[Steko]

"I figured that a “Genius” would quickly figure out whether it still had iOS 4, and if so, would just update it to iOS 5 or 6 and then set up iCloud backup."

Wait but "Updating to iOS 5 will delete all of the apps and media... To preserve your content, apply this update on the computer where you sync apps, music, videos, and photos." [1]

[1] http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2011/...

[fpgeek]

Yes, Marco's figuring was wrong (or at least incomplete).

However, doesn't his expectation sound reasonable (especially for the "it just works" company)? And isn't the mismatch between expectations and reality one of his points?

[Steko]

His expectation sounds reasonable but part of that is he's not an objective third party -- he's presumably writing to emphasize the reasonableness.

We really don't know what happened between when his 87 year old grandfather walked into the Apple store and when he walked out with a restored machine. I can think of a lot of ways this ends up "just not working". Maybe grandpa used the word "restore" at some point not aware of it's specific meaning, heads were nodded and miscommunication happened.

Wife and I were planning to get her mother a tablet to video chat with before she passed unexpectedly a year ago. Had we done so and had we been in a similar situation I doubt I would have sent her to the Apple store with only the words "icloud backup" scrawled on a piece of paper. I mean it's total speculation but I think I would have had an email explaining exactly what to do or told her to wait until we were there to handle it.