Strategy gamers take note – impatiently awaited title, Command and Conquer Red Alert is available now for the iPhone.
The $9.99 app includes a 12-map single player campaign and a Skirmish mode, with multiplayer support promised within a future update.
In-apps purchasing means additional expansion packs will also be made available, with the first such set, ‘Assault Pack’ available now for $0.99.
A additional expansion pack is in development.
Video originally made available by TouchArcade
It is interesting to note that these aren’t just repackaged ads from TV commercials. These are just as high quality but made for the web format. The New York Times website may still have the ad live. Update: CNN.com also has the ad.
Is Apple trying to squash the Hackintosh netbook movement with one mighty software update? According to OSX Daily, they are. 10.6.2 early build kernels don’t support Intel’s Atom chipset, which seem to indicate that 10.6.2 won’t be able to be installed on most Hackintoshes without some "major" modifications. Most PC Netbooks run variants of Intel’s Atom processor.
This move would also indicate that Apple has no imediate plans to release a product based on Intel’s Atom processors.
Do we now have a new cat and mouse game?
It is also interesting to note that Microsoft is trying to get people to put Windows 7 on Netbooks while Apple is trying to prevent them from doing the exact same thing.
Recall last week when we learned at least one major European carrier has reached some kind of deal to offer mini video projectors to iPhone customers? Well, seems there may be more to this story than we first thought, with a Taiwanese firm involved in creating such pico projectors predicting massive growth next year – really massive growth.
In fact, according to Claude Hsu, president of Taiwan’s Young Optics, shipments of pico projectors for handsets will grow to 10-25 million units in 2012, compared to 20,000-30,000 in 2009.
Even though he says these figures are estimates that’s one heck of an expectation of a sales rise, particularly in comparison to his estimate of the size of the entire pico projector market for 2009 -170,000-180,000 units.
Hsu predicts projector shipments will climb sharply next year as “major handset vendors, such as Samsung Electronics, are expected to step up efforts for the market segment.”
We suspect these major vendors may well include a small Cupertino-based company. We’re just saying, right…
Via: DigiTimes
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Orange UK has published the prices and tariffs it will offer new iPhone customers when it makes the device available in the UK on November 10.
Expectation the carrier would spark a price war with iPhone incumbent, O2, seem dashed by the initial offering, which also includes options for Pay-as-you-go and/or business customers.
A number of Orange stores will celebrate the arrival of the iPhone with early opening at 7 am on 10 November. The company has seen more than a quarter of a million customers register their interest on our website.
Competition in the UK market is however set to intensify, with Vodafone expected to offer the device from next year, when the UK’s smallest carrier, 3, has also said it expects to begin offering Apple’s device.
More information on Orange iPhone pricing here.
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iPhone users running the latest, greatest Microsoft OS, Windows 7, have encountered an interesting little error on behalf of the iPhone hating-Steve Ballmer led company – PC’s using a new Intel chipsets seem unable to sync with the Apple device.
According to a Register report, PC’s running Intel’s P55 chipset face an error which prevents iPhone sync through iTunes on various WIndows PC’s that use the chips.
Apple Discussions are carrying reports of the problem, which Microsoft and Intel are allegedly looking into.
“For the past six weeks, complaints from users running this trifecta of pain have been clogging a thread on Apple’s discussion board. The posts report that – in most cases – iTunes 9 for Windows will recognize the iPhone, but when a sync is attempted, users are greeted with a cryptic "error 0xE8000065" – an iPhone-connection failure notification,” also reported The Register.
While Apple’s keeping quiet on the problem, Microsoft told The Register: “Microsoft has not seen this particular question posed in the Microsoft Answers for Windows 7 community forum, nor in any of our call centers. We reviewed the issue raised on the Apple Discussion Board and are currently investigating. If we determine this to be a problem specific to Windows 7, we will post an update on the Microsoft Answers site."
Apple is at once the world’s most secretive company while also being the one which generates more column inches than any other firm on the planet. Millions of people worldwide are fascinated by what happens in Cupertino, even if they don’t use the disruptive products invented there.
What follows are six of the most essential titles any Apple watcher should read and own if they really want to build up their understanding of the company.
We’ve been watching Apple at work and play for a long, long time. We consider these to be the key titles to help boost understanding of the history and philosophy of the company.
