Apple is continuing to press forward with new retail store openings this week, working toward making good on plans to open over 30 new stores during the third quarter of this year.
Apple's Stratford City retail store in London (Thanks, Luke!)
One unusual store opening will take place tomorrow as the Stratford City store opens up in the new Westfield Stratford City shopping center in the northeastern portion of London. The rare mid-week opening for Apple coincides with the grand opening day for the mall itself, a nearly 2 million square foot facility that will be the largest urban shopping center in Europe and serve as a key component of London's plans for hosting next year's Summer Olympics.
Apple's Jungfernstieg retail store in Hamburg (Source: Macerkopf.de)
Apple will also be opening its new Jungfernstieg store in Hamburg, Germany this Saturday. The store will be Apple's seventh German store and second in the city, joining the existing Alstertal store a few miles away.
Apple's Nanjing East retail store in Shanghai
Finally, M.I.C gadget reports that Apple is getting close to an opening for its massive new Nanjing Road store in Shanghai, adding the company's "curtain opening" promotional signage that frequently appears at flagship store locations as the final touches are put on the new stores. The new Nanjing East location will span five levels, with the first floor devoted to product demos and sales and the second floor dedicated to Genius Bar and customer training activities. Portions of the third floor will offer support for business customers, with the remainder of the facility serving as offices for Apple's operations in the region.
Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you.
Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports.
In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
Thursday December 11, 2025 11:28 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21.
There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below.
Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
Thursday December 11, 2025 10:31 am PST by Juli Clover
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products.
Here's what's supposedly coming:
An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found.
Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker.
According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
Wednesday December 10, 2025 12:22 pm PST by Juli Clover
The next-generation low-cost iPad will use Apple's A19 chip, according to a report from Macworld. Macworld claims to have seen an "internal Apple code document" with information about the 2026 iPad lineup.
Prior documentation discovered by MacRumors suggested that the iPad 12 would be equipped with an A18 chip, not an A19 chip. The A19 chip was just released this year in the iPhone 17, and...
Thursday December 11, 2025 4:19 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple's next-generation Studio Display is expected to arrive early next year, and a new report allegedly provides a couple more details on the external monitor's capabilities.
According to internal Apple code seen by Macworld, the new external display will feature a variable refresh rate capable of up to 120Hz – aka ProMotion – as well as support for HDR content. The current Studio...
I think this is part of what people clamouring for a store in their city fail to grasp. Apple demand many things to open a store. One is a large enough population. Two is that the population is affluent enough. Three is a premium/upscale mall with a vacant space of the correct size.
Toronto, Canada has like 7 Apple Stores, and they continue to open more here. The GTA area only has 5 million people.
I have not seen any reference to this store, and can't see anything on that website.
There is however an Apple Store opening in Braehead Shopping Centre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braehead#Braehead_Shopping_Centre) this month (reportedly (http://www.heraldscotland.com/apple-to-open-new-west-of-scotland-store-at-braehead-1.1087127)). The third store in Scotland.
I'll second that, when I was last over at Braehead the store front was blacked out with the big white :apple: logo stuck on front and centre, so I would imagine it was fairly imminent.
Its where the Gap store was on the ground floor.
I also cant turn up any evidence of an East Kilbride store other than it was rumoured prior to the Braehead one becoming public knowledge; I dare say it was a rumoured likely site and Braehead won out in the end.
For Info, not sure if it's already been posted, there's one opening in East Kilbride shopping centre, seen it the other day. http://www.shopek.co.uk/
Cheers, J
I have not seen any reference to this store, and can't see anything on that website.
There is however an Apple Store opening in Braehead Shopping Centre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braehead#Braehead_Shopping_Centre) this month (reportedly (http://www.heraldscotland.com/apple-to-open-new-west-of-scotland-store-at-braehead-1.1087127)). The third store in Scotland.
Rumor has it that the Hugendubel Book Store that is shutting down on Tauentzienstraße 13 across from the memorial church on Ku'Damm is going to be turned into an Apple store :) The truth of the matter is that German urban planners, especially in Berlin, have unbelievably strict restrictions and regulations when it comes to building new structures in the city, and it's unclear whether a bright white store with tons of glass is very "fitting" for this particular area of the Berliner cityscape. So, don't hold your breath, but if there is one I'm pretty sure that's where it'll be.
First read concrete info about the Berlin Apple Store in January. Apparently it's on Ku'damm 26, which is an old cinema building...
