MacRumors

With Apple hosting a media preview of its massive new Grand Central Terminal store in Manhattan today, the company continues to reveal the landmark store to the public. Business Insider has posted a few photos showing that the curtains have been removed from main entrance stairway and balcony railing, giving the store its finished appearance from the concourse.

Apple's exterior signage for the store's main entrance consists of lighted Apple logos mounted on glass panels on each of the two landings for the main stairway, with a third lighted Apple logo mounted above the top of the stairs. Interior photos show that Apple has placed its stock on the sales floor, filling the numerous wood tables with Apple hardware for customers to test out.

techfootnote posts a few additional photos and notes that free Wi-Fi courtesy of Apple has gone live on the concourse.

Apple's Grand Central Terminal store will open to the public at 10:00 AM on Friday.

Update: Apple has just published a press release announcing the official opening for the store, touting the "one-of-a-kind" store spanning two balconies and offering two Genius Bars. The company also promotes new 15-minute "Express Workshops" to help users on tight schedules learn new tips and tricks.

The Apple Store® Grand Central, Apple’s fifth store in Manhattan, will open Friday, December 9, at 10 a.m., just in time for the holidays. This one-of-a-kind Apple retail store overlooks the historic Main Concourse from the East and North East balconies of the world-famous Grand Central Terminal, and has two Genius Bars for free tech support and advice.

...

Beyond the balcony overlooking the expansive Main Concourse, the Apple Store Grand Central offers rooms dedicated to some of our most popular services, including the largest area in the world dedicated to Personal Setup.

Update 2: Fortune has posted a video walkthrough of the new store.

AT&T today announced that it sold approximately 6 million smartphones during the first two months of the fourth quarter, already approaching the company's record for quarterly sales of 6.1 million units set in the third quarter of last year. In particular, AT&T credits the strong performance of the iPhone 4S for the sales boost.

AT&T’s strong smartphone sales in part reflect a higher number of handset upgrades from customers who were waiting for the launch of a new iPhone. AT&T previously announced that it activated more than 1 million iPhone 4S’ in the first five days the device was available. AT&T said iPhone 4S sales remain strong.

AT&T's press release was accompanied by a regulatory filing noting that the strong sales will result in a negative impact on near-term earnings as the carrier absorbs the large subsidies it pays out for each handset. But beyond the short-term hit to earnings, the company expects those sales to result in improved performance over the long-term as it recoups those subsidies over the two-year terms of customers' service contracts.

The higher number of upgrades indicates that customers have continued to stay with AT&T in record numbers even in a very competitive environment, with more carriers than ever selling the iPhone. Also consistent with AT&T’s earlier guidance, these record smartphone sales are expected to have a near-term negative impact on margins and therefore earnings. However, AT&T expects that these postpaid customers over time will benefit the Company as, historically, postpaid customers produce stable revenue, reflecting their contract term, and higher average revenue per subscriber, including stronger data usage, than other customer categories.

In addition to the iPhone 4S, AT&T also offers the new 8 GB iPhone 4 and is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone 3GS. Those lower-end devices have also proven popular with customers, continuing to drive sales growth for the carrier.

Popular social magazine service Flipboard today announced the release of a universal version of its previous iPad app, adding compatibility for the iPhone and iPod touch. Flipboard allows users to collect information from various sources including social networks, news sites, and blogs, presenting the content in an easy-to-browse magazine style. Highlights of the new universal app include:

- Social Networks: Enjoy everything in one place from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Reader, Flickr and 500px.
- Cover Stories: Get a quick update on interesting stories and photos from all your social networks and favorite Flipboard content.
Flipboard Accounts: Access to all the favorite content and social networks you saved on the iPad edition of Flipboard with a Flipboard Account.
- Content Guide: Browse recommended reading. Use + to add to your Flipboard.
- Search Bar: Find social conversations, posts and feeds from any person or publication and on any topic. For example, search “Cinemagraph” and get results from Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, RSS and Instagram.
- Share Everywhere: Just one tap to share, like or comment to add to the conversation on the social network an item was posted to.
- Fast Flip: Scan through pages as quickly as you can with just a flick of a thumb.
- Read later: Use Instapaper or Read It Later to mark stories you want to save.

Highlighting interest in the new iPhone version, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller posted a relatively rare Tweet from his account this morning to report that the new iPhone version of Flipboard is "very nice".

Flipboard has proven popular with other users as well, with The Next Web noting that Flipboard today announced total downloads for the iPad version of 4.5 million, making the app installed on more 10% of all iPads. The company obviously believes that the new universal app will help bring Flipboard to an even larger number of users, while also offering current users of the iPad version more flexibility to also access their content on their smaller devices.

Update: As Flipboard acknowledges in a Tweet, the service is currently experiencing difficulties due to high traffic from the iPhone launch.

