Apple’s giant new Dubai Apple Store at the Mall of the Emirates has officially opened its doors today as scheduled. Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s head of retail, tweeted the photo above showing the new store’s staff that will be able to “serve in 26 languages.” Ahrendts previously shared multiple photos showing off Apple’s latest flagship retail stores (below) in Dubai and Abu Dhabi which both open today.

Dubai’s store launch follows several years of effort to bring the Apple store experience to the region. Early last year, Apple CEO spent time visiting local electronics vendors after meeting the UAE Prime Minister. Rumors of Apple’s plans to open a retail store at the Mall of the Emirates date back several years.

Then earlier this year media in the region pegged the launch to this fall, although a couple months too soon possibly due to foreign ownership laws. Earlier this month we got the official dates for both stores opening today. We’ve also shared more photos plus video of what the new stores.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Abu Dhabi, Apple Store, Dubai, Mall of the Emirates, uae

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Other World Computing doesn’t just dabble in Mac accessories — it’s one of the most popular third-party Apple RAM and SSD vendors, and sells some of the only Blu-Ray drives marketed at Mac users. So it wasn’t a surprise to learn that OWC had developed its own Thunderbolt 2 Dock ($228), entering an accessory category that was simultaneously worthwhile and fairly stagnant. Almost all of the best Thunderbolt 2 docks have the same core features and design elements, mixing silver aluminum, black plastic, an external power supply and a bunch of ports together to make one-point connectivity hubs for Macs. OWC’s design is similar, but it’s functionally unique.

Measuring 9″ wide by 3.5″ deep by 1.1″ tall, OWC’s Thunderbolt 2 Dock is the largest such accessory I’ve seen, looking like an elongated Mac mini with a glossy black top. The right side has two always-powered USB ports, while the back includes a collection of 10 additional audio, video, and data ports, plus wall power. That means OWC’s design is both the biggest and most capable Thunderbolt 2 dock out there, but does that also make it the best? From my perspective, that depends on your Mac’s needs…

OWC ships the Thunderbolt 2 Dock with only one pack-in: a large wall power supply that separates into a cabled box and a detachable wall power cable. Like some of its rivals, you’ll have to buy a Thunderbolt 2 cable separately, or purchase a bundle for $31 more with a 1-meter cable included. (A shorter 0.5m cable can be purchased separately for $25.)

The single most standout feature of OWC’s Thunderbolt 2 Dock is its collection of USB 3.0 ports. Two of them are on the unit’s right side, and guaranteed 1.5A of wall power even when a computer’s not connected — a boon for keeping iPads or iPhones fueled no matter what. Three more are on the back with regular charging capabilities, alongside separate 3.5mm headphone and microphone ports, a FireWire 800 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, a 4K-compatible HDMI 1.4b port, and a wall power port.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no other Thunderbolt 2 docks on the market with 5 USB ports, which is the single biggest difference compared with Elgato’s same-named accessory (shown above); the FireWire 800 port provides compatibility with Apple’s old high-speed hard drive standard, introduced in 2003 and effectively discontinued in 2014. Of the Thunderbolt 2 docks I’ve seen, the only other one with FireWire support is Akitio’s Thunder2 Dock.

Speed-wise, OWC’s Thunderbolt 2 Dock worked as expected. I saw no obvious degradation in USB 3.0 performance relative to a direct connection, with 208MB/second read and 155MB/second write speeds. But like some of the other docks I’ve tested, I noticed a small fall-off in write speeds using Thunderbolt 2 — consistent 370MB/second read speeds, but only 280MB/second write speeds, down from 317MB/second speeds through a direct connection to the Mac. The extent to which speeds are compromised may depend on how many devices you’re simultaneously connecting to the Dock, though the speeds mentioned above remained the same even when there were multiple USB devices, an HDMI monitor, headphones, and a Thunderbolt drive connected and being used at the same time.

As mentioned in my Best Thunderbolt 2 dock for your Mac guide, OWC’s Thunderbolt 2 isn’t the only “best” option out there, but it’s one of several top picks. Its large size and matching collection of ports makes it a particularly good pick for Mac users who need lots of USB and optional FireWire 800 compatibility, though at a modest price premium, while Elgato’s version sells for less and takes up less room, and Akitio’s version gives up A/V connectors and ports to achieve an even smaller form factor. Go with the one that best suits your personal needs and budget.

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Check out more of my editorials, How-To guides, and reviews for 9to5Mac here! I’ve covered a lot of different topics of interest to Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, and Apple Watch users. I’ve recently discussed how to safely prepare and wipe your iPhone for resale or trade-in, and how to get the best iPhone trade-in price to help buy an iPhone 6s, amongst many other topics.

