ColorWare today introduced a customized iPhone 7 Plus Retro Edition that resembles the appearance of a vintage 1980s-era Macintosh for $1,899. It is a SIM-Free model with 256GB of storage, which normally retails for $969 in the United States. Orders are currently estimated to ship in 2-3 weeks.
The design includes a multicolored Apple rainbow logo and dark beige edge stripes painted over what is originally a Black colored iPhone 7 Plus. ColorWare said the iPhone 7 Plus Retro Edition will be available for a limited time only, and the first 25 sold will include a number of authenticity.
Details about the customization process:
At ColorWare, the product goes through a labor intensive process of disassembly, cleaning, masking, painting and inspection. Then, the product is buffed and reassembled. The product goes through final inspection and is packaged into the original packaging.
iPhone 7 Plus Retro Edition includes EarPods, a Lightning to USB Cable, a USB Power Adapter, and documentation in the box.
Apple today seeded the seventh beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.4 update to developers, just three days after seeding the sixth macOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta and over a month after releasing macOS Sierra 10.12.3.
The seventh macOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta is available for download through the Apple Developer Center or the software update mechanism in the Mac App Store for those who have previously installed a beta.
macOS Sierra 10.12.4 brings iOS's Night Shift mode to the Mac for the first time. First introduced on iOS devices with iOS 9.3, Night Shift is designed to gradually shift the display of a device from blue to yellow, cutting down on exposure to blue light. Blue light is said to disrupt the circadian rhythm and is believed to interrupt sleeping patterns.
Night Shift can be activated through the Displays section of System Preferences, where a setting to have it come on at sunset and turn off at sunrise is available. Night Shift can also be toggled on manually through the Notification Center or via Siri.
The 10.12.4 update focuses mainly on Night Shift, but also includes dictation support for Shanghainese, cricket scores for Siri, improved PDFKit APIs, and iCloud Analytics options.
Few outward-facing changes have been discovered in macOS Sierra 10.12.4 outside of the first beta, as Apple has been working on bug fixes and improvements ahead of a public release. With the seventh beta out and the short interval since the last seed, we are getting closer to the end of the beta testing period and are likely to see a public release soon.
Update: The seventh beta is also available for members of Apple's public beta testing program.
Apple today seeded the seventh beta of an upcoming iOS 10.3 update to developers, just three days after seeding the sixth beta of iOS 10.3 and three months after the release of iOS 10.2, the last major update to the iOS 10 operating system.
Registered developers can download the seventh iOS 10.3 beta from the Apple Developer Center or over-the-air with the proper configuration profile installed.
iOS 10.3 is a major update, introducing significant new features and changes to the iOS 10 operating system. The biggest consumer-facing feature in iOS 10.3 is "Find My AirPods," which is designed to help AirPods owners locate a lost earphone. Find My AirPods records the last known location of when an AirPod was connected to an iOS device via Bluetooth and can play a sound on a lost AirPod.
Apple's latest update also introduces a new Apple File System (APFS), installed when an iOS device is updated to iOS 10.3. APFS is optimized for flash/SSD storage and includes features like strong encryption.
Apple plans to introduce some App Store changes in iOS 10.3, allowing developers to respond to customer reviews for the first time. iOS users are also able to label reviews in the App Store as "Helpful" or "Not Helpful," which should help surface the most relevant review content.
Apple also plans to limit the number of times developers can ask for a review, allow customers to leave app reviews without exiting an app, and provide a "master switch" that will let users turn off all app review request prompts.
Also new in iOS 10.3 is a redesigned app open/close animation, an Apple ID profile in Settings, a better breakdown of iCloud storage usage, warnings about outdated apps that won't work with future versions of iOS, HomeKit support for programmable light switches, improvements to SiriKit (bill paying, bill status, and scheduling future rides), CarPlay interface improvements, iCloud analytics options, and more.
For the last few betas, there have been no additional features discovered as Apple focuses instead on bug fixes and refinements ahead of a public release. We are likely nearing the end of the beta testing period, with a release expected in the near future.
