'Apple Store' App for iOS Updated to Support New Self-Checkout System for Retail Stores
In line with our report from the previous weekend, Apple has updated its Apple Store application for iOS [App Store] with new support for self-checkout at the company's retail stores.
What’s New in Version 2.0
- Personal Pickup: Buy in the app and choose to pick up your order at any Apple Retail Store. Most in-stock orders are available for pickup within an hour. (U.S. only)
- EasyPay: Purchase select accessories in store quickly by scanning the barcode and completing your transaction right in the app. (U.S. only, requires iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S)
- Track your stuff: View the status of current and previous orders from the order status section in the More tab.
- Additional international support (Canada, China).
As detailed last week, the app now allows customers visiting any Apple retail store to use their iPhone's camera to scan the barcodes of shelf-stocked accessory items and purchase them using their Apple ID/iTunes Store accounts. The process bypasses the need to track down a member of the sales staff to process the transaction via their EasyPay mobile payment processing systems.
As part of the retail store enhancements, Apple is also rolling out in-store pickup for online purchases in the United States, allowing users to have their online orders shipped directly to a retail store for pickup rather than having to arrange to receive delivery at their home or office. For items stocked in-store, users will be able to purchase items and have them available for pickup within minutes. For custom orders and other items not normally carried in-store, products will take several days to be shipped to the store, at which point the customer will be notified that their order is available for pickup.
The in-store pickup program launched in late October at Apple's three San Francisco stores, and quickly expanded to include all 51 California stores as well as the company's four New York City stores. With today's enhancements, the program has now been rolled out to all U.S. stores.
Popular Stories
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...
Top Rated Comments
Irrelevant. All Apple Stores have free wi-fi so iPod touchs could complete purchase if the camera was good enough to scan the barcodes.
What makes you think they are going to have staff checking everyone's receipts now when they haven't ever done so before? For years you've been able to go into an Apple Store, pick up an accessory, pay for it anywhere on the sales floor you can find a staff member, get the receipt emailed to you and walk out of the store with your unbagged item and no physical receipt. This new system is no different except now you don't need to find a member of staff to pay. It's not as is anyone tracked you walking round the store to check if you paid; it was just as easy then to pick up something and walk out without paying as it will be now.
No, they don't. That technology exists, it's called NFC and it's just starting to gain traction in the US. Has to be built into the hardware.
This is simply an offered convenience for their customers who have recent iPhones and it ties into your iTunes Store account. The same way you can check in to genus appointments using the app.
They are not forcing you to use it and it's not like they won't sell you something if you don't have the app/phone.