Filed under: AAPL Company, Mac, Reviews Tagged: 12-port hub, Ethernet, Firewire 800, HDMI, OWC, Thunderbolt 2, Thunderbolt 2 Dock, USB 3

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The old world was a simple one. Apple needed two things to succeed: a well-off market willing to pay a premium price for its products, and a low-cost manufacturing base to build them. The U.S. and Europe provided the former, China the latter.

The idea that China could become Apple’s biggest market in less than a decade would have seemed unimaginable back when the first iPhone went on sale in 2007. It now looks inevitable.

Let’s run the numbers … 

China has already overtaken Europe. Apple’s Q4 revenues from Greater China (comprising mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) were $12.51B – dwarfing the $10.57B it earned in Europe (a region comprising around 50 countries, depending how some of them are defined). And you can pretty much ignore Hong Kong and Taiwan: Apple has reported that 96% of its Greater China sales are from mainland China alone.

At first glance, it might seem that the U.S. remains comfortably ahead, at $21.77B. But that lead isn’t as comfortable as it looks, for two reasons. The minor one is that the number is actually for North and South America combined, and Brazil is becoming an increasingly important market for Apple. The number for the U.S. is thus smaller than it appears.

But the bigger reason is the pace of growth in China. Apple has doubled its year-on-year revenues from Greater China two quarters running (technically, the Q4 increase was 99%, but I don’t think we need quibble over a single percentage point).

iPhone sales in China are growing even faster than revenue: they were up 120% year-on-year. The iPhone 6 is now the best-selling smartphone in China; the 6 Plus is number 3.

Nor is it a case of selling lots of low-end iPhones. While Apple hasn’t broken down the numbers, the company’s SEC filing gives a clue. As the WSJ notes, Apple’s profits in China are growing at an even faster rate than its revenues and sales. Its gross margins in the country have grown from 31% in fiscal 2013 through 35% in 2014 to 39% today.

But could Apple’s China sales really overtake those of the U.S. by the 10th anniversary of the iPhone? The numbers say yes. With revenue doubling year-on-year, one more year would comfortably do it.

The analysts say yes. Two analysts interviewed by CNBC earlier this year see it happening within six months.

Tom Kang, research director at Counterpoint Research, expects China could overtake the U.S. as its biggest sales market even sooner – by the January-March quarter of 2016.

And Tim Cook has very nearly said yes. He hasn’t ever put a date on it, but his statements that it will happen have grown increasingly frequent.

Against that, there is China’s sluggish economy. But as I argued back in August, that isn’t necessarily an issue for Apple, as it isn’t subject to the performance of the economy as a whole, only that of the growing middle class. Cook recently confirmed my view, stating that “you can’t really tell a difference if you look at our daily and weekly numbers.”

With the numbers, analysts and Cook’s statements all falling in line, I’d wager good money that long before June 29th, 2017 — the 10th anniversary of the release of the first iPhone — China will be Apple’s largest market.

Photos: Shanghai (Apple); Hong Kong (Daily Venture); Zhongjie Joy City (Leopold Fan); Hangzhou (Apple)

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS Devices, Opinion Tagged: AAPL, Apple China, Apple Inc, china, Greater China

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Adele has been turned down by Apple as the company is refusing to sell her new album in its stores. Whilst that may sound surprising, it turns out Apple actually declined from stocking physical CD album copies of her album in Apple retail stores as per Adele’s representative’s request (according to The Daily Mail). Apple declining to stock physical media … shocking right?

For the company that revolutionized digital music and released a streaming music service with much fanfare earlier in the year, it’s quite hilarious that a top artist’s team even tried such a request. You can, of course, get the debut single ‘Hello’ from Apple’s digital stores including Apple Music … but getting the Apple Store to sell physical media, especially when practically none of its products include optical disk drives, is a step too far in the past.

Adele’s new album ’25’ will be available to buy and stream from Apple Music / iTunes in late November. If you want a jewel case CD, well … maybe you can still buy that online on Amazon.

Filed under: General, iOS, iOS Devices, Tech Industry Tagged: Adele, Apple, Apple Store, CD, humor

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Two separate market share reports show that Apple increased its share of the global smartphone market year-on-year, with Samsung’s share declining. Strategy Analytics estimates that Apple grew its market share from 12.2% in Q3 2014 to 13.6% in Q3 2015, while Counterpoint has the numbers at 11.9% to 13.1% … 

Both agree that Samsung’s share fell in the same period, from 24.5% to 23.7% according to Strategy Analytics, while Counterpoint reports 23.9% to 22.9%. It wasn’t all bad news for Samsung: its shipments did see an increase in absolute numbers, though this was achieved in part by cutting the costs of the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Note 5 phablets.

Chinese brand Huawei was the other winner, both showing the firm’s market share climbing from 5.1% to 7.5%. Lenovo/Motorola and Xiaomi both lost share.

