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Apple's headquarters recreated in Minecraft is a sight to behold
For most Apple faithful, visiting the company's iconic headquarters doesn't rank high enough on the bucket list to actually become a reality, but thanks to YouTuber (and 9to5Mac writer) Michael Steeber, you can take a virtual tour of 1 Infinite Loop within the blocky walls of Minecraft. Covering every corner of the Cupertino campus, the map is now available for download if you're looking to make a digital visit. As you can see by the video above, the recreation is nothing short of awesome, with even the surrounding avenues and parking lot recreated in loving detail. I'm not even going to try to guess how many actual work hours it took to build this amazing Minecraft complex, but the result seems to have been well worth it.
Apple Campus 2 construction begins... with some demolition
The site for Apple's "spaceship" headquarters and Campus 2 is in the process of being cleared, with demolition of existing buildings at the location now well underway. MacRumors posted a number of photos today showing the construction fences erected around the location, as well as equipment being used for the demolition. The demolition work is proceeding on land purchased by Apple in 2006, where a massive underground parking structure will be built. According to the MacRumors article, the headquarters building is to be located on land north of where the work is taking place. The 2.8 million-square-foot facility is included in Phase 1 of the construction, expected to be completed by 2016, along with a fitness center and auditorium. Phase 2 plans include 600,000 square feet of office and R&D buildings. Image provided by MacRumors
Daily Update for November 20, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
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The spaceship is cleared for landing, Cupertino approves new Apple HQ
A little over two years since Steve Jobs presented his case for it and after the occasional setback, the Cupertino City Council has finally given Apple full approval to go ahead with its futuristic campus. In exchange, Apple has agreed to fork over more money to the city in the form of a reduced sales tax rebate -- going forward, Cupertino will only give back 35 percent sales tax instead of the 50 percent it had previously. Indeed, as soon as Apple gets its final permits some time today, it can begin demolishing the former HP headquarters and start building its own. The circular 2.8-million square foot glass-clad structure you see above is the main hub of the whole affair, and is said to have an underground parking facility that can hold around 2,400 vehicles. There'll be a 100,000 square foot fitness center, a 120,000 square foot auditorium, plenty more space for the company's all-important research and development division and of course everything's designed to be as eco-friendly as possible. Don't go planning your desk arrangements just yet though, Cupertino employees, as you'll have to wait until 2016 to move into what Jobs called "the best office building in the world."
City of Cupertino posts Apple Campus 2 Approval Press Conference on YouTube
The City of Cupertino, California has posted the Apple Campus 2 Approval Press Conference on its YouTube channel. The video, which you can check out below, features Cupertino Mayor Orrin Mahoney and Apple's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer speaking about the importance of Apple to the city and, of course, Apple Campus 2 (AKA the spaceship campus). The video of the press conference to announce the approval of the Apple Campus 2 was originally recorded on October 16, 2013.
Cupertino City Council unanimously approves Apple's new campus
Fret not, devotees: the mothership is coming home. Yes, in a vote that shocked no one, the Cupertino City Council unanimously approved Apple's Campus 2 -- otherwise known as the spaceship campus. The vote was held last night after the council opened up the floor to hear arguments for and against the building of Apple's new HQ. As MacRumors notes, this vote of approval isn't quite the last step to getting it built. There's always a chance that someone could petition the council to reconsider its decision, but that would need to be done within the next 10 days. If that doesn't happen, Apple can begin demolishing existing structures on the site. Then on November 19, there will be one final public reading of the agreement between Apple and the City of Cupertino. If there are no last-minute, dramatic oppositions, Apple's full building permits will go into effect the next day.
Apple's mailer makes it tempting for Cupertino residents to say 'yes' to its new campus
The City Council of Cupertino is holding a vote this Tuesday, October 15, on whether or not to approve approve the building of Apple's Campus 2 "spaceship" headquarters. Before the vote, residents will be allowed to voice their opinions and, not wishing to leave anything to chance, Apple has sent its Cupertino neighbors the mailer below asking them to voice their support for the project to the council. Apple doesn't make any grand economic promises about the campus, instead letting its stunning mockup imagery speak for itself and adds that Steve Jobs was the one to unveil Apple Campus 2 to the Cupertino City Council in June 2011. It's highly unlikely that the campus won't be approved, especially after the mailer shows residents what they'll be missing out on if it's not. Assuming it is approved on October 15, a second ratification vote in November will be required before building can begin. Apple Campus Mailer
Daily Update for October 3, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Cupertino Planning Commission approves Apple's 'spaceship' campus
The countdown has started and the new Apple "spaceship" campus in Cupertino, Calif., is one step closer to launch. Last night, the Cupertino Planning Commission approved Apple's plans for the campus. Tuesday evening, the company provided a slick video presentation to the commission and the public featuring lead architect Norman Foster and others who have had leading roles in the design of the circular structure. On October 15, the Cupertino city council will put the new campus to a vote, with a final vote expected on November 19. The project has grown in scope since first being announced by former Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2011, growing from initially housing 6,000 employees to the current 14,000 employees. The campus is expected to cost close to US$5 billion at completion, much of that going into premium construction materials including six square kilometers of curved glass, stone-infused floors and ceilings made of polished concrete. [via MacRumors]
Cupertino will livestream meeting to discuss Apple Campus 2 plans
Apple is going to be front and center in a Cupertino city meeting today at 6:30 PM Pacific time. The city residents are gathering to discuss the impact the company's new Campus 2 building will have on them and the city as a whole. Residents will be allowed to voice their questions and concerns about the building and its construction as detailed in the Apple Campus 2 Draft Environmental Impact Report. There will be a livestream of the meeting on Cupertino's official website if anyone wants to follow along.