We know that Mac website editors across the planet have a few books forever in the shelf behind their desk, and we figured it would be of some interest if told you which books they are.
So, whether it’s to satisfy your own curiousity, or for a Christmas or birthday present for an Apple fan, we think you really can’t go wrong with any one or all of these titles. Read on…
Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World’s Most Colorful Company
Owen W. Linzmayer ($15.61)
The title says it all. This is the classic and most essential work of Apple history, and an essential tool/reference for anybody who really wants to get to grips with the company since its inception.
It’s a chronological narrative, which means you must expect some repetition, but you’d expect that in order to put what has been a pretty complex series of events into context. There’s gem after gem of Apple knowledge, stories and events which we’d argue any Apple watcher will want the inside scoop on, including those hidden Easter Eggs inside some iterations of the early Mac OS, telling quotes from people behind the company itself – we could go on, but suffice to say, if you’re fascinated by the Apple story you really should own this book.
Buy it here (US).
Buy it here (UK, £18.49).
Infinite Loop
Michael Malone ($13.45)
I was instructed to read this way back in 1999 when I began my new assignment, reporting the news about Apple. I still consider this to be an essential read for anyone trying to get to grips with what the company is about and all the significant business dealings and strategic decisions which led it to where it was at the close of the last century.
This title is now pretty hard to get hold of, though there’s a few available through Amazon. That’s a shame as this is a brilliant piece of writing which begins deep in the heart of Santa Clara Valley and the early lives of Apple’s two founders, Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The author takes you deep into what shaped the lives of the two Steve’s, both the post-60’s radical counterculture of the HomeBrew Computer Club and what that meant and the early development of the electronics industry. It’s a truly fascinating account which includes Jobs and his time at Atari, his relationship with Woz, the development of the company, the Apple I, the Mac, the fall and return of Steve Jobs and the launch of the iMac.
Buy it here (US).
Buy it here (UK, from £7.64).
Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made
Andy Hertzfeld ($16.47)
Part of the team which developed the very first Macintosh, Andy Hertzfeld has a unique insight into the political intrigue and motivation that led to that particular revolution in personal computer design. It’s a fascinating read that starts in 1978, when the developer/author purchased an Apple II to his work on the Mac OS and more.
The book consists of a series of short posts Hertzfeld first published on his own website, www.folklore.org, but benefits from his first-hand involvement in these events which, arguably, shaped our times. There’s rare (really rare) full colour images and a whole lot more, including lashings of clear enthusiasm for the achievements and the meaning of the company itself.
An impressive, engagingly-written window into a non-Windows world.
Buy it here (US).
Buy it here (UK, £12.34).
Return to the Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and the Creation of Apple
Michael Moritz ($18.45)
Published just a few days ago, this book has been heavily revised, being an updated version of the book (The Little Kingdom: The Private Story of Apple Computer) Moritz wrote 25-years ago.
In conjunction with the others on this list the original title has been a tried and tested essential reference work that’s helped build and inform our understanding of the development of the computer company.
Why we like it? It’s factual, it lacks spin, and was written way back in 1984 by Moritz, then at Time Magazine. It does a great job explaining the origins and quirks of Apple’s first decade, giving some clue as to how the company turned out the way it did. Later titles all cite this one, partly because of its accuracy and partially for the on the button job Moritz managed in capturing the essences of the personalities of the founders of the company and the challenges it faced.
What do other people think? Andy Hertzfeld quite simply calls it, “One of the best books about Apple ever written”. We say, “buy this book”.
Buy it here (US)
Buy it here (UK, £6.99)
Apple Inc. (Corporations That Changed the World)
Jason O’Grady ($36)
O’Grady is one of the good guys, he’s been behind the much-loved O’Grady’s PowerPage for 14-years. In this book he proves himself once again, telling the story of Apple from its early inception all the way to the present day, naturally form his hard-bitten, regular Apple-watching perspective.
You’ll learn how the company operates, why it is the way it is, share a little of what inspires it, and much about the impact of the Macintosh on the wider PC and electronics industries. Not only that, but it’s well written, easy to read, and furnishes a great glimpse into the modus operandi of our favourite computer company.
