Not long ago, word went out that Apple was planning to move its downtown San Francisco location to a newly designed building two blocks away. The space they chose is across from the historical Union Square Park, and replaces the building that was formerly the Levi’s retail store. This move will be the first relocation of a high-profile Apple store in the 12 years since Apple began making its retail presence. Perhaps becoming one of the more public of Apple’s store constructions, concerns arose when plans for the new store indicated the removal of the fountain designed by noted artist Ruth Asawa and constructed in 1970. This, along with some other design elements, prompted a great deal of criticism. Around August of this year, the architects submitted design changes that retained the fountain (although it will be moved 10 feet) as well as changes to the building to make it less “massive” and jarring with the surrounding architecture. Now, according to ifo Apple Store, as part of a plan to gain city approval for its expanded San Francisco retail store design, Apple’s architects have submitted a package of renderings, photographs, architectural drawings and descriptions describing the construction in minute detail. In addition, the plans have been made public for all to see, an unprecedented move by Apple who usually keeps all building plans under wraps. You can check out a number of proposal renderings on ifo Apple Store’s site here and download the 127-page PDF of the complete building plans here.
Tag: architecture
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Apple releases plans for new San Francisco store
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Intel cites possible 50% battery life improvement in upcoming MacBooks under Haswell architecture
What a difference a next-gen architecture can make.
According to PCWorld, Intel’s next-generation processor in Apple’s MacBook line could see 50 percent greater battery life thanks to the processors expected to go into them, according to Intel.
In a media briefing ahead of the launch of its Haswell processor platform, Intel chief Rani Borkar said that the chipmaker had designed the line with notebooks and tablets in mind. That focus on mobile devices led to dramatic increases in battery life, with 50 percent longer operation in normal use and extending idle and standby battery life by up to 20 times.
That could mean that battery life for future MacBooks — already near the top of the industry — will see considerable improvements. A 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro’s battery life could jump from about six hours and 15 minutes to Apple’s seven-hour estimate under normal use.
The Haswell line is the latest in the chip giant’s instruction set architecture. The rise of smartphones and tablets has hobbled the PC industry, the main source of Intel’s sales. Increasingly, consumers are opting for mobile devices rather than traditional computing form factors, and Intel has struggled to gain a foothold in the mobile device segment.
The Haswell line, then, is intended to address both traditional computers and tablets as well. Some components of the line have had their power consumption reduced to as low as 7W. Intel’s tablet-tailored offerings are said to offer better performance than non-Intel chipsets, but with comparable battery life.
Intel has been talking up the possibilities of the Haswell line for months ahead of its launch. Most recently, the chipmaker released a document showing that Haswell will double or triple graphics performance compared to previous models.
Apple’s expected refresh of its MacBook line of devices is widely expected to feature Intel’s latest and greatest processor set.
Currently, retailers are running low on supplies of some MacBooks, and many Apple observers expect the company to announce the next generation during the keynote of its Worldwide Developer Conference in June.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
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Rumor: Apple to debut updated MacBook models at this year’s WWDC
If there’s one new-ish rule of the universe, it’s that Apple chooses when it gets to hold its dog and pony shows.
And the next one might be during the Worldwide Developers Conference this June.
Per AppleInsider, noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities believes Apple will showcase updated MacBook Pro models at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference in June, with the most notable upgrade being the move to Intel’s next-generation Haswell family of processors.
Kuo, who has a reliable track record in predicting Apple’s product plans, said in a research note that while the Cupertino company is likely to bump its current MacBook lineup to Intel’s latest platform, speculated upgrades like a MacBook Air with Retina display are unlikely.
While no major design changes are thought to be in store for WWDC, Kuo now thinks Apple will keep the optical drive-toting MacBook Pro alive alongside the company’s most advanced MacBook Pro with Retina display and MacBook Air models. The analyst previously forecast Apple would retire the line as it moved to all-Retina product offerings.
“There is still demand in emerging markets, where Internet penetration isn’t advanced, for optical disk drives,” he said of the 13- and 15-inch non-Retina MacBook Pro. Apple’s top-tier MacBook lineup eschewed the previous built-in SuperDrive in a bid to slim down the chassis and cut weight.
For the consumer market, Kuo said the biggest change to the MacBook lineup in 2013 will be the introduction of Intel’s Haswell processor, which replaces the Ivy Bridge architecture currently used in the company’s computers. Intel recently announced that Haswell will be unveiled on June 3, one day prior to the Computex Taipei trade show.
Kuo believes the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro will begin shipping by the end of the second quarter, close to the forecasted WWDC launch, while the MacBook Pro with Retina display will see release later in the year due to low yield of the notebook’s high-resolution panels.
Apple has traditionally used WWDC as an opportunity to launch innovative new products, with last year’s event seeing the debut of the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display.
WWDC 2013 is scheduled to run from June 10 through 14 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Tickets to the conference sold out in less than two minutes, breaking the previous record of about two hours.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
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Tom’s Hardware runs benchmark tests on Haswell prototype chip, finds modest performance gains for next-gen architecture
Intel’s new Haswell architecture is en route.
And its performance gains are about the same as those seen in the move from the Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge architectures.
A profile of a performance test of a prototype Core i7 Haswell chip by the mighty Tom’s Hardware suggests that it will offer a 7 percent to 13 percent performance gain over equivalent Ivy Bridge CPUs—a similar gain to that experienced with the move from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge.
The integrated HD 4600 GPU experiences an impressive speed boost of almost 30 percent, but the website noted that this still won’t allow for comfortable gaming on HD monitors, so gamers will need discrete graphics chips.
While performance gains reached up to 75 percent in the case of some specific tasks, the gains for typical desktop applications are relatively modest.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
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Rumor: Apple to update notebooks in June, retain same design with new models
Rumor: Apple to update notebooks in June, retain same design with new models
Sometimes you just don’t muck with a good design.
Per DigiTimes, Apple will reportedly update the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air product lines in June 2013 with upgraded innards, but no major design changes are expected for either laptop range.
According to the article, Taiwanese supply chain sources said Apple recently issued requests for quotations (RFQs) for a number of notebooks, including the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, with the new models slated to reach consumers in June 2013.
Little information was offered regarding the revised MacBook Pro as the publication focused its report on the effect Apple’s MacBook Air will have on so-called Ultrabook makers next year. For 2013, Apple’s thin-and-light is said to be switching to a new processor platform, most likely Intel’s next-generation Haswell architecture.
As for design, sources say no major changes are planned for either product line. While the MacBook Pro line was the recipient of a design overhaul with the Retina display model, non-Retina versions still sport a unibody chassis largely unaltered since its debut in 2008. The MacBook Air’s enclosure was revamped in 2010, taking on a more angular look as Apple applied design cues learned from its development of the iPad.
DigiTimes also suggests Apple may cut MacBook Air prices ahead of the June launch, but such a move is unlikely considering the company has no recent history of discounting products prior to a newer version’s release. The publication made similar claims in May when it incorrectly predicted that Apple would introduce a US$799 version of the notebook in the third quarter of 2012.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