The trend echoed that reported last month by ComScore for U.S. market share, where it showed Apple climbing to 44.2% in July as Samsung fell to 27.3%.

Apple this week reported a record year, with revenues in excess of a quarter of a trillion dollars, and is predicting that it will set a new record in the holiday season.

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS Devices Tagged: AAPL, Apple Inc, Huawei, iPhone, iPhone global market share, iPhone market share, Samsung, Xiaomi Tech

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A joint Mashable interview with Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller and VP of Mac and iPad engineering John Ternus reveals a few interesting details of the 12-inch MacBook design.

The little strip of black along the two back edges of the MacBook’s twin speakers could easily have been mistaken for a bit of shielding or a vibration dampener. Except, that’s not what it is.

Some like to call it the “Speaktenna.” The black strip along the back edge of the MacBook speakers is a never-before-tried combination of speakers and antennas for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It’s a fairly ingenious bit of space-saving technology that teardown artists ignored … 

It was, says Schiller, something that wouldn’t have been possible without Apple’s design approach of having disparate teams work together to solve problems.

From the beginning, the Mac has been about Apple taking responsibility for the whole thing: hardware, software, how applications can work and, increasingly, Internet services. But that means something different today than it did 20 years ago,” Schiller said.

“Today, those teams are not only integrated and designing something together, they’re actually thinking of features that could only exist because of that integration and solving problems that could only be solved because of that unique advantage.”

The speaktenna was one of the problems that needed to be solved in order to make the MacBook so small: both speaker and antenna need space to resonate, and combining them allowed both to work effectively in an extremely small space.

When the machine was launched, Apple made much of the terraced battery design with matching cutouts in the body, allowing it to pack a lot of battery capacity into a small space. But the cutouts had a secondary job – there are additional ones there only to reduce the weight of the chassis.

Apple is famously secretive about its supply chain, and Schiller says that’s not just for reasons of commercial confidentiality, but also because ascribing components to particular suppliers can give a misleading impression of what’s inside the devices.

The most common scenario is simply that what we got from a supplier basically has been created so uniquely for Apple that implying it’s an off-the-shelf part like others may get would be really misleading. So it’s best not to even talk about the source because that implies things that aren’t true.

Schiller says the company was aware of the controversy that was likely to greet the company’s decision to replace conventional ports with a single USB-C socket, but feels that Apple needs to be bold.

“We found that the best thing we could do is push boundaries beyond what’s expected, beyond what’s comfortable sometimes,” he said.

Schiller contends that people expect a little bit of daring when it comes to the MacBook. “It’s a little counterintuitive to people, that doing what people don’t expect, ends up being what people do expect.”

Schiller also argues that Apple’s official 6% share of the PC market doesn’t reflect what you see in the world around you.

“There are endless numbers of stats out there, you can quote any of them to tell any story, but the number that closest reflects what we all experience and see as we travel around is actually a U.S. market share approaching 25 percent,” he said. “That closer reflects what we see when we go to the airport, when we go to the coffee shop, when we go to schools. You increasingly are seeing more Macs than PCs.”

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While early reviews of the new Apple TV are somewhat muted, Apple isn’t finished yet. It has confirmed to Buzzfeed that the new device will add Siri support for Apple Music from the beginning of next year.

This means that using the Apple TV remote control, people will be able to say, “Play ‘Hotline Bling’” or “Play the newest Taylor Swift album,” and Siri will take it from there.

Reviewers have praised Siri’s universal search feature, which allows system-wide searching for video content, and the box will now be capable of carrying out similar searches for music. The move should be good news for Apple as well as for its customers … 

By extending Siri search for music to the TV platform, it provides an additional incentive to hand over the cash for an Apple Music subscription. Apple recently revealed that so far 6.5M users are paying for the service at the end of their three month free trial.

The new Apple TV has started shipping, and we learned yesterday that it will also go on sale in Apple’s retail stores as of tomorrow.

Siri has already been spotted trying to encourage customers to sign up to Apple Music.

Filed under: Apple Music, Apple TV Tagged: Apple Music, Apple TV, Siri

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Fellow Britons, the wait is almost over. iPlayer is finally making its way to the Apple TV. The BBC announced via its official Twitter handle that its popular catch-up and live-streaming service is making its way to the brand new Apple TV in the coming months. The company didn’t confirm exactly when the iPlayer app for new Apple TV would arrive, and from the looks of things, it won’t be coming to the current Apple TV. Although it doesn’t say explicitly that iPlayer won’t be coming to the 2nd and 3rd generation Apple TVs, the fact it states ‘new Apple TV’ suggests pretty strongly that it will only be on the new, 4th gen model.