Daily Update for June 4, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple releases economic impact report for new headquarters
Apple's new headquarters building is still years away from completion in 2016, and as part of the approval process for the new facility, Apple has just released a report prepared by Keyser Marston Associates for the City of Cupertino, Calif., that details the "Economic and Fiscal Impacts Generated by Apple in Cupertino." Apple Campus 2 will include the "spaceship" office building that will house about 12,000 employees, plus other buildings (research and development labs, a central plant, auditorium and fitness center) that add another 1,000 people to the mix. The report doesn't include the impact of 1,200 more employees who will eventually be added as part of a Phase 2 building program. Apple's existing Infinite Loop campus will remain in place, so the report looks at the total impact as both locations are filled with employees. It's expected that by 2016, the company will directly employ 23,400 people in Cupertino -- impressive growth considering the company currently has about 16,000 people at Infinite Loop and leased space in the city. Some of the other projections provided in the report detail the tax revenue that the addition of the new facility will generate. Apple currently provides about US$24.8 million in property tax revenue to local agencies; that number is expected to more than double to $56.5 million with the completion of Apple Campus 2. Other benefits include one-time revenues to the City of Cupertino for construction taxes and fees of about $38.1 million and $13.9 million of sales and use tax revenue from the purchase of construction materials. The full report is included below for your reading pleasure. [via The Next Web] Apple Economic Impact Report
Apple's 'spaceship' campus design undergoes change
Like any good Apple project, it appears that the Apple "Campus 2" building project in Cupertino, Calif., has undergone some revisions to make it perfect. The spaceship-like building is expected to be finished in 2016, about a year later than originally planned and US$2 billion over the original budget. The revised plans were published today on Electronista and include a host of changes: 240 more parking spaces (bringing the total to 10,980 spaces), four new public art installations and more bike and walking paths along the private roads around the main building. But the biggest change is to what is known as the Tantau Development, a separate set of buildings that were going to be built along North Tantau Avenue that would house about 2,200 employees. Originally planned for construction at the same time as the "spaceship," the Tantau Development is now planned for a future second phase. Electronista speculates that at least some of the employees who were to be housed in the Tantau Development might be temporarily moved to the Americas Operation Center, which is rapidly rising in Austin, Texas. For a closer view of the latest project description document, look no further than the Scribd embed below.
Apple revises campus plans, postpones secondary complex to save money
Even with $145 billion in its back pocket, Apple isn't above a little cost-saving. Following rumors that its new campus was $2 billion over budget, the company has revised its plans for the facility. While the UFO-style HQ is untouched, a secondary complex that was to be built along North Tantau Ave. has been pushed back to phase two -- which means it'll begin construction in 2016, just after people start working in the spaceship.
Glassdoor: Apple employees love Tim Cook
Glassdoor is a site that allows employees of various corporations to rate how they think their management is doing (while remaining anonymous), and the company has shared some info with TUAW that it says comes out of Apple's campus in Cupertino. The site works kind of like Yelp for employees, as users can come along and leave ratings and reviews for their own company. But presumably this information came from anyone who works for Apple, not just the employees that work directly with CEO Tim Cook in California. And what's the word? In short, they love him. Cook has never had anything less than a 92% approval rating since this time last year, and his current approval rating sits at 93% among employees leaving reviews on Glassdoor. During his time overseeing the company, Steve Jobs held a 97% approval rating, and Cook is a few points below that, but still -- Apple employees think he's doing a great job. Glassdoor also shared a few comments from users who identified as employees actually working in Cupertino, and they called Cook "a CEO who demands work before 6 a.m. everyday, and 'accountability without control'." Another engineer from Cupertino said that "no work/life balance is to be expected at Apple," and that management required employees to be "reachable after work hours." But despite those extra requirements, employees in general seem like enjoy Cook's management. Obviously, these reviewers are all basically self-selected, and like Yelp, this is not exactly an objective look at exactly what the entire company thinks of how things are going over there. But as far as this data goes, it seems like Cook has the support of his employees, and those choosing to report from inside Apple are happy with where the company is at.
