Apple Gets Final Go Ahead for New San Francisco Flagship Store
Apple has received final approval for its upcoming Union Square Apple Store from the San Francisco Planning Commission and the city’s Board of Supervisors, reports Re/code. With the go ahead from the city, Apple can begin construction on the new store, which is located approximately three blocks away from its existing San Francisco store.
A model of the San Francisco Apple Store courtesy of ifoAppleStore
“We are thrilled that the city of San Francisco has given its final approval to begin work on our new store and public plaza, which will make a wonderful addition to Union Square and create hundreds of local jobs,” Apple spokeswoman Amy Bessette told Re/code. “Our Stockton Street store has been incredibly popular, welcoming over 13 million customers since it opened nine years ago, and we look forward to making a new home on Union Square.”
Apple first earned final approval from the planning commission in February and it received a necessary zoning concession from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors last week after agreeing to revise its initial building plans. Apple’s original plan, which received some criticism, called for the removal of the historical Ruth Asawa fountain at the location and the installation of an 80-foot wide wall along a key pedestrian and transit corridor.
The company filed a revised plan back in August, pledging to move the fountain to a nearby location, add an eight-foot wide window for visual interest, and move the glass wall of the store back by four feet.
Apple’s new Union Square store will be located in the former Levi’s building at the corner of Post and Stockton streets. Renderings of the location have suggested it will have massive 44-foot tall sliding glass panels at the entry way, with an Apple representative calling the location “more iconic” than the company’s well-known Fifth Avenue store in New York City.
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Kick off this year’s Philly Tech Week with a gigantic game of Tetris
There’s a few reasons why Tetris is one of gaming’s most enduring classics: it’s easy to pick up, hard to master and can be played on just about any platform — including the sides of a building. Drexel University students are rigging the city of brotherly love’s Cira Centre with LEDs to play Tetris on a massive scale for the kick-off of this year’s Philly Tech Week. The school did something similar in 2013 with a giant version of Pong (video below), but the difference is that this time two sides of the 29-story Cira Centre will be used instead of just one. This will cover more than 100,000 square feet of the building’s façade and, according to the university, it should be visible from just about anywhere in Philadelphia. Should the installation go off without a hitch, Drexel will set another Guinness World Record for largest architectural video game display. If you want to show off your block-dropping skills on a massive scale come April 4th, there’s a sign-up at the source.
[Image credit: michaelwm25/Flickr]
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Ph.ly
Court freezes Mt. Gox assets in US, lawyers dig into the case of the missing Bitcoins
A US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has just granted a temporary restraining order to freeze all US assets of Mt. Gox, Tibanne KK and Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles as part of an effort to find out exactly what caused the Japan-based Bitcoin exchange to fall. This follows the news that Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy protection in both Japan and the US, a month or so after the exchange went dark and claims it lost nearly 850,000 Bitcoins (roughly $541 million) due to “weaknesses in the system.” The restraining order was filed by Edelson PC, the firm Gregory Greene hired to press class action charges against Mt. Gox for fraud. As Mt. Gox is based in Japan, it’s unclear what assets there are to actually seize in the US, but the restraining order at least lets Greene’s lawyers start the formal process of getting documents and information from the Bitcoin exchange. Perhaps we’ll then finally uncover the secret behind its downfall; it’ll at least be one Bitcoin mystery solved, anyway.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Flappy Bird could flap again with a “warning,” inspired games coming soon
Flappy Bird has caused quite the commotion over the past month or so after being taken down by its creator, Dong Nguyen.
It prompted people to sell devices with the game on Ebay, discover ways to hacks it and has been used to teach people to code in JavaScript.
According to the story “The Flight of the Birdman: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out” from the March 27 issue of Rolling Stone, Nguyen said he has not ruled out the possibility of bringing Flappy Bird back to Android and iOS, but would only do by updating the game with a “warning” to tell people to “Please take a break.” This would hopefully give some type of way to help people who became “addicted” to the game, which is why it was pulled in the first place.
Nguyen also noted that while he’s not working on a new version of the game, he does have others he’s developing, one which is expected to release this fall, ”Checkonaut,” an action chess game with his familiar style, simplistic play and high difficulty.
If Flappy Bird does ever come out again, hopefully that warning will be enough to help those that have become addicted and stop the sale of devices and insanely high prices.
via RollingStone
The post Flappy Bird could flap again with a “warning,” inspired games coming soon appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Archos 64 Xenon moves buttons to rear
Recently at the Mobile World Congress, French electronics brand Archos released a bunch of new products, and Archos 64 Xenon was part of the release, and it’s a ‘phablet’ of its own kind. It features a huge screen of 6.4-inch, 1GB RAM and a 2,800 mAh battery, which will last for a day on a single charge. Our friends over at Engadget got their hands on 64 Xenon, and they told that LG G2 isn’t the only phone with buttons on the back. The 64 Xenon have power and volume button on the rear side, and they are in a great position. Although, they might be a little awkward to use because people are not used to it.
