The Daniel Eran Dilger commentary comes to us on both the Roughlydrafted site and Appleinsider. Both have comments and forums for each article, plus Dan the Man asks us to e-mail him with comments.

In the bad old days, Dan would have to read the comment and put it up on the website. He would even reply to an e-mail. Now it all happens automatically, which is great.

What isn’t great is that if I read an article on roughlydrafted.com it would show the first paragraph and then link to the full article, now at appleinsider.com If I post a comment to one, it does not appear on the other. If I email Dan, maybe one time in ten he replies. Maybe not.

So how about a bit of sync.?

You still need the barcode reader scanner, and plugging a USB device into whatever computer on the floor is handy would create its own special security issues, since they’re always open to public access. Plus, it’s just not INTERESTING to see someone use a computer like a register, nor does it keep your personal details private to you and the employee, since it effectively splashes it out to anyone on the floor looking your way.

The handheld units don’t replace the regular registers anyway, they just make things instantly and remotely available, and seem to be pushed mainly when there’s a line at the registers anyway. The main problem is that they’re clunky.

Whether or not Apple feels like doing it with custom iThings is beside the point… they just need the experience to be less clunky. Actually DOING it with an iPhone/iPod Touch is simply bonus marketing points.

“The camera could act as a barcode reader, and Apple should be able to … build a USB interface for the credit card reader.”

OK, it’s not a “handheld”, but it’s as easy to carry around as a clipboard.

Or is the problem with security on the wireless network?

Compare how painless the check-out process is at an Apple Store to a typical Best Buy or similar.

Apple Store: Pretty much anyone who is on the floor can process your purchases. Even when it’s pretty busy, you can be in and out in a few minutes, and you can do the transaction with the same person you started talking to.

Best Buy: of the dozens of people milling around, only that one guy in the front can take your money. You can’t deal with one person from start to finish, and most of the registers are closed most of the time, so in-and-out pretty much always takes a half-hour. If you are lucky.

Shopping at an Apple Store is nicer than 90% of other retail experiences. Sure, it would be nice if the devices were easier for the employees to use, or were more reliable, or had Apple logos on them. It’s still better than anyone else has managed to do.

If the employees are ‘wandering’ around the store looking for people to transact with, why not simply have more MacBook Pro workstations scattered around the store?

This Windows handheld device is clearly junk, and it sounds to me as if the person who runs the Apple Store setup isnt really thinking clearly, or differently.

As for the ONE incident where Apple were overwhelmed by the demand for iPhone 3G’s, this is more evidence that Apples’ brilliance in design and software doesnt always reach as far as the stores – as anyone will tell you who has dealt with the somewhat dubious ‘genius’ workers.

“we may have a lot of people wanting iPhones – should we plan for that?” Duh.

Anyway, 15 minutes to buy an iPhone isnt very long – is this really an issue?

Get rid of the silly PC junk and employ a couple more people and a few more Macbook Pros – time for man-of-the-moment Eddie Cue to look at the Apple store situation?

Time for Apple to employ some brighter retail people? Maybe.

This leads back to Apple needing to employ a LOT more people – growth of 45% per annum would suggest that they are chronically understaffed, I would venture to guess…..lets not see any more MobileMe-style debacles, please.

Having said that, these are old hand helds – very old infact. Apple should be using XTREME hand helds from C2E FZ LLC http://www.c2etek.com or the newer version of the hand helds from symbol such as MC70.

Third for those who are not familiar with rugged devices. These are not any ordinary hand helds. They are military standards IP65 and IP67 certified such that they can with stand drops of upt 8 meters on concrete floor, they are waterproof and dust proof and there are only four major players in this arena.

They really SHOULD, as I simultaneously think it cool that they can do all their checkout work right at your side next to the products, but bemused/irritated that their devices are so “anti-Apple” and don’t work quite right.

Hell, it would serve as excellent advertisement if they could do everything on an iPhone anyway. Well worth the minimal cost to supply their stores.

So it isn’t easy to covert any device like an iPhone or an iPod Touch into a payments terminal because they will likely fail the security test.

I imagine that Apple are tearing their hair out about this and trying to get a solution, but it won’t be easy…

On the other hand Apple might play the double negative card as use the experience to remind people how crappy Windows CE/Mobile is… I can see the Get A Mac ad now….