Due to high demand, our service is currently down, we are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

As noted by iPhoneinCanada, Apple has submitted revised plans for their so-called "Spaceship" campus proposal. The massive new campus is expected to provide Apple with approximately 2.8 million square feet for up to 13,000 employees. Steve Jobs personally presented the original plans to the City of Cupertino in June. Jobs described it as follows:

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.

With the exception of the rendering included above, many of the other renderings appear the same as the previous images released. The newly revised documents do include detailed floorplans of how the 4 story building will be laid out. If all goes as planned, the structure could be complete by 2015.

Apple released a version 1.5 update to their iBooks iOS app that provides a number of new features to the ebook application:

iBooks 1.5 adds the following new features as well as some stability and performance improvements:

- Nighttime reading theme makes reading books in the dark easier on the eyes.
- Full-screen layout lets you focus on the words without distraction.
- iBooks now features an improved selection of fonts, including Athelas, Charter, Iowan, and Seravek.
- Beautiful new classic covers for public domain books.
- Support for pop-up footnotes, included in select iBookstore titles.
- A redesigned annotation palette makes it easier to choose a color for your highlighted text.

iBooks is a universal app that supports iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. [App Store]

Earlier today, we highlighted a leaked roadmap from VR-Zone detailing Intel's plans for its mobile Ivy Bridge processors set to debut in April and May of next year.

One detail of the report that bears special attention is the fact that the Ivy Bridge platform, both mobile and desktop, will support up to three independent displays, with one of those displays being an internal one.

While we're talking about graphics, as with the desktop Ivy Bridge processors, the mobile processors also support up to three independent displays, although one of these will be the built in display in the notebook, but hopefully we'll see notebooks with a DisplayPort connector as standard come next year.

The current Sandy Bridge platform is only capable of supporting two independent displays, limiting the MacBook Air to one external display. Similarly, the 13-inch MacBook Pro can only drive two external displays by turning off its internal display.

More powerful machines such as the larger MacBook Pro models can currently drive two external displays in addition to the internal one due to their inclusion of discrete graphics chips paired with the Sandy Bridge platform. But with Ivy Bridge opening the door to direct support for up to three displays via the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics, even owners of smaller machines like the MacBook Air will have the option of significantly expanding their screen real estate by connecting to two external displays.

CNBC reports on word from a source who claims that Apple has been very pleased with customer usage of the EasyPay self-checkout system for its retail stores. Under the system, customers can use the Apple Store app on their iPhones to scan shelf-stocked items in an Apple retail store and pay for them using their iTunes Store accounts. Customers can simply walk out of the store after the transaction is completed without needing to speak with any store employees.

The report does not offer any specifics on the program's performance, but vaguely suggests that it is at least meeting expectations.

Apple's self checkout revolution may have seemed a bit crazy, but it's apparently working out.

That's what I hear from a source familiar with Apple's retail operation.

...

The intelligence I'm getting is that the benefits of the new system are outweighing any negatives.

The report notes that Apple is also expected to heavily promote the self-checkout feature at its new Grand Central Terminal store set to open on Friday. With the open floor plan and throngs of commuters quickly passing through the store, the feature will likely be a popular one for store visitors.

While some have been skeptical of the usefulness of the self-checkout feature, many customers had expressed frustration at difficulties with getting the attention of store employees to complete simple transactions, and the new self-checkout avoids that situation entirely while freeing those staff members for more specialized consultation and training with other customers. Apple has reportedly noted that it envisions self-checkout and another system in which customers can pickup online orders in-store eventually being the primary ways in which customers make purchases from Apple retail stores.

VR-Zone leaks a roadmap for Intel's next generation mobile processors, called Ivy Bridge. Apple currently uses Intel's mobile Sandy Bridge processors in its MacBook Pro and MacBook Air notebooks.

Ivy Bridge will offer a number of benefits for Apple's notebook lines, opening the door to quad-core processors in the 13-inch MacBook Pro and bringing significantly faster graphics and new OpenCL capabilities to the MacBook Air. Ivy Bridge will also support ultra high resolution displays and Intel has committed to Thunderbolt support alongside USB 3.0 in the platform.

VR-Zone details a wide range of processors with Thermal Design Power (TDP) ranging from 17W to 55W. The TDP tends to be the limiting factor in the size of Apple's notebook designs. Apple presently uses 17W processors in the MacBook Air designs and 35W-45W processors in the MacBook Pro. The new processors will include the improved Intel HD Graphics 4000 integrated graphics chipset.

The 35W-45W (MacBook Pro) processors range from Dual/Quad Core 2.6GHz to 2.9GHz with single core turbo speeds of up to 3.6GHz, while the 17W (MacBook Air) processors range from Dual Core 1.8GHz to 2.0GHz with single core turbo speeds of up to 2.8-3.2GHz.

Apple's choice of processors may depend on how dramatically it redesigns the MacBook Pro next year. Rumors have persisted that Apple is working on ultra-thin models that may represent a complete overhaul of some of the MacBook Pro models, making them more Air-like in design. VR-Zone notes that the TDPs on these processors are programmable, so Apple may be able to reduce their TDPs at the expense of processor speed.

