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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.

When Steve Jobs unveiled Apple’s first retail stores in 2001, pundits said they were a costly mistake and he’d be closing them within a year. A decade later, Apple has reinvented retailing with a chain of 300 shops that make more money per square foot than Tiffany & Co.

Here are some of the best quotes from Jobs and the chief architect of the stores, Ron Johnson, about their retail philosophy, strategy, and execution.

The best camera, as they say, is the one you have with you. The BBC seems to be embracing this fact, and so it’ll be rolling out a special app to its reporters hat will allow them to report on breaking news in the field, right from their iPhone.

Last week I posted here about the lack of mention of iWeb and MobileMe website hosting in any of Apple’s communications about its forthcoming switch to iCloud.

I’d understand it not being mentioned by Steve on stage, but I expected to see at least some sort of help document somewhere. But no, nothing.

A full week has passed since WWDC, and yet we’re still finding little gems inside iOS 5. The latest finding is that the improved Calendar App allows creators of events to invite people to attend, and then see who all is coming once they’ve responded. The new magic is all made possible with iCloud. Here’s how it works:

Is this 3D-capable tablet spotted at the annual Display Taiwan expo a prototype for the iPad 3?

It certainly looks like one: the 9.7-inch form factor and chassis design are a dead giveaway, even though the actual manufacturer of the tablet is hidden by tape.

Apple may be preparing to put the AirPort brand to rest with Lion: they’ve changed references on OS X 10.7 from “AirPort” to “Wi-Fi” universally across the system. But why?

Here is a photo of a new week view in the native iOS 5 calendar app. That app now features a scrolling landscape view of the users calendar, but the view changes depending on whether or not you are using an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Reports are mounting that Apple is planning on launching the new version of Final Cut Pro as soon as next week. Following the leaked screenshots of Final Cut Pro X that hit the web last week, one Japanese blog now says that Apple will release its professional video production software as soon as next week.

Here we go again. The rumor of a Retina Display iPad 3 to arrive later this year is being dusted off again.

For those on an iPhone or an iPad, the “iPod” app has been replaced with “Music”, just like on the iPod Touch. With the app comes a few new tweaks and changes.Most notable is this: if you tap and hold on a song, you’ll get some more information about it.

Right now, this functionality doesn’t do much besides show information that’s already shown, like title, album and artist. But imagine if Apple fleshes out this functionality with other information over time, like genre or bit rate. What info would you like to see there?

The nattering nabobs of negativism on Wall Street think Apple’s runaway success is over.

Apple’s stock has been in the doldrums for the last six months, and the reason is that analysts don’t think Apple can keep it up. Here’s what they’re saying:

Apple’s new iMessage simply rocks and it takes messaging on your favorite iOS device to a whole new level. It offers some new features that SMS cannot beat like multiple address support and selectable caller ID.

We’ve often remarked how important iTunes and the App Store is to Apple’s future. Begun as a way to sell digital songs, the iTunes ecosystem now touches every device from the Mac to the iPad. Turns out, the Cupertino, Calif. company pumps more than $1 billion into the service each year.

Ron Johnson, Apple’s VP of retail, is quitting to take the job as president of J.C. Penney, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The company is expected to announce Johnson’s appointment later today. It’s a surprising move.

Update: It’s official. J.C. Penney has confirmed that Johnson will become CEO on November 1. Plus, Johnson is investing $50 million of his own money!

In what sounds more like a court case between a feuding couple than two tech rivals, The notoriously-secretive Apple reportedly described Samsung’s demand to get a peak at unannounced iPhones and iPads as “attempts to harass.”

Apple Tuesday officially endorsed what hackers have already accomplished: selling an ‘unlocked’ version of the iPhone 4. The Apple Store announced Tuesday it is offering a 16GB and 32GB unlocked iPhone 4 – a day earlier than expected. However, there’s one hitch – the phone will work with only GSM carriers.

Apple has revised their support.apple.com website today. The new site has a cleaner look with most of the popular items accessible and immediately visible. I happened to run into it tonight while checking the status of an AppleCare auto-enrollment for a new iMac that was purchased last week-end.

Apple’s annual Back to School promotion is rumored to launch this week, but it may not be quite as appealing as it has been in previous years. Rather than a free iPod touch with your new Mac purchase, one report claims this year’s giveaway will be a $100 iTunes Gift Card.

Deals — that’s what we want. No doubt about it. Combine our love of cuisine with our zeal for deals and a website like BiteHunter becomes a well-worn destination. And now, they’ve got an iPhone app.

We raved about how cool the new hard button for shooting stills using the Camera app is, and we’ve even shown you how to use it. But guess what — it works with video too.

That’s right, in iOS 5, you’ll be able to start and stop shooting video just by tapping the volume up button,  the same one used for shooting stills.

One look at this vintage pic of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates from the early days of each man’s career says a whole lot about the ultimate trajectories of both their businesses and their customers, dont’cha think?

The original provenance of the photo is unknown, though it clearly predates the historic conversation the two tech titans had at the All Things D conference in 2007.

From the looks of it, we’ll hazard a guess here it’s from a visit Gates made to Jobs’ California home back when the battle between Microsoft and Apple was more of a fair fight. What do you think?

[Awesome People Hanging Out Together]

15% of all iPhone owners use one of just ten passwords on their lock screen, making it trivial for thieves with physical access to hack into their device with just some remedial trial-and-error. Is your passcode on the list?

Looking to avoid an outright banning ahead of Apple’s move to jettison all such apps from the iOS App Store, Trapster has taken the preemptive step of removing the DUI Checkpoint functionality from their popular app.

Steve Jobs wanted to build his futuristic spaceship campus thirty years ago, reports the San Jose Mercury News.

Jobs wanted a “shimmery glass structure” surrounded by trees in rural San Jose. He had purchased the land and had lined up world-class architect I.M. Pei to design it.

“To me, it’s as if time hasn’t shifted — 30 years, same vision, same scope, same dream,” said real estate consultant Bob Feld, who worked with Jobs at the time.

So what happened?