Update: The seventh beta is also available for members of Apple's public beta testing program.
Amazon today announced that it will introduce its Siri competitor, Amazon Alexa, directly into the company's iOS app over the course of the next week (via VentureBeat). With the addition of Alexa, users will now be able to ask questions about the status of their orders, use their voice to initiate searches, play music, and start audio books from Audible.
Alexa's powers go beyond Amazon's shopping features -- users will also be able to use the voice assistant to search current news stories, check the weather, and even control smart home products. This means that iOS users who don't own any Amazon hardware can now gain access to Alexa's growing list of skills, which let users easily link multiple services together for quick voice control interactions.
Some users will begin seeing the Alexa update in Amazon's iOS app [Direct Link] starting today, but the rollout is expected to reach everyone on iOS by next week.
Just one month after Bloomberg reported that Apple is testing a new Apple TV capable of streaming high-resolution 4K video, which it said is codenamed "J105" and could launch as soon as this year, the first evidence of the rumored fifth-generation streaming box may have surfaced in developer logs.
Firi Games, the developers behind arcade games Phoenix HD and Phoenix II, told us they have seen a single device identified as "AppleTV6,2" and running "tvOS 11.0" connect to Phoenix HD for Apple TV from the United States in its logs. The IP address falls within a range linked to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.
The current Apple TV has a model identifier of AppleTV5,3, and Apple TV6,2 does not correspond with any released model.
While the details could be faked, similar evidence of an iPhone 5s running iOS 7 showed up in January 2013, around nine months before the device was announced, and the timeline is appropriate if Apple is indeed testing a new Apple TV. The current Apple TV, the first to run tvOS, launched in October 2015.
No other details surrounding a fifth-generation Apple TV are known at this point. In December 2015, hit-or-miss Taiwanese website DigiTimes, citing supply chain sources, claimed the next-generation Apple TV would feature a new CPU with dramatically improved performance, but that report has yet to materialize.
Headphone jack controversies aside, Apple's cord-free AirPods have contributed to a recent surge of interest in "truly wireless" earphones, with several companies vying for a piece of the market.
Denmark-based audio outfit Jabra has embraced the freedom-of-movement appeal of wireless buds more than most with its Elite Sport headphones ($250), which it calls "the most technically advanced true wireless sports earbuds" around. Boasting a number of features such as in-ear coaching and heart-rate tracking, they're an intriguing prospect for fitness-focused headphone users frustrated by flailing cords.
While Jabra claims the Elite Sport buds improve your workouts while providing great sound, $250 is a lot to pay for a wireless headset. We checked out a pair to see if they deliver on their promises.
The iMessage App Store turned six months old this week, and the app analysts at Sensor Tower have decided to see where Apple's miniature app store stands among users and developers following an initial launch rush last year. According to Sensor Tower, more than 5,000 apps have either added iMessage features, or launched exclusively on the text message-based App Store.
Unfortunately, while the growth is noticeable -- and on par with the original App Store in 2008 -- it has begun subsiding on a month-to-month basis, with Sensor Tower noting it is "seeing signs that the initial rush of excitement over iMessage apps is fading among developers." From September to October the number of iMessage-enabled apps grew 116 percent, from 400 to 1,100. By the end of November, the iMessage App Store had grown 108 percent to include around 2,250 apps.
Things began slowing down in December where growth was marked at 65 percent, with 3,700 iMessage apps stocking the App Store worldwide. As 2017 began, the iMessage App Store hit its slowest growth period yet: it saw an 18 percent increase from December to January, and a 9 percent increase from January to February.
Sensor Tower points to confusion over the iMessage App Store's UI and app discovery that could be leading to an overall lack of user interactivity with the apps, and subsequently resulting in developers' fading interest. The analysts still look forward to the iMessage App Store's "real test" of growth down the line as iOS 11 approaches later in the year.
Any new platform will see an initial surge in offerings due to the aforementioned excitement, rallying cries from the platform holder, and the associated rush by developers to ensure that they’re capitalizing on (what they hope will be) the next big thing. The real test for the iMessage App Store’s catalog will be how its growth looks for the rest of its first year.
