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Found Footage: Apple Store Covent Garden opening in iPhone 4 HD
The Apple Store Covent Garden opened in London this weekend to great crowds and fanfare, and of course we've been inundated with photos, video, and personal stories about the opening. We'd love to thank all of you for your input, as we all love Apple Store openings as much as anyone! Mike Hellers took some wonderful footage of the opening in 720p HD video with his iPhone 4. Not just any iPhone 4 -- this one was sitting on a customized Hague Mini Motion-Cam for extra steady camera work. Another short video by drcjep showing Mike and the Motion-cam follows on page 2.
New Apple Store coming to London's Covent Garden
Shanghai and Paris just got new Apple stores, and now it's London's turn. A red curtain in London's Covent Garden district shows the latest location for an Apple Retail store -- rumor has it that the store will open as soon as the end of this month, and will likely be a popular destination in the tourist-busy shopping and theater district. Apple's Regent Street store recently got recognized for making incredible amounts of money as compared to its size -- £2000 per square foot. Apple Stores, as you well know, tend to be a little bit larger than usual retail spaces, and the sales pitches are pretty low pressure, with the opportunity to just play with the products. But it works, apparently, so Apple's Covent Garden store will be the latest of 40 to 50 different store openings around the world this year.
Best Buy opens first UK store in Thurrock, we go hands-on (video)
Ah, there it is, UK's first-ever Best Buy store, officially born at 7am local time yesterday. Naturally, we had to be there to witness such magical moment for Britain's consumer tech market -- the Brits had longed for an injection of energy and professionalism to the seemingly slacking chain stores. Many would agree that DSGi's two main brands -- Currys and PC World -- are on the naughty list, even after their recent relaunch. From what we saw today, it looks like Best Buy's already heading in the right direction. Let's start with the front-line employees. Most of these Blueshirts provided genuine technical answers rather than bluffing their way out, plus we were given product recommendations with no desperate sales pitch as commonly seen in other stores. When we revealed our identity to one of the sales reps, he confirmed that they were trained to not force random products onto customers -- quite the opposite culture to his old days at DSGi (assuming he was telling the truth). We sure did appreciate this new-found shopping freedom in gadget stores, but did the other customers feel the same way? Find out what we heard after the break.%Gallery-92099%
Men in kilts: video from the Aberdeen, Scotland Apple Store opening
TUAW fan George sent us a link to some video he shot earlier today at the grand opening of the Apple Store Union Square in Aberdeen, Scotland. The video is fun; not only is there the usual high-fiving and applause as customers enter the new store, but one of the Apple employees is wearing a kilt and there was a kilted piper entertaining the folks in line. In other Apple Store news, reader Christophe pointed us to exclusive photos on Macgeneration of the interior of the new Louvre store in Paris, France, which is scheduled to open on November 7th, 2009. That store will be the first Apple Store in France. Apple's plans to dominate the European computer and consumer electronics market continue to bear watching, as these new Apple Stores are bound to increase international sales to impressive new levels.
Microsoft Store opens to Scottsdale campers (video)
By now you know that Microsoft's on-line store is selling PCs and third party software. Well, Microsoft is also waving the flag over Scottsdale, AZ today as it swings the doors wide on its new line of brick-and-mortar retail stores. Fans lined up overnight and stood for hours in a twisted line that should have Apple fans nodding in a tacit understanding. Come on, you may have different tastes in OSes but you should be willing to fight to the death for the right to choose 'em. Check the queue after the break as well as the grand opening countdown from 7, naturally, and a first walk around the store. Pics just beyond the read link down there.P.S. The first four campers each received a free Zune HD from Microsoft. Nice.
Microsoft Store opening Thursday with Ashley Tisdale
Looks like our tipsters were spot-on. The Scottsdale Arizona Microsoft Store is indeed opening on October 22nd as we heard, the first of many we expect to grace local strip malls across the country. "Be entertained," "Be excited," and "Be early" (doors open at 10AM), exclaim the ads in the Arizona Republic newspaper, to collect gift bags and concert tickets being given away to the first 1,000 visitors. And wow, Ashley Tisdale... we guess Tony Danza was busy that day. %Gallery-75831% [Thanks, Sebastian O.]
Manhasset Long Island Apple store opens
It was freezing this morning as the Manhasset Long Island, NY Apple store opened for business. Employees wearing T-Shirts (they weren't allowed to wear coats), ran up and down the waiting line of hundreds of people both pumping up the crowd and trying to stay warm. The enthusiasm was contagious as orange shirted people shouted out that the store would be open in 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, and then the doors opened to seemingly dozens of Apple workers handing out T-shirts and applauding loudly as each new group of 20 people or so were let in the huge glass doors. The first 1,000 people were handed black T-shirts that said 'Manhasset' on the front and 'Designed by Apple in California' on the back. The store is free standing and much larger than the one at the Walt Whitman Mall, my usual Apple store. The front and back of the store are glass walls and there is plenty of open space. Hopefully this store will take some of the burden off of the other Long Island stores which are usually crowded and have multi-day waits to get an appointment at the Genius Bar. If you're in the area, check it out at 1900 Northern Blvd, Manhasset, NY.