VR-Zone reports that the new mobile platform is expected to launch around May, with some high-end processors possibly launching in April. This gives a rough timeframe of when we should expect updates to Apple's notebooks.

As predicted by Amazon following its release, Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs has become the retailer's best-selling book of 2011. The milestone is a remarkable one given that the book did not debut until late October.

Steve Jobs quickly rose to #13 on the list following its debut, which was moved up in the wake of Jobs' death in early October. By mid-November the title had risen to #2 on the list, setting the stage for its accession to the top spot.

Sony Pictures has acquired the movie rights to the authorized biography, and Aaron Sorkin is "strongly considering" taking on the task of writing the screenplay for the film. One report has indicated that George Clooney and Noah Wyle are in the running to portray Jobs.

Bloomberg reports that the European Commission has launched an antitrust investigation targeting Apple and five e-book publishers. The publishers targeted in the investigation include five of the six major book publishers: Hachette, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Macmillan.

PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a January report that European e-book sales have been sluggish, partly due to the small range of non-English titles and fixed price agreements between publishers and stores in 13 countries. EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said last month that he wanted to fight “artificial restrictions imposed by some companies to cross-border trade” and was examining the way e-books are distributed.

Today’s probe “will in particular investigate whether these publishing groups and Apple have engaged in illegal agreements or practices that would have the object or the effect of restricting competition,” the Brussels-based authority said.

Apple has been targeted by a number of investigations and lawsuits related to its remaking of the book industry. With the launch of its iBookstore, Apple reached agreements with major publishers to adopt an "agency model" in which publishers retain control over sales prices and retailers receive a 30% share of that sales price. Previously, retailers had paid set wholesale prices for books and then priced them for sale at their discretion. With Apple driving the shift to an agency model, Amazon and other major retailers quickly followed suit.

Following in the footsteps of DirecTV, Cablevision, and Time Warner, Cox Communications is now offering a free iPad App called Cox TV Connect for iPad that live TV streaming for iPad customers at home.

Cox TV Connect allows you to watch popular shows LIVE, right on your iPad:

- Watch TV on your iPad from anywhere in your house.
- Choose from more than 35 popular channels.
- Yours to enjoy for free as a subscriber to Cox TV Essential and Cox Preferred, Premier or Ultimate Internet service.

Users must be a customer of both Cox TV and Cox internet service in order to be eligible to stream TV to their iPads. [App Store]

Earlier today, we noted that a U.S. judge late last week declined to issue a preliminary injunction barring Samsung from selling several of its Galaxy smartphone and tablet devices in the United States while Apple's case alleging patent and design infringement moved through the courts. From the decision released by Judge Lucy Koh, The Verge noted that it had seen portions of the court order that had been redacted and which revealed that Apple had licensed one specific iOS interface patent to both Nokia and IBM. Samsung had, however, declined to license the invention when offered the option by Apple as part of settlement talks in late 2010.

Reuters now reveals how that redacted portion of the court order came to light, as the initially-posted court order had mistakenly allowed the redacted text to be visible upon copying and pasting.

In her 65-page ruling denying Apple's request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung, Koh attempted to redact nearly two dozen sentences or short fragments. But because of a formatting characteristic in the prior electronic version, the redacted material can be viewed by copying text from the PDF and pasting it into another document.

The publicly-available version of the court order has been corrected and the redacted portions are no longer visible, but Reuters shares a few tidbits of information revealed in the redacted portions.

Perhaps most significantly, Koh cites as part of her rationale Apple's admission that Samsung is more likely to take market share from other Android manufacturers than it is from Apple.

According to the redacted portions, Apple's own studies show that existing customers are unlikely to switch from iPhones to Samsung devices. Instead, the evidence suggests an increase in sales of Samsung smartphones is likely to come at the expense of other smartphones with Android operating systems, Koh wrote.

The admission is not a tremendous surprise given the barriers to switching app ecosystems and surveys of iOS device owners reporting significant loyalty to the platform, but it is interesting to see Apple's formal admission of the relatively low risks Samsung poses to Apple's current user base. Apple would of course argue that Samsung's alleged infringement would prove to be a bigger threat regarding users who are just moving to a smartphone for the first time.

Another interesting revelation from the court order is Samsung's argument that Apple shouldn't be awarded an injunction in part due to the sheer impossibility of Apple being able to keep up with demand for smartphone devices by itself. But Koh acknowledged that such an argument was "dubious" in the face of testimony and evidence presented by Apple claiming that it is indeed capable of meeting demand.

The dispute between Apple and Samsung has been receiving the most attention in the media given the number of cases going on around the world and the numerous day-to-day developments. But the first major decision in the United States may actually come when the International Trade Commission decides whether to rule in favor of Apple's request for a ban on the import of HTC smartphones over patent infringement. A final ruling on that request had been scheduled for tomorrow, but has been delayed until December 14th.