Still, consumer platforms such as Apple’s latest are driven by the steady availability of compelling software, and the cadence of releases can say a lot about developer confidence—which, in turn, is reflective of what and how much users are consuming.
Games are the most popular of the iMessage apps, and the category includes regular apps that create iMessage versions with sticker compatibility without any specific gaming features. Following games are Entertainment, Utilities, Social Networking, and Photo & Video apps.
In a bid to bring more awareness to iMessage apps -- and stickers specifically -- Apple this week launched a new ad to promote the wide array of stickers that users can download and share within Messages. The live action commercial featured people running around and sticking colorful, animated stickers, including some from Disney and Family Guy, on everything from other people to food.
Apple's widely rumored 5.8-inch iPhone with an edge-to-edge OLED display will be flat across the front of the smartphone, and slightly curved along the left and right edges to conform with the layer of 2.5D glass that covers the display, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
Yesterday, a report claimed the high-end iPhone will have a curved display, but with gentler curves than Samsung's Galaxy S7 edge. MacRumors has confirmed the report refers to a display that is slightly curved at the edges below 2.5D cover glass, meaning the display itself cannot be dramatically curved.
This means the report essentially mirrors comments from IHS Markit, which last week told us that Apple will likely "adopt a flat implementation of OLED design on their special iPhone model, which is analogous to the current 2.5D glass design," but "mostly flat" is perhaps a better descriptor.
Yesterday's report said the slightly curved edges will make the iPhone sleeker, but it claimed the new design will not offer significant new functions. But a slightly expanded Multi-Touch area could result in improved gesture recognition along the edges, such as pulling up Control Center in landscape mode.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Chinese research firm TrendForce have also said they expect Apple's special edition iPhone to have 2.5D cover glass, which refers to the slightly curved glass that sits above the actual display. Apple has used 2.5D cover glass since the iPhone 6 lineup in 2014.
Kuo said Apple is unlikely to adopt a fully curved display with 3D glass this year in light of mass production challenges and inadequate drop test performance. Some reports have surprisingly claimed the "iPhone 8" is not even finalized yet due to these yield rate considerations, suggesting stock could be limited at launch.
Apple has been testing multiple iPhone prototypes this year as usual, including one with a more dramatically curved display, but at this point it has elected to use a mostly flat display with only slightly curved edges, based on a flexible substrate, according to sources within Apple's supply chain.
The benefit of the edge-to-edge design is that it will essentially allow for an iPhone 7 Plus sized display to fit on a device that is iPhone 7 sized, which is beneficial for all sorts of reasons, such as one-handed usage and pocketability. OLED displays have many benefits over LCDs, which current iPhones use, too.
The 5.8-inch display is expected to have a primary area of around 5.2 inches, while Kuo expects some of the remaining space to house virtual buttons.
iLuv today announced its first Apple HomeKit certified device called the "Rainbow8," an IoT connected smart lightbulb system that includes Siri compatibility and Wi-Fi connectivity so users can interact with their lights from an iPhone or iPad. One of the distinctions between Rainbow8 and Philips Hue is that iLuv's product doesn't require a central, router-connected hub.
To get started the company said that "all you have to do is simply plug in," and Rainbow8 will search for a nearby smartphone with the company's app. Once it's set up, users can set up schedules and geo-fences that activate and deactivate based on their location. Custom lighting scenes can be created and with the addition of HomeKit support, users can ask Siri to turn them on and off.
As an improvement on the company's Rainbow7 Bluetooth smart bulb, the Rainbow8 includes over 16 million color options, has a dimming feature, offers 800 lumens of brightness, and will last for a lifespan of over 20,000 hours.
This user friendly smart bulb is now brighter and longer lasting, saving you money in the long run. "iLuv is very proud of the direction we are going," said Jason Park, head of marketing at iLuv.
