Apple Opening New Retail Stores in Florida and New Hampshire This Week [Mac Blog]

Apple is opening two new retail locations in Sarasota, Florida and Manchester, New Hampshire this week, with the Florida location opening on Thursday, October 16 and the New Hampshire location opening on Saturday, October 18.

Apple’s new Sarasota location, at the brand new $315 million University Town Center mall, will open on a Thursday rather than a Saturday as that day marks the grand opening of the shopping center. The University Town Center mall is an indoor facility that features an array of retail stores and restaurants.

The upcoming Sarasota Apple Store will be Apple’s 17th store in Florida, and its Thursday debut date falls on the same day as Apple’s media event where it is expected to introduce both new iPads and Retina iMacs.

Apple’s new store in Manchester, New Hampshire is located at the Mall of New Hampshire, a multi-story indoor shopping center that is home to 125 retail stores and restaurants. Occupying a space that spans about 6,800 square feet, the Apple store joins two other retail locations in New Hampshire, in Nashua and Salem.

Both stores will open at 10:00 a.m. local time and as is common with new store openings, employees will likely hand out T-shirts to the first customers to visit each new location. The Manchester store and the Sarasota store have both begun accepting reservations for workshops and Genius Bar appointments.

Finnish Prime Minister Again ‘Blames’ Apple for Country’s Economic Struggles

Finland’s Prime Minister Alexander Stubb told CNBC in an interview that Apple is to blame for the decline of the country’s two primary export industries, information technology (led by Nokia) and paper. “The iPhone killed Nokia and the iPad killed the paper industry, but we’ll make a comeback,” said Stubb in response to a question about Finland’s business environment following the country’s recently downgraded credit rating. While the comment certainly appears to be more of a pithy jest than an outright accusation against Apple, it does aptly describe how several of the country’s major boom industries have seen their fortunes slip in the face of a changing marketplace.

As noted by TechCrunch, this isn’t the first time Stubb has singled out Apple in reference to his country’s economic decline since he took over as Prime Minister in June of this year. Speaking in July, Stubb made a similar comment mentioning Apple.

“We had two pillars we stood on: one was the IT industry, the other one was the paper industry,” Stubb told Swedish financial newspaper Dagens Industri.

“Nalle Wahlroos, president of (Swedish bank) Nordea, described it quite well when he said the iPhone knocked out Nokia and the iPad knocked out the forestry,” accelerating the fall of paper demand.

In the same conversation with Dagens Industri, Stubb quipped “Steve Jobs took our jobs,” with the promise that “this is beginning to change.”

Apple may be an easy scapegoat for politicians to blame, but the Cupertino company is not responsible for Finland’s struggles. While Apple did lead a revolution in the mobile phone industry with the iPhone, the Cupertino company did so by focusing on high-end handsets and not the entry-level phones that Nokia was selling by the millions. With a plethora of Android handset options at a variety of price points, Samsung instead was much a greater threat to the long-term survival of the Finnish company. Nokia has since sold its devices unit to Microsoft, tying its future to that of Windows Phone.

Apple’s iPad also is not to blame for the downturn in the paper industry, which has been in decline for years. The reasons for the slowdown in paper manufacturing are myriad and include the increasing use of email over traditional mail, the adoption of digital documents, and the steady decline in print magazine and newspaper subscriptions. With tablet shipments reaching only 200 million globally, the proliferation of Kindles and tablets, such as the iPad, are not yet significant enough to decimate the paper industry as Stubb implies.

Ironically, Apple and other technology companies have been supporting Nokia even as its mobile phone sales decline. In 2011, Apple ended an ongoing patent battle with Nokia and has been paying the Finnish company an undisclosed amount to license cellular technology owned by the company. This intellectual property may be netting Nokia a collective $685 million per year from Apple and other technology companies.

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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No Retina MacBook Air Introduction Planned for Apple’s October 16 Media Event

With rumors of a new 12-inch Retina MacBook Air circulating in recent months and the latest reports suggesting small-scale production has already begun, many have been wondering about Apple’s plans for introducing the product. According to a new report from Re/code, the Retina MacBook Air will not be unveiled at this Thursday’s media event.

Apple may well have a new MacBook Air with Retina Display in the pipeline, but it’s not going to unveil it this week. Sources familiar with Apple’s plans tell me that the company’s latest reimagining of the ultralight laptop won’t be shown off at its Thursday event.

In line with previous rumors, the report claims Thursday’s event will focus on new iPads, Retina iMacs, and OS X Yosemite. One source has also claimed updated Mac minis could appear at the event, but there has been little additional chatter about the possibility.

Apple’s media event kicks off at 10:00 AM Pacific Time on Thursday, and MacRumors will have full live coverage of the proceedings. There are likely to be additional leaks and rumors in the final lead-up to the event, so stay tuned as Apple prepares to finalize its product lineup for the holiday shopping season.

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Apple fines companies $50 million for leaks

For a company that’s obsessed with secrecy, it’s no surprise to see that Apple imposes tight restrictions on what its suppliers can say. If your company leaks a product, or starts boasting about producing components for a future iOS device, then you’ll be asked to pay a fine of no less than $50 million. That’s chump change for a company like Samsung, but a fortune for smaller outfits that may produce only one or two small pieces. Speaking of which, this fact only emerged thanks to GT Advanced Technologies, which has just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after deciding to close and sell-off its loss-making sapphire crystal manufacturing facilities.

