MacRumors

Earlier this week, we noted that this weekend's group of Apple retail store grand openings would be headlined by the company's Causeway Bay flagship location in Hong Kong. The store features three levels, with a 30-foot tall glass curtain wall making a significant impact on the shopping center.

With the store set to open to the public tomorrow, Apple has been putting the finishing touches on it and has unveiled the store for passersby to see. ifoAppleStore's Gary Allen pointed to an image posted to Flickr showing showing the full scale of the store's glass facade.

M.I.C. gadget has also posted a number of photos of the store, as well as a short video giving a glimpse of the store from the outside.

As we previously noted, Apple is also opening new stores tomorrow in the following cities: Chengdu, China; Melbourne, Australia; and Malmö, Sweden. Apple is also opening its replacement Third Street Promenade store in Santa Monica, California tomorrow, moving into a much larger space. The new store is one of the first to use a design based on that of the Upper West Side store in Manhattan, with similar stores having already opened in Houston and Palo Alto.

Finally, Apple is opening a replacement Rockway store in New Jersey tomorrow, allowing Apple to close one of its last "mini-stores" in the U.S.

In line with its announcement from earlier this month, Apple today launched the iPhone 5 in 33 new countries, with the most prominent member of the group being China.

Unlike the chaos that reigned at the iPhone 4S launch earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reports that the iPhone 5 appears to have been quite subdued. It is unclear, however, how much of the change may be due to lack of interest and how much may have been related to snowy weather and changes in Apple's sales policies designed to reduce scalping and other factors that have led to problems at previous launches.

Friday’s iPhone 5 launch was notable for a different kind of white: a rare accumulation of fresh snow that blanketed the nearly empty plaza outside the Sanlitun store.

At 8 am on Friday, when the store opened to hurrahs from employees, only two consumers stood inside a cordon set up by Apple, though they were joined by a desultory snow man someone had made on a bench near the entrance.

Apple's new sales policies require customers to enter a lottery for the right to purchase an iPhone in the store, with winners being given specific windows of time in which to pick up their devices.

Fortune has also collected a handful of videos showing launches in China, Malaysia, and the Philippines that were part of today's major rollout in the following countries: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Grenada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

While critics loved the iPad mini, the biggest complaint concerned the device's screen, which does not have a Retina resolution like Apple's larger iPad.

Retina seems like a logical update for Apple’s second generation iPad mini, and a report from Digitimes today says that Apple is indeed planning to increase the resolution of its next iPad mini.

Apple's next-generation iPad mini will focus mostly on enhancing the device’s display resolution, according to Taiwan-based backlighting industry sources.

The sources have yet to specify whether the device will use Apple’s Retina Display technology to enhanced resolution, but market observers said it is highly likely based on the development of past Apple products such as the iPhone and 9.7-inch iPad series.

Adding a Retina display to a device as thin as the iPad mini could be a tricky prospect, possibly requiring a large battery and a more robust processor, as it did when Apple introduced the Retina display to the full-sized iPad. This restriction has led notable technology site AnandTech to predict that the next iPad mini won't come with a Retina display, as stated in the site's iPad mini review.

Digitimes adds that the next generation 9.7-inch iPad will be lighter due to new LED light bar technology that will incorporate just one light bar instead of the two that are currently in the third and fourth generation iPads. While Digitimes has had a mixed record in the past, it's clear that they do have sources in Apple's supply chain.

Apple has updated iTunes to version 11.0.1, fixing a number of bugs. The update is available in the Mac App Store or via Apple's support website.

This update to the new iTunes addresses an issue where new purchases in iCloud may not appear in your library if iTunes Match is turned on, makes iTunes more responsive when searching a large library, fixes a problem where the AirPlay button may not appear as expected, and adds the ability to display duplicate items within your library.

iTunes 11 was originally released on November 29, and these bug fixes had been promised in Walt Mossberg's review of iTunes 11 in early December.

iTunes 11 brought a number of enhancements to the media player including a redesigned store, simplified player, and new iCloud features.

Apple has updated its iCloud System Status page with a much more comprehensive page breaking down outages by service and showing recent outages in a detailed timeline. The old system simple offered written status updates in a more free-form fashion.

