AppleCampus
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Apple employees keep walking into their new HQ’s glass walls
Apple opened its new campus last year -- a stunning, glass wall-filled space meant to encourage collaboration and cooperation. But Bloomberg reports today that this achievement in design appears to have sacrificed some functionality -- a growing theme in Apple products -- because, apparently, Apple employees keep walking into the glass. Sources told Bloomberg that some individuals started sticking Post-It notes to the glass doors and walls in order to make them more noticeable, but they were ultimately taken down because they distracted from the space's design.
Mysterious Apple device turns out to be a... badge reader
The frenzy to uncover pre-production Apple devices is not what it used to be, but folks still go to great lengths to find secret Cupertino info. That's why a recent FCC discovery about a mysterious NFC and Bluetooth-equipped Apple device caused some internet frothing. The filing showed a device with Bluetooth and NFC wireless capability, but no other details or pictures. Along with the screw positions on the label, that led to speculation that the long-awaited 4K Apple TV could be coming soon.
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
California fast-tracks Apple's new headquarters
Apple is building a new campus in Cupertino and the process should proceed smoothly now that the project has been given fast track status by California Governor Jerry Brown. "Apple's state-of-the art campus brings at least $100 million dollars in investment to California and generates no additional greenhouse gas emissions," said Brown in a statement sent to The Mercury News and reported on SiliconValley.com. Fast-tracking the project won't speed up construction, but it will make it easier for Apple to navigate the complicated approval process. This new fast track procedure was signed into law last fall as a way to improve the job market in California. Approved companies will be able to move quickly through the judicial review process and any challenges to the company's environmental impact report will be pushed rapidly through the court system. Apple is expected to break ground on the project in early 2013 and complete construction by 2015. [Via Mac Observer]
Apple's Campus 2 will up the secrecy factor with an underground auditorium
You know how Tim Cook said Apple will be "doubling down on secrecy" for unannounced products? Well, the company's hush-hush mentality seems to be informing the design for its upcoming Campus 2. According to plans and technical drawings on Cupertino.org, Apple could be moving its press events underground -- into a mammoth subterranean auditorium that will no doubt also serve as Cook's secret lair / bunker for tough times in the ongoing patent wars. You know what they say -- out of sight, out of mind... and so beyond passé ground-level amphitheaters. Click the source link below for more images.
Apple details neighbors on Campus 2 plans, extends rare request for feedback
Cupertino residents may have received an unsolicited package from their most prominent neighbor this week. No, it's not a new iPad, or an early look at the iPhone 5 -- instead, people close to Apple (from a physical perspective) opened the glossy mailing to reveal a detailed look at Apple Campus 2, which will consist of 176 acres currently occupied by "aging buildings" and trees. As we already know, the campus will feature one main circular four-story building with 2.8 million square feet of office and common space, along with an additional 300,000 square feet set aside for dedicated (secure) research buildings. There will be a restaurant, fitness center and other facilities aimed to "reduce automobile trips" as part of the company's plan to protect the environment. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer appeals to neighbors in a single-page letter, offering additional information upon receipt of a pre-stamped response card, which also prompts neighbors to add their name to a list of supporters, attend a public meeting or write a letter to show their support for the new Apple complex. You'll find Oppenheimer's letter in full after the break, along with additional photos at the source link.
Apple sends letter to neighbors about new "spaceship" campus
Apple wants its new spaceship-style campus to be as free from controversy as possible. To quell any discontent from its neighbors, the company is reaching out to Cupertino residents and asking them for feedback about the project. In a document obtained by 9to5Mac, Apple tells residents how and why it's building this new campus. According to the document, the research facility will accommodate 13,000 employees with additional 300,000 feet of space for expansion. The facility will be used for research and won't include any industrial or manufacturing work. It will be built according to LEED standards and will include a large solar array that'll cover the roof. It will open its doors to employees in 2015, but it won't be open to the public. After reading about the new campus, residents can fill out a postage paid response card or visit the Cupertino.org website to leave their feedback, ask questions or share their concerns.
