Apple's only retail store in Northern Ireland is moving, but rest assured that the new location will be in close proximity to the current one.
Apple has announced that its store at the Victoria Square shopping center in Belfast will be permanently closed starting Tuesday, October 15. The company is opening a new store in the nearby Corn Market area on Friday, October 18.
MacRumors reader Chris Ball shared a photo of Apple's new store in Belfast earlier this week, but the company's logo remained covered at the time. Ball said the store is located on High Street in the city's central shopping district.
Apple's website indicates that the new store will have an Apple Pickup station for in-store pickup of online orders, and a Genius Bar for technical support and repairs. The store will also host free Today at Apple creative sessions.
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...
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...
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...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28.
The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
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...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. iOS 26.2 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation iPhone SE.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
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 4:02 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple is working on a smart home hub that will rely heavily on the more capable version of Siri that's coming next year. We've heard quite a bit about the hub over the last two years, but a recent iOS 26 code leak provides additional insight into what we can expect and confirms rumored features.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Macworld claims to have access to an ...
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 strongly suspect the deal here with Apple is the same as with many other American corporates (Amazon, for example) who 'base' in the ROI for tax purposes - the actual execs are based in a swanky London office, and regard the ROI as a weird rural UK backwater of their actual operations and don't bother with it.
The EU execs are based in ROI.
The Cork HQ was the first Apple development outside the US, the entire sales and distribution business outside the US is still based here.
We have a LOT of IT grads here, the tax thing is obviously a bonus but we're also the only English speaking EU country and one of the highest developed/educated countries.
What there’s none in ROI despite their EU HQ being located there?!
Apple started operating in Cork (Ireland) in 1980 and has been growing steadily. It currently employs over 6,000 here but still has no Apple Store in the country. Sigh. ???☘️
Can't see this changing much, it's just getting out of the grotty Victoria Square which, when it launched, was all fancy but malls don't last.
Cornmarket is usually heaving with people and I am betting Apple has also paid the council to sweeten up the Cornmarket area as well - as they do with other places.
I was there at the launch of the last one in 2008, it was a big deal for Belfast to get one but then we hadn't had a reseller for years.
So I got there today and I was very underwhelmed. Victoria Sq store should have been revamped. Far superior location. The new store feels claustrophobic and ordinary. Low head height and very ordinary sized windows. Sad to say this as I have visited loads of the Apple flagship stores all over the globe and many are magical. A downgrade for Belfast and the wrong location. Whoever made the decision should hang their head.