Over the past year, Apple has seen various iCloud services go offline several times. Just today, some users were unable to access iCloud mail, iCloud Documents, Photo Stream, and Backup & Restore.

With the change, it looks like Apple is taking iCloud a bit more seriously, particularly following Eddy Cue's promotion to Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services.

Apple today released the 2012 version of its annual iTunes Store awards, previously called iTunes Rewind, which celebrates the best music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, and podcasts of the year.

Here are some of the notable winners for 2012:

Apps:
-iPhone App of the Year: Action Movie FX
-iPhone Game of the Year: Rayman Jungle Run
-iPad App of the Year: Paper by FiftyThree
-iPad Game of the Year: Room

Music:
-Best Artist: Channel ORANGE by Frank Ocean
-Best Album: Shields by Grizzly Bear
-Best Song: We Are Young by Fun.
-Breakthrough Album: The Lumineers by The Lumineers

Books:
-Best Novel: The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
-Best Nonfiction: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
-Best Young Adult Novel: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
-Best Multi-Touch Book: Fashion by DK Publishing

For the first time in two years, no photography apps made it in to the top listings. 2012 also marks the first year that an Entertainment app was given an editor’s choice award. As always, during the end of the year wrap up Apple highlights games and apps from a wide variety of categories, so it’s well worth skimming the list for hidden gems.

Beyond the top-level awards for music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, and podcasts, Apple is featuring a number of other awards and Editors' Choice picks across various genres and categories for the various content types.

See previous winners here: 2009, 2010, 2011.

Bloomberg reports that a jury in Delaware has found Apple guilty of patent infringement in a lawsuit brought by MobileMedia Ideas, a patent holding firm organized by Sony, Nokia, and MPEG LA. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2010, ultimately focused on three patents MobileMedia Ideas claimed were infringed by the iPhone.

In its complaint, MobileMedia contended it would suffer “irreparable injury” if Apple was allowed to use the patented inventions in its iPhone without paying royalties.

[MobileMedia CEO Larry] Horn said one patent is for the camera phone and others cover call handling and call rejection. He said MobileMedia has a portfolio of about 300 patents.

The jury in the trial reportedly deliberated for approximately four hours at the end of the weeklong trial, finding that the patents were valid and that they had been infringed upon by Apple. No damages have yet been awarded in the case.

Reuters conducted interviews with more than 70 shoppers in major cities around the world to find out which consumer electronics items they are most interested in this holiday season.

Reporters discovered that while Apple stores were bustling with shoppers, Microsoft's pop-up stores in the U.S. were much less crowded. Additionally, though Samsung has spent big bucks in recent months pushing its products (and knocking on Apple's), only in Singapore and Bangalore did consumers have Samsung at the top of their list.

Loyalty to Apple's compelling orchard of products seemed to be a first line of defense for the Cupertino, California, company as shoppers in Europe, Asia and the United States weighed the pros and cons of switching to rival offerings.

Customers cited existing iTunes music and video libraries plus the traditional Apple virtues of simplicity and ease of use as reasons to stick with the iPhone and the iPad.

"I just taught my Persian grandmother how to use her new iPhone. She's 77 and speaks no English," said Soheil Arzang, a 27-year-old law student in Palo Alto, California. "With a Windows PC there are so many buttons, it's confusing. I converted my parents officially to Apple iPhones, Macs and iPads."

Earlier this week, a questionable Reuters article compared Apple's lock-in ecosystem with a "tax" that users are required to pay to have access to their previously purchased apps and content. Aside from the misuse of the word "tax", that piece was correct in that Apple has locked in its users.

Today's article quotes several users on Android tablets and phones, with one saying "although they are cheaper, you have to re-buy everything." Another said "Apple's got me in now." In fact, Samsung's chief strategy officer is an Apple user for the exact same reasons.

Other points of interest include heavy demand for the iPad and the iPad mini, Apple Stores surveyed had 9 visitors for every 1 visit to a comparable Microsoft store, and in-store purchases of the Amazon Kindle was virtually nonexistent -- likely because of Amazon's online-only focus.

In an interview with MIT Technology Review (via The Verge), Samsung Chief Strategy Officer Young Sohn reveals that he is in fact an Apple user. Sohn, who joined Samsung in August, uses a Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad as his personal devices, and cites Apple's ecosystem as a major advantage for the company.

