Following over a year of rumors and anticipation, Apple is finally set to build its largest retail location ever right in the heart of Grand Central Station, New York.
In classic Apple retail tradition, the new store is expected to be a crown jewel among architectural achievements. A beautiful rendering of “Apple Store, Grand Central” shows just how incredible the new flagship store will be for Apple and Grand Central commuters alike.
Those impressively fake Apple stores in Kunming, China, were undoubtedly destined for doom after they enjoyed global fame last week. Two of the five stores have already been shut down, but surprisingly, Apple has had nothing to do with it.
Apple has begun to discontinue the selling of boxed software in its retail stores. OS X Lion was made available this morning as the first download-only version of OS X, and Apple is placing a strong emphasis on the Mac App Store as its main method of desktop software distribution.
Other flagship products from Apple, like Final Cut Pro X, have been also offered exclusively in the Mac App Store.
Apple is on track to launch another flagship retail store in Grand Central Station, New York. This store location has been rumored to be in the works for the past year, and Apple could see approval to begin construction as soon as next week.
Apple’s last earnings call echoed the company’s desire for aggressive retail expansion, and this upcoming Grand Central Station store will most likely prove to be a very profitable business venture.
We’ve all seen those copycat iPhones that come out of China, the majority of which can usually be identified as counterfeit within a few seconds. However, when it comes to faking Apple stores, China does a pretty damn good job.
Remember when Apple said to drag your Mac into your local Apple Store and piggyback their WiFi to download Lion if you didn’t have high-speed internet? It seemed silly at the time, but we didn’t take into account that Apple might set up dedicated Lion install servers in their retail locations to help with the load. Silly us.
It’s almost here, folks! After weeks of anticipation and rumors about OS X Lion’s public launch, we’ve heard word that copies of Lion are shipping to Apple Stores for the Mac demo units on the store floor. Additionally, Lion is also getting installed at AppleCare support centers.
Lion is rumored to be dropping this Wednesday morning at 8:30 AM ET.
Every time there’s an anticipated release — a movie, a book, a new gadget — there’s always someone clamoring to be first in line to get it. Some of these people are just honest fans literally counting down the seconds until release. Some are just addicted to seeing their names in the paper. And some are just there to cash in on the notoriety of being first.
That all being true, we’re not surprised that even though the iPhone 5 hasn’t even been announced yet, there’s already someone camped out in line for one. What is surprising is he’s so open about why he’s doing it: for the publicity.
While there’s still hope that OS X Lion will drop today, the chances are slim. Previous speculation was that Apple would announce Lion alongside new Mac hardware today, but that hasn’t seemed to pan out just yet.
So when is it coming? We’ve received a tip that claims a July 26th Lion launch date, seemingly confirming a similar report earlier today… and our tipster received his word straight from an Apple Store Genius’s mouth.
In the classic tradition of those classic “My brother went to Vegas and all I got was this stupid t-shirt” souvenirs, here’s one of the t-shirts you can buy at the Apple Company Store.
Hilarious. Beats my “I Got An Early Look At The iPhone 5 And All I Got Was Raided, Flashbanged And Maced” t-shirt by a mile!
[via OS X Daily]
Finally, right? After almost four months of availability, the iPad 2 is now available to order online with shipping times of only 3-5 business days. I think we can officially say the iPad 2 supply crisis is over.
Apple is planning overnight shifts at international retail locations around the world to prepare for a July 14th release of OS X Lion, according to reports. And new Thunderbolt-equipped Sandy Bridge MacBook Airs with blistering 400MBps SSD drives might also be in the cards.
A 25 year old digital artist who installed a program that secretly took photographs of the people using the Macs at two New York City Apple Stores has had his own computers confiscated by the United States Secret Service. He may face criminal charges.
Apple’s developer betas of future versions of iOS are just that, betas, which means that there’s all sorts of problems that can come up when you install one. Total device meltdown, though? That’s the sort of thing that ought to be ironed out in alpha, yet that’s just what at least one iOS 5 Beta user is reporting after installing the dev preview on his iPad: massive, device crippling overheating issues. And Apple says it’s a known issue.
