Apple recently opened a new retail store in Manhattan's former Meatpacking District last Friday and is the biggest yet in the US. The whole building is three stories tall, with two floors showcasing Apple products and the third dedicated to customer service that gives one-on-one sessions and offering free classes on how to use Apple computers with their "genius bar." Now that's service. Now if only they gave out free iPod Touch samples... Would their strategy pay off? Read more in the full article.

This'll raise eyebrows: A Muslim website has apparently condemned the Apple retail store in 5th Avenue, NYC, as it looks like an important religious building in Mecca, and hence "constitutes a blatant insult to Islam."

Based on a report by Jason D. O'Grady, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has found an Islamic website, which apparently resents the strong resemblance of the Apple building to the Ka'ba in Mecca. The Ka'ba is deemed to be the holiest place in Islam.

The web site elaborated that the building was offensive because of three things: first, the Apple building is also called "Apple Mecca" (Apple retail store. In NYC, Manhattan. Go figure), second, because it is open 24 hours a day like the Ka'ba, and third, because it served alcoholic drinks.

While the first two accusations are spot-on, the third's pretty off - O'Grady mentions there was nary a drop of alcoholic beverages in the building, the only bars being the "Genius Bar", and the "iPod Bar". Case of wrong term affiliation, maybe?

We have yet to verify where this web site is, and hence the details regarding it, but the MEMRI group's role is in transmitting and translating news from the Middle East, so just keep alert for related news.

 

The glass-made Apple Store located on 5th Avenue in Manhattan has been aptly dubbed as "The Cube" because of its structure. The pet name might have stucked very well to the mind of Apple higher ups and brought back memories.

Why? Because there are talks and speculations that Apple Cube is being resurrected. Not that site in Manhattan, take note but the real Apple Cube Power Mac G4. Based from these purported patent images, the new design addressed several issues its predecessor faced. It will have two removable sides for the easy access and upgrade of components such as hard drive, memory and PC cards.

The overheating problem was also not forgotten, ergo, the innovative heat sink mechanism. Here, you can opt to insert a separate cooling fan but you can also work without it in some cases.

Apple Cube was originally released in July 2000 and sold only around 150, 000 units.

 

We are all well aware of James' marriage proposal to Uschi Lang in front of the Apple store in Manhattan hours before it opened. The romantic move was part of a time lapse video that Apple set up to capture every moment leading to the store's opening.

But really, what is a proposal compared to a heart stopping, adrenaline pumping, race of garden snails? Windell, over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, took advantage of a Gawker to give us a 30 second clip of these snails in action. Gawker is an application for Mac OS X that creates time-lapse movies using a webcam. Images from your camera can be shared, allowing other users to record your image stream. Streams can also be combined to create a time-lapse movie with up to four locations side-by-side.

The garden snails race is just for appetizers. We have now arrived to the main course. Focaccia is a flat bread topped with spices and other products, which is related to modern pizza. The ingredients are irrelevant, what's more important is how does it come from being flat to being a scrumptious delight. Here's how.

Now all I'm waiting for is a time lapse from Jonathan 'Wolf' Rentzsch, from his MacBook inside the fridge to find out if the light really does turn off.

Download: [Gawker 0.8]

You know I watched that movie a long time ago with Natalie Portman, pregnant, and how she decides she's going to spend a night at the Wal-Mart after her boyfriend ditches her. Yeah, that was a good movie.

But anyway, somebody out there has made up her mind that she's going to spend a full week at Apple's new store in NYC (that's New York City for those of you outside the know) and, here comes the good part, blog about it!

Disregarding the sense behind it all, it still makes for some interesting reading, I'm sure.

According to MacNN: "The Suicide Girls have recruited member named "fakecake" to document this event as "she attempts to channel her inner David Blaine and survive in midtown Manhattan's new Apple Store, trapped underground with little more than moxie, MacBooks, and the desire to blog about her sure-to-be-thrilling experience in ultra-nonstop realtime..."

We all know that Steve Jobs is a non-conformist and a risk taker. I guess you'll all agree with me when I write that Mr. Jobs have learned through his shortcomings that the mark of a true leader is someone who could be a company evangelist and brand spokesperson.

Nowadays, Apple is the connotation of Steve Jobs and vice versa. And because Apple is all about innovation, so is Steve Jobs. With that, maybe it is apt to say that the newly-erected glass cube smacked right in the middle of Manhattan could be a monument for the man himself.

When interviewed by NBC Nightly News' Brian Williams, Mr. Jobs was his usual charismatic and candid self. Topics such as technological innovations and where he fits in the elite American family of thinkers, were some of the things that the interview tackled. Here are some excerpts of the interview:

Brian Williams: Is this (Apple Retail Store, Manhattan) your Model T? Is this your space program?

Steve Jobs: This is the best store we've ever built, and I think that it's the state-of-the-art that we know how to do. Like, the cube is [an] extremely state-of-the-art use of glass. You know, there's hardly any metal holding it up. It's glass fins holding up glass. It's not just the stuff in the store or his company. It's the fact that Steve Jobs helped bring us many of the icons of American life today. From tiny trash cans to clicking and dragging Â? the now-commonplace language of computers, the hand-to-mouse movements we no longer think about Â? it's a language he helped teach America.

Williams: Do you know the downside of innovation? The rap on it is the minute you buy an iPod, you have to get the newest iPod.

Jobs: You know, you keep on innovating, you keep on making better stuff. And if you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year. That makes the Manhattan store the new center of the universe for those who swear by Apple.

To read the full interview, click on the 'Read' link.

Construction workers on the site of Apple's soon-to-open retail location right at the heart of Midtown Manhattan have taken the wraps off the 32-foot glass cube that marks the store's entranceway. The "unveiling" revealed a dangling, backlit Apple logo that creates the illusion that it is floating inside the cube.

The informal unveiling began at around 7:50pm ET, Wednesday night when workers raised a scissor-lift to the sides of the cube. They then slowly began to peel sheets of the black plastic material concealing its design.

It seems that the logo is milky-white, measuring around 12 inches thick; it creates the "floating illusion" inside the cube when it is actually suspended from the top of the cube by a substantial stainless steel pole.

Inside the cube is a spiral glass staircase and a glass-enclosed cylindrical elevator that will transport future consumers from the plaza outside the GM building to the 20,000 sq.ft. Apple retail haven.

At about 3:30am ET, Thursday, the "floating" Apple logo beamed for the first time so some company executives could see its effect. It was turned off immediately, until after 45 minutes when the lights of the logo came back on permanently. The official opening of the much-talked about Apple Retail Store would be today, May 19, 2006 at 6:00pm ET. In a way, the official opening commemorates  the opening of the first Apple retail store 5 years ago.