Microsoft store opening October 22nd, insides revealed?
Imagine for a second that you're Microsoft: unimaginably rich, a bit bloated after years on the Office hog, and worried about a few big projects you've been meaning to finish if only you could find the time. Now, what day would you choose to launch your brick-and-mortar stores back into retail if you were David Porter, vice president of retail stores and former Wal-Mart exec? If it was us, we'd choose October 22nd, the official Windows 7 launch. That's exactly what a number of tipsters are telling us courtesy of an in-person briefing by Kevin Turner, Microsoft's COO. Specifically, the Scottsdale store will swing the doors wide on the 22nd, we're not sure about the Mission Viejo location. According to the Wall Street Journal, the stores will sell Windows-based laptops and cellphones and allow consumers to play Xbox 360 games on a 94-inch in-store screen. It'll even have a Genius Bar "counter" where people can bring their Microsoft gear for help. In fact, the WSJ claims that the Scottsdale store interior is a "nearly exact replica" of the store created on Redmond's campus -- something we covered back in January (pics in the gallery below). Who knows, this could be the beginning of www.peopleofmicrosftstore.com as Internet trends go. %Gallery-42063% [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Apple Stores finally arrving in Paris
It's been a long wait, but Apple has finally announced their intent to open the first Apple Store in France, which will be located in Paris. In their conference call yesterday, they discussed the opening of new Apple Stores, including the opening of a store in Paris by the end of the year. Meanwhile, HardMac has posted photos of not one, but two Apple Stores under construction in Paris. The first one, in Le Louvre, is expected to open up later this year. Meanwhile, the second location, in Rue Halévy, is expected to open up sometime after the location in the Louvre. This should be a much-welcomed addition to Apple customers in France, as they have gone a long time without an Apple Store.
$1.7 million for Greensboro Apple Store
I'm not exactly sure why there's so much excitement centered around the upcoming Greensboro Apple Store (my guess is it's because our friend Ged of the Iconfactory can't wait for it to open), but the excitement is there, and Ed Cone has some insight into how the store's deal got put together. Apparently Greensboro won't see the story by December 25th, as there's apparently some argument with the property's owners over whether Apple is "just another computer store" or deserves a better place in the location. You know our answer on that one.An anonymous reader also tells Ed that the store's construction cost a pretty penny -- $1.7 million for 5,873 square feet, according to the building permit. Unfortunately, we're not sure if that's more expensive than usual or not: most retail places seem to cost a little less according to this, but then again, $1.6 million per store for Apple is about right, according to past numbers.Either way, hopefully the wrap will be taken off the store soon -- we don't think Ged can wait that much longer.
Fort Worth University Park Village Apple Store almost there
The picture above is not the actual Fort Worth University Park Apple Store, but we presume it'll look something like this when it opens later this month. Our Twitter buddy Jamie Phelps says that "the innards are finished" and the store should be open within the next week or so. If you were on our last Talkcast, you know how wildly interesting it is to see an Apple Store opening (our own Robert Palmer attended one just last week), so keep an eye on this one, Texans.Of course, we should mention that as incredibly awesome as our readers are, they are not always trustworthy when it comes to Apple Store news. Our good friend Ged Maheux kindly tipped us a little while ago about an Apple Store opening near him in Greensboro ... which then turned out to be a Williams Sonoma instead (the Apple Store is still opening there, but not until next year). We love our readers -- more than is socially accepted in some parts of the world, really -- but as always, take their Apple Store tips with a requisite grain of salt.
Two videos for third Shiren
Usually with these niche and traditionally Japan-only titles, we spend the post complaining about missing out on another potentially great game, as we did with our last Shiren the Wanderer post. But with Sega's recent localization for the Shiren the Wanderer DS remake and with the Wii game's U.S.-friendly title -- Shiren the Wanderer 3: Karakuri Yashiki no Nemuri Hime (Shiren the Wanderer: The Sleeping Princess in the Clockwork Palace) -- this game has a relatively good chance of making it to the states!The clip above is from the Wii game's opening movie, one of two videos posted at Sega's official Shiren the Wanderer site. It's got airships, the titular Clockwork Palace, and everyone's favorite white weasel, Koppa. The other video, a four-minute promotional trailer, has all that and shots exploring the roguelike's dungeons, including their new enemies. Take a diagonal step past the post break to watch it!
That pretty much settles it: Telus hiring LTE engineers
We still don't know whether Telus will be so hasty as to decommission its existing CDMA network in favor of UMTS / HSPA ahead of the long road to 4G, but it any rate, it looks like the Canadian carrier's next-gen technology of choice is darn near locked up. A job listing for a Senior Switch Engineer details CDMA and EV-DO experience as part of its requirements, naturally -- but here's where it gets interesting: they want "knowledge on UMTS, IMS, and LTE evolution" as well, without any mention of UMB or WiMAX to be found. In other words, if we wait around long enough, we'll be able to call Telus a GSM carrier, which should make the Rogers monolith just a little uneasy.[Thanks, Justin Y.]