'Spaceship Campus' architecture firm to revamp Apple retail stores
Marketing Magazine is reporting today that architecture firm Foster + Partners, which is working on the design of Apple's new Cupertino campus, has been hired to create new designs for Apple Stores. Apple's previous architect of choice was 8 Inc, which has been responsible for such iconic Apple Stores as the 5th Avenue flagship store in New York City and the Regent Street store in London. It's unknown if Foster + Partners plans to make any drastic changes to the highly successful and recently trademarked design cues for Apple Stores, which include all-glass storefronts and rectangular wooden tables. Foster + Partners was hired by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs to design the new Cupertino "spaceship" campus building, which is now reportedly $2 billion over budget and somewhat behind schedule.
From the Apple shareholders' meeting: Approvals, 'new categories' and another campus delay
The Apple shareholders' meeting was held in Cupertino earlier today, and CNBC has a full liveblog of all of the proceedings. There wasn't a lot of hard news out of the meeting, as most of it was taken up with bureaucratic goings-on, including the approval of a certain accounting firm, a few votes on executive payments and the defeat of a proposal to create a Human Rights board committee at the company. All of Apple's directors were re-elected, and Tim Cook got a 99.1 percent approval rating from investors there. After the meeting, Cook took some questions from shareholders and answered them. He agreed that Apple is just as disappointed as investors in "where the stock trades now versus a few months ago -- but we're focused on the long term." Cook crowed about Apple's huge growth so far, and promised that "obviously we're looking at new categories -- we don't talk about them, but we're looking at them." Finally, Cook gave an update on Apple's new campus, saying that the work is ongoing, but it's proving to be a much bigger project than expected. Last we heard, the project was set to be all done in 2015, but Cook now says that, "I project that we will move in, in 2016." You can read through all of the notes of the meeting on CNBC's site. [via MacRumors]
Apple releases proxy statement in SEC filing
Apple has revealed the first information about its upcoming 2013 fiscal year in a proxy statement filed to the SEC this week. You can read the entire document on the SEC's website, but we can run you through the major points right here and now. First up, Apple discloses what Tim Cook was paid during 2012, and it's a little more than the $1 that Steve Jobs was officially paid to run the company (though of course Steve made much more than that in various bonuses and perks). In 2012, Cook's base salary was $1.4 million, up $900,000 from the year before. Bonuses for senior execs reached maximums of 100 percent and 200 percent, and the base salary of the major executives went up as well, from $800,000 to $875,000, due to the "additional responsibilities" the team took on last year. The statement also detailed the package that helped entice Senior Vice President Bob Mansfield to stay with the company, which included a modification of Mansfield's stocks which allowed them to vest earlier than planned, as long as he stays with the company. Finally, the statement announced Apple's first shareholder meeting of 2013, which will take place on February 27 at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.
Phil Schiller: no Apple visitor center or gallery at new campus
Apple's new Cupertino campus won't be finished until at least 2016, and if Phil Schiller has his way, the new headquarters will not include a museum or gallery celebrating the early history of the company. Atlanta-based author and "computer historian" David Greelish wrote a blog post and started an online petition asking Apple to include a visitor's center at the new building featuring a small gallery telling the history of the company. Schiller's response to Greelish was short and to the point: "We are focused on inventing the future, not celebrating the past. Others are better at collecting, curating and displaying historical Items. It is not who we are or who we want to be." Greelish's petition has been met with little enthusiasm; MarketWatch notes that the petition recently had only 39 signatures and a guest editorial by Greelish on Cult of Mac has been met with mostly negative comments. But Therese Poletti of MarketWatch thinks that the idea is a good one, since the building will be "an architectural attraction for both the Apple faithful and sightseers." As she notes, "something to accommodate visiting tourists would be a gesture of goodwill for the company's fans and its neighbors in Cupertino." What do you think? Should Apple consider making a place on the new campus for Apple fans to visit? Or do you agree that another place, such as Stanford University or the Computer History Museum, should continue to archive the history of the company instead? Take our poll or leave comments below. %Poll-79311%
Cupertino posts tweaked Apple spaceship campus plans as launch risks slipping to 2016
Have you wanted as direct a look as possible at Apple's latest plans for its spaceship-like campus? You've got it -- although you may not be in love with the reason why. Details posted by the city of Cupertino reflect a potential delay in an environmental impact study that might not wrap up until June 2013. If the analysis takes that long, Apple may have to push back the halo-shaped office's opening until 2016, roughly a year later than expected. It's hard to be sympathetic when most of those who'll see the campus first-hand will have to wear an employee badge; even so, it's slightly disappointing to realize that the renderings and schematics at the source link may be our only only glimpse at the company's solar-powered donut for quite awhile.
