Spiral glass staircase at future NYC Apple store; Hard Drive Update 1.0

Hard Drive Update 1.0

The Hard Drive Update 1.0 [1.4MB] includes bug fixes and important updates for iMac Core 2 Duo systems running Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later, and Mac Pro workstations running Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later.

To complete the firmware update process, Apple instructs users to follow the instructions in the updater application. The updater will launch automatically when the Installer closes.

Meatpacking store to get spiral glass staircase

Though it seems that Apple has successfully courted its construction contractors to join its tight-lipped regiment, one eagle-eyed Manhattan resident was still able to scope out an intriguing nugget of info on the company's upcoming flagship shop in the island's Meatpacking District by studying a posted building permit.

"As I was walking past the sidewalk permits, something caught my eye and I stopped to shoot a photo of one of the permits with my blackberry curve," reports Musings of a VC in NYC. "As I was taking the photo, the construction site boss came out and started glaring at me. He asked me, 'What are you doing and who are you?' I told him I was Fred Wilson and I was taking a photo of the sidewalk permit. I mentioned that it is a public permit and that it was there to inform the public about what was going on there. He just stood there staring at me and I checked my photo to make sure I got what I wanted and then headed on."

What caught Fred's eye was that the permit contained a reference to a "large glass circular stair," which is expected to join floors one and two of the approximately 10,000-square-foot retail outlet.

Apple has already played this card before to much success. The first instance came by way of the company's Osaka, Japan-based flagship shop back in 2004, where a 24-step, spiral glass stairway was suspended from the second floor, forming the centerpiece of outlet and greeting patrons as they pass through the location's glass entranceway. Apple later built similar structures into its Shibuya store in Japan, its Fifth Ave. flagship in Manhattan, and its recent Buchanan Street store in Glasgow, Scotland.

Interestingly, the Cupertino-based company has received multiple patents on its glass staircase designs, which list chief executive Steve Jobs amongst their inventors. The latest patent, granted in January, focuses on the engineering and manufacture of the laminated glass panels used in the structures, as well as the employment of titanium inserts to attach the panels together.

The upcoming flagship shop at West 14th Street and 9th Avenue in Manhattan's Meatpacking District had been rumored for an opening ahead of this year's holiday shopping season, though it's presently unclear if it will make the cut.

iPhone line forms in London

Apple will launch the iPhone in the UK at 6.02pm tomorrow night, and a queue is already forming outside its doors on Regent Street, reports Macworld UK.

"It's not the longest queue — yet, but two people have arrived outside the store equipped with warm weather clothing, folding chairs and grim, dogged determination to be among the first people in the UK to get hold of an iPhone.

The move replicates the US experience, where the first queues began to form outside Apple and AT&T shops the day before the product launched. Hundreds had joined these queues by the time the iPhone went on sale."