Apple's Redesigned London Store Has Untethered iPhones (cnet.com)

Apple is putting a lot of faith into its customers' hands. The company is stopping the practice of tethering iPhones to demo desks. (It's a common practice, and pretty much everyone does it for their top smartphones). From a CNET report, which describes Apple's redesigned London store: Perhaps the most interesting feature of the store is that when it opens to the public at the weekend the devices won't be tethered to the tables as they were previously, and are in other stores around the world. Apple says this is to allow people to hold them properly, try cases on them and even see how they feel in your pocket. It's a bold move, especially given the lack of visible security in the building. We couldn't spot a single CCTV camera, although any phone taken out of the store will set off an alarm. If not returned, the phones will also be rendered unusable.

Comments

Re:Digital tethering is more effective anyway

[tlhIngan]

This shouldn't be surprising, actually. The market for stolen iPhones has taken a serious hit, because of Apple's iTunes account locking policies. You steal my iPhone, I immediately lock you out of it. If I'm feeling particularly adventurous, I might even go to the trouble of tracking you down, maybe even with a police officer in tow. "Your" stolen device is not only now a brick... it's also a liability. Would-be thieves know this; they'll get at most a few hours of use out of any iPhone that they steal, and likely only a few minutes, if they set off alarms as they're stealing it from a store -- and worst case scenario, (for the thief, that is) they're also much more likely to get jail time for their crime.

It's even worse. The version of iOS those floor phones run is NOT stock. It's a custom version that has all the demo apps built into it. As a result, the app store does not work with it (you can browse, you can download, but the apps don't work), it's likely the phone dialer itself doesn't work and many other things. Heck, perhaps the WiFi is also locked to Apple's WiFi

And there's the Activation Lock, which will lock you out if you attempt to reflash it with the official iOS (via DFU mode, since I believe iTunes won't update it normally). So you really have a paperweight at best. Plus, I believe they auto-wipe themselves every night to clean themselves up of the day's usage.

Honestly, it would only be good for parts.