No More Heroes intro turns us into wannabe assassins
No More Heroes may be too hard (for wusses), but if you think that means we're going to stop our blatantly ridiculous amount of coverage for this game, you're wrong. In fact, after hearing about the difficulty (even if it was a fake translation), we're more pumped than ever.Our latest update brings you the game's English intro, according to Gametrailers. We love how the game completely demolishes the fourth wall, although some people may find that irritating. Also of note is Travis Touchdown whistling the NMH theme at the beginning. Caveat: We at NWF are rating this trailer NSFW due to cursing, violence, and Sylvia in skimpy outfits.
Fire Emblem opening video is cinematic candy
We may have neglected Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn's release because of some other big releases this month, but we felt we had to show you the game's opening video because it's epic. Although Radiant Dawn came out earlier this month, the opening video seems to have only just hit the internet. If we didn't already own the game, we could see something like this making us rush out to buy it. If you're still on the fence about the new Fire Emblem game, though, never fear, Nintendo Wii Fanboy is here. We'll be reviewing this game in the near future, so stay tuned.
Friday Video: It's-a Mario Party!
Mario Party DS is headed our way next week, so it only seemed fitting that we give the crew a little time in the video spotlight. The opening video makes a nice complement to our positively enormous gallery below. And while we may be disappointed about the lack of Wi-Fi support (really, is there a game that needs it more?), we can settle for download play.%Gallery-4736%
Trauma Center Tuesday, brought to you on Wednesday (cause we're rebels like that)
Yesterday marked the last Trauma Center Tuesday before New Blood's release next week, and that means Atlus had more surgical goodies for us. The most notable treat this week was the video of the game's introduction, which we posted above for your viewing pleasure. Aren't we just the best?Normally we wouldn't go all ga-ga over a game's opening (okay, well sometimes we do), but this is one of the best we've seen. The art, the effects, the music, and everything about this introduction makes us weak in the knees. It was like watching the opening to a TV show ... er, if TV show openings were actually good and made us want to cut people open.Atlus, you sly dogs, now you have us looking deeper into our wallets during this video game glut, hoping that we can stretch them enough to pick up your game next week. Does anyone else feel our pain?On a side note, you should check out the ridiculous poem Atlus sent us that's posted after the break. Atlus, stick to making video games and not poetry, okay?
Finder Fu: Force an Application to open your Document
Has this happened to you? You drag a document onto an application icon. And nothing happens. The icon does not go dark. The application doesn't launch and load the data. But you know that it should; it just won't. Fortunately, OS X allows you to force an application to try and open that file. By holding Command+Option while dragging, you tell OS X applications to open files regardless of whether they "support" that file type. For example, you can Command+Option drag a C or Ruby source onto Safari and open that source code in a new browser window. Or you can Command+Option drag a tab-delimited text filed onto Excel. It's a very convenient work-around.
Fire Emblem Wii site opens for business
Fire Emblem is not like Ice Emblem in that it is, well, hot. When a small portal opened, leading to just a subsection of its fiery domain, we could not resist.The official site for Fire Emblem: Akatsuki no Megami has opened for business, and yes, its entirely in Japanese. For your viewing pleasure, though, you might check out this bitchin' opening cinema, and some excellent box art. We're such suckers for box art. In any case, any FE fans out there owe it to themselves to journey to yon fiery realm. You won't be disappointed.(And what the hell was Bahamut doing in that cinema?)[via NeoGAF; thanks Creamsugar!]
WoW Moviewatch: The Burning Crusade opening cinematic
After premiering in spectacular cam-o-vision on YouTube, and then officially premiering on Spike's VGA Awards last night, Blizzard has released The Burning Crusade opening cinematic to the masses. Head on over to the World of Warcraft site to view the cinematic in either Flash or DivX. The short preview starts with a voice over that lore-fiends will quickly come to understand as Illidan's. To say that he's a little upset to have been imprisoned for 10,000 years, then exiled, and then have us show up on his doorstep expecting cookies and eggnog is a gross understatement. We're taken across the Blasted Lands to the Dark Portal before fading out and coming up on a Draenei Paladin, preparing for what lies ahead. That scene then cuts to a Blood Elf lovingly playing with a Mana Wyrm, before she consumes its arcane energies. What follows is a quick succession of battle scenes featuring the Draenei paladin, what appears to be the Orc from the original WoW cinematic, the Blood Elf, a human mage (who wonderfully sheeps his opponent), and an undead warlock who apparently has no love for the gurgly little Murlocs. Finally, we come to Illidan, who leaps up from his Hamlet-like pondering of a skull and shows us his full glorious self before admonishing us with a loud and gravelly, "You are not prepared!" This is a fantastic cinematic, and only makes me long for a full animated World of Warcraft movie, and makes the month-and-two-days we have left to wait for the expansion to hit stores seem like an eternity.
