Flagship San Francisco Apple Store Approved by Planning Commission
The City of San Francisco today approved Apple’s plans to build a new retail store in the city’s famous Union Square, taking over the former Levi’s building at the corner of Post and Stockton streets.
According to an Apple representative presenting the company’s plans to the city’s planning commission, the flagship store will be “more iconic” than the well-known Fifth Avenue glass cube retail store in New York City, reported IFOAppleStore‘s Gary Allen after attending the meeting.
Renderings of the location shared earlier this week depict the new store with two massive 44-foot tall sliding glass panels that allow the building to be exposed to the street.
Apple originally filed plans to move its existing Stockton Street store to the prime Post Street location back in May of 2013, but the company was forced to revise its initial building plans after critics objected to the removal of the historical Ruth Asawa fountain and the installation of an 80-foot wide wall along a key pedestrian and transit corridor.
Revised plans for the site were filed in August, and Apple pledged to move the fountain to a nearby location, add an eight-foot wide window, and move the glass wall of the store back by four feet.
The commission has now accepted Apple’s second proposal with one small caveat — the company will need to offer improved accessibility options for the store’s upper floor. Earlier today, the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission also approved a permit for the project, giving Apple a green light to move on with the store’s construction.
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Verizon’s HTC One is finally getting a taste of KitKat
Well, that was quick. Just a few hours after an HTC product manager tweeted the good news, Verizon Wireless customers have found that the much-anticipated KitKat update is landing on their HTC Ones. Start mashing that software update button if you haven’t already, friends.
In addition to Android 4.4.2, the update also packs a handful of performance improvements and HTC’s Sense 5.5 UI. Fans of the HTC One Max are already familiar with HTC’s new Sense tweaks — BlinkFeed is more easily customizable, the Gallery and Music apps have gotten a facelift, and there’s a new Do Not Disturb mode for those private moments — but it’s nice to see them trickle down onto a slightly smaller handset. For those of you keeping score, Sprint earlier this week became the first major US carrier to update the One with KitKat. That leaves just AT&T and T-Mobile to push through the update, but sadly, there’s still no word on when they’ll follow through.
Filed under: Mobile
Via: Droid-Life
Source: Twitter
OpenTable Testing Ability to Pay Restaurant Checks In-App [iOS Blog]
OpenTable is testing a new feature to allow customers to pay their restaurant checks in the OpenTable iPhone app. The feature is being beta tested at select restaurants in San Francisco, but the company says it does plan a broader launch in the future, including Android support.
We’re pleased to announce that it will soon be just as easy to pay for your meal. Rather than waiting for a check or, worse yet, being late for the theater, with the new OpenTable payments feature, you will be able to tap to pay – and be on your way.
OpenTable mobile payments are currently being tested by diners at select restaurants in San Francisco. Over the next few weeks, we will be adding more diners to the test program and will provide you a way to request access. If you receive an email invitation to be part of our pilot program, you can get started by making a reservation at a participating restaurant. Simply add a credit card in the OpenTable iPhone app before your meal and you’ll be able to view and pay your check. There’s no scanning or bar codes involved.
In addition to its online reservation system, OpenTable offers full point-of-sale and register services to restaurants, meaning rollout of an online-payment system should be a relatively straightforward feature addition for the firm.
Supported restaurants include Jardiniere, Dosa on Fillmore, Out the Door on Bush Street, Boxing Room, Chouquet’s, Radius, Bask, Chambers, Café Bastille, Plouf, and Garcon — though users must have a beta invite to try it.
OpenTable is a free download for the iPhone and it is also available through Siri. [Direct Link]
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Apple Seeds OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 Build 13C53 to Developers [Mac Blog]
Apple today seeded build 13C53 of OS X 10.9.2 to developers, marking the fifth beta iteration of 10.9.2. The release comes a week after the fourth OS X 10.9.2 beta, build 13C48, and over a month after the first OS X 10.9.2 beta.
The update is available to registered developers through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store as well as through the Mac Dev Center.
Apple continues to ask developers to focus on mail, messages, graphics drivers, VoiceOver, VPN, and SMB2. Earlier betas of OS X 10.9.2 began allowing Mac users to block people on iMessage and FaceTime, as can be done in iOS 7, and also introduced FaceTime Audio.
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Evleaks Posts New Screenshot from the HTC M8 Showing BlinkFeed and On-Screen Buttons
Evleaks just posted a new screenshot from the HTC M8, and it should be no surprise that it is a screenshot of HTC’s BlinkFeed. A lot of HTC One users out there don’t really utilize BlinkFeed that much, but I guess there were enough people using it for HTC to keep it in for the successor of the One. Probably appeals more to the general public than the average Android enthusiast.
Couple other features to point out on this screenshot, is the on-screen buttons HTC has promised us, as well as a the transparent status bar. The HTC M8 is supposed to come with Android 4.4.2 out of the box, and is rumored to launch at the end of March in NYC. Let us know what you think about this screenshot.
Source: Evleaks
Redbox gets a new president plucked from the studios, former Warner exec Mark Horak
Redbox went from duking it out with Warner in 2012 over a proposed 56-day delay for rentals to cutting a deal for a shorter 28-day delay and implementing UltraViolet support in Redbox Intant, and now the relationship is getting even cozier. Parent company Outerwall announced its earnings today and that Mark Horak, president of the Americas for Warner Bros. since 2008, will be the new president of Redbox. A “leadership transition” saw former president Anne Saunders leave in December, and Outerwall CEO J. Scott Di Valerio cited Horak’s experience and relationships “growing DVD, Blu-ray, video game and digital sale” as reasons he’s perfect for the spot he’s taking over on March 17th. Other than executive changes at Outerwall’s other businesses (Coinstar and ecoATM), we’re not seeing any immediate changes, and Redbox’s most recent numbers seem on track, with revenue for Q4 that was slightly higher than the same period last year.
