AppleInsider Staff
Apple plans to extend business hours at its London-based flagship retail store following Tuesday's press conference. Meanwhile, Best Buy is being stocked with the new iPod touch this weekend, NewsCorp. has a change of tone, talks are underway to bring the iPhone to Spain, and Apple has updated its iPhone credit terms.
Apple has called a press conference at its London-based flagship shop on Regent Street for next Tuesday. As a result, the store will not open to the public until 4:00 p.m. that day.
Employees of the store, however, have been asked to arrive at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday for a 90 minute briefing. They say Apple plans to extend the store hours till 10:00 p.m. that day and that employees will be asked to remain on site until 11:00 p.m.
Additionally, Apple at around 10:00 p.m. last night is said to have begun some modifications to the store's theater area. No further details were available. It's widely expected that the Cupertino-based company will use the press conference to divulge plans for its iPhone launch in Europe.
Best Buy gets Touch'd
Meanwhile, several Best Buy stores — Apple's new best friend in the retail business — began receiving their first shipments of Apple's new iPod touch player on Friday. A source at the retailer tells AppleInsider that all locations should have both the 8GB and 16GB models on sale over the weekend, or no later than Monday.
A change of tone for NewsCorp.
Over at NewsCorp., executives appear have tweaked their tone regarding iTunes video licensing talks with the iPod maker. President and chief operating officer Peter Chernin, who on Tuesday said his firm enjoyed a "perfectly good relationship with Apple," later told Reuters that the two companies have a "pretty limited relationship."
"[W]e'll see how it goes," he said. "I assume it will be prickly and dicey and contentious like all negotiations are and like all negotiations should be."
The ">change in tone may spell trouble ahead for Apple, which, amid growing opposition from content providers, has failed to advance its iTunes video download service with any significant improvements since last fall. NBC Universal's recent decision not to renew its video licensing agreement with the electronics maker may have been the first sign of backwards progress.
Those sentiments were outlined in recent piece over at Forbes titled "the iFlop," where columnist Scott Woolley ">called out Apple chief executive Steve Jobs for his failure to follow through on promises to evolve Apple TV into the future of television.
iPhone in Spain
Meanwhile, Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica SA has acknowledged that it is in talks with Apple over the right to sell the iPhone in Spain. On Wednesday, Spanish news agency Efe quoted Telefonica's Chairman, Cesar Alierta, on the matter, adding that Apple is sealing exclusive contracts to sell iPhone with only one operator in each country
$100 iPhone credit good for iTunes gift cards
Finally, Bloomberg reports that Apple incorrectly stated Friday that its $100 iPhone credit couldn't be used towards the purchase of iTunes gift cards and has since updated its terms. While it remains true that users can't add the credit directly to their existing iTunes accounts, they can use it to purchase new gift cards, the publication said.
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Wesley Hilliard
Charles Martin
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
52 Comments
While I am among the most vocal to berate the AppleTV, the comment by Scott Woolley at Forbes is incorrect. Apple has not promised to make AppleTV the 'future of television', it is a "hobby" according to Steve Jobs, and therefore not a serious project at Apple. I also think it's not a serious project until they assign it some serious goals and make it competitive and stand-alone product as a TiVo.
Sigh...
The 5 NBC shows I wanna watch this fall (in order to must-see):
1. Heroes
2. Bionic Woman
3. Life
4. Chuck
5. Journeyman
Guess they won't be on iTunes Store. Chances are, BSG: Razor and BSG 4 will not be on too. How?
The other two returning FOX shows I'm falling is Bones and Prison Break. Not following any new ones. Should be available on iTunes Store. But if FOX decides to divorce Apple, I'm going to lose out on 24 and The Shield next year.
No CBS shows I'm following are on iTunes store now. Nothing to watch on ABC. Only Supernatural on The CW.
Most of my fave shows are on FOX and NBCU. If they pull, my Apple TV will be pretty useless.
Hope that I don't bang on the wrong venue for content. Apple needs to attract or hold the networks and studios. Not the other round. Sigh...
Extended hours? Are they actually going to be selling the iPhone right after the press conference? Nah, they must just be selling iPods.
I'm a bit surprised that the media is so quick to jump on Apple, if not terribly surprised at friction from the networks. I've yet to be convinced that any electronic delivery method is making serious progress in the TV/Movie world, legally anyway; and as such I suspect Apple will have to weather some rockiness as the networks try to pursue other avenues. If they fail, they'll have to go to Apple, if not, then Apple will suffer a fair blow re delivery and possibly for its hardware sales as well.
I don't believe, however, that the networks will succeed with delivery, as the very aspects of business that would most help them succeed also seem to be the very aspects they wish to avoid. In short, they want customers without actually giving those customers even a portion of what they want.
think secret reports that iPhones wont be shipping in the UK until November, groan....and even later in the rest of Europe. So i guess the apple employes will be staying up late to answer a flood of new iPod/iPhone questions and i imagine they will probably install a few of those human sized iPhone display screens......on a different note, i think it's worth mentioning that regent street is still the BIGGEST APPLE STORE IN THE WORLD BABY!