"The Rainbow8 is not our first smart product, but it is definitely one of our most impressive ones. Unlike most smart bulbs on the market, the Rainbow8 does not require a hub. All you have to do is simply plug in and get started. Once set up, users can do everything from schedule their lighting to setting triggers that control the lights based on their location. You can also create your own customized lighting scenes and use Siri to turn them on."
iLuv's Rainbow8 smart bulb is available for $49.99 from Amazon, "and other select retailers," beginning today. At the time of writing, only 10 of the bulbs were left in stock on Amazon's U.S. store.
WePay, an online payment service provider, today announced that its customers can now accept Apple Pay and Android Pay on the web.
WePay's biggest customers include popular crowdfunding website GoFundMe, cloud productivity software company Zoho, and cloud-based accounting software service FreshBooks. Some of its other clients include Constant Contact, Meetup, Chargebee, Infusionsoft, Invoice Ninja, and RallyBound.
Apple Pay on the web launched in Safari on iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, expanding upon in-store and in-app payments. The feature started rolling out in September 2016 on websites such as Indiegogo, StubHub, and Wayfair, with other committed partners including Airbnb, Fandango, Target, Ticketmaster, and more.
Apple Pay on the web works with iPhone 6 and later, iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3 and later. iOS 10 or later is required. On Macs, Apple Pay on the web requires an iPhone with Touch ID and Apple Pay support or an Apple Watch, as payments are authenticated through the smartphone or watch.
Netflix is planning to offer HDR quality mobile content for viewing on supporting devices because of an increasing mobile subscriber base and the company's belief that the format will eventually be universally adopted on mobile platforms.
The comments were made yesterday by Netflix executive Neil Hunt during a briefing with journalists, as part of a two-day event at Dolby Laboratories and Netflix headquarters in San Francisco. Hunt made the remarks as the two companies prepare to launch new Netflix series Iron Fist, which is being shot natively in HDR.
HDR stands for high dynamic range, meaning a display supporting the standard is capable of reproducing a wider and richer range of colors, brighter whites, and deeper blacks. HDR content is already available on Netflix and Amazon Video, but only for streaming to televisions that support the standard. However, Hunt and Dolby executives told The Verge that HDR is about to make the leap from big-screen to mobile, with Netflix aiming to be at the forefront of a global transition.
It's been about a year since Netflix became available globally — with the exception of a few markets, including China, and since then it has seen mobile usage soar. In established markets like the US and Canada, most Netflix watching still happens on TVs, Hunt said; but in some Asian countries, especially India, "mobile screens are the majority consumption device."
Both Netflix and Amazon are said to be gearing up to stream HDR content on mobile devices, possibly as early as April this year, although a specific date from either company has yet to be confirmed. Samsung's recently announced Tab 3 with AMOLED display is the first tablet to support videos with greater dynamic range, while the LG G6 is the first phone to support both HDR10 (the 10-bit open standard) and Dolby Vision HDR.
Apple is expected to announce new iPad models soon, possibly as early as next week, but apart from plenty of speculation regarding screen sizes, no rumors have mentioned the display technology that could feature. The same can't be said for Apple's rumored "iPhone 8", which will reportedly have a Samsung-supplied OLED display, making it more likely to support the HDR10 standard.
In addition to the mobile HDR announcement, Netflix said it was considering the idea of streaming mobile-specific cuts of its original movies and TV shows.
"It's not inconceivable that you could take a master [copy] and make a different cut for mobile," Hunt said. To date, Netflix hasn't been delivering different cuts for different viewing platforms, Hunt said, but "it's something we will explore over the next few years."
According to The Verge, the idea would be to create a version of the content with scenes or shots that are more easily visible or immersive on a mobile phone, given that certain shots can be hard to see or can appear diminished on a relatively small phone screen.
Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and more than 60 other companies have either decided not to sign, or have yet to sign, a new legal brief filed in federal court in Hawaii this week, constituting the makings of a lawsuit looking to block the second version of President Donald Trump's travel ban (via Reuters). Trump referred to the new order as a "watered-down version" of the original, but a federal judge in Hawaii nevertheless blocked the revised order.
