MacRumors

Apple has long been rumored to be working on plans for an Apple Store at the iconic Tower Theatre in Los Angeles, and today, Apple shared details on the upcoming location with the Los Angeles Times.

According to Apple, the Tower Theatre store will be one of the world's most prominent Apple retail locations when it is completed, with the company planning to entirely overhaul the interior of the building to turn it into retail space and an interactive community area.

In a rendering shared by Apple, the Tower Theatre store preserves the ornate Renaissance Revival style of the interior of the theatre for an Apple Store that will indeed be one of the most unique. The building, which features French, Spanish, Moorish, and Italian elements, was built to mimic the Paris Opera House.

The Tower Theatre is in disrepair, though, and the area around it has become outdated, leaving the building's owners and city council members eager for Apple's revitalization efforts. Apple is using the original Tower Theatre blueprints and photographs to restore original theatre elements like murals, decorations, and the leaded-glass window over the entrance.

BJ Siegel, senior director of retail design at Apple, told the Los Angeles Times that Apple was inspired by the Tower Theatre's history and many of its firsts -- it was one of the first air conditioned buildings in Los Angeles.

"All of that cool technology inspires us because we are a technology company and we are bringing new technology to the place," Siegel said.

According to Siegel, while many people picture Apple retail stores as "big glass boxes," that's not true of all stores the company designs. Other similar stores include Covent Garden, the Opéra store in Paris, Apple Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, Apple Amsterdam built in the famous Hirsch building, Apple's Grand Central store in New York, and the planned Carnegie Library store in Washington, D.C.

The Tower Theatre location will be very different than other Apple retail stores in Los Angeles, says Siegel, describing it as "in the upper echelon of what Apple does."

Siegel expects some events at the upcoming store to draw hundreds of people, while other events will be planned for smaller groups. Apple will use part of the store for its Today at Apple sessions, where it provides tutorials and help with various Apple products, along with seminars and programs for children.

Apple is aiming to file plans with the city this week to gain approval for its planned renovation of the location.

Apple has officially become the world's only trillion dollar publicly traded company, in terms of market capitalization, which is simply the company's number of outstanding shares multiplied by its stock price.

Apple achieved this milestone by hitting a stock price of $207.05 and above in intraday trading today, giving it a market cap slightly over $1,000,000,000,000, based on its 4,829,926,000 outstanding shares as of July 20, 2018, which the company disclosed in its quarterly 10-Q filing with the SEC on Wednesday.

While some publications declared Apple a trillion dollar company earlier in the day, this was based on an outdated number of outstanding shares in Apple from tools such as Yahoo Finance, which powers Apple's own Stocks app.

Apple beat out other large tech companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google parent company Alphabet, in the race to a trillion dollars. As with most milestones of this nature, however, Apple reaching exactly a trillion dollar market cap doesn't have too much significance, beyond the vanity of it.

Apple's stock has appreciated over eight percent since the market closed on Tuesday, following its record-breaking earnings results. Apple set a new fiscal third quarter record with $53.3 billion revenue, easily topping Wall Street expectations, and there were also indications that the iPhone X is selling quite well.

The milestone is a testament to the strength of Apple, which has already been the world's most valuable company for several years. Aside from 2016, which is now an outlier, Apple has been steadily increasing its revenue and profits since 2003, fueled by the massive popularity of products like the iPhone and iPad.

Apple will look to build upon its success with a wide range of new products expected later this year, including a trio of iPhones, iPads with Face ID, Apple Watch Series 4 models, updates to several Macs, new AirPods, and much more.

Update: Apple's stock price has since dipped below $207 as it continues to fluctuate on the intraday market.

The installed base of smart speakers in the United States, including the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and HomePod, has reached a combined 50 million units, according to research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

CIRP estimates that, of that installed base, the HomePod has increased its market share to six percent as of the second quarter of 2018, ending June 30, implying that HomePod sales have now crossed three million in the United States.

By comparison, the Amazon Echo has 70 percent market share in the United States, with the Google Home at 24 percent, so the HomePod has significant ground to make up, which is to be expected since it only launched this past February, two to three years after its biggest competitors.

Even now, the HomePod is only available in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, and Germany.

Josh Lowitz, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP, suggested that it may be difficult for Apple to gain additional market share among smart speakers, unless it releases a more competitively priced model. HomePod is priced at $349, while the Amazon Echo starts at $50, and the Google Home is regularly $129.

Apple introduced HomePod in the first quarter, and now has a small but meaningful share. It took a small share of the market from both Amazon and Google. Still, Amazon has a two-year head start, and Amazon and Google each have a low-priced device that accounts for at least half of unit sales, so it's not clear how much further Apple can establish itself in the market without a more competitive model.

Back in April, well-connected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple was "mulling" a "low-cost version" of the HomePod, potentially due to shipments of the current version potentially being "far below market expectations."

A report out of China said the lower-cost HomePod could be priced between $150 and $200, although it's unclear what tradeoffs would be made to achieve that price point. Most reviews agree the HomePod sounds great, but isn't so smart, so it's hard to envision that Apple would compromise on sound quality.