The most important new business is the Redbox Instant streaming/kiosk combo effort, although it hasn’t gained much traction yet against competitors like Amazon Prime Video, Hulu Plus and Netflix. The company says Redbox Instant activity increased as it launched on new platforms like Windows Phone, Xbox One and PS4, but it still didn’t have any exact data to share. As far as disc rentals Redbox is focusing on Blu-ray now, since 55 percent of its rental customers have a Blu-ray player. It’s already trying to upsell customers to more expensive rentals on its website and app, and plans to roll that out directly on the kiosks soon. The investor call didn’t reveal much in the way of a new direction for Redbox, but we’re hoping the next step is squeezing a dedicated rental return slot onto the boxes.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Outerwall (1), (2), Mark Horak (LinkedIn)
HP’s first Chromebox arrives this spring
HP has revealed more about the Chromebox that it’s making to support Google’s video conferencing system, and we have good news: it won’t be confined to meeting rooms. The company’s inaugural Chrome OS desktop will be available to both home and business customers when it ships sometime in the spring. It should also be more powerful than the North American version of ASUS’ Chromebox, since at least one US variant will arrive with a Haswell-based Core i7 processor inside. DisplayPort, HDMI and four USB 3.0 ports will come standard. There isn’t any mention of pricing at this point, although it’s safe to presume that the Core i7 Chromebox will cost more than ASUS’ $179 entry-level model.
Filed under: Desktops, Internet, Google, HP
Via: GigaOM
Source: HP
Here’s a possible sneak peek at the homescreen for HTC’s next flagship
The online rumor mill’s been working overtime where HTC’s upcoming M8 flagship is concerned, with some even going so far as to conjure fake mock-ups of the device. Leave it to @evleaks then to give us our first alleged glimpse of the handset, albeit via the device’s homescreen. From what we can see in the image above, it looks as though HTC’s given Blinkfeed, its Flipboard-like service, a slight makeover. There’s also the presence of onscreen virtual navigation buttons, which gives some weight to the recent gossip we’ve heard about the M8′s build. Beyond that though, it’s hard to tell just how much HTC’s evolved its Sense UI for the device. But with Mobile World Congress just a few weeks away, we should know the full monty soon enough — that is unless HTC’s cooking up a separate event of its own.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC
Source: Evleaks (Twitter)
Apple Representative Appears at Senate Hearing on Distracted Driving [Mac Blog]
Apple’s director of Federal Government Affairs appeared at a daylong summit for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to discuss distracted driving. A number of other executives appeared at the session as well, including representatives from Google, Samsung, AT&T, Sprint, Toyota, General Motors, and more.
The summit, a multi-part roundtable discussion called “Over-Connected and Behind the Wheel: A Summit on Technological Solutions to Distracted Driving”, will look at what manufacturers, OS makers, carriers, and car companies can do to decrease distracted driving.
On Thursday, February 6, 2014, at 10:00 a.m., U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV will host a daylong summit titled, “Over-Connected and Behind the Wheel: A Summit on Technological Solutions to Distracted Driving”. The meeting will explore how technology can be used to minimize distracted driving, which has become a major public safety concern in recent years. With the explosive growth of cellphones and smartphones, and the increasing levels of online connectivity available to people at all times, more drivers are tempted to stay connected in their cars.
In the final discussion, Senator Jay Rockefeller IV will issue “a public challenge” to all parties to “collaborate and build more robust technological solutions to distracted driving”.
The Committee has posted video of the discussion on its website.
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Minimalistic Puzzle Game ‘Threes’ From Developer of ‘Puzzlejuice’ Now Available [iOS Blog]
Threes! is a simple puzzle game that’s easy to pick up but difficult to master. Made by Greg Wohlwend and Asher Vollmer, developers that have been behind some popular apps like Puzzlejuice, Hundreds, and Ridiculous Fishing, Threes!‘ gameplay can be distilled down into a single easy-to-grasp concept: combine blocks in factors of three to create ever increasing numbers.
Gameplay consists of sliding numbered blocks onto one another to form higher numbers, but some important rules turn an easy concept into a challenging puzzle. Only like numbers can combine together, for instance, 3 and 3, to form a 6, which can then only combine with another 6. 1 and 2 are limited to combining with each other.
Each slide produces additional numbers on the board, and the idea is to continually clear numbers by combining them, because the game ends when the board is full. Our sister site TouchArcade has published a review of Threes!, essentially calling it simple, accessible, and well-designed.
Games of Threes! quickly escalate to an epic dance of block management, as much like the classic puzzlers we grew up on, you’re given a hint of what’s coming next in the form of a red “2″ block, a blue “1″ block, or a white numbered block. When you slide the blocks in a direction, whatever block is next slides in from the opposite direction, leaving you with a shocking amount of things to consider each time you place your thumb on the screen.
For each flawless movement, without some intense analysis, there’s also an equal chance that you’ll accidentally make an unintended combination and in turn wind up with a block you can’t immediately using junking up one side of the game board.
TouchArcade gives Threes! five stars and says that it is “about as close as it gets to a perfect mobile game.” The site has also posted a TA Plays video depicting the gameplay.
Threes! is a universal app that can be downloaded from the App Store for $1.99. [Direct Link]
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