Buy it here (US)
Buy it here (UK, £31.95)
The Cult of Mac
Leander Kahney ($16.47)
Kahney is that rare combination: a hard-nosed news reporter who is also equipped with the imagination to articulate and express the essence at the heart of any trend. In this, his first of many books, he created something which is still seen as one of the essential titles for those who want to understand just how passionate people can become about what is (really) just a computer company.
It’s a coffee-table title, sure, but its spiced with so many stories, images and well-researched tidbits that guarantee to keep you amused while becoming informed. This title is an excellent attempt at explaining and understanding just what it is that makes the Mac community tick. We like it a lot.
Buy it here, (US)
Buy it here, (UK, £19.99)
If you think we should add any other titles please let us know what the book is called and why you think they should be included in comments below. Thanks.
We all knew Seinfeld had a Mac at his house for all of those years on his show. Then Microsoft paid him $10 million to do a few PC commercials. But really, when not getting paid to say otherwise, we know he uses a Mac. This week’s Curb Your Enthusiasm had him at his desk a new 15-inch MacBook Pro.
Adobe and Apple may not yet have inked a deal to bring Flash support to the iPhone, but that hasn’t stopped the Photoshop developer from adding a few next-gen smartphone-focused features to Adobe AIR, which promises a slew of these in its next version upgrade.
Just look at these features and tell us Apple didn’t force industry change when it introduced the MultTouch-savvy iPhone (which now accounts for one-in-forty cellphones sold worldwide, BTW).
As revealed by Adobe AIR application developer, Christian Cantrell, Adobe AIR 2.0 will be the nads when it comes to smartphone and tablet device usage. And the software’s set to ship next year, we’ve learned.
As Apple does already, so the Adobe app will add support for Multi-touch and gesture-based controls – though not both at once (”Applications can listen for multi-touch events, or gesture events (not both at the same time)”, the developer warns.”
• Multi-touch: Touch events are similar to mouse events, but on multi-touch enabled devices, you can track multiple touch points simultaneously.
• Gestures: Applications can listen for multi-touch events, or gesture events (not both at the same time). Gestures are the synthesis of multi-touch events into a single event.
Better security, the capacity to open files with selected default apps, native processes to reduce the load of running Air 2.0 apps (basically AIR 2.0 will be smart enough to direct some of its operations to features native on multiple platforms – handy).
There’s dozens of other features likely of interest to developers, including extended support for different sockets, network management, DNS resolution and more.
Accesibility gets a boost too, with the same level of support for such features as already available in Flash.
A beta of AIR 2.0 will be on Adobe Labs late this year. The software should go some way to answering critics who avoid use of AIR because they demand too much memory and aren’t always great performers, with Adobe promising a whole bunch of improvements to boost performance.
Mac users should see multitouch support in those AIR apps they use as these elements are introduced.
Update: Firefox has also (coincidentally?) released their 3.6 beta today.
Watch out, there’s a new (Mac) browser heading to town, Camino 2.0.
The browser has reached its fourth beta version, and while developers warn it may not be stable and probably isn’t suitable for daily use, though you can stick with Safari or give Camino 1.6.10 a try, if you wish.
The browser is a lot like Safari and developed by Mozilla. This will be the last beta, and while there’s a healthy list of known bugs, this version’s in distribution to ensure no critical problems remain in advance of final release.
There’s a goodly list of new and exciting features, including tabbed browsing, new security features, content zoom, download notifications, support for Full Keyboard Access the capacity to block Flash apps by default (unless you want to watch particular ones), new AppleScript features – there’s loads, so we could go on.
Camino is an open source web browser which uses the Gecko rendering engine. The Camino Project works to create a browser that is as functional and elegant as the computers it runs on. The Camino web browser is powerful, secure, and ready to meet the needs of all users while remaining simple and elegant in its design.
Go and grab the beta here (illustration is of current stable 1.6.10 build).
Today is October 31, when many of us go horror crazy and you’re likely to find yourself sharing public transport seats with crazed zombies, random vampires and the occasional flesh-eating ghoul (if that’s unusual). Yep, it’s Halloween (Samhain), and we’ve been trawling the App Store for something that epitomises the season – and works on an iPhone.
Imagine our delight when we came across the really rather spiffing $1.99 app, Zombie Me, which you can use to transform pics of you or your friends into the kind of zombie effects-riven visage you rarely get outside of a make up department.