A few months ago, another Chinese report said the lower-priced HomePod could actually be a Siri-enabled Beats speaker.

Apple doesn't disclose HomePod sales, instead grouping it under its "Other Products" category in its earnings reports, alongside the Apple Watch, Apple TV, AirPods, Beats, iPod touch, and accessories. In May, research firm Strategy Analytics estimated HomePod shipments totaled 600,000 in the first quarter.

CIRP said its findings are based on its survey of 500 owners of the Amazon Echo, Google Home, or HomePod in the United States, who owned one of these devices as of June 30, 2018. The survey was conducted between July 1 and July 18.

Despite the worldwide tablet market declining in shipments for 14 consecutive quarters, the iPad is seeing growth, and regaining market share over its competitors, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Earlier this week, Apple reported that it sold 11.55 million iPads in the second quarter of 2018, spanning April 1 through June 30. Those sales gave Apple a 28.2 percent share of the worldwide tablet market in the second quarter, its highest in that period since 2013, according to Strategy Analytics.

Apple's second quarter share of the worldwide tablet market based on historical data from the research firm:

• 2012: 47.2%
  

• 2013: 28.3%
  

• 2014: 25.3%
  

• 2015: 21.5%
  

• 2016: 21.3%
  

• 2017: 26.1%
  

• 2018: 28.2%

Apple's market share was boosted by the launch of a new lower-cost iPad in late March, shortly prior to the educational buying season, and just days before the second quarter. The tablet, starting at $329, lowered the iPad's average selling price to $410 last quarter, down from $434 in the year-ago period.

Apple's presence in both the lower-priced market, with the iPad, and higher-end market, with the iPad Pro, is putting pressure on its competitors like Microsoft and Samsung, according to Strategy Analytics.

Chirag Upadhyay, Senior Research Analyst at Strategy Analytics:

Apple is using its market size and brand power to put pressure on its Windows and Android competitors. By lowering prices and adding more functionality during every product cycle for the last year, Apple has regained several points of market share and still maintaining a strong ASP due to its Pro and standard iPad mix. Android vendors, in particular, should be very concerned with how much revenue they are losing to Apple in 2018.

Android shipments fell to 23.6 million units worldwide in the second quarter, down 10 percent from 26.4 million in the year-ago quarter, according to Strategy Analytics. Likewise, Windows shipments fell two percent to 5.8 million units in the second quarter, from 5.9 million a year earlier, the research firm said.

Nevertheless, Microsoft's shipments of the Surface Pro and Surface Book 2 reached over one million in the second quarter, and could reap even better results in the current quarter with the release of the Surface Go, according to Eric Smith, Director of Connected Computing at Strategy Analytics.

Surface Go launches today with a base price of $399, although with a Type Cover keyboard, the price jumps to $498.

For now, though, the iPad easily remains the world's most popular tablet, in a market where many Android vendors are losing share and revenue due to falling prices and a perceived lack of innovation.

An icon that provides hints on the design we can expect to see in the upcoming 2018 iPad Pro models was spotted in the latest beta of iOS 12 by 9to5Mac this afternoon.

Located in the battery usage interface, the icon is said to be new in this beta. In line with rumors we've heard, the icon features a tablet that has much reduced bezels and no Home button, as Apple is said to be planning to replace the Touch ID Home button with a TrueDepth camera system and Face ID.

The icon seems to suggest that the upcoming iPad Pro models will feature thin bezels at the top and bottom of the device with the TrueDepth camera located in the top bezel rather than implemented through a notch design.

While multiple rumors have suggested the iPad Pro models will feature Face ID, there's been little information on whether Apple was planning to use the same notch design that was introduced with the iPhone X.

In addition to Face ID and slimmer bezels that will allow for a larger display without increased body size, upcoming iPad Pro models are expected to adopt faster processors, and there have been rumors that Apple plans to remove the headphone jack.

It's not clear when Apple plans to release the new iPad Pro models, but they could see a launch in September alongside new iPhones. Apple could also opt to hold a separate iPad and Mac-focused event in October, as it has done in past years.

Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Steve Jobs' oldest daughter, is releasing a memoir called "Small Fry" next month, and ahead of the book's release, Vanity Fair has published an excerpt where Lisa-Brennan Jobs shares details on her troubled relationship with her father, his last days, and her early life.

Lisa was born in 1978 to Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan, and as is well known, Jobs initially denied that he was her father. He had nothing to do with her until she was two, a story she tells interspersed with facts about the Lisa computer he built. After being forced to take a paternity test and provide child support for Lisa, she finally met him, detailing their first meeting in Menlo Park, California.

"You know who I am?" he asked. He flipped his hair out of his eyes.

I was three years old; I didn't.

"I'm your father." ("Like he was Darth Vader," my mother said later, when she told me the story.)

"I'm one of the most important people you will ever know," he said.

Jobs visited Brennan-Jobs more frequently after that, for rollerskating trips, rides in his Porsche, dinners, and hot tub excursions, but the two still had relationship issues. At one point, Brennan-Jobs said that she asked Jobs for his Porsche after hearing a myth that he replaced it whenever it got a scratch, and she received a callous reply.

