From 9to5toys.com:
Today only EA Mobile is offering both Flight Control and Mirror’s Edge ($9.99) for free in both regular (iPod/iPhone) and HD (iPad) versions. This is the first time that both of these iOS hit games (over 4 million paid for!) have been free.
There isn’t much here that you didn’t see yesterday but it is satisfying to see the MTA’s pride in the accomplishment, which may also be in response to concerns that Apple got a ‘sweetheart deal‘.
Update: Apple posted some choice shots to their gallery as well (below)
The Grand Central Terminal store opening had Steve Cano and Bob Bridger in attendance
Until November 1, 2011, Apple’s widely successful retail branch was headed by Ron Johnson, J.C. Penney’s new CEO. Since announcing his leave in June of this year, discussion has run ramptant in regards to the successor of Apple’s vital retail division’s leader. Under Ron Johnson sat three central executives responsible for the upkeep and success of Apple’s retail business: Jerry McDougal, Vice President of Merchandising; Bob Bridger, Vice President of VP of Real Estate; and Steve Cano, Senior Director of International Retail Operations.
In early November, a report claimed that Steve Cano was tapped as the successor of Ron Johnson, but Apple quickly shot down this report and provided comment to 9to5Mac on the situation:
The search for a replacement for Ron Johnson continues, and Apple has nothing to announce about this subject at this time.
With Apple yet to announce a successor for Ron Johnson, the above comment still stands true. Apple has been actively searching for a new retail chief and according to a report from August, Apple has been working with world-renowned executive search firm Egon Zehnder International to find their new retail chief. At this point, it also appears that Jerry McDougall and Bob Bridger won’t be running Apple retail as neither of them are running the retail show right now.
So, who is running Apple retail?
Oppenheimer, a financial guru, has been put in charge of Apple’s retail operations according to sources familiar with the search for Ron Johnson’s successor. Oppenheimer is obviously an interim leader with a lack of retail experience, but his executive leadership experience is enough to give orders to his new troops: McDougal, Bridger, and Cano – who have immense retail experience. Oppenheimer won’t stay retail chief forever, and is simply holding the spot until the new Senior Vice President of Retail is selected. Oppenheimer’s title at Apple has not changed from Senior Vice President and CFO, he has just gained the new responsibility of the Apple retail division for the time being.
Peter Oppenheimer reports to newly appointed Apple CEO Tim Cook, and is also in charge of controller, treasury, investor relations, tax, information systems, internal audit and facilities functions. We had a chance to talk to Bob Bridger and Steve Cano at the Grand Central Terminal Apple Store launch this morning: Bridger declined to comment about the boss situation, and Cano said “thanks for coming” and walked away.
We’ve had a ton of coverage on what has become today Apple’s new flagship retail outlet. At 10am this morning, the 23,000 square foot Grand Central Terminal store finally opened doors for business and big crowds filled the concourse of the Terminal ahead of grand opening. Apple is handing out 4,000 black T-shirts with “Apple Store, Grand Central” graphic resembling a train arrival board, similar to that used as a blockade prior to the opening.
Our Seth Weintraub went to film the store and you can see him in the clip above getting out of the VIP elevator at the top, wearing a press pass (more clips after the break). Also, make sure to check out the below gallery, providing a glimpse of just how massive and breathtaking this new store is. Mind you, just the perfect scene for one of Samsung’s adverts bashing line waiters.
Click to view slideshow.See the first image in the slideshow? Yeah, that’s actor Michael J. Fox. Cool or what? We also have a Whoopi Goldberg showing and another featuring Gary Allen (a guy with the beard) who runs ifoapplestore.com, a site dedicated to Apple’s retail strides. As you recall, a couples days ago 9to5Mac got some shots from inside the store and Apple confirmed the store would indeed be open from 7am to 9pm Monday to Friday, 10am to 7pm Saturdays, and 11am to 6pm on Sundays. The store has 315 employees, two genius bars, the new 15-minute Express Workshop and also offers Personal Pickup, among other features.
Reports surfaced earlier this month that a possible state investigation would look into the lease agreement between Apple and the Metro Transportation Authority. The MTA quickly responded with all of the intricacies of the agreement, which they referred to as the “best possible deal” and note quadruples their rent and greatly increases foot traffic to other retailers.
We’re not quite sure why Samsung is adamant on insulting its potential future customers (you will be in the market for a new refrigerator or a washing machine at some point), but here it is: A new Galaxy SII commercial that exploits the line waiters theme first seen in last month’s commercials and bashing on Facebook. The new commercial once again depicts Apple fans queued up for a new iPhone.
“You guys are still here?”, the Samsung dude asks, before laughing them off by insisting his Galaxy SII keeps all his content – and specifically music – in the cloud. “I have all my playlists right here, my music streams from the cloud and I have tons of places to buy my music”, he says to his iPhone-toting friends who stare at his device in bewilderment.
As you know, Apple’s been heavily advertising the iOS 5 software and iCloud/iTunes Match music locker in the cloud. As for Samsung, they are “excited for the opportunity to educate as many consumers as possible about why the Samsung Galaxy S II is the preferred choice for smartphone owners”. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
An incredible new Apple store inside New York City’s landmark Grand Central Terminal – one of Apple’s largest stores in the world - is set to open this morning at 10am and already hundreds have queued up. The Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt snapped up the above shot showing staffers on the balconies above Grand Central Terminal and hundreds of fans stretching all the way down one track and part-way back.