We like this app because it’s simple, cheap, offers a liberal dash of ‘oh so scary’ special effects, and should make for a new generation of funked-up, freaked-out, frightening horrow show zombie profile pics on Bebo, iChat, wherever.
Make scary eyes, highlight bloody mouths, add horrifying wounds and “lots of scary elements” to your pictures, the company says. You can save the images, email them, download them and more. And the developers promise new features ahead.
It’s all very ghoul. (sorry). Get the app right here.
Happy Halloween.
Apple’s ad guru, Lee Clow, may be stepping down from his position as chief creative officer of TBWA/Media Arts Lab – but this doesn’t mean his influence has left the company – and he’s annoyed with an original report on MediaPost, which naturally emerged, erm, everywhere.
Following yesterday’s reportage, Clow, the man behind Apple’s powerful, ‘Think Different’ campaign, apparently distributed a note to staff, which we have published for the sake of clarification below:
“Hey Everyone:
“So we tried to promote Duncan Milner because of the great job he’s been doing leading the Media Arts Lab and look at how the blogosphere decided to make it a conversation about me.
“As you all know, I’m here every day meddling in everything that goes on, pushing the creative on many brands including keeping an eye on Apple.
“I remain Chairman of MAL, Global Creative Director of Media Arts and Chief Creative Officer of TBWA Worldwide.
“I’m not going anywhere.
“Love, Lee”
[Media Bistro via Gizmodo]
No doubt this will become one of the better selling games on the iPhone, the original Doom was released today by id Software (iTunes Link $6.99).
From the developer:
Welcome to Hell! Prepare to relive the First Person Shooter that defined a generation with the legendary original DOOM – now on the iPhone. As a space marine stationed on the planet Mars, you are all that stands between the armies of Hell and their invasion of planet Earth!
DOOM Classic includes the original three episodes as well as Episode Four, Thy Flesh Consumed, spread across 36 levels of non-stop carnage and action.
Choose from customizable control schemes, all designed by id Software co-founder and industry legend, John Carmack. Wield unforgettable weapons like the Chainsaw and the BFG 9000 while fighting through notorious monsters like the Imp, Cacodemon, and Hell Knight!
In DOOM Classic, multiplayer action is reborn! With a wireless connection, battle up to four players in Deathmatch mode, or work together cooperatively and fight back against the demons of Hell.
Features:
• Play the legendary first person shooter, DOOM, with an iPhone or iPod Touch.
• Fight through 36 missions in four action-packed episodes: Knee-Deep in the Dead, Shores of Hell, Inferno, and Thy Flesh Consumed
• Experience DOOM multiplayer on your mobile device, including Deathmatch and Cooperative play for up to four players via wireless internet.
• Choose from three different control types and customize the interface to suit your style
• Explore the depths of Mars while utilizing the topdown map to help you explore and save your game on the fly.
• Listen to the original soundtrack or disable it and use your own iPod music
Verizon FiOS Mac customers might be interested in this one: Verizon is now offering a conduit for your iPhoto and iTunes to work through your FiOS DVR. You need to have reasonably recent versions of Mac software and a FiOS DVR. It is sort of like a (more) crippled AppleTV. Want more information? The nice young lady below will explain it to you as if you were a two year old:
http://www36.verizon.com/fiostv/web/Resources/V_101509_1049/Flash/playerCode.swf
Verizon doesn’t explain whether or not iTunes videos will work, or maybe it did and we couldn’t listen to the whole thing.
[Via Engadget]
This App is something special, Jibbigo will translate English speech into Spanish, or Spanish into English, without going online.
All you need do is launch the $25 app, speak into your iPhone microphone, and the translation is played over the speaker (and shown in text on the iPhone’s screen).
We think this system’s going to be extended into other languages, and while it’s clearly not going to help you navigate the complete linguistic lexicon, we suspect it’s a sign of applications to come, which in future could enable better communication between people, whatever their foreign language ability.
On the iPhone 3GS, the app will translate both languages at once (so you can talk naturally to one another), while earlier model iPhone users must choose which direction they want translation done.
It carries a dictionary of 40,000 words, and performs best if limited to one or two sentences at a time.
Quite overwhelmed at how this advanced technology can be held inside a multi-use device that fits inside your pocket. It’s promising, we think.
