Late last year it was revealed that Apple purchased a 98-acre campus from Hewlett Packard, just up I-280 in Cupertino. Last night, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in trademark black turtleneck and jeans, explained Apple's plans for the space to the Cupertino City Council. Here's what the new 4-story building holding 12,000 employees will look like when it's completed in 2015:
As Steve describes it:
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.
The facility will be 80% landscaping, with most of the parking underground, compared to 20% landscaping with all above ground parking currently. The current campus has 3,700 trees and Apple plans to increase that to more than 6,000 trees, including "some apricot orchards."
Apple also plans to build its own energy generation facility using natural gas, with the electricity grid as a backup.
One of the city councilors asked what the citizens of Cupertino would get from the new campus, and in particular brought up a free Wi-Fi network, like Google offers in Mountain View. Steve responded that Apple was the largest taxpayer in Cupertino and he felt that the tax benefits to having a company like Apple in Cupertino was benefit enough and the city should be providing a service like that.
"If we can get out of paying taxes, we would be glad to provide free Wi-Fi."
I love how Steve knows he's the smartest person in the room as he assures the city councilman that he has no need for using their third-rate touchscreen drawing technology.
"I don't need to draw on the screen; you can see it clearly." - SJ
Sunday January 29, 2023 10:15 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In June 2022, Apple previewed the next generation of CarPlay, promising deeper integration with vehicle functions like A/C and FM radio, support for multiple displays across the dashboard, personalization options, and more.
Apple says the first vehicles with support for the next-generation CarPlay experience will be announced in late 2023, with committed automakers including Acura, Audi,...
Monday January 30, 2023 1:45 pm PST by Juli Clover
AirTags may be a convenient way for tracking dogs that might get off leash or otherwise lost, but there are dangers associated with the practice, as outlined by a report from The Wall Street Journal.
At 1.26 inches in diameter, AirTags are able to fit easily on a dog's collar, but that size also makes the tracking devices small enough to swallow, at least for a medium to large-sized dog, and ...
Monday January 30, 2023 12:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple will launch a foldable iPad with a carbon fiber kickstand sometime next year, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. In a series of tweets, Kuo said he expects an "all-new design foldable iPad" to be the next big product launch in the iPad lineup, with no other major iPad releases in the next nine to 12 months. The analyst said he...
Monday January 30, 2023 3:43 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple violated United States labor laws when it sent out an email warning employees about leaking confidential information about the company, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said today in a ruling shared by Bloomberg.
Rules that Apple has established around leaks "tend to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees" from the exercise of their rights under the National Labor...
Following last week's hardware announcements, this week saw the actual release of several of the new products as well as operating system updates bringing new features and bug fixes across Apple's platforms.
This week also saw some fresh rumors about the iPhone 15 lineup and Apple's upcoming AR/VR headset, while we shared some tips to help you get the most of your macOS experience, so read...
Friday January 27, 2023 10:01 am PST by Juli Clover
Multiple rumors have suggested that the next-generation iPhone 15 models will adopt the Wi-Fi 6E standard that Apple has already introduced in the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro, and now a leaked document appears to confirm Apple's plans.
Sourced from researcher and Apple leaker Unknownz21 (@URedditor), the document features diagrams of the iPhone 15's antenna architecture. D8x refers to the...
Friday January 27, 2023 2:11 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's next-generation iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are expected to be announced in September as usual. Already, rumors suggest the devices will have at least eight exclusive features not available on the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.
An overview of the eight features rumored to be exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro models:A17 chip: iPhone 15 Pro models will be equipped with an A17...
Apple on January 23 released iOS 16.3, delivering support for Security Keys for Apple IDs, changes to Emergency SOS functionality, support for the second-generation HomePod, and more.
Top Rated Comments
"I don't need to draw on the screen; you can see it clearly." - SJ
:p