Confirmed: Toronto's Eaton Centre is Finally Getting a New Apple Store

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The busiest shopping mall in North America for the past several years will finally be getting a brand new Apple Store in the not too distant future.

Apple's new store will take over this Abercrombie & Fitch location via Pedro Marques
A new building permit for the Eaton Centre shopping mall in Toronto, Canada was applied for three days ago, proposing interior alterations to unit 2105A. The space is currently occupied by apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, which will be relocating to a new store directly across the hall in spring 2019.

When finished, the unit will be a new "ground floor Apple Store," according to the building permit. Abercrombie & Fitch is currently located on "Level 2" of the Eaton Centre near the south Queen Street entrance to the mall. Apple will "move" its existing store into the space, the application confirms.


MacRumors was first to report on Apple's plans at the Eaton Centre last week based on info from people familiar with the matter.

The biggest benefit of Apple's planned move will be additional space. Abercrombie & Fitch currently has a 10,680-square-foot unit, more than twice the size of Apple's current 4,977-square-foot store, according to an Eaton Centre floor plan.

Not only is the Eaton Centre the busiest shopping mall in North America, but it is home to Apple's only store in Downtown Toronto. An expansion would be a sigh of relief for not only customers but the team staffing the busy store, as the location has developed a reputation for being frequently overcrowded.

Apple's current store at the Eaton Centre
Toronto-based photographer and urban planning aficionado Pedro Marques has informed MacRumors that two stores next to Abercrombie & Fitch will soon be vacating, including Scotch & Soda and Baby Gap, potentially giving Apple up to 15,000 square feet of space for its new store — triple the size of its current store.

The new store would feature Apple's updated retail aesthetic, which typically includes large glass doors, massive video screens for Today at Apple sessions and product marketing, and wall-mounted sequoia wood shelves called Avenues that display Beats headphones, iPhone cases, and other accessories.

Depending on how long the City of Toronto's zoning and safety reviews take, the new store could potentially open in time for the 2019 holiday shopping season. However, no timeframe has been specified as of yet.

Apple and the Eaton Centre's owner and property management company Cadillac Fairview did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Apple has four existing stores in Toronto at Yorkdale, Sherway Gardens, Fairview, and the aforementioned Eaton Centre, but all of them are within shopping malls. Rumors suggest Apple also plans to open a new street-facing store at The One, an upcoming condominium bordering Downtown Toronto slated to open by 2022.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores

Tag: Canada

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Apple Wanted to Use Qualcomm Chips for 2018 iPhones, But Qualcomm Wouldn't Sell Them

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As the FTC's antitrust trial against Qualcomm continues, Apple's chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, has taken the stand to share details on the terms of Apple's contracts with Qualcomm.

There's no live feed of the trial, but reporters including CNET's Shara Tibken and Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents are attending and sharing details on what Williams has to say.


Most interestingly, Williams says that Apple had wanted to use both Qualcomm and Intel chips in the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR despite the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm, but Qualcomm ultimately would not sell it the modems because of the fight.

"The strategy was to dual source in 2018 as well," said Williams. " "We were working toward doing that with Qualcomm, but in the end they would not support us or sell us chips."

Williams went on to explain that after Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf refused to sell Apple the chips, Apple had to contact Intel CEO Brian Krzanich to supply LTE chips for all of the 2018 iPhones. "We would have loved to continue to have access to Qualcomm's tech," said Williams.

Williams also detailed many of Apple's past interactions with Qualcomm. In 2011, when Apple negotiated a contract to use Qualcomm as a supplier for modems instead of Infineon because of Apple's need for CDMA-compatible chips, Qualcomm demanded a percentage of the iPhone's cost.

The two companies ultimately negotiated a rebate that brought the total royalty fee down to $7.50 per iPhone, though Apple had wanted to pay $1.50 per phone, equivalent to 5 percent of the value of the baseband chip, which was $30. Under the terms of that deal, though, Apple had to agree to a "marketing incentives agreement" to speak out against the WiMax standard that was popular at that time.

With the "marketing incentives agreement," rebates Apple received from Qualcomm would need to be reimbursed should Apple ship a device with a baseband chip from a Qualcomm competitor.