A series of interviews with retail employees conducted by a labor movement website paints a scathing picture of what it’s like to work at the Apple Store: underpaid, demoralized, physically drained and with no way to secure full-time benefits without turning your personal life over to Apple.
Apple’s currently in the process of sprucing up their New York retail locations, most notably taking down and reinstalling the 5th Avenue Store’s iconic Glass Cube. But the slate of renovations won’t end there: Apple will also close its landmark SoHo store this summer and replace it with a temp location somewhere else within Manhattan to compensate.
With Lion’s release in July, Apple will switch over to a digital distribution of OS X through the Mac App Store. What if you’re one of the many Americans still on a modem, though? Or what if your broadband connection is slow? What if you are one of the increasing number of broadband users with a download cap? How will you install the 4GB OS X update?
Apple’s got a suggestion: bring your Mac on into the Apple Store and piggy back our free WiFi. Something tells me they might regret that.
Apple has just erected plywood walls around their iconic Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City, and some massive renovations are about to go down. Could the iconic glass cube be about to go sphere?
Want to know what it’s like to work at the Apple Store? How to get hired, what training you’ll receive, how much you’ll be paid, even the choice of words you’ll be forced to use when you let a customer down? A new subscriber only report from the Wall Street Journal has all the juicy details. Here’s the most interesting bits.
Earlier today, Apple’s former VP of Retail Ron Johnson shocked everyone by ending his eleven year career in Cupertino to become CEO of JC Penney, a middle-of-the-road department store chain which sells clothing like this.
At Apple, Johnson famously invented the Apple Store concept, defined by each location’s uniiform low-key community vibe, easily accessible solution stations, troubleshooting Genius Bars and uncluttered and austerely aesthetic layouts. At JC Penney, however, Johnson will largely have to reinvent the 1,100 retail stores he’s already got… and what he’s got sure isn’t pretty. Check out this small sample of JC Penney department stores currently blighting the American landscape.
The headline says it all really, doesn’t it? A man dressed in a white ninja outfit tried to rob the Greensboro, North Carolina Apple Store this morning by smashing through the plate glass facade with his Honda. How do you think that went for him?
For the tenth anniversary of the opening of the first Apple retail location, the stores themselves got new, cutting edge signs made out of iPads.
A lesser talked about gift to celebrate the occasion, given to every Apple Store on earth? A seemingly crummy poster. Make that, a seemingly crummy poster with no images or colors. Make that, a crummy poster with no images or colors packed with over eighteen hundred wordsof dense verbiage.
Don’t let your initial impression fool you, though. A poster this may be, but it’s a great read, full of fascinating tidbits about the Apple Store that I’ve never read before. Here’s some examples.
If you had to write a list of New York City’s most popular attractions for camera-toting tourists, would the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue be on it?
Already famous for its excellent Pro Messenger IM application, eBuddy has taken real-time messaging to the next level with eBuddy XMS – a free, real-time messenger that enabled you to chat with text, pictures, emoticons and more. It features a highly-polished user interface and an experience guaranteed to give apps like WhatsApp and PingChat! some real competition.
In addition to the recent launch of ‘Apple Store 2.0′, the Apple Store application for iPhone also got a much-needed revamp. The latest version of the app works internationally and boasts some great new features.
Opera Mini has been the iPhone browser of choice for many since it launched, promising to be the fastest, most cost-efficient web-browsing experience for your iOS device today. Its recent update made it a universal application delivering all its Opera goodness to the iPad, which impressed Cult of Mac’s Giles Turnball in his recent review.
Find out more about the applications above and check out the rest of this week’s must-haves – including Contacts Journal and Aelios Weather – below!
If anyone was going to ascend naked directly into heaven as beings made entirely out of light, it’s the guys who work for Apple, and while it may not have happened on May 21st as it was supposed to, at least one Apple Store prepared for the Rapture.