Way back in 2006 the mobile phone industry looked very different – fast forward to today and new entrant Apple now accounts for 2.5 per cent of global handset sales with its iPhone – not bad for a product which only began to emerge internationally later in 2007.
Strategy Analytics reports Apple’s 7.4 million iPhones shipped internationally worldwide in Q3 2009 gives the Cupertino company a record 2.5 percent marketshare.
“Apple is expanding its distribution networks into all major
regions worldwide and this is driving its volume growth,” the analysts observed.
According to the analysts, this climb in share comes as global mobile handset shipments fell 4 percent year-over-year, to reach 291 million units in Q3 2009. The rate of decline was slower than the previous quarter, as the market edged toward recovery. “We forecast the handset industry to return to positive growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, signaling an end to the recession,” the analysts opined.
Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, "We forecast 300 million handsets to be shipped worldwide in Q4 2009, growing 3% from 294 million units in Q4 2008. We believe this will be the first time the industry has returned to positive growth since Q3 2008, signaling an end to the handset recession after 4 quarters of decline. Consumers and handset vendors are gradually regaining a little confidence."
Apple’s good news follows a ChangeWave Research survey which said from June to September, Apple’s share of the US market jumped from 25 to 30 percent, while competitors RIM and Palm basically stayed unchanged.
When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world in 2007, he mentioned that Apple had set a goal for itself to reach one percent of the mobile phone market share.
Apple met that goal in 2008, hitting 1.1 percent of the 1.21 billion mobile phone shipments, according to ABI Research.
Additional Strategy Analytics findings include:
Samsung shipped 60.2 million handsets worldwide and captured a record 21 percent marketshare in Q3 2009. Samsung now sits alongside Nokia and Motorola as the only three vendors to have passed the 20 percent threshold during the past decade;
LG Electronics shipped 31.6 million handsets worldwide during Q3 2009, for 11 percent marketshare. The South Korean vendors Samsung and LG captured almost one-third of the entire global handset market between them.
In a report issued to clients Friday, RBC spoke of the opportunities their executives see in the emerging video space.
Mike Abramsky met with Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president for iTunes and Internet services, David Moody, vice president for worldwide Mac marketing and CFO Peter Oppenheimer. While he didn’t get any straight talk, he did get their impressions of "market opportunities".
Video/Content Opportunities. After music, video content is expected to be the next "exploding" opportunity, but requires overcoming industry rights dysfunctionality, competing with subsidies (cable box, video), and developing the right consumer "offer". Apple TV, while still a "hobby", is well positioned to benefit from evolving market dynamics. Apple was less enthusiastic about the online book/newspaper market, given unattractive industry structure.
It also appears that the Apple TV mystery deepens. Many were put off by the minute scope of yesterday’s AppleTV update, especially after two years since the last major upgrade (Take Two). Perhaps Apple is being slowed by the movie/TV industry which is overcome by "rights dysfunctionality"? Hopefully, along with the tablet, we’ll see a real AppleTV product.
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Disappointing reports claiming the 27-inch iMac may suffer performance problems have begun emerging, emanating from Apple’s Discussion Forums.
It’s not at all clear what the root cause of the problem is, but we’ve noticed a big uptick in people complaining about performance issues on new 27-inch iMacs on Apple’s support boards.
The most common symptom seems to be incredibly slow Flash video playback, others complain there’s a bug forcing the hard drive to spin down. There’s even reports these Macs ship with a corrupted Snow Leopard build installed on the computer.
“I just upgraded my 24" iMac to the new 27" iMacs that just came out. Well, now every flash-based site like youtube or hulu runs unbelievably slow. Looking at activity monitor, Flash is hitting about 100-110% of my cpu. It basically makes the browser unresponsive and the video is choppy,” one user claims on the Apple forums.
It must be stressed these reports do not claim all new 27-inch iMacs are so affected, it seems to be a problem (or series of problems) which afflict only some units at this time.
Apple Discussions
Topic : Flash video causing 105% CPU usage spikes
Topic : New 27" iMac — Slow Flash Video
Via: Engadget
Hey Hey comics fans – Marvel Comics are now available on the iPhone via comiXology and Panelfly, with the ever-popular XMen titles (among others) leading the eBook-focused charge reports Macworld.
