The relocation of Apple’s flagship headquarters from Cupertino’s Infinity Loop to a grassy 150 acres has been the talk of Silicon Valley. Freshly released details include the commission of United Kingdom architects Foster + Partners in tandem with ARUP North America and Kier & Wright, a local civil engineering firm that counts the likes of eBay and NVIDIA as clients.
The circular design was implemented by Apple themselves – an absolutely curved infrastructure void of straight angled glass with a courtyard situated in its core; cited as both to enhance campus security and internal circulations. The 2.8 million square feet on which it is situated on includes an office and R&D facilities for up to 13,000 employees, a 1000-seat auditorium, fitness center, research facilities, central plant and underground parking.
Perhaps Apple’s greatest achievement comes from its environmental endeavors through generating its own electricity via an on-site central plant, open green spaces for employee enjoyment, and “to exceed sustainability goals through integrated design and development.”
Blueprints and mockups assume the project is approaching an impending green light per city approval and slated for an opening as soon as 2015.
Apple‘s Magic Mouse is almost perfection in a small plastic mound apart from the problem of batteries. Every time you run out of juice you need to hunt for some more AAs, hardly ideal. Mobee however come to the rescue with the Magic Charger that uses inductive charging technology to almost magically charge your Magic Mouse back to full power.
Apple’s next-generation iPhone will launch in the third quarter. And the company plans to ship 25 million units by year’s end, according to a report.
Citing “people familiar with the situation,” The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has placed orders with suppliers in Taiwan for some of the next iPhone’s key components. The new version of the iPhone will include an 8-megapixel camera (compared to the current 5-megapixel) and will be thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4.
The article also cites a source who says the new iPhone will use Qualcomm’s baseband chips. The current iPhone uses memory chips from Samsung and baseband chips from Infineon Technologies, according to a report from iSuppli Corp.
Apple is telling suppliers to produce enough of the phones to meet a goal of 25 million units by year’s end. By comparison, Apple said it sold 18.65 million iPhones in the fiscal second quarter, which ended March 26. The initial units will ship to assembler Hon Hai in August.
This new information jibes with other information that has leaked out about the release. Last month, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty sent a note to clients stating that the next iPhone would begin production in August. Rumors about the new iPhone also surfaced last month, including one from Boy Genius Report that cited a source saying the iPhone 5 would sport a “radical new case design.” Bloomberg also reported that the model would have an 8-megapixel camera and an AS5 processor and would be available in September.