The company will treat avid fans to cool perks, such as 4,000 black shirts with “Apple Store, Grand Central” spelled out in lettering, resembling a train arrival board. The Mac maker also posted the below press shot on its PR site. A dedicated page for the 23,000-square-foot store on Apple’s web site reveals the store work hours Monday through Friday from 7am to 9pm, 10am to 7pm on Saturdays and on Sundays from 11am to 6pm. Here’s a glimpse of the excitement.
The store’s extended holiday hours plus another video are right after the break. Our own Seth Weintraub is on hand so stay tuned for more updates, coming soon.
Here’s a two-minute clip taken in the Grand Central Terminal’s Eastern Passageway.
Today is a bad day for Apple’s legal sharks. First Motorola Mobility scores a ruling in Germany which has paved the way for a Europe-wide injunction on sales of Apple’s iOS devices and now High Court in Australia denies Apple’s request to appeal against an earlier decision which overturned the ban on Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales in Australia.
Put simply, the country’s highest-level legal instance has ruled that no, Samsung’s tablet does not “slavishly copy” Apple’s iPad, as the Mac maker argues in court documents. The Federal Court honored Apple’s recent request that its injunction against the Samsung tablet remain in effect until today at 4pm in order to allow Apple time to prepare an appeal.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Tyler McGee, vice-president of telecommunications for Samsung Australia, said customers in Australia will be able to pick up the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet “towards the latter part of next week”. Also…
He said that pre-sales are available today through “certain channels”, adding price points for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia will match Apple’s iPad: $579 for the 16GB WiFi-only version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and $729 for the WiFi+3G model. Apple is also pushing for an injunction on the Galaxy Tab 10.1N in Germany. The 10.1N is a re-engineered version of the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 with an added metal frame around the edges. It’s Samsung’s answer to a Dusseldorf court ruling requiring Samsung to comply with a sales ban. A hearing in that case is scheduled for December 22.
Cross-posted on 9to5Google.com
Just two days after Wednesday’s release of an updated software for the Apple TV set-top box that brought the new TV Shows menu option, we’re hearing Apple pulled that option from the device’s menu, reports iPhoneinCanada.ca. Originally, the firmware update (which was deployed silently) added the new TV Shows choice to the Apple TV main menu.
However, it doesn’t work as iTunes Canada users report being unable to purchase television shows. For some, the TV Shows menu option disappeared on its own 24 hours following the firmware update. Others report that the option gets deleted from the main menu upon choosing it. It could also be a software glitch rather than a deliberate move on Apple’s part and there’s already a thread on Apple’s support discussions forum.
According to the publication:
Today, we now know why it wasn’t functioning the right way. Apple has pulled the menu update off Apple TVs in Canada. Most likely because the update was mistakenly sent out early, or the fact it wasn’t working properly.
In addition to Canada, the new Apple TV software has also enabled the ability to purchase television shows in Australia and the United Kingdom. If you live in the U.K., Australia and Canada and are experiencing similar glitches, we’d love to hear from you in the comments.
From 9to5toys.com:
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The Apple Store offers the factory-refurbished Apple iPad 16GB Wi-Fi Tablet in Black (pictured) or White for $419. With free shipping, that’s $30 under our mention of a refurb from a month ago and $70 under the lowest total price we could find for a new one today.
The 32 and 64GB Wifi iPads drop to $499 and $599 respectively. That’s $50 below yesterday and $100 below new.
3G iPads are also $80-$100 off new prices, starting at $549 for 16GB models.
A full 1-year Apple warranty applies.
Chronic Dev Team is putting finishing touches on what is set to become the world’s first untethered jailbreak solution for iOS 5 and 5.0.1. Team member and French hacker pod2g just released this video showing off the jailbreak, which appears to be near-complete and functioning properly.
Unlike tethered, untethered jailbreak does not require that the device be connected to a computer each time it needs to be booted. It appears you won’t be able to untether with iOS 5.0.1 using Chronic’s tool, but pod2g did confirm that the iOS 5 untether will work on iOS 5.0.1:
Tons of questions from my nice followers. Too early to answer. Will work on iOS 5.0.1, will try iPad 2 and 4S after others are ready.
First indication of a possible untethered iOS jailbreak came in pod2g’s tweet last month:
Hey jailbreaking friends, I’ve found a bug that can untether iOS 5. Don’t expect a release soon, but I’m gonna work hard in it.
There was no word on availability of the solution at post time, but we reckon that it will be sooner than later.
Chronic Dev Team explained in a recent blog post that Apple patched the jailbreak-prone exploits found in iOS 5 betas with the release of the golden master build in mid-October. The company is apparently using their iTunes-based crash reporting system in order to find jailbreak exploits before they are released into the wild. If you’re into jailbreaking, you should consider iFaith, a Windows application that circumvents Apple’s restricted downgrade system which prevents people from downgrading their devices to an older iOS 5.x firmware. The program permits unsigned user restores based on dumped iOS 5 signature hash blobs. Additionally, it’s possible to restore to iOS 5.0.1 and preserve iPhone 4 baseband by dumping the blobs with iFaith first.
9to5Mac does not take a stance on jailbreaking, hacking, or this software , we are just reporting this as news.
