Apple store detains teens for installing iPhone game

Get them in the dock

Sounds like false imprisonment to me. Get those Apple bastards up before the beak.

Detain them?????

The store should have employed them. They've obviously got talent that should be harnessed by Apple rather than crushed by some over-zealous store manager

so much for USA

Going a bit totalitarian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism

Mallrats!

I know everyone will say 'oh since when do void EULAs get enforced at gunpoint' etc etc but I have sympathy with the manager, who was probably having a bad day before pinky and perky turned up and put several hours' work re-installing all the software on the iPhone onto his store's budget. A bit of old-fashioned policing is I know ignorant of the distinctions between civil and criminal law sometimes (or am I confusing UK and US legal systems there?) but without it our lives would be a preposterous and endless round of civil litigation.

@ spineless teens

I recall my reaction on the few occasions an employee attempted to "detain" me, in my teenage years. It usually entailed a simple, verbal response. "Fuck off." In the US (unless some goofy states have other laws that I don't know of) a civilian can only detain another civilian as the result of a felony.

Grow a pair, know your rights, and defend them.

Re: Mallrats

"""several hours' work re-installing all the software on the iPhone"""

It hardly takes several hours to reinstall all of the software on a desktop computer, or even some servers. I work with people that can build a new Mac from install DVD to our full baseline software suite in 30 minutes. I would imagine that the iPhone is about as difficult and complex as plugging it in and hitting 'restore.'

Plus, why would you need to reinstall all of the software just because someone installed a game? They weren't actually 'hacking', so it isn't as if there was any threat to the existing software. They didn't jailbreak it or anything like that, they just browsed to a site and hit 'install.'

And notice that they were already out of the store when the manager got mad at them. Anyone with half a brain keeps on walking at that point, or calls the cops on the manager if he continues to harass you, since he really doesn't have any special status on the sidewalk.

Ah yes - the tragic story of yoofs in Shallow Also with time on their hands

When I was their age, I had to build my own iPhone by hand, every day...

@Jacob Lipman

"I recall my reaction on the few occasions an employee attempted to "detain" me, in my teenage years. It usually entailed a simple, verbal response. "Fuck off." In the US (unless some goofy states have other laws that I don't know of) a civilian can only detain another civilian as the result of a felony."

Its called citizen arrest. If the have lawfully detain you for a crime and you run they can add resisting arrest .

With that said I would told you have right to detain me or touch me. Take your hands off me

Kidnap

Won't someone please think of the children?

Hopefully they'll get a nice fat wad of dosh to compensate them for their harrowing ordeal.

@Nexox Enigma

I didn't see the part in the article that said they just installed the game by browsing an clicking install. If I saw unauthorized applications on the phone they I would wipe it out and start fresh, you never know what nasties could lie in wait for other customers to discover.

re: Nexox Enigma

"It hardly takes several hours to reinstall all of the software on a desktop computer, or even some servers. I work with people that can build a new Mac from install DVD to our full baseline software suite in 30 minutes."

I'm sorry, but I have to call bullshit. It's quite clear that you have never had to wipe and reload a system. Anyone who tells you they can fully reload a system from scratch in 30 minutes is either lying or restoring from a pre-made image (which would be called a "re-image" not a "reinstall". Depending on how much software a person uses, it can take up to 8 hours (perhaps even more) to reinstall all of their software. Yes, on modern hardware. No, that's not an exaggeration.

------------------------------------------------------------

From the MercuryNews article:

"Earlier this week, the four teenagers said they were depressed about not being able to visit their favorite store again. 'I can't walk down University Avenue without going in there,' said Paly senior Daniel Fukuba, who camped out for the first iPhones last year."

So he's depressed about not being able to visit a store, and he is unable to walk down a street without going into a store, not to mention camping out just to buy some overpriced tat. Sounds like this individual is in serious need of mental health treatment.

display models

I thought the display models of pretty much any hardware would have to be re-installed/re-imaged (whatever) each day, thanks to the numpty public messing with them.

What happens if a (possibly underage) chav photographs their nether regions, and another member of the public 'sees' it - oh nooooeeessss...... couldn't they sue the shop/management for displaying (child) pornography?

It makes sense for the management to make sure the products on display - AND IN THE PUBLIC'S HANDS is cleared/cleaned whenever possible, because we all know what idiots the public can be :) In which case - no damage done. What's the problem?

On a similar matter - one of the reasons I didn't end-up buying an iphone was the feature and software lock-in. So I bought as close to an open-source phone as I could (Nokia N95).

What the hell is all this application signing bollocks?

If I decide to install an application, then so be it. I understand it might keep all sorts of scary programs off my phone, but since there are freely available cracked applications available which somehow have been signed?!?!? and yet I can't install a simple bloody theme without getting it signed *somehow* WTF???

Nokia is another phone manufacturer who can suck my balls (along with apple) while *they* decide what I can and can't install on *MY* phone.

/rant over

Idiots

I'll agree, if they just installed a game, the manager overreacted. But then again, the kids didn't have the right to install whatever they wanted on a demo unit. If the kid really wanted to show his friends what it could do, do it on one he owned. The Apple store guys were lucky it wasn't a virus or anything. This may start out as a game, but there can be a chance it could escalate to something much, much worse. I'm sure the Unabomber didn't just wake up one day and be like "Oh, I think, I'll blow stuff up today."

