Apple Partners With Artist ‘HENSE’ to Commemorate New Lincoln Road Store Opening

Apple announced today that it is collaborating with internationally acclaimed artist HENSE to commemorate the upcoming opening of its all-new Apple Store at 1021 Lincoln Road in Miami, Florida. The relocated store is set to open April 24, the same day that the Apple Watch goes on sale in the United States, and HENSE will be painting a one-of-a-kind mural live from April 8 to April 12 to celebrate the opening.

“Miami is one of the most creative places on Earth. A big part of that creativity is expressed through its incredible street art scene. So to announce the upcoming opening of the all‑new Apple Store at 1021 Lincoln Road, we’re collaborating with internationally acclaimed artist HENSE. The mural he’s painting, like the store itself, will not only be inspired by the energy of Miami, it will also be a fresh source of inspiration for the city.”

Apple currently has a nearby retail store at 738 Lincoln Road that will close as the new, larger location opens down the street later this month. Apple also recently commemorated the opening of its West Lake store in Hangzhou, China with a calligraphy video, and we reported last night that the company will open a second retail store in Hangzhou on Apple Watch launch day.

Apple Watch Face Design Studio Showcases Detailed Photography Process

Wired earlier this morning posted an interview with Apple Human Interface Chief Alan Dye, in which Dye discusses a few lesser-known details of the Apple Watch, specifically giving Wired an inside look at the obsessive level of detail that went in to making each of the Watch’s customizable faces.

An Apple designer works to capture a jellyfish for a photograph in Apple’s design studio
During the interview, Dye elaborates on his team’s enormous talent, but says what makes them work so well is that they “really care” about what they create. Echoing back to Steve Jobs’ creative concern over every bit of minutiae within any one of Apple’s products, Dye begins discussing the process of capturing a simple flower bloom for one of the Apple Watch faces.

Yet what Dye seems most fascinated by is one of the Apple Watch’s faces, called Motion, which you can set to show a flower blooming. Each time you raise your wrist, you’ll see a different color, a different flower. This is not CGI. It’s photography.

“We shot all this stuff,” Dye says, “the butterflies and the jellyfish and the flowers for the motion face, it’s all in-camera. And so the flowers were shot blooming over time. I think the longest one took us 285 hours, and over 24,000 shots.”

The same goes for the jellyfish face, which was captured by the team after building a tank within the design studio and shooting a variety of different species at 300 frames-per-second with high-end Phantom cameras. The resulting 4096 x 2304 images were shrunk down to fit the Watch screen, Dye noting “when you look at the Motion face of the jellyfish, no reasonable person can see that level of detail. And yet to us it’s really important to get those details right.”

A look at Apple’s detailed process in photographing jellyfish, butterflies, and flowers for the Watch.
The Mickey Mouse face features a similar level of detail, with the popular mouse’s feet tapping in exact rhythmic beat to a one second count. Dye claims that if one were to line up 100 Apple Watches with the Mickey face on, his foot would tap in perfect unison on each one. The astronomy faces are some of Dye’s favorites, however, with the Apple chief noting how hard the team worked to perfect the Earth and Moon’s daily orbits and cycles.

Dye points out the subtlety of this face. “When you tap on the Earth and fly over the moon: We worked really hard with our engineering team to make sure the path you take from your actual position on the Earth to where the moon is and seeing its phase, is true to the actual position of the Earth relative to the moon.”

Wired interviewed both Dye and Apple vice president of technology Kevin Lynch earlier in April, with the two providing some behind-the-scenes knowledge on everything from the origins of the Apple Watch to the reasoning behind the look of the fitness-related medals.

Check out the full Wired interview here.

Apple Planning Major Expansion of Oregon Data Center [Mac Blog]

Apple is planning a large-scale expansion of its Prineville, Oregon data center, according to The Oregonian. The report claims Apple is likely to expand upon its current 338,000-square-foot data center with a matching facility and massive solar array this year, after Oregon governor Kate Brown signed a tax bill last week that will exempt Apple and other tech companies from facing millions of dollars in additional property taxes.

Apple’s data center in Prineville, Oregon (Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian)
Apple is now planning to move forward with its data center plans, according to Judge Mike McCabe, Crook County’s top administrator, although exact details surrounding the project are said to remain under negotiation. “They’re planning on a major, major expansion,” said McCabe. “They haven’t shared it with us,” he said, “and we haven’t seen the plans.”

Apple began construction on the first phase of its Oregon data center in October 2012.