Titles including Astonishing X-Men, Captain America, X-23, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, Marvel Zombies, Iron Man and Amazing Spider-Man, all of which are available now.
In an exclusive interview with MTV News, Marvel president and publisher Dan Buckley, "We’ve been kind of wrestling with developing a motion comics product for the last several years," Buckley told MTV News.
"Vestiges of it were even done when Bill Jemas was here with the ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ piece, but it wasn’t quite what we wanted."
He added: “With the advent of the iPhone, it became an item where we felt we could get a lot more mass-market distribution.”
This morning’s biggest news comes from Apple’s long-standing advertising agency, TBWA/Media Arts Lab, where the esteemed Lee Clow (66) is resigning his position as chief creative officer.
Clow’s abandonment of the creative lead he has held on the account that has distinguished his career suggests he is taking steps towards retirement.
His role will be filled by Duncan Milner, who has been executive creative director on Apple and a TBWA alum since 1990. Clow will remain chairman and global director of Media Arts Lab and chief creative of the TBWA network.
Working with Steve Hayden, Clow created Appe’s famed ‘1984’ commercial, he also came up with the “Think Different” slogan. He has taken a string of industry awards, including recognition this year as one of the “100 most creative people in business”.
CLow recently said (according to Print Magazine), "The Apple Store was probably the best ad we ever did. Everything a brand does is advertising.”
Media Arts Lab was founded in 2006 to serve Apple.
Joining the never-ending wave of musicians making a move to the Apple App Store platform, KISS have introduced VIP Pass.
The app offers backstage videos and photos, chat features, ticket and merchandise links, and streaming song previews.
It has been released to coincide with the band’s extensive US tour, which is taking place now.
Features include:
Exclusive videos and pictures from KISS backstage
Exclusive wallpapers of KISS for your phone
Talk with KISS and fans about what’s going on
Get latest tour info – venues, tickets, & merchandise
Stream previews of all the songs across 28 albums!!!
The $1.99 application is available now.
Apple’s iPhone launched in China this morning, but the introduction of the hot US product has hit a little snag – the first iterations to reach market lack WiFI, even though local law was recently changed to permit inclusion of support for the standard.
Carrier, China Unicom, has reportedly contracted to buy five million iPhones at a cost of $1.5 billion. The ban on WiFi was enforced by central government in Beijing, but lifted in May – when manufacturing of the device had begun.
Lack of the standard may give some Chinese consumers the perception that they are being sold a sub-par version of the product, impacting sales.
A Unicom spokesman, Yi Difei, said the company hopes to have WiFi in the next batch of phones: "We are talking with Apple and expect the problem to be solved by the end of this year," he said.
Unicom’s prices range from 4,999 yuan ($730) to 6,999 yuan ($1,025) for the high-end, 32-gigabyte iPhone 3GS. This poses a second challenge for Apple in China – unlocked grey import iPhones (with WiFi) cost around 5,700 yuan ($835) in China’s street markets.
The availability of unlocked iPhones and the lack of WiFi could impact Apple’s success in this new territory.
Interestingly, Apple is requiring people who want to use iTunesLP and iTunes extras with the new AppleTV 3.0 to re-download their content. We’re not sure why but perhaps Apple had a last second change of format since the iTunes LP/extras format was released a few months ago.
Also, the Apple Remote has been updated to 1.3.2 to work with AppleTV 3.0 and iTunes 9.0.2.
Here we go: Microsoft today opened its second ‘me too’ store in the same mall as Apple, this time in Mission Viejo, California.
It’s the new physical manifestation of the philosophical battle between Microsoft’s strategy of managing through necessity and Apple’s “whole widget’ M.O.
Naturally it all represents part of the (expensive) marketing hype surrounding the release of Windows 7, itself preceded by the Apples camouflaged cat, Snow Leopard.
This second opening has the significance that the new MSFT shop is in the same mall as Apple’s, though in an interesting manouver, Apple’s shop is currently “closed for renovation”.
This likely means the November re-opening of Apple’s Orange County shop will attract a little more interest than most high street retailers attract after a little redecoration job.
(Microsoft has a few images of its opening, featuring crowds attracted by offers such as a $25 Zune gift card).
Hurrah (erm).