Engadget is impressed with the performance of the phone, but disappointed by the internal storage. With just 4GB internal memory, it’s surely a ‘con’ but with microSD slot, you will have an alternative to store your content.
The device will be released in April, and we are also looking forward to grab it as well. Do you think ‘rear buttons’ are a good idea? Let us know in the comment box below.
Source: Engadget
The post Archos 64 Xenon moves buttons to rear appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Tip: Add a multitasking button to the LG G Pro 2
The LG G Pro 2 unfortunately has a legacy menu button included on the on-screen navigation keys that you cannot seem to get rid of, but whilst you cannot hide it completely, you can add a dedicated multitasking button alongside it.
LG have enabled the ability to add up to two more buttons and that includes multitasking, QMemo, QSlide, or one that will open up the notification pane.
To add buttons to your G Pro 2, go to Settings>Display>Front touch buttons>Button Combination. From there, you simply drag the buttons into the order you want. You can’t have more than five buttons though, and you’re stuck with the standard back, home, and menu buttons.
There is also an option to change the background colour of the keys which enables you to change it to a black gradient, white, or white gradient, or even transparent if you so wish.
Whilst it would have been great for LG to enable the ability to remove the menu button completely, at least this way you can add a multitasking button to your LG G Pro 2.
The post Tip: Add a multitasking button to the LG G Pro 2 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Smarty Ring V2 promises scrolling display
Following the outstanding success of their first Indiegogo campaign, Smarty Ring has launched a second campaign which brags “upgrading to scrolling display.”
The rest of the Indiegogo page is pretty similar to that of the first campaign. There are a couple of contribution options. The $60 option being reserved for those who have already ordered the Smarty Ring v1.0 who would like to upgrade to the v2.0 with scrolling display. The other options are:
- $175 – Smarty Ring v1.0
- $275 – Smarty Ring v2.0
- $300 – Smarty Ring v1.0 couple
- $475 for the Smarty Ring v2.0 couple.
There’s only 7 days left in the current campaign, how high to you think we can push this one?
The post Smarty Ring V2 promises scrolling display appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Skrillex debuts noisy new album as a mobile game easter egg
When is a game not really a game? When it’s a Trojan horse for new music from Skrillex. Play the seemingly humdrum shooter Alien Ride on Android or iOS and you’ll find that it’s actually a preview for the dubstep(-ish) artist’s first full album, Recess — you can listen to the whole LP ahead of its March 18th debut. You’ll still have to rely on other music services to get your wubwubwubs a more traditional way, but the app easily beats other run-of-the-mill attempts at building up hype. Just be prepared to endure an audio assault alongside the alien kind — we doubt that the game will sway your opinion of Skrillex if you weren’t already a fan.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Mobile
Source: App Store, Google Play, Skrillex
Snoop Dogg gives us a tour of his SXSW ‘man cave’
What better way to wrap up SXSW 2014 than with a picnic with Snoop Dogg? We stepped inside Snoop’s own mini-apartment, which he designed in partnership with Airbnb, to talk about his favorite gadgets. He’s apparently a huge fan of the Avegant Glyph virtual-reality headset, though his temporary pad also includes essentials like a Samsung flat-screen and an Xbox One. One other must-have, which you won’t see in our video tour: Snoop’s special breakfast sandwich, with Texas toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, cheese and grape jelly. (It’s surprisingly good!)
Zach Honig contributed to this report.
Filed under: Misc
Flappy Bird creator ‘considering’ bringing the game back
Admit it, you played Flappy Bird. And for a brief period of time, you may have even liked the incredibly addictive game. After millions of people downloaded the viral hit, however, creator Dong Nguyen decided enough was enough — it was time to pull the plug, making it unavailable in the iOS and Android app markets. But never say never again: Nguyen revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that there is still at least a sliver of a chance that the extremely simple game will return in a blaze of avian glory. “I’m considering it,” said Nguyen when asked if it would ever be offered again, so take that with a grain of salt; we’ll believe it when we see it. In the meantime, we bet Android users can still download an APK somewhere, and iPhone fans can always check eBay to see if somebody’s selling their phone with the game on it. As for why Nguyen pulled the app, he mentioned that the game’s massive success was crushing and weighing him down, and it threatened his simple life: “I’m a master of my own fate,” he said, “[an] independent thinker.”
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile, Apple, Google
Source: Rolling Stone
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