Posts in news

So How Does Apple Know You’re in the Store?

Long story short: An Apple employee at the Apple Store in Palo Alto, California, spills the beans on how they track customers in their stores. Employees armed with iPod touches get notified when customers enter the stores with their location-aware iPhones (for services like in-store pickup or an appointment), or when customers request help using in-store iPads. All the employee has to do is select a customer in a queue, get their position on an in-store map, and voilà! An an employee walks up to the customer and assists them.

While new Apple Store customers may be dazed by the busy store’s atmosphere and integration with technology, experienced shoppers can take advantage of a unique shopping experience tailored for the customer.

We’re basically seeing the map-side of Apple’s in-store toys like Concierge, Scout, iQueue, etc. This isn’t new technology, but as geeks it’s nice to get behind the scenes sometimes.

Read more

The MacLegion Winter Bundle 2011

I stumbled onto MacLegion earlier this year when they offered their first bundle back in April. They offer very good bundles with quality Mac apps at great bundled prices. Their new bundle is just as great. The MacLegion Winter Bundle 2011 consists of 10 quality Mac apps for $49.99 (a $480 value). We’ve seen a lot of bundles similar to this price point, but this one stands out above many of the others.

As always, MacLegion bundles focus on quality, practical and every-day apps that people enjoy using. The hand-picked line-up ensures that all applications featured within it are the latest versions each developer has to offer. Read more

Game on Santa: Best Buy Wants to Put Apple Products Under your Tree this Holiday Season

Apple Store? What Apple Store? You only need to visit your local Best Buy, America’s most well known consumer electronics store and Apple authorized reseller. Best Buy is going all out this Holiday Season with their “Game on Santa” commercials, this one in particular featuring mom as she shops for the latest Apple products. The latest in the series features FaceTime on the iPad 2 along with a variety of other products on one Best Buy’s Apple tables, with an employee reminding the viewer that they’re a one-stop shop for iMacs, MacBooks, and just about anything else you’d find in one of those fancy Apple Stores. We sell Apple stuff too!

The scene then cuts to Christmas Eve as Santa drops in, mom decidedly looking victorious having beat Santa at his own game. If Best Buy’s representation of a good Christmas is accurate, there’s going to be some seriously happy kids come Christmas morning.

Best Buy can’t give you Apple’s self-checkout shopping experience or expertise from someone at the Genius Bar, but if a jam-packed Apple Store isn’t a good idea of your good time, then Best Buy makes an OK pit-stop to pick up Apple accessories. At the very least, the Game on Santa commercials are entertaining, and you can catch Best Buy’s Apple focused promotion after the break. Gifts Under $100 isn’t bad either.

[AppleInsider via TUAW]

Read more

Tell Me Again How iPad Demand Is Waning→

Tell Me Again How iPad Demand Is Waning

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster surveyed a few Apple stores on Black Friday and found that iPad sales per hour were 68 percent higher than they were a year ago. On average, the stores Munster visited sold about 14.8 iPads per hour, up from 8.8 iPads per hour last year, more than enough to support the analyst’s projection of 13.5 million iPads sold in the December quarter.

If you’re still not convinced that Apple sales are stronger than ever based on Gene Munster’s findings, you only have to look as far as Chris Whitmore from Deutsche Bank whom checked in with over 200 stores on Black Friday. Of around the one hundred Apple Stores he got in touch with, 75% of the stores were sold out of the iPhone 4S by the end of Black Friday. In AT&T and Verizon stores? 50% sold out (Sprint apparently had adequate stock).

According to AppleInsider:

Whitmore also found strong iPad and Mac sales in his own surveys, and in particular noted that consumers showed strong support for Apple’s thin-and-light MacBook Air. He said the entry-level 11.6-inch MacBook Air, aided by a 10 percent discount on Black Friday, was the most popular option in the MacBook Air lineup lineup.

The 11.6-inch MacBook Air, on sale for $898 on Black Friday, is a comfortable size and a great all-around laptop. If you were in the market for a new laptop, the $101 discount on MacBooks was nice to take advantage of. Similarly, iPads starting at $458 (a $41 discount) pushed many of the right buttons for savvy shoppers.

Permalink

The 15-inch MacBook Air Appears on the Horizon

MacBook Air

MacBook Air

Rumor has it that Apple’s current lineup is going to be refreshed early next year with a new addition to the Air family. Digitimes reports that panel suppliers are currently pumping out 11.6-inch, 13.3-inch, and 15-inch displays for inclusion in the next lineup of MacBook Airs.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple added a big brother to the MacBook Air family. Morgan Stanely and NPD figures are estimating that the MacBook Air now accounts for 28% of Apple’s notebook shipments as of October. MacBook Airs are selling in volumes.

The latest 15-inch rumor comes just two weeks after Digitimes reported a new 15-inch model was slated for March, as upstream suppliers started moving components.

Estimated by the product planning, mass shipments of the notebook device will start in March and could be cataloged in either the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro line and could be cataloged in either the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro line.