Apple to build large, off-campus cafeteria
Yum. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Apple is building a cafeteria for employees. The new off-site eatery will be more than 21,000 square feet, and it's only for Apple folks. The News quotes an Apple honcho as saying "We like to provide a level of security so that people and employees can feel comfortable talking about their business, their research and whatever project they're engineering without fear of competition sort of overhearing their conversations," Dan Whisenhunt, Apple's director of real estate facilities, said. "That is a real issue today in Cupertino because we've got other companies here in our same business." The cafeteria will have a cafe, meeting rooms, lounges and a courtyard. Apple says the facility will be open on weekdays for breakfast and lunch. The cafeteria has just been approved by the Cupertino planning commission. Apple already has five large facilities to provide meals for employees and about a dozen other ones designed for quick snacks. You can find some reviews of food served currently on the Apple campus at Yelp.
Apple building $304 million campus in Austin, Texas, Rick Perry approves this message
Looks like SXSW isn't the only thing happening in Austin. The Apple machine is rolling in, but this time it's not the Cupertino outfit filling us in on the deets. Outspoken Texas Governor Rick Perry says that one of Apple's next creations will be a $304 million campus in his state's capital, which will include a $21 million investment over a decade from the Texas Enterprise Fund. Apple's not exactly a newcomer to the south, though, since it currently holds a customer support base in the area and, if all goes according to plan, the new addition could create up to 3600 more jobs. After all, bigger is better in Texas, right?
Apple October press event reportedly to be held on campus
In the past, Apple has held its major press events at the Yerba Buena center in San Francisco. All the iPhone and the iPad announcements were held in this venue. According to a report from AllThingsD, Apple's may buck this trend and hold its rumored October iPhone announcement at its Cupertino campus. The reasons for this change are not clear. It may have to do with the availability of Yerba Beuna Center or the decision of new CEO Tim Cook who may prefer to keep things closer to home. Hopefully, all this speculation about where and when this event will be held can be put to rest soon. If the rumored October date is correct, invitations should start landing in attendee's inboxes sometime this week.
Daily Update for Sept. 12, 2011
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, which is perfect 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 listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
LA Times critic disparages future Apple Campus
Los Angeles Times Architecture Critic, Christopher Hawthorne, examined the architectural plans for Apple's newly proposed campus and wasn't too pleased with what he saw. Instead of buying into Jobs' architectural sales pitch like the Cupertino City Council did, Hawthorne criticizes the building, claiming it's not futuristic mothership, but is "doggedly old-fashioned" and reflects the suburban corporate architecture of the 60's and 70's. Hawthorne also criticizes Jobs' tight control over the building plans, noting that the architects designing the building are hardly ever mentioned by Jobs. The critic implies that Jobs likes to appear as if he plays an active role in the design of each building, but really has little to do with it. It's the architects that do the bulk of the work. Hawthorne even disapproves of the building on a socioeconomic level claiming the building's serene and secure environment keeps its employees aloof from the world around it. He notes it's "essentially one very long hallway connecting endlessly with itself" and calls its a "retrograde cocoon."
Steve Jobs reportedly worked on campus for his final day as CEO
For many of us who were surprised by yesterday's announcement that Steve Jobs was resigning as CEO of Apple, our immediate thought was that his health might have deteriorated to the point that he was no longer able to work on the Apple campus in Cupertino, CA. However, a source reported to Bloomberg Businessweek that Jobs spent the entire day on the Apple campus before attending the board meeting where he tendered his resignation as CEO and accepted his post as Apple chairman. The source, who Bloomberg Businessweek reported as "not authorized to speak about his health," said that Jobs was "weak" but that the resignation was "not indicative of a sudden downturn." Jobs has apparently been housebound recently, but his work yesterday and his declaration that he plans on being an active board chairman seem to point to a future where Steve Jobs still has his eyes on the fortunes of Apple.
