A Shout-Out To Apple -- January 29, 2018

Updates

Later, 11:20 a.m. CT: I have never bought "Apple Care" whenever I've purchased an Apple product. Their products are so good, so dependable, I've never seen a need for Apple Care. Interestingly enough, when solving my most recent (and very rare) problem, I was actually helped by Apple Care. I still don't think I will see much need for Apple Care in the future, but the next time I buy an Apple product, I will buy Apple Care "warranty." If they provided me that much care even when I did not have Apple Care, I can only imagine how much support I would get if I had Apple Care. Pretty amazing.

By the way, my wife still loves her Air Pods. Best $159 I've ever spent in the past several years.

Original Post

 

A "thank you" note to Tim Cook would be lost among everything else he gets so I will simply give a "shout out" to Apple here.

Last week in the process of upgrading/updating/downloading some Apple-related software, I had a problem (my problem -- it was not an Apple problem). I spent about twenty minutes each day last week trying to solve the problem on my own, and had planned to visit the Apple Store in Southlake (TX) this week if I had no success.

I sent an e-mail to Apple and received a reply at the 48-hour mark, just as they had said they would. Even with that help, I was unable to solve the problem, so I called Apple Saturday afternoon. While on hold, miraculously, I was able to solve one of the two problems I had.

I had to hang up while on hold to fix that first problem. Interestingly, solving that problem on my own (thank you very much) was instrumental in solving the bigger problem -- and ultimately made solving the bigger problem much easier.

I called Apple again, was put on hold, but it was not very long before "Yvonne" picked up. We worked on the problem for about four minutes before "Yvonne" said that she would have to "call in" her supervisor. Immediately I was talking to "Eric."

We solved the problem immediately though it required about a dozen steps. I'm not sure I would be able to re-do the sequence if I ever ran into the same problem again. Having said that, I learned an incredible amount how Apple software "works" across multiple platforms (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iPad, iPhone). But even more importantly, I was literally blown away by how "secure" Apple is when it comes to passwords.

Not once did they ask for my password, and not once did I have to show my password on screen while resolving the problem. And, the password was critical to solving the problem. But again, no one at Apple saw my password (although I'm sure they could if they had to -- but something tells me I'm wrong on that, too). In addition, in the process I used data from a second platform in the house (my MacBook Pro) to solve the problem on the MacBook Air.

If someone had stolen my MacBook Air and tried to "spoof" Apple, it never would have worked because it would be unlikely they would have had my MacBook Pro, also.

But it's even better than that. To even get into my MacBook Air or my MacBook Pro, the thief would need that password also, and to my surprise, both platforms had different passwords. I had originally used the same passwords but last week I changed the password on one of the platforms, thinking it would migrate across all platforms. It did not. Those passwords, like all passwords with Apple, worked flawlessly. And because of the way Apple allows users to manage their passwords, I was able to figure out the "new" password on the MacBook Air which is now different than the password on the MacBook Pro. (Until now, they had always been the same.)

[By the way, with Apple's newest operating system, macOS High Sierra, they have made changes with regard to passwords, making the system even more secure, but in a different way, even easier to solve certain problems.]

Although not needed, and not asked for, if Apple needed to verify that I was who I said I was, Apple had access to the security code (that 3-digit code) on the credit card associated with my Apple account. To verify who I was, I offered to give "Yvonne" my credit card number and she almost became unglued, stating that Apple never asks for -- nor wants -- that information over the phone.

On top of this, to work the problem that Eric (and I solved) the security authentication I required came over on the MacBook Pro, on which I had no problems. If I had not had the MacBook Pro, Eric would have directed the authentication code to my old, old, series 2 iPad. If that had not worked, the code could have gone to my wife's MacBook Air. And, then of course, either her iPhone or her Apple Watch.

The bottom line was that even if a hacker had one of my platforms, the MacBook Air, for example, because I elected to have two-step authentification, the hacker would have required another one of my platforms. Had I had no other Apple platform, Apple said it would send the code to my Samsung flip phone which is now about eight years old. (By the way, "Yvonne" laughed when I told her about my Samsung; she had been there; she started out in life with Android.)

And, on top of that, there was one more piece of security, but I'm not going to get into that.

Bottom line: Apple takes security incredibly serious.

Bottom, bottom line: be very, very careful when making changes to your system. I was able to use my computer throughout this minor ordeal, but I had no access to certain websites for a full week.

Bottom, bottom, bottom line: never, never get exasperated with anyone trying to help you at Apple. I never get exasperated. They are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. It would make no sense, no matter how exasperated you might be, to vent your frustration on someone trying to help you.

Had I not been able to solve the problem, life would have gone on as before, but the blog would have been slightly degraded. But readers would never have noticed.