Apple now lets Brits order online and pick up in-store

Apple already offers free next-day delivery for online purchases, as well as convenient local pickup points, but as of today, you also have the option of collecting your order in-store instead. Look at the website listing for the new iPad Pro, for example, and you’ll see the familiar estimated delivery window is now joined by an “available for pickup” notice. You don’t even need to get to the checkout stage to pull up a tool that lets you search for nearby stores by postcode. Anywhere the product is in stock will show as being “available today,” and once you’ve placed your order, it should be ready for collection within an hour, though Apple will email you to confirm. You can also elect someone else to pick up your purchase for you, and of course, either way you’ll need to bring appropriate documentation.

Via: Pocket-lint

Source: Apple

Apple Expands Personal Pickup to United Kingdom

Following the launch of Personal Pickup in Australia and Canada earlier this week, Apple today expanded the in-store pickup service to the United Kingdom. Personal Pickup allows customers to place an order on the Apple Online Store or Apple Store app and pick it up at a nearby Apple Retail Store, generally within an hour.

Personal Pickup launched in the U.S. in 2011, but was unavailable elsewhere until this week. The service is offered for several Apple products, including Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs and the Apple Watch. Apple notifies customers via email or text message when their order is available for in-store pickup with a valid photo ID.

MacRumors broke the news earlier this month that Apple was planning an international expansion of Personal Pickup in Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom, and the service is now live in three of those four countries. The service will likely launch in at least a few more countries in the near future.

Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts has been working to bridge the gap between Apple’s online and retail store shopping experiences, and the international expansion of Personal Pickup fits within those plans. Apple has opened 463 retail stores in 17 countries since May 2001, with nearly 200 located outside the U.S.

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Zite Shutting Down December 7, Recommends Flipboard to Users

News aggregator app Zite last night announced that it will no longer be functional past December 7, with the company encouraging fans to migrate their information and preferences over to similar app Flipboard before the deadline (via VentureBeat).

Flipboard acquired Zite in 2014 after a competitive few years together in the social media and news aggregation app sphere, keeping it open but slowly appropriating Zite’s features and services into Flipboard. Zite has been hinting at its impending closure for a few months, but kept silent on whether or not it would continue to run in the face of the Flipboard acquisition until now.

“We wanted to ensure that Zite’s key functionality was available in Flipboard before asking users to migrate. Now that we’ve integrated all the major parts of the technology such as the topic engine, collaborative filtering algorithms and thumbs up and down voting, Zite will soon stop being available as its own app. Zite users have a few more weeks to import their preferences into Flipboard. We hope many of them will do this.”

Zite users will recieve a notification within the app, or a personalized email, of the impending closure, along with a step-by-step guide of how to migrate their data to Flipboard. All the app requires is the entry of Flipboard login information into Zite — a Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ login will work as well — to begin the migration process.

Similar to the newly launched Apple News, Flipboard provides customers a one-stop shop of all their prioritized daily news services. Flipboard [Direct Link] allows a bit more personalization, however, letting users construct digital magazines of favorite stories, pictures, and breaking news and share them on social media. The app was recently updated to bring full support of the larger screen on the iPad Pro, as well.

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Jimmy Iovine thinks women need help finding music

I was wondering to myself just the other day: Man, it is so hard to find music. I don’t know how to turn on the radio. I don’t know how to search for songs on Google. I don’t know how to launch iTunes on my computer. I just don’t know how to do a lot of things. Thankfully, Jimmy Iovine, the head of Apple Music, is here to help. Apparently it’s all because I’m a woman. My boobs must drain a lot of brain cells! In an interview on CBS This Morning earlier today, Iovine said about the streaming service: “Women find it very difficult at times to find music, and this helps make it easier.”

Via: The Verge

Source: CBS News

Jimmy Iovine Criticized After Making Controversial Comments About Women

Apple recently debuted a new Apple Music ad, starring singer Mary J. Blige and actresses Taraji P. Henson and Kerry Washington, during the 2015 Emmy Awards.

In the one-minute spot, focused on Apple Music playlists, Washington says that Apple’s curated playlists are like having “a boyfriend who creates you a mixtape — in your laptop.”

Jimmy Iovine, who joined Apple in 2014 following the company’s acquisition of Beats Electronics, has made headlines today following controversial comments he made about women on CBS This Morning today in relation to the ad.

CBS has made the video clip unavailable to viewers outside the U.S. — Mirror

In particular, when asked to explain his thinking behind the Emmy ad, Iovine said that “women find it very difficult at times — some women — to find music, …and [Apple Music] helps makes it easier with playlists curated by real people.” He proceeded to mention the problem of girls “sitting around” and “talking about boys.”

The Verge transcribes:

“I just thought of a problem, you know: girls are sitting around, you know, talking about boys. Or complaining about boys, you know, when they’re heartbroken or whatever. And they need music for that, right? So it’s hard to find the right music, you know. Not everybody has the right lists, or knows a DJ or something.”

Iovine’s comments have been widely criticized on Twitter and in several media outlets.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

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Engadget giveaway: Win an Apple Watch Sport and Aim fitness tracker courtesy of Skulpt!

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