Over a month ago, Apple joined 100 U.S. companies in support of a legal brief that opposed the first immigration ban. That order banned Syrian refugees from entering the United States, blocked citizens of seven countries (Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Syria, and Yemen) from entering the U.S. for 90 days, and suspended entry of all refugees entering the U.S. for 120 days. The new ban removed Iraq from the list, exempted green card and visa holders, and toned down "contentious language referring to religious minorities."
On Tuesday, a new legal brief was filed in a Hawaiian court on behalf of 58 total Silicon Valley companies voicing support for the state's blocking of Trump's order, down from 127 companies on the first brief. A few companies mentioned on the new opposition brief include Kickstarter, Airbnb, and Dropbox. Although the current list is small, hope for the lawsuit to succeed is growing, and New York lawyer Robert Atkins -- who co-authored the new brief -- said "we do expect the group to expand."
Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc are among more than 60 technology companies that appear to have backed away from the legal fight against U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial travel ban, deciding not to put their weight behind a lawsuit seeking to block the second version of his executive order.
A legal brief filed in federal court in Hawaii on Tuesday on behalf of Silicon Valley companies listed the support of 58 companies, less than half the 127 signatories to a similar brief filed in an appeals court last month after Trump's first executive order banning travel from a number of countries the administration said posed a security risk.
It was not immediately clear why fewer of them signed on to the "friend-of-the-court" brief this time around.
Apple was a large part of the opposition to the travel ban last month, helping pen an open letter to Trump explaining that the U.S. is a "nation made stronger by immigrants," while Apple CEO Tim Cook said that it "is not a policy we support." Trump himself said he plans to appeal against the federal judge's halting of his revised order and take the case "as far as it needs to go," including the Supreme Court.
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.
Google has updated its Play Music app with new options to control the quality of music playback over wireless networks and choose the compression level of downloaded tracks.
Previously, users of the streaming service could only adjust the quality of music when listening over their mobile connection, but the additional options offer the same control over WiFi and when listening offline.
The options to adjust streaming and download quality are listed simply as Low, Normal, and High, so it's unclear exactly what bitrate Google is referring to, but it's safe to say any increase in quality will eat further into any data caps, or use more storage in the case of downloaded tracks.
For comparison, Spotify offers a streaming choice of 96kbps, 160kbps, or 320kbps, while Tidal offers 96kbps, 320kbps, and Apple Lossless (Hi-Fi). Apple Music streams at 256kbps by default, but does include a 80kbps option for cellular connections.
The seventeenth annual CanSecWest security conference is underway in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, where researchers are competing in the 10th anniversary Pwn2Own computer hacking contest for over $1 million in prizes.
Day one results have already been published over at the Zero Day Initiative website, with a couple of successful Mac-related exploits already appearing in the list of achievements. Independent hackers Samuel Groß and Niklas Baumstark landed a partial success and earned $28,000 after targeting Safari with an escalation to root on macOS, which allowed them to scroll a message on a MacBook Pro Touch Bar.
In a partial win, Samuel Groß (@5aelo) and Niklas Baumstark (@_niklasb) earn some style points by leaving a special message on the touch bar of the Mac. They used a use-after-free (UAF) in Safari combined with three logic bugs and a null pointer dereference to exploit Safari and elevate to root in macOS. They still managed to earn $28,000 USD and 9 Master of Pwn points.
Later in the day, Chaitin Security Research Lab also targeted Safari with an escalation to root on macOS, finding success using a total of six bugs in their exploit chain, including "an info disclosure in Safari, four type confusion bugs in the browser, and a UAF in WindowServer". The combined efforts earned the team $35,000.
The participating teams earned a total of $233,000 in prizes on day one, including a leading $105,000 earned by Tencent Security, according to published details. Other software successfully targeted by contestants include Adobe Reader, Ubuntu Desktop, and Microsoft Edge on Windows.
Apple representatives have attended the Pwn2Own contest in the past, and affected parties are made aware of all security vulnerabilities discovered during the contest in order to patch them. Pwn2Own day two begins today at 8:30 a.m. Pacific and will involve additional exploit attempts against macOS and Safari.