GT had originally been tipped to produce sapphire crystal displays for the iPhone 6, but when both handsets launched, they were said to use “ion-strengthened glass.” The announcement sent GT’s share price tumbling, and now it needs the court’s help to save it from total collapse, since it owes Apple almost $600 million in advance payments for displays it won’t or couldn’t use. GT, however, has petitioned a New Hampshire district court to help declare Apple’s “oppressive” non-disclosure agreement to be null and void, saving it from the penalty and helping it to convince buyers that it’s worth picking up the valuable sapphire crystal production hardware. Of course, the knock-on effect is that the company will then be able to reveal what Apple was planning to do with the technology, which we imagine won’t sit well with those privacy-focused folks over in Cupertino.

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, Mobile, Apple

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Via: Tim Bradshaw (Twitter)

Source: The Financial Times, GT Filing (Scribd)

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Engadget UK giveaway: win an iPhone 6 courtesy of Mobilefun.co.uk

Wet weather, plummeting temperatures and pitch-black mornings are just a few of the things us Brits have to look forward to as we plunge further into the abyss known as “autumn.” We could all use a little pick-me-up as SAD begins to take hold, so how does a free, 16GB space gray iPhone 6 sound? That’s exactly what we’re offering one lucky reader, thanks to the generous souls at smartphone and mobile accessory e-tailer Mobilefun.co.uk. And if you already have one of Apple’s latest handsets, Mobilefun.co.uk has plenty of iPhone goodies for you to peruse, too. Any Brits wanting to throw their hat into the giveaway ring have until Saturday to enter up to three times using the Rafflecopter widget below — and give the rules a read while you’re down there, would ya?

• Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
• Contest is open to all residents of the UK, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winners will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive one (1) Apple iPhone 6.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email or Facebook login. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
• This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Apple, Mobilefun.co.uk and Engadget / AOL are not held liable to honor warranties, exchanges or customer service.
• The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
• Entries can be submitted until October 17th at 11:59PM BST. Good luck!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Source: Mobilefun.co.uk

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Apple To Launch iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 36 Additional Countries During October

Ahead of Apple’s Chinese launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus later this week, Apple today confirmed the launch of its new handset models in 36 additional countries and territories by the end of October. In its fastest rollout ever, Apple expects to launch the iPhone in 115 countries by the end of the year.

The next round of launches coming this month will include countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

• Friday, October 17: China, India and Monaco

• Thursday, October 23: Israel

• Friday, October 24: Czech Republic, French West Indies, Greenland, Malta, Poland, Reunion Island and South Africa

• Thursday, October 30: Bahrain and Kuwait

• Friday, October 31: Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Guam, Hungary, Iceland, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macau, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, South Korea, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Thailand

Apple has been busy with new products this fall in a product lineup has been described by Eddy Cue as being “the best product pipeline that I’ve seen in my 25 years at Apple.” Apple already announced the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and the Apple watch at a press event held last month. An upcoming October event is expected to unveil new iPad models, new iMacs and possibly new Mac minis.

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Apple Pay Setup Process Revealed as Retail Employees and Partners Begin Training

Apple has begun preparing its retail employees and retail partners for the upcoming launch of its Apple Pay mobile payments service with a host of new training materials that show the feature in action, reports 9to5Mac.

Users will be able to set up Apple Pay in Passbook or through the Settings app, as up to eight credit or debit cards be connected with an iTunes account or by scanning one in with the iPhone’s camera. Every card connected to the service will allow users to access a number of features, including the ability to see a simple transaction list, the ability to turn on push notifications, and an area that allows quick access to a bank’s phone number and an accompanying app. Passbook will also be able to automatically update an expired card with a new expiration date without the need to re-enter information.

For Apple’s own stores, a customer will be able to return an item simply by holding an iPhone near a payment terminal to give a list of their recent transactions. Receipts from Apple Store purchases will also not display a customer’s contact information or credit card number, but will rather show just the last four digits of a device’s Apple Pay ID. If Apple Pay is not working properly for an Apple Store customer, retail employees will be able to use the “Apple Pay Demo” diagnostic software that can determine whether a device is having a hardware problem or other issue. For non-hardware issues, customers will be referred to their appropriate credit card providers or banks.

Apple’s training materials note that its retail employee should emphasize the simplicity and security of Apple Pay to lure customers into using the service.
All Apple Store employees will receive one hour of mandatory Apple Pay training this week ahead of the service’s impending launch. The report also notes that Apple has already launched Apple Pay at its Caffe Macs cafeteria located in its 1 Infinite Loop headquarters.

An internal memo addressed to Walgreens employees that surfaced yesterday suggested that Apple Pay may be going live next Saturday, October 18. Apple Pay will be enabled on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus through an update to iOS 8. The seeded versions of iOS 8.1 to developers first revealed hidden Apple Pay settings and set up screens, which may indicate that the service might be launching alongside the update.

Apple is expected to detail full launch plans for Apple Pay and iOS 8.1 at its event this Thursday, October 16. The company is also expected to announce its next-generation iPad Air and Retina iPad mini, new iMacs with at least the 27-inch version receiving a high-resolution Retina display, and perhaps even a new Mac Mini.

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