When it came time to renegotiate contracts in 2013, Qualcomm wanted to up the $7.50 fee by another $8 to $10, which would have cost Apple upwards of a billion dollars in annual licensing costs. To lower that fee, Qualcomm wanted exclusivity, which Apple accepted because it needed Qualcomm's chips.

Apple accepted the deal, which also prevented the company from challenging the fairness of Qualcomm's royalty rates or inducing others to challenge Qualcomm's licensing terms, which is the position Apple has been stuck in for several years.

Apple was finally able to diversify with the launch of the iPhone 7, the first iPhone to use chips from both Qualcomm and Intel, and it challenged Qualcomm's licensing terms in January 2017 with the launch of the initial Apple v. Qualcomm lawsuit.

Apple and many other Qualcomm partners are involved in Qualcomm's legal battle with the FTC, with the FTC suggesting that Qualcomm has been using anticompetitive tactics to remain the main supplier for baseband processors for smartphones.

The FTC v. Qualcomm trial will be continuing through most of January, so we are likely to hear additional details about Qualcomm and Apple's business practices.

Tag: Qualcomm

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The best home and travel accessory for my Pixel Slate is this USB-C hub

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Facebook Stories to Get Experimental Event Planning Feature

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Facebook has revealed plans to start testing a way for users to "share the events" they are interested in and "coordinate to meet up with friends" using its Stories feature, according to The Verge. The test will roll out to Facebook users on iPhone and Android smartphones in the United States, Brazil, and Mexico.


The report outlines how the feature will work:

The stories will come with tappable stickers for revealing event details, and friends can toggle themselves as “interested” or “going” to the event right from within the story. There’s also a link to the event page built in and a way to start a group chat on Messenger with friends who responded.

Facebook Stories have a reputation of being unpopular, but Facebook remains a popular platform for planning events like birthday parties, so this test could attract more people to start using Facebook Stories.

Back in September, Facebook did say its Stories features have a combined 300 million daily users across its Facebook and Messenger apps, which is quite a surprising stat, as Facebook Stories appear to be far less popular than Stories on Instagram or Snapchat based on our anecdotal observations.

Tag: Facebook

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How to use dual SIMs on iPhone XS, XS Max and XR

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Dual SIMs enable you to juggle a work and a personal contact without switching phones, or have separate data plans for home and abroad. Here's how to set up and use both a physical SIM and an eSIM on iPhone XR, XS and XS Max

from Latest iPhone Articles from Macworld UK http://bit.ly/2RM4RHV

Apple's Interactive Mobile Website Highlights New Features of 2018 iPad Pro

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Apple is featuring a mobile website that allows visitors to interact with the 2018 iPad Pro, "the biggest change to iPad since iPad," according to the interactive website's banner (via Reddit). The page features four tabs revolving around the biggest features of the new iPad Pro: screen size, Face ID, thinner design, and new Apple Pencil.

The site starts out displaying an older model iPad Pro with a Home button and large top and bottom bezels, but a tap on the screen swaps this model out with the 11-inch 2018 iPad Pro. These models have much thinner bezels and no Home button.


To unlock the new iPad Pro, users implement a swipe up motion, much like iPhone X family devices. There's also Face ID to secure the iPad Pro, and the second tab on the new website allows users to simulate this unlocking process by swiping up on the tablet's screen.

The third tab lets visitors tilt their iPhone or iPad to see new angles of the 2018 iPad Pro and its thin design, while the final tab instructs users to swipe and attach the Apple Pencil magnetically to the side of the tablet. From here, customers can tap "Learn more" to watch videos, read more details, and purchase an iPad Pro on Apple's website.

The iPad Pro micro-site follows in the footsteps of a similar website that Apple debuted for the iPhone XS and XS Max last September.

You can check out the website for yourself by following this link on the mobile version of Safari or Chrome.

Related Roundup: iPad Pro

Buyer's Guide: 11" iPad Pro (Buy Now), 12.9" iPad Pro (Buy Now)

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Apple Targeting Users of Older iPhones With New iPhone XR Email Campaign

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Apple continues to aggressively market the iPhone XR, with its latest tactic being customized emails to owners of older iPhone models that contains a trade-in value of the device and tech specs comparison with the iPhone XR.


An email sent to an iPhone 6 owner, for example, states that the iPhone XR is up to three times faster than that device.

More details to follow…

Related Roundup: iPhone XR

Buyer's Guide: iPhone XR (Buy Now)

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