Apple's long-awaited store in Brisbane, Australia finally opened its doors to customers today. The flagship store was announced in 2011, but problems with contractors and the historical nature of the site delayed completion.
Customers started waiting in line almost 15 hours before the store was schedule to open its doors at 10 AM local time, with many hoping to score one of the limited edition Brisbane store T-shirts that were handed out. The dedicated fans were allowed in by exuberant store employees who greeted them with high-fives and cheers. Store leader Jonny Walker told PerthNow that he is proud of what Apple has done with the historic site.
"We are so proud of this store at Apple, it's got a stunning space now and we're really extremely proud to call it our home. When we took over the store a lot of the original historic elements were missing or in disrepair. What we've done is we've painstakingly restored it to its original glory."
The store is located within the impressive MacArthur Chambers building, which was General Douglas MacArthur's South West Pacific headquarters for the Allies during World War II. The new retail space occupies the entire bottom floor of the building. It includes 200 display units and is staffed by over 100 employees, says a report by Brisbane Times, which toured the location before it opened.
Apple's iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models will feature a number of significant display, thermal, and battery improvements, according to new late-stage rumors.
According to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital," the iPhone 17 Pro models will feature displays with higher brightness, making it more suitable for use in direct sunlight for prolonged periods. The iPhone 16 Pro and...
Friday September 5, 2025 9:33 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple is set to unveil the iPhone 17 series in just four days from now, and the biggest design mystery surrounding the Pro models has finally been solved.
In a report outlining his expectations for Apple's event next week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the iPhone 17 Pro models will have "a new cutout area on the bottom two-thirds of the phone that doubles as the wireless charging area."...
Thursday September 4, 2025 7:38 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
We're only days away from Apple's "Awe dropping" fall event scheduled to take place on Tuesday, September 9 – and along with the new iPhone 17 series, we're going to get a new version of the Apple Watch Ultra for the first time since 2023.
By the time the Ultra 3 is unveiled, it will have been two years since the previous model arrived. The intervening period has left plenty of room for...
Wednesday September 3, 2025 1:19 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26 introduces an Adaptive Power Mode on the iPhone, alongside the existing Low Power Mode.
Apple says Adaptive Power Mode can make "performance adjustments" when necessary to extend an iPhone's battery life, including slightly lowering the display brightness, allowing some activities to "take longer," and automatically turning on Low Power Mode when the iPhone's remaining battery life...
Friday September 5, 2025 4:57 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Four days out from Apple's "Awe dropping" fall event on Tuesday, September 9, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has summarized his expectations for what the company will reveal next week.
Aside from a couple of new details and the inclusion of some more recent leaks from other sources, much of the following is a recap of Gurman's reports over the last several months:
iPhone 17
Large...
Tuesday September 2, 2025 1:50 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Just one week before Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 17 series, an analyst has shared new price estimates for the devices.
Here are J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee's price estimates for the iPhone 17 series in the United States, according to 9to5Mac:
Model
Starting Price
Model
Starting Price
Change
iPhone 16
$799
iPhone 17
...
Certainly looks nice. I wonder if they have any pics from before the restoration?
There are some out there of the previous tenant that'll give you an idea of what it looked like before. Mind you when the book store left it was rented out to fly-by-night bargain basement retailers for a while, but they didn't change anything from the book store they were just very messy. Note the tacky air conditioning pipes and gold detailing!
Pics courtesy of Skyscraper City (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1368979&page=26) (found them with google image search)
Note in this last image the placement of the trees and the garden:
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.