Apple has posted several job listings today for an upcoming retail store in Macau, a Special Administrative Region of China. The store is looking to fill Specialist, Creative, Genius, Store Leader and Manager positions, in addition to hiring for the Apple Store Leader Program and multiple business-related positions.
Chinese-language newspaper Macao Dailyreported in June that Apple is planning to open a flagship store in Macau, which is located across from Hong Kong, but the news went largely uncovered by mainstream media. At the time, the report claimed that Apple had not finalized a location for the upcoming store.
Apple celebrated the grand opening of its newly designed Apple Store in Brussels today with much fanfare, ranging from CEO Tim Cook tweeting to long lineups and media forming around the entrance prior to the doors opening. The store is the first located in Belgium at Avenue de la Toison d'Or in a busy shopping area.
The new Apple Store is the first to feature a next-generation Jony Ive-inspired design with large and virtually seamless curved glass panels on the facade, light boxes extending the length of the ceiling, indoor trees, touch-sensitive sequoia wood tables, new wooden shelves for Beats headphones and other accessories, and a massive digital screen at the back of the store for product marketing.
Apple blog One More Thing was on hand for the Apple Store grand opening in Brussels today and recorded some exciting footage as the doors opened. As with many other grand openings, the day started with a countdown among the hundreds of people lined up outside the store, at which point the doors opened and customers were cheered on by retail employees as they entered.
Apple recently shared a new video that highlights the work of several comic artists in Brussels, which is known for its tradition of comic art, to celebrate the grand opening. The store is open on Monday-Saturday between 10 AM and 7 PM local time and offers a Genius Bar, Workshops and other regular services.
Apple has updated its regional websites for Austria, Denmark and Ireland to announce the Apple Watch will be available on September 25.
Apple Watch models with prices were also added to the Apple Store app in Norway and Poland, but no release dates have been listed in either country.
Austria - Apple Watch Sport: €399 to €449 - Apple Watch: €649 to €1,249 - Apple Watch Edition: €11,000 to €18,000
Denmark - Apple Watch Sport: 3.099,00 kr. to 3.499,00 kr. - Apple Watch: 4.999,00 kr. to 9.699,00 kr. - Apple Watch Edition: 85.000,00 kr. to 140.000,00 kr.
Ireland - Apple Watch Sport: €429 to €479 - Apple Watch: €679 to €1,279 - Apple Watch Edition: €11,300 to €18,500
MacRumors previously reported the Apple Watch was expected to launch in Austria, Denmark and India this month, leaving India as the sole country of the three that has yet to announce an Apple Watch release date.
Austria, Denmark and Ireland will be part of the fifth Apple Watch launch wave:
April 24: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, U.K. and U.S.
June 26: Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan
As developers get their hands on Apple TV, they've started experimenting with its new operating system tvOS, testing new kinds of apps and finding tidbits that haven't been discovered yet. Developer James Addyman, for instance, has created an emulator for the new Apple TV called Provenance.
Provenance is an iOS front end that allows support for multiple emulators. Currently, it supports emulators for Sega's Genesis, Master System, Mega CD and Game Gear and Nintendo's NES, SNES, Gameboy and Gameboy Advance.
While Provenance is still being developed and it's unlikely the app will make it into the Apple TV's App Store, other developers can test Provenance as Addyman continues work on it. Addyman says certain issues still need to be corrected, including determining when the Apple TV will erase its local content and how to properly map old Sega and Nintendo gamepad functions to the Siri Remote. Addyman began developing Provenance last week within the tvOS simulator.
Mirroring Addyman's concerns about mapping old Nintendo and Sega gamepad functions to the Siri Remote, developer Steve Troughton-Smith points out how many inputs can actually be used for playing games.
So the gamepad situation is even more dire: you have dpad, accelerometer, and one button. They *really* need to revert that gamepad decision
— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) September 18, 2015
While the touchpad can be clicked, acting as a "second button", it can't be clicked easily while being used to control movement. This could make game development difficult, as games have to be able to be played on the Siri Remote.
Troughton-Smith has also been revealing Apple TV tidbits as he explores the dev kit. For instance, when a user picks up the new Siri Remote it senses it's being held and automatically wakes up the screen before a button is pressed. IR is used to control a TV's volume with the Siri Remote and your TV remote can be used to control the Apple TV.