Apple's partnership with The Conservation Fund to protect working forests has begun to show returns for both Apple and the state of North Carolina, according to information the organization shared with the Triangle Business Journal.
Apple vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives Lisa Jackson shared the article covering Apple's conservation efforts on Twitter this afternoon.
Jena Thompson Meredith, vice president of business partnerships at The Conservation Fund, says Apple's purchase of forest land in North Carolina and Maine has protected 36,000 acres of sustainable forest.
In 2016, the group harvested more than 13,000 metric tons of wood between the two forests, she says, though she did not break that number down by state.
She says the collective annual production from the forests in North Carolina and Maine was equivalent to about 30 percent of the virgin fiber used in Apple's product packaging for 2015.
With survey work, site prep, and harvesting and planting, the Brunswick Forest portion of the project has employed more than 30 people in logging operations in North Carolina, resulting in more than 10 jobs per 1,000 acres.
The effort has also protected North Carolina's Green Swamp Preserve, which is home to six rare species, including the Venus flytrap. Across 300 of the the 3,600 acres Apple purchased in North Carolina, The Conservation Fund has planted an additional 185,000 trees. 40 acres of those include the native longleaf pine and the Atlantic white cedar, both of which provide a home to a rare butterfly.
Apple first partnered with The Conservation Fund in April of 2015, purchasing thousands of acres of working forest for its paper supplies.
At the time, Apple said it was aiming to use paper more efficiently by increasing recycled paper content, sourcing paper sustainably, and conserving acreage of working forests around the world equivalent to its virgin paper footprint.
More than 99 percent of Apple's product packaging in 2015 came from paper that was recycled or sourced from sustainably managed forests, according to the company's 2016 environmental report.
LG's UltraFine 5K Display returned to the market earlier this month after LG made some changes to the display's shielding following the discovery that the original design left the display vulnerable to interference from Wi-Fi routers and other electronics. The issue was a bit of a black eye for Apple, considering the company recently elected to exit the display market and instead partnered with LG on the new 27-inch UltraFine 5K and its smaller sibling, the 21.5-inch UltraFine 4K.
We purchased one of the original UltraFine 5K units back in December, with our model carrying a manufacturing month of November 2016 based on its serial number. LG has now provided us with a unit manufactured last month after the design revisions were put in place, and we've had a few days to compare the performance of the two units in the presence of Wi-Fi routers.
In day-to-day usage, we failed to see any issues with the original model, even with an AirPort Time Capsule located just three feet from the display, inside the two-meter radius LG recommended users should keep as a minimum once the company discovered the issue.
We were, however, able to induce the issue in the unit by bringing another Time Capsule into very close proximity with the rear of the display, causing it to flicker and disconnect from the host computer. The display sometimes reconnected to the computer on its own once the interference was removed, but other times it required that the Thunderbolt 3 cable be briefly unplugged or even the entire UltraFine 5K be power cycled before it would reconnect.
With the revised UltraFine 5K Display in hand, we've been able to subject both displays to side-by-side testing that confirms the issue has been successfully addressed. While the issue is easily reproducible on the original model as long as the Wi-Fi router is in close enough proximity, we were unable to recreate the issue on the revised model despite extensive efforts.
With Apple once again shipping the UltraFine 5K Display, new orders are currently showing in-stock availability in Apple's U.S. online store, although Personal Pickup remains unavailable.
Apple's discounted pricing on the display of $974 is scheduled to run through the end of this month, at which time the display will return to its normal $1299.95 price. Apple already extended its discounted pricing on USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 accessories once and it's possible the promotion could again be extended, but for those who want to make sure they receive the discounted pricing, they should be sure to order by March 31.
Customers purchasing the UltraFine 5K Display, regardless of what vendor they use, should make sure they are receiving revised units to ensure they are protected from the Wi-Fi interference issue. The first three digits of the display's serial number (visible on the exterior of the box) correspond to the last digit of the year and the two-digit month of manufacture, so buyers should look for serial numbers starting with 702 or 703.