OK, so think about Apple compared to Samsung. I use a Mac, actually, at home. I’ve always used Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad. I also have the Galaxy. So I’m a great example.

If you look at the strengths of Apple, in a way it’s not the product per se. It’s that consumers like their ecosystem such as iCloud. I like that my family 6,000 miles away in Korea is able to see my schedule and see all of my contacts and photos. It is sticky, but it is a proprietary architecture.

Sohn goes on to note that he believes Samsung devices such as the Galaxy Nexus are better than the iPhone but that the convenience of Apple's connected ecosystem brings a critical aspect to the user experience. In Sohn's view, Samsung needs to move beyond its current device-centric model and work with partners to embrace a model of an open ecosystem to provide a quality user experience.

Sohn also briefly addresses Apple within the context of Samsung's effort to set up operations in Silicon Valley, noting that Samsung is focused on the broader opportunities involving 6,000 startups in the region and not driven by a desire to take on Apple on its home turf. Sohn praises Apple as "a very innovative company" and points to Apple's role as both customer and competitor of Samsung as defining their relationship.

Earlier this week, Russian security firm Dr. Web published a blog post announcing the discovery of a new OS X trojan horse known as "Trojan.SMSSend.3666". The malware masquerades as an installer for various software titles, but tricks users into signing up for subscriptions through their mobile devices.

When a user starts such an installer, they see the interface that imitates the installation wizard of a corresponding application. In order to continue the "installation" fraudsters ask that the victim enter their cellphone number into an appropriate field and then specify the code found in a reply SMS. By performing these actions the user agrees to terms of a chargeable subscription and a fee will be debited from their mobile phone account on a regular basis.

Similar trojans have affected Windows and even Android platforms for some time, but the tactic is now being used to target Mac users.

Apple has moved quickly to address the threat, adding definitions for the malware to its "Xprotect.plist" blacklist, which is part of the basic anti-malware tools Apple launched with OS X Snow Leopard in 2009. In its original incarnation, users were required to update definitions manually, but as malware threats against OS X grew, Apple last year instituted automatic daily checks to keep users' systems updated. The anti-malware tools automatically detect when a user has downloaded a file matching the signature of known malware, alerting the user of the threat and advising them to discard the downloaded file.

The much-anticipated Google Maps for iOS is finally here. The app offers iOS 6 users who are unhappy with Apple's in-house Maps app an opportunity to switch back to Google's map platform. The new app includes turn-by-turn navigation, public transit directions, Google local search and more.

There are a number of features and tidbits that come with Google Maps for iOS as well. Here's a selection.

- Jesse Hollington notes on Twitter that Google Maps is now a transit routing app option that is linked from Apple's Maps app.

- Google has created the Google Maps for iOS SDK, which allows developers to feature Google Maps in their applications rather than Apple Maps. Developers can do this in two ways. The first uses a URL scheme so developers can have their apps launch Google Maps to complete a search, show a map or Street View imagery, or view walking, driving and public transportation navigation easily. There are also API keys that allow developers to feature information like traffic navigation and general maps navigation.

- Google's blog post on the app notes that Google Maps for iOS supports iOS 5.1 and higher, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. Apple's turn-by-turn voice navigation does not support iOS 5 and those two iPhone models.

- A horizontal two-finger swipe allows you to access a menu that shows traffic, public transit, satellite view and Google Earth (which sends you to the Google Earth app).

- The app is available for 40 countries in 29 different languages, according to Google's blog post.

- KamenLee notes you can shake your iPhone (in frustration) which will trigger a Feedback form to Google.

Notes from David Pogue's Review:

- Google's point-of-interest database allows you, for example, to read a restaurant review on Zagat, read the menu, book reservations and see interior photos at 100 restaurants.
- Pogue also notes there's a Compass Mode that allows you, at certain locations, to move your phone around and allow you to see the interior of a business on your screen.
- Google has added some Google Earth features to the iOS app, including the entire photographic model of the Earth and its oceans
- Pogue mentions that Google admits that the iOS app is better than the Android version in terms of design. The Verge says that Google told them that they took everything they learned about design and used it for this app.
- iPad version is coming

iOS version is available as a free download from the App Store. [iTunes Link]