Additionally, the existing Apple TV IR remotes also work with the new Apple TV. This includes the silver aluminum remote that ships with current Apple TVs and the original white plastic Apple TV remote. While they don't allow you to access Siri, they do allow you to navigate around the Apple TV's interface.
Finally, with Apple TV dev kits in the hands of developers, some have made their way onto sites like eBay and Craigslist for sale for up to $1,000.
The new Apple TV will be available in October and come in two variations: a 32 GB version for $149 and a 64 GB version for $199.
The Nomad Pod, with its built-in battery, is one of a small selection of Apple Watch stands able to offer functionality beyond simply holding the Apple Watch charger in a more accessible position. Priced at $60, the Pod is a compact, modern-looking Apple Watch stand that's small enough to fit in a backpack or bag and able to keep the Apple Watch's battery full when traveling away from the grid for a few days.
I've been testing the Pod for several weeks now to see how it stacks up against other Apple Watch docking options on the market, both as a travel companion and as a stand at home on my desk.
Setup and Design
The circular Pod is made up of two pieces: a plastic and aluminum base that holds the Apple Watch charger and cord in place, and an aluminum faceplate that snaps on over the base to hide the cord from view. The Pod is made from brushed aluminum in Silver or Space Gray that matches Apple's MacBook, iPhone, and iPad lineups, and its minimal design will let it fit into almost any decor.
Size wise, the Pod fits into the palm of a hand and is quite similar to a hockey puck both in diameter and thickness. It can potentially fit in a generously sized pants pocket or a jacket pocket, but its thickness and round shape makes that less than comfortable. At one side, there's a micro-USB port to charge the Pod itself, a button that activates the Pod's charging function, and a 4-LED indicator for displaying battery life. It also ships with a Nomad-branded micro-USB cable.
Now that the iPad mini 4 is out, the iPad mini 3, which is basically an iPad mini 2 with Touch ID, has been discontinued by Apple. That means retailers have begun dropping prices on iPad mini 3 models that remain in stock, so it may be possible to get a good deal on an iPad mini 3 if you need to save a few bucks.
Prices are finally dropping on the Retina MacBook, five months after it first launched. Discounts are up to $150, so it's a good time to pick up one of Apple's ultra slim notebooks.
As always, we've also hunted down some great accessory deals and outlined a list of apps and games that are currently on sale.
Amazon is also offering some discounts. The 16GB WiFi only iPad Air 2 in gold is available for $425, while the 64GB version is available for $533. The 16GB WiFi only iPad Air 2 in silver is available for $432.99, while the 64GB version is available for $537.98. The 128GB WiFi only iPad Air 2 in Space Gray is available for $627.83.
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with OWC to give away the Envoy Pro mini, a desktop class solid state drive that fits into a keychain-sized enclosure. The Envoy Pro mini measures in at 3.7 inches by 0.94 inches by 0.44 inches, but houses a 120GB or 240GB SSD.
Despite being able to fit comfortably in a pocket, the Envoy Pro mini is nearly twice as fast as the average thumb drive, reaching sustained speeds up to 427MB/s, so it's excellent for tasks regular thumb drives can't achieve, like quickly transferring large files.
The Envoy Pro mini, which is available directly from OWC, is priced at $117.99 for the 120GB version or $184.99 for the 240GB version, but one MacRumors reader will have a chance to get the 120GB version for free.
To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter your email address. Your email address will not be given to any third party and will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner.
You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumorsFacebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.
The contest will run from today (September 18) at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time on September 25. The winner will be chosen randomly on September 25 and will be contacted by email. The winner have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address. The prizes will be shipped to the winner for free.
Apple has published a new support document on its website that outlines a fix for users experiencing an unresponsive "Slide to Upgrade" screen after updating to iOS 9 (via iPhoneHacks).
Apple recommends restoring your device from an iTunes backup to resolve the problem.
1. Connect your iOS device to your computer and open iTunes. 2. Select your device. If you don't see it listed, force restart your device by pressing and holding both the Sleep/Wake and Home button for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo. 3. If you made an iTunes backup of your device before updating to iOS 9, restore your device from that backup. If not, you need to make a backup of your device in iTunes, then restore from that backup.
Apple released iOS 9 on Wednesday for iPhone 4s or later, iPad 2 or later and the fifth-generation iPod touch or later.