Those who purchased earlier units may be eligible for repairs if their units are exhibiting the interference issue, and affected customers should contact LG or Apple for information on repair procedures.
We've arranged for a repair of our affected unit through the live chat option. Once the repair request is initiated it can take a day or two to receive a shipping label and repair details, and LG tells us it can take up to 7-10 business days for the actual repair once the display has been received at the service facility.
Apple today announced that its all-new retail store at the new Brickell City Centre shopping mall in Miami opens on Saturday, March 25 at 10:00 a.m. local time. Apple has four existing stores in the Miami area, but this will be the first to be located in the city's thriving downtown core.
Apple Brickell City Centre will be one of three Apple retail stores to open on that day alongside new locations at Schildergasse in Cologne, Germany and Jinmao Place in Nanjing, China, which also open at 10:00 a.m. local time respectively. All three are brand new stores, not renovated or relocated ones.
Brickell City Centre is a new shopping and mixed-use development in Miami's financial district. Apple's plans to open a retail store there were revealed in February 2016, and construction began shortly afterwards. The location is expected to be one of Apple's largest retail stores in Florida.
Apple continues to renovate and expand a number of its stores across the United States with a new design introduced in 2015, including its relocated St. Johns Town Center store that opened March 11 in Jacksonville, Florida. Apple's Woodland Mall store in Grand Rapids, Michigan is next on the docket.
The newer look often includes wider open spaces with some combination of large glass doors, touch-sensitive sequoia wood tables and shelves, seating areas for community events, large 6K resolution video screens for product marketing, indoor trees, and light boxes extending the length of the ceiling.
Elsewhere in the United States, Apple's expanded Pentagon City store in the Washington D.C. area reopened on March 4, while its Danbury, Connecticut store location closed for renovations in early February.
Although it's late to the mobile ordering trend, McDonald's today has begun testing an update to its smartphone app that will allow customers to create an order anywhere and pay for it through the app when they arrive at their local McDonald's. In a bid to avoid customer congestion, long wait lines, and cold food, the app will use geo-fencing to detect when each customer is getting closer to the McDonald's and alert staff to begin preparing their meal accordingly (via Reuters).
The tests have begun today at 29 McDonald's locations in Monterey and Salinas, California, and will expand to 51 new locations in Spokane, Washington on March 20. Jim Sappington, McDonald's executive vice president of operations, said that the tests are intended to work out any kinks in the mobile order and pay update before a wide rollout in almost all of the 14,000 U.S. McDonald's locations by the end of 2017. Around 6,000 others will also get the update in Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Australia, and China.
In the current state of the McDonald's app [Direct Link] users can browse the menu, get deals, and find nearby locations. Sappington hopes that the update results in an overall experience that's "clearly better" to use.
If its famous french fries are served cold or if mobile customers have to wait for orders, "you get a question of 'Why did I use the app?'," Sappington said. "Our focus is to make the overall experience clearly better."
McDonald's said that automating more orders should cut transaction times, reduce errors and free up workers to do things like deliver food to tables or cars in spots designated for mobile orders.
"It's better to be right than to be first to market," McDonald's Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook said recently.
While customers will browse the menu and place their order outside of the local McDonald's, the app is said to ask for an order confirmation and payment "when the customer arrives at the restaurant," seemingly when the geo-fencing feature kicks in. After that, the kitchen will begin preparing the order. Janna Sampson, a McDonald's investor, questioned the utility of this process: "If they don't start your order until you pull in the lot, are you really gaining that much time?"
In the final version of the app, customers will also be able to pick table dining, drive-through, or curb-side delivery when they place their meal orders. McDonald's competitors like Chick-fil-A include mobile ordering with counter pick-up as well as a QR code-based checkout option. McDonald's didn't detail how payments work with its new mobile order update, but traditional credit cards tied to user accounts are expected. Given McDonald's early embrace of mobile wallets like Apple Pay, those could be included as well.
