Apple Makes Progress on Upcoming Retail Store in Tokyo’s Omotesando District [Mac Blog]

Apple is creeping closer to opening a new flagship store in Toyko’s well-known Omotesando district. Previously reported to be scheduled for a March 2014 opening, an image of the store published by Mac Otakara shows significant progress has been made on the store. Although wrapped in a black shroud, the exterior of the building is starting to take shape, with the building appearing to bear a resemblance to the Apple’s new Stanford store.

Just like the Stanford location, the Omotesando store appears to have floor-to-ceiling glass walls and a thin steel roof. Mac Otakara notes that the glass front and sides stand out from the silver-colored metal eaves. This same design is also evident in Apple’s new stores planned for Portland, Oregon and Aix-en-Provence, France.

The Omotesando location will feature 20,000 square feet of floor space spanning three floors. Two of the floors will be underground, while the top floor will be above ground. Apple has been hiring employees to staff the store for over six months, and it will be the first new store Apple has opened in Japan since 2006.

The opening comes as Apple is seeing strong iPhone sales in Japan, with estimates from Kantar Worldpanel indicating that the iPhone 5s and 5c accounted for 76% of smartphone sales in the country in October, just after their debut.

Apple Agrees to FTC Terms Over In-App Purchases With $32 Million Settlement

Apple and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission have entered into a consent decree over in-app purchases on the App Store. In a memo to Apple employees, CEO Tim Cook wrote that the company felt it had no other choice.

According to the agreement, Apple will be required to provide full refunds to parents whose children purchased unauthorized in-app items, setting a floor of $32 million on refunds.

A large part of the FTC’s concern was related to a fifteen-minute window after a password is entered on the App Store, during which other purchases can be made without a password being entered. Apple will now be required to notify users that the fifteen-minute window exists.

In early 2013, Apple settled a class action lawsuit originally filed by parents after their children ran up hundreds of dollars on in-app purchases in freemium games.

In the memo, which was obtained by Re/code, Cook wrote that it didn’t “feel right for the FTC to sue over a case that had already been settled” and it “smacked of double jeopardy”.

From: Tim Cook
Date: January 15, 2014
Subject: FTC announcement

Team,

I want to let you know that Apple has entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. We have been negotiating with the FTC for several months over disclosures about the in-app purchase feature of the App Store, because younger customers have sometimes been able to make purchases without their parents’ consent. I know this announcement will come as a surprise to many of you since Apple has led the industry by making the App Store a safe place for customers of all ages.

From the very beginning, protecting children has been a top priority for the App Store team and everyone at Apple. The store is thoughtfully curated, and we hold app developers to Apple’s own high standards of security, privacy, usefulness and decency, among others. The parental controls in iOS are strong, intuitive and customizable, and we’ve continued to add ways for parents to protect their children. These controls go far beyond the features of other mobile device and OS makers, most of whom don’t even review the apps they sell to children.

When we introduced in-app purchases in 2009, we proactively offered parents a way to disable the function with a single switch. When in-app purchases were enabled and a password was entered to download an app, the App Store allowed purchases for 15 minutes without requiring a password. The 15-minute window had been there since the launch of the App Store in 2008 and was aimed at making the App Store easy to use, but some younger customers discovered that it also allowed them to make in-app purchases without a parent’s approval.

We heard from some customers with children that it was too easy to make in-app purchases, so we moved quickly to make improvements. We even created additional steps in the purchasing process, because these steps are so helpful to parents.

Last year, we set out to refund any in-app purchase which may have been made without a parent’s permission. We wanted to reach every customer who might have been affected, so we sent emails to 28 million App Store customers – anyone who had made an in-app purchase in a game designed for kids. When some emails bounced, we mailed the parents postcards. In all, we received 37,000 claims and we will be reimbursing each one as promised.

A federal judge agreed with our actions as a full settlement and we felt we had made things right for everyone. Then, the FTC got involved and we faced the prospect of a second lawsuit over the very same issue.

It doesn’t feel right for the FTC to sue over a case that had already been settled. To us, it smacked of double jeopardy. However, the consent decree the FTC proposed does not require us to do anything we weren’t already going to do, so we decided to accept it rather than take on a long and distracting legal fight.

The App Store is one of Apple’s most important innovations, and it’s wildly popular with our customers around the world because they know they can trust Apple. You and your coworkers have helped Apple earn that trust, which we value and respect above all else.

Apple is a company full of disruptive ideas and innovative people, who are also committed to upholding the highest moral, legal and ethical standards in everything we do. As I’ve said before, we believe technology can serve humankind’s deepest values and highest aspirations. As Apple continues to grow, there will inevitably be scrutiny and criticism along our journey. We don’t shy away from these kinds of questions, because we are confident in the integrity of our company and our coworkers.

Thank you for the hard work you do to delight our customers, and for showing them at every turn that Apple is worthy of their trust.

Tim

Chrome for iOS Adds Data Compression and Translation Tools [iOS Blog]

Google today announced an update to its Chrome web browser for iOS, bringing data compression functionality that can reduce data usage by up to 50%.

To start saving data and turn on an even more secure browsing experience, visit “Settings” > “Bandwidth management” > “Reduce data usage.” Then simply turn the toggle to “On.” From this menu, you’ll also be able to track how much bandwidth you save each month as you browse on Chrome.

The update will also see the addition of a translation bar that automatically offers to translate web pages into the user’s language. The translation bar will be familiar to users of the desktop version of Chrome, as a similar feature is already available on that platform.

Google says that the update will be rolling out “over the next few days”. Chrome is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]