Ahead of the September 25 launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the new devices are beginning to show up in shipping warehouses as Apple prepares to deliver them to pre-order customers around the world. With more people having access to the devices before launch, there are bound to be a few image leaks, and today, some photos of both the outer packaging of the iPhone 6s and the rose gold iPhone have surfaced.
Spanish site iPhoneros [Google Translate] says its photos of the packaging came from a source in China. In one of the images, the packaging for all four iPhone 6s colors is depicted, each with a different siamese fighting fish, matching previous leaked packaging photos. The side of the box has the iPhone 6s name, and there's an Apple logo at the top.
The Rose Gold iPhone 6s box appears to have an orange fish, while the Silver iPhone 6s has a blue fish. The fish on the Gold iPhone 6s box is blue and gold, while the Space Gray iPhone 6s packaging has a red fish.
Chinese site Feng [Google Translate] has also shared a series of photos depicting both the packaging and the Rose Gold iPhone 6s. Of note on the Rose Gold iPhone is the small "S" on the back of the device, a marker that has not been seen on previous S generation phones. This was clearly depicted in press images of the device taken at the September 9 media event, but may have gone unnoticed by some.
With the S identifier at the back of the phone, it will be easier to distinguish one of the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus devices from the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.
The fish that are depicted on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus packaging will be available as motion-based wallpapers on the new devices, along with motion wallpapers depicting different colored smoke. The new dynamic wallpapers are exclusive to the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus and are unavailable on older devices.
Apple's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will be available beginning on September 25, and some customers who pre-ordered have already begun having their cards charged and are seeing their order statuses shift from "Processing" to "Preparing for shipment." Earlier this week, order status changes were limited to customers outside of the U.S., but in the last day, even customers in the United States have begun seeing some movement.
Apple continues to move toward retiring its One to One training program aimed at Mac customers, with the company's online store checkout process no longer offering the program as an add-on option for Mac purchases as of today.
Current online store checkout process for Macs with no mention of One to One
Today's change comes a few weeks after MacRumorsinitially reported rumors of One to One's impending demise and later confirmed meetings with retail staff to announce the change. The program will officially be discontinued on September 28, although with today's change it's clear the company is looking to halt new signups as much as possible ahead of that date.
Previous checkout options with both AppleCare and One to One offered
Priced at $99 per year and valid for up to three years following the purchase of a new Mac, Apple's One to One program offered to teach customers unfamiliar with the company's products everything from basic setup to more specialized sessions on apps like GarageBand and Final Cut Pro.
Apple will continue to offer free workshops and training in its stores, but with the more advanced paid One to One option being discontinued, it could offer an opportunity for resellers to promote their own similar programs.
Apple News launched on iOS 9 this week in the U.S., delivering the latest stories from large publications and independent blogs alike in one mobile-friendly format on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Apple has set attractive monetization terms for Apple News, allowing publishers to collect 100% of revenue earned from ads they sell and 70% of revenue from iAds inventory sold by Apple.
In return, publishers appear ready to give Apple News a chance. In addition to several high-profile publications that have signed on for the service, including Bloomberg, CNN, ESPN and The New York Times, at least one has decided to offer exclusive early access to select content through the app.
Re/code editor Peter Kafka recently tweeted that an upcoming Wired feature about "starchitect Bjarke Ingels" will be available exclusively on Apple News at 3 PM Eastern today, with expanded availability on the web next Tuesday -- a four-day exclusive window on Apple News.
New Wired feature about "starchitect Bjarke Ingels" exclusively on Apple News 3pm today. Available on Web Tues. pic.twitter.com/BK5za4zflu
— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) September 18, 2015
Wired parent company Conde Nast, which also publishes Vanity Fair, GQ, Epicurious, Teen Vogue and Conde Nast Traveler, will be pushing sponsorship opportunities to advertisers, which is perhaps a more viable monetization strategy with the emergence of content blockers on iOS 9. It has already signed up Burberry, Ford, Campbell Soup and Reynolds to flat-rate deals.
Apple News has the potential to command a large audience due to widespread adoption of iPhones and iPads, but it remains to be seen how popular the app will be with Facebook, Twitter and other platforms for consuming digital content vying for reader attention. News Corporation shut down its iPad newspaper The Daily in 2012, while Conde Nast has attempted exclusive iPad content in the past with little fanfare.
But I recall Conde and Apple pushing windowed "exclusives" to iPad editions in 2010. No one cared.
— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) September 18, 2015
The full potential of Apple News should become clearer as iOS 9 adoption rises and Apple News Format becomes widely available for publishers to create custom editorial layouts geared towards their individual brands.
Earlier this week, Apple announced that the grand reopening of the Company Store at its One Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino, California is set to take place tomorrow, September 19. The store won't just sell Company Store products of Apple-branded t-shirts, mugs, and accessories, however, but be a hybrid location that also acts as a traditional Apple Store that offers visitors the opportunity to purchase iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches (via MacMagazine) [Google Translate].
One of the only features not making a debut at the hybrid store is the Apple Genius Bar. The actual design is worth noting as well, with new walls and store features made of concrete and glass and a large central screen displaying the newest products and advertisements. The first mockup image of the store, and information gained from MacMagazine, points to the new location bearing an overall similarity in design to the Apple Store in Brussels, Belgium that will open on September 19, as well.
Apple has added a banner to its U.S. website that allows customers to donate to the American Red Cross through the iTunes Store to support the refugee and migration crisis across the Mediterranean Sea and Europe. The donation tiers available include $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 and $200.
Update: Apple will also make a "substantial donation" itself and match employee donations by 2-to-1, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
“Apple is dedicated to advancing human rights around the world,” Cook wrote in the message, seen by Reuters. “We hope the actions we’re taking will help make the situation less desperate for some, and ease the hardship so many are enduring.”
Note: Due to the 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.
Apple senior legal counsel Mike Maletic held an hour-long meeting with the California Department of Motor Vehicles last month to review "autonomous vehicle regulations," according to internal documents obtained by The Guardian. The revelation comes amid widespread rumors that Apple has hired hundreds of employees to develop an electric vehicle over the past several months.
California DMV headquarters in Sacramento
Maletic reportedly met with a trio of DMV executives familiar with self-driving cars, including deputy director Bernard Soriano and chief of strategic planning Stephanie Dougherty, who are co-sponsors of California's autonomous vehicle regulation project. Brian Soublet, the department’s deputy director and chief counsel, was also in the meeting, according to the report.
California’s DMV is developing regulations for the eventual deployment and public operation of autonomous vehicles. These rules will establish requirements that manufacturers must meet to certify that their driverless vehicles have been successfully tested, meet safety criteria, and are ready for consumers to operate on public roads.
Apple would be required to obtain an Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit from the California DMV to test autonomous vehicles on public roads, which Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Google, Tesla Motors, Nissan, BMW, Honda and others have already done. Given the Cupertino-based company's culture of secrecy, however, that is an unlikely scenario.
If Apple does seek a testing permit for its Project Titan self-driving car, it will have to sacrifice much of its legendary preference for secrecy. Manufacturers applying for a permit have to detail the make, model and vehicle identification number (VIN) of cars they want to test, share details of autonomous features and capabilities, and identify test drivers by name.
If rumors about Apple testing an electric vehicle are true, it is more likely that the iPhone maker will use a private testing facility such as GoMentum Station, a 2,100-acre former naval base in the San Francisco Bay Area run by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority. Apple could also use its own property to test vehicles with complete privacy, something it may already be doing.
The report suggests the so-called "Apple Car" could be "almost ready for public view":
According to documents obtained by the Guardian, Apple has appointed an engineering program manager (EPM) to Project Titan. EPMs generally arrive on an Apple project once a product is ready to leave the lab, and coordinate the work of teams of hardware and software engineers.
Apple's rumored "Project Titan" electric vehicle research and development could be based at a top-secret office complex in Sunnyvale codenamed SG05, the report corroborates. Bloomberg reported in February that Apple aims to begin electric car production as early as 2020, but the company's roadmap is not entirely clear due to the highly secretive nature of the project.
Update: Representatives from the California DMV that spoke to Re/code have confirmed that Apple did meet with the DMV to discuss California's autonomous vehicle regulations.
"The meeting with representatives from Apple focused on a discussion of the autonomous vehicle testing regulations that went into effect in September of 2014," DMV spokesman Armando Botello said in an emailed statement.
Alongside the launch of iOS 9 yesterday, Apple debuted a new Android app called "Move to iOS." The app is designed to help Android users transfer their content from an Android device to an iOS device. According to Phandroid, the app may not be developed by Apple and instead be a rebranded version of an existing app.
