Today at Apple

I love my iPad Pro 10.5 inch 526GB with keyboard and pen. I thought long and hard before I decided to purchase this little gem from the Apple family for this trip. And what can I say: it's a dream! The screen is so brilliant and sharp that it's just fun to watch movies via Netflix on a budget airline without in-flight entertainment, during endless bus rides, or waiting times at the terminal. Searching for flights, researching accommodations, reading travel guides, managing finances, etc. could of course also be done with a phone and for a normal summer vacation that would be more than sufficient, but on a world trip you spend much more time in front of the screen and are glad after 15 minutes that the letters are not so microscopic small. But most importantly, I wanted to be able to edit and manage my photos properly with my iPad. With the Photoshop Express app, it's astonishingly easy and comfortable for an amateur photographer like me. The photos look wonderfully brilliant, I can see the selected effects well and decide if I want them or not. The icing on the cake is that I can write comments in the picture with the pen. Or even be able to sign the stupid confirmation to the broadcasting fee collection agency that I already pay contributions and send it back to my subtenants by email. The purchase of the keyboard was the best decision ever. Writing blog posts is more time consuming than I thought and with the keyboard, not only is typing much more comfortable, but even more importantly, half of the screen is no longer covered by the virtual keyboard. So I can see well what I'm writing. Together with the phone, the iPad forms an unbeatable unit. With AirDrop, I can easily send photos and documents back and forth and paste, edit, and save data from one device's clipboard to the screen of the other. In short, I'm very much in love with my iPad and I always have it with me wherever I go.

But for some time now, there has been trouble in Apple paradise. Unfortunately, my keyboard is acting up more and more frequently. The iPad often doesn't recognize the keyboard. I have to detach it and click it back on. At first, it was only once, but now it happens several times a day. This should not happen with new and expensive devices. After all, I bought this stuff shortly before my departure! Sometimes one of the keys gets stuck and unintentionally types a whole series of iiiiiiiiiis or aaaaaaas. I could go crazy, however, if it's the delete key that decides to get stuck and undo the work of the last three quarters of an hour within seconds. Or if the keyboard decides to be a diva and not respond at all. So today I'm going to the Apple Store. Hong Kong seems to be the perfect place for that, and the huge Apple Store is quickly found. The store is jam-packed, although or maybe because it's Sunday. But it wouldn't be Apple if the customer service wasn't top-notch. As always, the specially dressed service guys with headsets and iPads in hand inquire about my wishes at the entrance, ask targeted questions, and enter the information into the system. I get a waiting spot and within a very short time, my personal Apple advisor shows up. Obviously, you have to look like a nerd to work here. Haha! And that worldwide! I don't have to explain anything to him anymore, as he already has all the information. With my Apple ID and the device number, he quickly has all the relevant data. He performs a check on the iPad and tries the keyboard on another device. And as the demonstration effect goes, both work perfectly. My nerd informs me that at first glance he cannot determine whether the problems are with the keyboard, the connection, or the iPad, and that a technician from the technical department needs to look into it. I get a technician appointment 2 hours later, which will be confirmed 15 minutes beforehand via SMS as promised. I obediently come back and have to wait and wait. I use the time and the excellent Wi-Fi connection to write a blog post and edit photos. From left and right, there's a mix of English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. The organizational hassle comes by and apologizes for the waiting time. It's embarrassing for him, an obvious absurdity in the company's policy. He explains to me that unfortunately, on this Sunday, all customers are keeping their appointments, and emergencies like me are being added on top. I don't mind. I just hope that my problems will be completely resolved, as I still depend on my technology for many months. Then my advisor comes. He is nice and immediately gets to work. My iPad is thoroughly checked. Everything is fine, down to the connections. Very good. Then he wants to know where and when I bought the keyboard. I can't really say that I ordered it through Tim and have no idea where he got it from. I know that Tim does everything one hundred percent correctly, but I don't have any more detailed information. So I truthfully say that I bought it in July privately, just like the iPad, and it was still in its original packaging. My nerd searches and finds the serial number on the keyboard and types it in. Boom, the information appears that it was purchased by A.R. in Germany last October. I'm baffled. Baffled that each individual piece has a unique serial number and baffled that it can be traced exactly in seconds worldwide who bought which part where and when. Impressive and creepy. The nerd is also baffled that I'm not the registered owner. Me too. We check the serial number, which is difficult to recognize, but then we jointly determine that it is correct. It's registered in my iPad as its own keyboard. Crazy. Of course, I can't present him with a receipt and explain that I'm on a world trip and all my documents and receipts are at home in Germany. He patiently explains in English that he actually needs proof of ownership from me and that next time maybe I could deposit a photo of the purchase receipt in iCloud. Good idea, if I had one, Tim has it. Then he explains to me that he believes me and that the Apple service warranty would apply. Since the keyboard is less than a year old, they would replace it for me here and now without any problems. I'm so relieved!!! He fills out a lot of paperwork. I sign. And then he informs me that they don't have a German keyboard in stock here in Hong Kong, of course. They could order it, but since I'm flying on very early the day after tomorrow, it won't arrive in time for sure. So I can choose between Mandarin, Cantonese, or English keyboard. The decision is easy. He fetches it, unpacks it, and connects it. We compare the differences. I was aware that Y and Z would switch places due to their different frequency in each language. The punctuation marks are also in different places. No problem! Then it suddenly dawns on me that there's no ä, ö, ü, or ß here. I can do without the ß, and in an emergency, I would have to write all umlauts as ue, oe, or ae, but it's not nice. I would like to have them. I ask him if there is an alternative key assignment similar to the virtual keyboard. My nerd searches and searches. We try out all possible key combinations and in the end, we find out in teamwork that I can generate dots with [option] and u, which then combine with the next typed letter to form ä, ö, or ü. A bit cumbersome, but it works. What you wouldn't do for the reading flow of the followers. Haha! Yeeeeeaaaaah! I'm hippy happy. The next 9 months of world travel can come. I am prepared.