"You're not getting anything," he said. "You understand? Nothing. You're getting nothing." Did he mean about the car, something else, bigger? I didn't know. His voice hurt--sharp, in my chest.

In another section of the excerpt, Brennan-Jobs explains how the fact that she thought the Lisa computer was named after her made her feel closer to Jobs, but at one point, she asked whether it was truly named after her. "Nope," said Jobs. He later changed his mind when Bono asked at an afternoon lunch Lisa Brennan-Jobs was at.

Then Bono asked, “So, was the Lisa computer named after her?”

There was a pause. I braced myself—prepared for his answer.

My father hesitated, looked down at his plate for a long moment, and then back at Bono. “Yeah, it was,” he said.

I sat up in my chair.

“I thought so,” Bono said.

“Yup,” my father said.

I studied my father’s face. What had changed? Why had he admitted it now, after all these years? Of course it was named after me, I thought then. His lie seemed preposterous now. I felt a new power that pulled my chest up.

The rest of the excerpt, available over at Vanity Fair, focuses on Jobs' final months before he passed away, and it is well worth reading for anyone who is interested in intimate details about Steve Jobs' life.

Brennan's book can be pre-ordered from Amazon for $24.70, with a release set for September 4.

Apple has filed its quarterly 10-Q form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today, confirming that the company has a total of 4,829,926,000 outstanding shares on the stock market as of July 20, 2018. That's down from 4,915,138,000 shares three months earlier as Apple has continued to buy back its own stock.

Based on multiplying the latest total by Apple's closing stock price today of $201.50, the iPhone maker has a market cap of roughly $973 billion, making it ever so close to becoming a trillion dollar company.

The exact moment that Apple crosses the trillion dollar mark will be difficult to determine, as Apple continues to buy back and retire shares, reducing the number of outstanding shares. The total reflected in the 10-Q form is already nearly two weeks old, and has likely decreased over that time.

Everyone from investors to fanatical customers has been closely watching the AAPL ticker on the stock market to see if Apple will become the world's only and arguably first publicly traded company with a trillion dollar valuation. Tech rivals Amazon, Microsoft, and Google parent company Alphabet are also in the race.

For now, the wait for $1,000,000,000,000 continues, but it doesn't look like it will take much longer for Apple to pull off the feat.

Samsung today announced the launch of its latest tablet, the Galaxy Tab S4, which, like Apple's iPad Pro, has been designed as a computer replacement with productivity in mind.

The new 10.5-inch Galaxy Tab S4 is described as the "ultimate entertainment and multitasking assistant" thanks to the inclusion of Samsung DeX, which is the first time Samsung has built the feature into a tablet.

DeX is a docking solution that is designed to allow Samsung smartphone owners (and now tablet owners) to connect their devices to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor through a USB-C port, an HDMI port, and two USB ports. DeX on the Galaxy Tab S4 works using a simple HDMI adapter or with the DeX dock options and it offers true multitasking capabilities with users able to open multiple windows at one time.

Samsung is offering a $150 Book Cover Keyboard alongside the Galaxy Tab S4, which can be paired with DeX to transform the tablet into a PC alongside a Bluetooth mouse, but it will also work with any Bluetooth keyboard and mouse option.

Like other Samsung devices, the Galaxy Tab S4 can also be paired with the included S Pen, a stylus for taking notes, drawings, artwork, and other purposes.

Apple's iPad Pro lineup, comparatively, includes an optional Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil, along with the ability to pair third-party Bluetooth keyboards, but it does not support mouse functionality.

When it comes to hardware, the Galaxy Tab S4 is equipped with Qualcomm's octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB to 256GB of storage space that can be expanded with a microSD card, and a 7,300mAh battery that it boasts offers 16 hours of video playback, outpacing the iPad Pro's 10 hour battery.

The tablet includes a 16:10 AMOLED display, and there is no Home button or fingerprint sensor on the device, with Samsung instead relying on facial recognition and iris scanning for biometric authentication.

Other features include quad speakers much like the iPad Pro, Bixby integration, 13-megapixel front and rear cameras, and a fast charging feature that charges the battery to full in 200 minutes.

Samsung's new tablet is priced at $650 for 64GB of storage or $750 for 256GB of storage, which is on par with Apple's pricing for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro. Apple charges $649 for the 64GB 10.5-inch iPad Pro, $799 for a 256GB version, and $999 for a 512GB version.

Samsung is releasing the new Galaxy Tab S4 on August 10, which is just after the company plans to unveil its new flagship Galaxy Note 9 device.

Apple also has a major tablet upgrade in the works with new iPad Pro models on the horizon, but it is not clear when the company will unveil them. The new tablets could come in September alongside new iPhones or Apple could wait until later in the fall, perhaps hosting a separate October event for new iPads and Macs.

Apple's updated iPad Pro models are expected to offer a complete iPhone X-style redesign, doing away with the Home button, introducing slimmer bezels for more available screen space, and adopting Face ID and the TrueDepth camera system for biometric authentication.