZEN and therefore are not affecting RAM of the phone....what a joke.

 

[heisenberg123]

I'm telling you, the Apple Genius bar staff is 9/10 a bunch of idiots.

Occasionally I get a good visit, but most likely not. They wouldn't hire me, but they will hire people who can't get the phone in DFU mode, or don't realize that the apps in the multitasking bar are FROZEN and therefore are not affecting RAM of the phone....what a joke.

Bitter?

I think there is better jobs out there than an apple genius

 

[flipster]

Eh, one time I got a genius who claimed that he used to work for Apple in a higher department, and they would give him prototypes for him to test. Yeah, then why are you working at a mall now

 

[PNutts]

They wouldn't hire me, but they will hire people who can't get the phone in DFU mode, or don't realize that the apps in the multitasking bar are FROZEN and therefore are not affecting RAM of the phone....what a joke.

I'm don't know why DFU mode makes a difference? From what I understand that wouldn't normally be done in the store, but I don't dink around with my phone and have never put it in DFU mode.

If an app is frozen then it's state is stored somewhere. If you go to a Genius they can show you how much application memory is used before and after you close the "frozen" apps.

 

[Gjwilly]

No one is disputing this. You and the other poster missed the point that this guy was talking about apps running after the phone is rebooted. And he's right, there are no apps that launch on startup.

I don't know if its semantics or what but when I reboot my phone and then immediately check my tray, every app that was there before the reboot is still there.
Built-in apps... third-party apps... doesn't matter. They're all there.
I just tested it right before this to double-check.
Using resources or not I couldn't say but they are definitely in the tray.
If they're not "auto-launching" then why are they in the tray?