Apple : worse then crack

From the mercury news :

Earlier this week, the four teenagers said they were depressed about not being able to visit their favorite store again. 'I can't walk down University Avenue without going in there,

Looks like a serious case of addiction.

Yummy, unlawful detention..

I had some fun once walking out of a US store. Paid, was about to leave the store when some uniformed oink wanted to check my bags (note, this is AFTER point of payment, and I'm out of the physical store in the mall). Playing along I asked him to identify himself, but he got very tense when I took out a pen and made note of his name and proceeded to threaten me that he had hold me and call the police if I "didn't cooperate".

I am *really* the wrong guy to mess with on that topic (think "Do you feel lucky, punk?") but I was short of time so I straightened my back and only gave this guy a blast lecture on law and order at full military volume and pitch, right in front of all the customers coming out of the store. Normally I would have then called the police myself and have him taken in for impersonating an officer of the law, but I was short of time.

For all I know he's still standing there, frozen.

I positively *detest* little jerkoffs who equate a uniform to a personality, so one getting in my way is an invitation for trouble. It appears the smarter ones have learned to recognise that..

Hello Apple Manager Guy! What is Demo Kit?

Please. Do me a favour. You expect a piece of communications technology in the hands of youths not be modified in some way? The purpose of demo gear si to ...demo! If it b*ggers up you reset it. There is no data of value on the device as it is a demo unit.

Regarding the financial impact of this...I would say that was moot as pressing a button (I assume that is the case for the device) to reset back to factory settings requires little monetary expenditure.

The manager needs to be mocked for being a prat.

Re-install

Surely the Jesus-phone would automatically re-anoint it-self with the blood of Jobs in the event of a Judas Install? Let us learn from this blasphemy and anoint ourselves, unto the skies, that we may be cleansed with His attractive and tactile products once more.

On a serious note, neither windows XP nor vista will fully install and update itself within 30 minutes, let alone putting on your office suites and other softy wares on. I can't speak for the Mac since I've never installed one.

Going by how long it took me to reinstall my PDA once, and put the necessary software back on it could be a while.

But then if you ran the MAC store you'd probably have an image which you flash them with every night to ensure that they are tippy top for the next day....? In which case you would be looking at 30 minutes tops, and they'd probably be doing it anyway.

Its a poor way of justifying this supreme overreaction.

downloading games? boring...

?&FE40=0

surely the best value-per-keystroke computer-shop hack of all time?

Mugshots

Did the teens (minors?) sign a model release form before the pics were circulated, or were they just for the managers private collection?

@ac

You just knew i would have to find out what was at meatspin didnt you !!!

Please DO carry out your threat and then video the customers/staff reactions LOL

Several Hours' Work to Rebuild the Software?

I didn't know the iPhone ran Windows....

Same with the comment about viruses. Surely not on the j-Phone? Or even on anything remotely fruity.

What this is saying is a lot about how we've grown so used to computers being vulnerable to exploits and taking ages to rebuild. Windows is truly the standard by which we judge every other comptuer systems. I wonder if the Apple Stores' Point of Sale systems run Windows....

Re: Unlawful arrest

As far as I am aware the UK law for citizen's arrest requires that you be able to prove that an offense has been commited and have reasonable cause to suspect the person arrested commited said offense. It is not sufficient to have reasonable cause to suspect an offense has been commited.

On top of that if the "teenagers" where under 16 then they cannot give consent to be detained putting the store in a very dodgy position. (Although in this case I presume they were older).

I would strongly suspect that US law is different.

@Adam Johnston

"'It can take up to 8 hours (perhaps even more) to reinstall all of their software'

I guess you must pay/get-paid by the hour then... if you can't figure out how to do a vanilla install of windows or a modern linux distro in 30-60 min then you obviously know nothing about IT and hence should not be reading this site."

It takes a truly gifted mind to quote someone then reply with an inaccurate comparison, all while maintaining a condescending tone and an air of superiority. Since you quoted me, please do us all a favor and read the second half of that sentence you quoted. That's it, you're almost there... Don't stop now, you can do it... Yes, that's it, right there -- "to reinstall *ALL* of their software". I certainly can perform a "vanilla" install of Windows rather quickly, but that's not what I was commenting on, and that's not what the original commenter mentioned. If you cannot even bother to read what you're quoting, then perhaps it is you that should not be reading this site.

But since you think I'm so slow doing a reinstall, how long do you think it should take to reinstall Windows, download and install the latest drivers for all hardware, then install 57 applications and 18 games? Here's a hint: longer than an hour.

Messing with the Apple pies

Though I'm greying nicely if I'm bored I still get a kick out of taking a screengrab of the Finder (couple of windows open, maybe) then setting that grab as the desktop pattern. Broken? Hilarious!

A long time ago it was rumoured that you could POKE a Dragon 32/64 with a certain "smoke poke" and the showroom device would literally short-circuit.

Ah, those were the days...

/cardigan