Visualized: the Apple mothership
We've already caught a glimpse of Apple's proposed science fiction museum new campus in Cupertino, but screen grabs just don't do this behemoth justice. A recently released set of renderings of Apple Campus 2, as it's known to the city of Cupertino, however, give it that proper otherworldly glow. According to the accompanying proposal, the building will take up a measly 2.8 million square feet, contain a 1,000-seat auditorium and research facilities totaling 300,000 square feet. Really? Is that all? If architectural renderings are your thing, hit the source link for some building-plan booty. %Gallery-130561%
Steve Jobs conceived of "statement HQ" for Apple in 1983
The mothership campus Steve Jobs envisions for Cupertino is not the first statement headquarters he has pursued. Back in 1983, Jobs eyed Coyote Valley, San Jose for a world-class campus. Former San Jose mayor Tom McEnery tells the story of a meeting he had with a young Steve Jobs. Jobs saw the Coyote Valley location from a helicopter and selected the grassy property for Apple's next home. Soon the property belonged to Apple, and a rough draft of the plans was sketched on a piece of paper. Jobs hired well-known architect I.M. Pei to build the campus and preserve the pastoral quality of the land. Unfortunately, politics and the economy hindered Jobs' dream. This location was one of San Jose's last undeveloped parcels of land, and its repurposing was the topic of hot debate. At the same time, the economy went belly up and Jobs was removed from the company. McEnery tried to re-kindle interest in the Apple campus with CEO John Sculley, but the idea fizzled and Apple eventually sold the property. [Via MacObserver]
Cupertino: "There is no chance that we're saying no" to Apple's new building
"The Mothership has landed in Cupertino," says Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong. These words were uttered during a press conference to confirm that the California city will welcome the new Apple campus with open arms. The decision is not based on any preferential treatment for Apple because of its reputation. It's a financial one. Apple is one of the largest tax payers in the city, and its directors don't want to lose this revenue. The circular building will be built on land Apple purchased from HP. The new campus will be four stories high and enclosed in custom-made curved glass. The area surrounding the building will be re-landscaped with 6,000 trees. The building will also include its own energy center and will use California's power supply only as a backup. In his address to the city yesterday, Steve Jobs says he hopes the building will open in 2015. You can follow the progress of this huge project at http://www.cupertino.org/apple.
Steve Jobs unveils new Apple campus that literally looks like a mothership
At a Cupertino City Council meeting last night, Steve Jobs presented plans for Apple's new campus off I-280 in Cupertino. As you can see from the image above, the campus resembles a spaceship. The entire campus will be one huge round building with a courtyard in the middle. The building itself will be four stories tall, and Apple plans to re-landscape the current area to include 6000 trees. A natural gas energy center will be on-campus to power the new building, and Apple will only rely on California's power grid as a backup. Speaking to the City Council, Steve Jobs described the new campus (as transcribed by MacRumors): "It's a pretty amazing building. It's a little like a spaceship landed. It's got this gorgeous courtyard in the middle... It's a circle. It's curved all the way around. If you build things, this is not the cheapest way to build something. There is not a straight piece of glass in this building. It's all curved. We've used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curve all the way around the building... It's pretty cool." Last November, Apple bought the former 98-acre HP campus that will be home to the new campus Steve Jobs showed off. The purchase of the 98-acre campus was in addition to a 50-acre site that Apple bought in 2006. You can check out Jobs' "keynote" to the Cupertino City Council below. Also, for those of you keeping track, this is the second time the Cupertino City Council has given Steve Jobs a standing ovation. When I worked for Apple, coworkers who were located outside of Cupertino would frequently ask "So when are you going to the mothership next?" "Mothership," of course, being an epithet for Apple's campus at 1 Infinite Loop. Now the term is moving a step closer to the literal -- at least insofar as looks go.
Apple buys former HP campus in Cupertino
In the latest sign of a trend that has been ongoing in the tech industry for more than a decade, Apple has gobbled up another big chunk of land in Cupertino, CA that is being vacated by Hewlett-Packard. Apple recently closed on a deal to buy HP's 98 acre Cupertino campus for an undisclosed price. The former HP property is north of a 50 acre site that Apple bought in 2006 and east of the main Infinite Loop campus that has been home to Apple since the early 1990s. Apple has been on a steady growth path, with a stream of new products, since the return of Steve Jobs in the late 1990s; HP has been heading in the opposite direction, having shed numerous traditional businesses in that same time. Apple had $65 billion in sales in its last fiscal year and added 12,300 employees, bringing its total headcount to 46,600. The 57 buildings currently occupied by Apple are reportedly "bursting at the seams," but the company has not yet provided a timetable or plan for revamping its new campus. Several thousand HP employees that currently work in Cupertino will be consolidated in Palo Alto over the next two years. This latest move brings the Apple-HP relationship full circle. When Apple was founded in 1976, Steve Wozniak was an engineer working in HP's calculator division. As with most large companies, HP had a policy that anything invented by employees belonged to the company, even if it was created on personal time. Wozniak offered the Apple I and Apple II designs to HP, but the company didn't want to get into the personal computer business at the time, which paved the way for Woz to eventually leave and join his partner Jobs at their startup on a full-time basis. If HP had made different choices in the late 1970s, the many innovative products created by Apple over the years might never have been built, and today's technology landscape would probably be a very different place. [via Mac.Blorge]
