Appletell

Apple has begun making plans for a retail store which will be launching sometime in the near future at the famous location known as “Le Louvre” in Paris, France. Yesterday, Apple confirmed it will open a store in the Carrousel du Louvre, the shopping center in the Louvre Palace next to the famous museum and glass pyramid. Though Apple gave few details about the new store, French website Nanoblog reported that Apple will occupy 7,696 square feet of space on two floors.

Though the store will be in a mall setting, it could still become another one of Apple’s iconic retail centers, among the likes of its Cube-like outlet on Fifth Avenue in New York City. After all, Le Louvre is one of Europe’s biggest tourist attractions, drawing millions of visitors every year. No confirmation has yet been given when the new retail store will open. In a statement, Apple said that it was “thrilled” to move into the Carrousel du Louvre, and they are looking forward to bringing the unique Apple retail experience to their customers in France.

Via [TUAW]

Apple has been wanting to open a store in China for quite some time now, and their dream is halfway there. A Best Buy in Shanghai will soon have a mini Apple Store inside of it, being only 540 square feet. Best Buy, with their amazing organization and marketing skills, plan to put over 60 products into the area. Apple has even decided to send people out to the new mini stores to help. Although not a real store, Apple is slowly trying to enter the Chinese market with a store within a store. Although the mini store won’t have much, Apple is hoping that the small stores will take off quickly. If the mini stores do well, Apple may just try their hand at some full retail stores, though people may have to wait a while for this.

Via [Infinite Loop]

It seems that Maine will be getting it’s first Apple Store soon.  Although an Apple spokeswoman would not confirm or deny this, it is fairly obvious after seeing listings for jobs at the store on Monster.com as well as Apple’s official job listings page.  This is great for Apple lovers in Maine, butMacNN points out that this new Maine store opening could also, unfortunately, reduce sales from local Mac resellers such as Best Buy.

On top of this, there is a rumor that yet another Apple store may be opening in New York.  Located on either 15th Broad Street or 23 Wall Street, this will be New York’s 13th Apple Store.  Lastly, the Third Street Promenade in southern California may be closed for a while to undergo a remodeling, including a new glass spiral staircase.  Hopefully all of these new Apple stores help Apple’s market share raise even more in upcoming quarters, so keep up the good work Apple and thanks for providing a shopping experience like no other!

MacHeist is a fairly well known name around the Mac community. They have fun “Heists” with some free software, ending in a severely discounted software bundle after all the heists. Now they have released a “retail version” of the bundle, for the same $49 price. It includes some great programs, but a whole bunch of repeats from previous bundles as well. I’m not going to go into details here about the ethics, promotional schemes, or any other moral stuff about MacHeist here. What this article is for is breaking down for whom the bundle is worth it, and for whom it is not.

New Mac User - If you are new to the Mac world, this is a stellar opportunity to get your hands on a nice amount of applications designed with the Mac in mind. You get money management software, an iTunes front-end, a word processor, a shortcut/application launcher, a password and sensitive info vault, three games for the Mac (Nanosaur is especially cool in 3D) and more. If you have a fresh new mac and $50, I’d recommend this bundle in a snap unless you have absolutely no interest in any of these apps.

Previous Bundle Buyer - Chances are if you’ve already bought the MacHeist bundles, it’s not for you this time around. Over half of the applications in this bundle are repeats of previous bundles. It may, however, still be worth it. If there are a couple apps in there that you like that total up to more than $50 by themselves, then of course the whole bundle is a great buy.

Gift Giver - This also fits in with the previous. If you just want a couple apps, why not give the rest away? Hold a contest on your blog if you have one, or just give them away to friends as presents, or perhaps to a relative along with a new Mac. The games will be especially great for kids.

Who Else? Can you think of anyone else who would benefit from these apps? Sound off in the comments below!