The app in question is Media Mushroom's Copy My Data, one of two Media Mushroom apps that specialize in transferring data between devices. The other app is Device Switch, and both are available in the App Store and Google Play. Phandroid took a look at the code of Move to iOS and noticed that it included references to Media Mushroom's Copy My Data app, like the tag android:name="com.mediamushroom.copymydata".
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The two applications share a vast majority of code and functionality. In fact, all of the com.mediamushroom.copymydata strings were left inside Apple’s rebranded version. Essentially, the only differences between the two apps are Apple’s artwork being added, the inclusion of Apple’s licensing agreements, and Media Mushroom’s UI elements being removed. That’s really it.
As noted by Phandroid, it's likely Apple licensed the rights to use and rebrand Media Mushroom's app. Move to iOS is Apple's first Android app, and the app has gained numerous negative reviews in the Google Play Store. Of its 15,230 reviews, 12,184 are one-star reviews. Criticisms in the negative reviews include complaints about iOS, Apple, and that the app uses Apple's design philosophy rather than Google's Material Design. Apple's second Android app will be Apple Music.
At its "Hey Siri" event, Apple announced an updated iPad mini 4 but largely glossed over any details, focusing its time on the iPhones 6s and 6s Plus, the new Apple TV and the iPad Pro. Today, iFixit completed its teardown for the device, confirming that it comes with a smaller battery than the previous iPad mini as well as 2 GB of RAM.
While iFixit's teardown physically confirms that the iPad mini 4 has 2 GB of RAM, Ars Technica ran a GeekBench 3 test a couple days ago on the device, confirming that it runs a 1.5 GHz Apple A8 with 2 GB of RAM. This makes the iPad mini 4 faster than the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which run a 1.4 GHz A8, and both the iPad mini 2 and 3, which run 1.3 GHz A7's.
iFixit's teardown also confirmed that the device comes with a smaller, thinner single-cell battery. The iPad mini 4's battery is 5,124 mAh while the iPad mini 3's battery is 6,471 mAh. While the new battery is smaller, Apple claims the new iPad mini 4 retains the same battery life as the iPad mini 3.
Finally, Apple has also refined, slimmed down and moved around many of the new iPad mini 4's parts due to shrinking the device's thickness from 7.5 mm (iPad mini 3) to 6.1 mm (iPad mini 4). For instance, the FaceTime camera has slimmed down, the battery has shrunk, the LCD and front panel glass are fused together and antennas have been moved both to the top and bottom of the device. iFixit's full teardown provides additional details on all the nips and tucks in the device.
Apple Watch sales are expanding to additional authorized resellers in a trio of countries this month, including The Good Guys in Australia, Stormfront in the United Kingdom and Media Markt and Saturn in Germany (via iFun.de).
The Good Guys, Media Markt and Saturn have begun selling the Apple Watch as of this week, while Stormfront is expected to start selling the wrist-worn device next week. Each retailer will sell the Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch.
Apple Watch was initially sold exclusively through the Apple Store, Apple Online Store and select fashion boutiques such as Galeries Lafayette in France and Selfridges in the U.K., but Apple has been rolling out the wrist-worn device to Best Buy and other authorized resellers over the past few months.
Earlier this week, Apple began allowing developers who won the lottery for an Apple TV Developer Kit to place orders for the devices, and shortly after, Apple began shipping Apple TVs out around the world. As of today, a large number of developers have begun receiving the Apple TVs according to reports on Twitter and images shared with MacRumors.
Developers were selected to receive an Apple TV using a lottery process that started shortly after the Apple TV was introduced on September 9, which has now wrapped up. Developers who won were able to obtain Apple TV Developer Kits at no cost, with a $1 fee being charged to verify billing and shipping addresses.
With Apple TVs in the hands of hundreds of developers, we may be able to learn a lot more about the device and how it works ahead of its official late October launch date, and we'll be able to get a closer look at what kind of apps we can expect on it. Last week, there was an unboxing of the Apple TV, which gave us a first glimpse at the new set-top box and the touch-based remote out in the wild.
The new Apple TV includes a powerful A8 processor, 2GB RAM, and a new operating system, tvOS, which supports Siri voice control and a full App Store, allowing games and apps to be played on the device.
Apple has posted several job listings today for an upcoming retail store in Macau, a Special Administrative Region of China. The store is looking to fill Specialist, Creative, Genius, Store Leader and Manager positions, in addition to hiring for the Apple Store Leader Program and multiple business-related positions.
Apple has published a new 