BBC iPlayer will be coming to the new Apple TV in the coming months…

—
BBC iPlayer (@BBCiPlayer) October 29, 2015

For UK Apple TV owners, the lack of a native iPlayer app has been a constant source of frustration. Right now, customers are forced to use AirPlay from their iPhones or iPads if they want to view iPlayer content on their Apple TVs. Once the app launches for tvOS, we’ll be able to put our iPhones and iPads down,  and just watch great programming right from the Apple TV. More important than the convenience is that we’ll undoubtedly save precious battery life.

Filed under: Apple TV Tagged: Apple TV, Apps, BBC, iPlayer, tvOS, tvOS apps

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As was reported earlier today, Nintendo tonight has taken the wraps off of its first mobile game during a press event with investors and the media in Japan. The game, called Miitomo, will be available in March of 2016 and is the first of five games the company plans to release by March of 2017 (via WSJ).

Nintendo says that Miitomo will be free to download with popular add-ons that will (presumably) be available to purchase via in-app purchases. The game will allow users to create their own Miis – or avatars – that can communicate with one another in a virtual world. While this doesn’t sound too much like a game, but rather just another way to communicate, Nintendo brags that it will help “to encourage people who are hesitant to talk to share things about themselves.”

Nintendo says that the reason for the game’s delay into March of 2016 is it wants to fully educate and make people aware of what Miitomo is and does before releasing it. For the upcoming holiday season, however, the company would rather focus its marketing efforts on other games currently in the pipeline.

It’s unclear what the other four mobile games Nintendo has in the pipeline are, but we’re hoping there’s more of a gaming aspect to them. The company said that the other games will be pay-to-download as opposed to in-app purchase based.

Nintendo made no mention of Apple TV support for any of its upcoming games, which is to be expected considering the company’s resistance to support any non-Nintendo hardware.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: game, Games, gaming, Miitomo, Nintendo

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A patent troll is currently suing Apple, Samsung and half the automotive industry – as well as other companies – over the use of a vague, decade old patent that covers operating certain functions of a vehicle, like starting the engine and locking/unlocking doors, through a “watch” – now known as a “smartwatch”.

Intellectual Capital Consulting (LCC), the plaintiff in the lawsuit (which we embed below), claims that the defendants are using patented technology in smartwatch products and software that they are selling or contributing to sell.

The company filed the suit earlier this summer, but it is only now coming to light after one of the defendants disclosed his legal troubles on the Tesla Motors Club forum. Allen Wong from RegoApps is standing out in a list of defendants consisting of multi-billion dollar companies. An independent app developer, RegoApps is being sued for its Remote S app which allows Tesla Model S owners to access certain features of the car through an Apple Watch.

Intellectual Capital Consulting’s patent, which was filed in 2003 and issued in 2006, describes the following design:

A remote watch design for a car security system, comprising of a display screen and base with keypad. A user of the remote watch will not only be able to keep track of the time but also will be able to arm/lock, disarm/unlock and remotely start their vehicle by pushing specific buttons on the watch. It is common for people to lose or misplace their keys along with the keyless remote that is attached to the keys.

You can access the full patent here.

The design described in the patent focuses on security features, which isn’t necessarily the primary use of Remote S. Rego’s app allow user to access features already available through Tesla’s official iPhone app, but instead through the Apple Watch, including starting the Model S with a voice command, enabling climate control inside the vehicle, and opening the sunroof.

The patent application’s description of the actual hardware (see picture on the right) is hardly comparable to the Apple Watch. The inventors didn’t foresee the proficient use of touch screens and instead describes the activation of the features through the use of buttons.

LCC filed the complaint in East Texas, a very popular jurisdiction for patent infringement lawsuits. Wong explains why he thinks they filed there:

“The problem is that jurors in that small town in East Texas are uneducated. Only 20% of them have a college degree. Most will not understand what’s going on in the trial. And that’s why patent trolls love that courthouse, because they rule in favor of them around 78-88% of the time vs the national avg of around 59-68%. Not only that, the judges tend to pass out huge rewards in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Wong says that LCC is asking for $2 million upfront and $1 million annually to use its patent. The developer says that there’s no way his app could generate that much money even if he’d raise the price to $100 per download and that every single Model S owner with an Apple Watch were to buy the application.

To be fair, although he doesn’t have the resources of Apple and the other defendants in this lawsuit, Wong is not an average independent app developer. He made a small fortune with his Radio Police Scanner app and he is still doing quite well based on his car stable. From RegoApps’s Instagram:

Wong says that his patent lawyer costs $400 per hour and that sending a letter to the judge to try to get the case dismissed might cost him between $15,000 and $20,000. He expects the legal battle to wipe out the earnings from the Remote S app with little chance of recouping his lawyer’s fees.

Here’s the lawsuit in full:

Filed under: AAPL Company, Apple Watch Tagged: AAPL, Apple, Apple Inc, Apple watch, Apps, car, Lawsuit, Patent, Patent troll

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