Another day, another Apple retail location. The computer giant is set to open yet another store, this time closer to the Delaware. Almost in Philadelphia, the new store is set to be located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Not only is this good news to citizens of Cherry Hill, but is also welcoming news to Apple fans in Philadelphia, as the city still goes without an Apple Store.  Thankfully, it’s a super short drive from Philly to the new Cherry Hill location. Apple’s new store is the 10th in New Jersey, giving residents of the state many stores to choose from. The new store is set to open soon, very soon on Saturday, March 29th at 10:00 AM. You know those Armarni Exchange and M.A.C. stores? Good, as the Apple’s new location will be squeezed between the two.

Be there or… sleep in.

[Apple Retail] via [TUAW]

ifoAppleStore is reporting that a third Apple Store in Australia is being planned. An Apple Store in Sydney is currently under construction, and a store in Melbourne is planned for the Chadstone Shopping Centre. This third store will be built in Chatswood, in the North of Sydney, inside the Westfield Chatswood shopping mall. Job listings for this store have already been posted, and the store could be open by October this year. Apple is slowly paying attention to the rest of the world. A lot of its services like movie rentals are still USA-only, and the iPhone isn’t available everywhere yet. But Apple has been active in Europe a lot recently, launching iPhones in the UK, France, Germany and more.

Via [TUAW]

Steve Jobs said 2 weeks. Two weeks and the MacBook Airs would be shipping to the world. And now Boy Genius is reporting exclusive knowledge that the MBAs have arrived at the Apple Stores on Friday/Saturday, and are getting ready to go on sale. Rumor has it that the Apple Genius’ will be getting their training on Monday, and then putting up all the banners and signs Monday night to prepare for the Tuesday MBA launch. However, if you absolutely cannot wait to go plunk $1800 down on this thing, you might want to wait a day or so, because Boy Genius is now saying that the launch may be delayed to this Wednesday.

Via [Boy Genius]

Lately there have been quite a few lawsuits directed at Apple that seem like the plaintiff is just after money. Though every once in a while a lawsuit comes along that makes you hope that Apple will take action to rectify. Jana Overbo and Nicole Brown-Booker of San Francisco, who both require a wheelchair, have filed a lawsuit, claiming Apple is in violation of their rights.

Filed this past Friday in a Northern District of California court, the 17-page suit claims that Apple has simultaneously violated both the federal Americans With Disabilities Act as well as the California Health and Safety Code by failing to provide “full and equal” access at its San Francisco flagship shop on One Stockton Street.

Both women recount embarrassing experiences visiting the flagship store because the store was not wheelchair friendly. They were not able to reach the products on display, nor were the employees at the store very eager to help them. Those are only 2 of many.

Neither of the complainants could reach the elevator buttons on their own, and the store’s presentation theater had no wheelchair accessible seating areas or passageways needed to attend one of Apple’s instructional workshops. Just completing a purchase was difficult due to the height of the cash registers, the plaintiffs said.

Like I said before, this type of lawsuit makes you hope that Apple will take action to fix the problem. Both women have said that they will gladly return to shopping at the store once Apple makes it more accessible. Apple will have to think out their store layout plans a little more carefully in the future.

[via AppleInsider]

Its been just about a week and sadly we have a third report of a burglary relating to Apple. First the Apple Store in University Village WashingtonApple Campus and now the Saddle Creek Store in Memphis Tennessee has been broken into.

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After pushing back the release date of Madden ‘08 and Tiger Woods ‘08 to September-October, EA Games has finally released the four other games they promised at WWDC 2007. Need for Speed Carbon, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Battlefield 2142 and Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars though a month late, are now available for pre-order on the Apple Store. Need for Speed and Harry Potter will be shipping August 21st, with Battlefield and Command & Conquer following on August 28th.

EA Games says that in the future, they hope to cut down on the time it takes to release the Mac version of a game after it’s Windows counterpart. Apple has trailers of all six games available on their website, or you can visit the Mac section of EA’s site.

Mac gaming still isn’t up to par with what is available for Windows, but it is little steps like these that bring them that much closer.

Via [MacMinute]