Apple’s 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs were last updated in July with Sandy Bridge processors and the inclusion of Thunderbolt.

It wasn’t known at the time if the 15-inch model was for a slimmer MacBook Pro or an updated MacBook Air. It looks like the rumors are pointing towards the latter, and it would make sense given the popularity of Apple’s ultralight laptops. It’s previously been suggest thated Apple’s line of MacBook Pros would get thinner sooner than later, but it’s possible Apple’s going to offer a bigger Air before the Pros are reinvented. [Digitimes via Macgasm]

Kickstarter: LandingZone is the Docking Station you Need for the MacBook Air

Everybody loves their MacBook Airs until they have to connect their Apple Thunderbolt Displays or external monitors, no thanks to the required connections on opposite sides of the chassis. I find it funny Apple would launch a MacBook that requires one to stretch the ATD cable around both sides of a laptop. Surely someone would come along and fix it.

InfiniWing’s LandingZone is a docking station for the MacBook Air thas aims to practically solve the hassle of connecting multiple cords and cables as you sit down at your desk. LandingZone adds two additional USB ports to the Air, includes an ethernet port and Mini DisplayPort for connecting to office equipment, has a port compatible with Kensington Locks, and includes a housing to secure your MagSafe adapter for charging the MacBook Air while it’s seated (power is still supplied via Apple’s MagSafe Power Adapter). As cables are routed out the back, you’ll have a cleaner desk to work on and more ports to connect USB drives, wired keyboards, and other peripherals to.

LandingZone is brilliantly simple, featuring a latch mechanism that clamps the hub to the required ports on either side of the MacBook. As the video on Kickstarter (which is one of the best Kickstarter videos I’ve seen to date) will show off, you simply lock and unlock the MacBook Air with an elegant lever at the backside. LandingZone is everything you’d likely want in a docking station without the bulk of traditional laptop docks. It’s small, smartly designed, and looks good.

Read more

Apple Removes iPad App With Monthly Gaming Subscriptions

In a surprising turn of events, Bloomberg reported that Apple has pulled the highly publicized app recently debuted by Big Fish Games. The iPad app integrated a new model of game distribution that was set to usher in a new era of iOS gaming. Apple had approved the app and made it available on November 18th, only to swiftly remove it days later.

Apps being pulled from the App Store with little or no explanation is not uncommon but the circumstances leading up to this app’s removal are different from previous situations. Big Fish Games founder Paul Thelen said that his company had worked vigorously with Apple’s team to make sure all requirements were met to properly implement monthly subscriptions. When all the prerequisites were met, Apple had given the company permission to release the app on the iTunes App Store.

“It was officially approved,” Thelen said. Apple had even seen the app’s press release before it went out earlier today, he said

Apple was apparently going to take the standard 30% from the monthly subscription fees making the deal mutually beneficial for both parties involved. Removing the app without communicating with Big Fish Games points to the possibility of a miscommunication or a misinterpretation of the how the game actually worked causing Apple to quickly back out on the agreement. The business model that was designed for digital periodicals will apparently stay that way for the time being but Thelen seems determined to follow up with Apple and hopefully get some answers as to why the app was pulled.

[Bloomberg via 9to5 Mac]

The iPad’s Next LCD Panels could be Supplied from Sharp

Between quality control issues at LG Display that were finally reported as resolved in September, and the ongoing patent litigations between Apple and Samsung, Sharp could become the next display vendor for Apple’s iPads.

When the iPad 2 launched in March, Apple quickly turned to Samsung and Chimei Innnolux as customers complained of light leakage around the bezel of LG-based displays. For much of the year, a combination of quality control issues and late shipments had Apple turning to these other manufacturers to pick up the slack. At the end of August, LG Display finally shipped its due quota of four million panels. The iPad 2 didn’t begin shipping on time until after July. While LG Display expects supply shipments to return to normal, the failures of LG Display to correct its manufacturing issues on time and the untrustworthiness of Samsung would have Apple looking for alternatives. Sharp could be the premium candidate for future iPad displays, such as next year’s rumored Retina Display for the iPad 3.

According the Wall Street Journal, Sharp has reported they’ll begin mass-producing smaller displays at the Kameyama No. 2 plant in Mie Prefecture by the end of the year, a plant previously used solely for the production of TV panels. WSJ reports that Sharp already supplies displays for Apple’s iPhones, and that they could become the premier supplier next year with the introduction of newer models. Apple’s alleged investments in Sharp’s panel manufacturing facilities in Japan lend some additional credence to this claim.

Samsung Chief Operating Officer and President Lee Jae-yong said in October he had discussions with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook about extending Samsung’s deal to supply parts to Apple through 2013-2014.

Component deals in a competitive market, however, may keep Samsung in the loop. With proof of manufacturing capability and the technology already in place, Samsung is still a critical component of Apple’s supply chain. At the end of the fourth fiscal quarter in September, Apple reported 11.1 million iPads sold compared to 4.2 million iPads sold just a year ago.

[via WSJ]