Apple Trademarks The Design Of Its Retail Stores

In the aggressive copycat battlefield that is the tech industry, Apple has went to the extreme of protecting the image of its consumer-crowded retail establishments by filing for a couple of trademarks for the unique and minimalist design of its brick and mortar retail stores that feature a glass storefront surrounded by a metal paneled facade, and a clean interior layout. The description of Apple's retail store trademarks is detailed below:

A clear glass storefront surrounded by a paneled facade" and, within the store, an oblong table with stools...set below video screens flush mounted on the back wall.

The trademarks were filed in 2010, and were granted this month on January 22 by the USPTO. It's no secrete that Apple's success with showcasing its products in brightly lit, convenient interior stores attracted the attention of other big time tech companies. Microsoft and Samsung were both known to have copied much of Apple's retail store design theme and minimalist environment layout of product placements in recent years.

In 2003, Apple was granted a design patent for the German-engineered floating glass staircases many of its retail stores feature.

iPhone 5 Preorders Begin September 12

News has come that Apple plans to begin accepting preorders for the long awaited iPhone 5 on announcement day. iMore, the first source to announce September 12th as the official reveal date has released further evidence to confirm the preorder date. Unfortunately, typical of all previous iPhone releases, preorders will be available first for customers in the US and a couple other countries while the rest of the world will have to wait for the second wave of shipments coming sometime in October.

If I were you, I'd ready my credit card the moment the Apple Online Store starts accepting preorders. The iPhone 4S preorders were sold out in literally hours and who knows how many more Apple-hungry customers are waiting this time around. Best of luck to all you! 

Apple Store App Now Lets You Purchase Accessories Yourself, In-Store Pickups

It took Apple a while to implement these what seem like no-brainer features for customers to check themselves out while purchasing accessories at Apple retail stores and paying via their iTunes account without having to wait for an employee to ring you up on an accessory on a busy day. Which just so happens to be almost every single business day. Apple has issued an update that enables you to use the Apple Store app with your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S to make in-store purchases by scanning the barcode on the packaging without even having to interact with employees called EasyPay.

For larger purchases like Macs, iPods, iPads and iPhones you'll still need assistance of an employee. But if you don't feel like waiting, you can now purchase those devices beforehand and within an hour, pick up your purchase at your local Apple store without having to wait. That is until everyone else finds out about this. So have fun and shop responsibly! 

Apple Online Store Down Ahead Of iPhone Keynote

The famous "We'll be back soon." has been put up just a few moments ago in preparation for today's new product release and announcement coming from Cupertino. We definitely know for sure that's something new is coming and it's an iPhone. Apple's "Let's Talk iPhone" keynote is starting at 10AM PST. We'll be sure to update with all the goods!

Fake MacBook Air Brought Into An Apple Store For Service

What happens when someone brings a knockoff MacBook Air into an Apple Store to have the Genius Bar try to repair it? You get help of course. The amused Geniuses at an Apple Store in China were nice enough to help out the ballsy owner of this fake MacBook Air out with whatever the problem may have been. Someone must have gotten fired after that though. And yes, this is a real Apple Store in China. Oh China, you never cease to amaze us.

White iPhone 4 Officially Out

Well, well, well. We've got some good news for those who have been waiting endlessly for Apple's white iPhone 4. Apple has officially announced that the white iPhone 4 will be available to purchase starting tomorrow at Apple retail stores and online. Looks like Apple has redesigned the proximity sensor above the earpiece to be much more sleeker and got rid of the grille it had before when Apple released the iPhone 4. I think I'll stick to me black one for now.

New iMacs, Magic Trackpad, but no Mac Pro

 

What is Apple playing at, the Mac Pro has been out of date for well over a year and it still hasen't received an update! But Apple have given an update to the iMacs as well as releasing the infamous Magic Trackpad. Apple also released a new product, a battery charger. Nice one Apple...

The 21.5" iMac's and the 27" iMac have all received Intel's new I3 processor which can be upgraded to Intel's Core I5 as well. The speeds of the I3 range from 3.06GHz to 3.2GHz, while the I5 is 3.60GHz. The Quad Core I5 and I7 chips have also received a speed boost at 2.8Ghz and 2.93Ghz respectfully.

The Magic Trackpad was rumoured for quite some time now and has been finally released. The Magic Trackpad is as you'd expect, a device that lets you do all of the usual stuff a normal trackpad would like clicking and scrolling. Except it is external and is for a desktop. It is 80% larger than the trackpad on the Macbook Pro and uses 2 AA batteries. Apple’s says that the "Magic Trackpad gives you a whole new way to control what’s on your Mac desktop computer. When you perform gestures, you actually interact with what’s on your screen. You feel closer to your content, and moving around feels completely natural. Swiping through pages on screen is just like flipping through pages in a magazine, and inertial scrolling senses the momentum in your fingers as you move up and down a page." It is available now and costs $69.

Apple also released their own AA battery charger to keep devices like the wireless keyboard and Magic trackapd charged. It costs $29