Belgium

• AAPL Company
• Apple Retail
• Belgium
• Brussels
• Antwerp

Job listings suggest second Belgian Apple Store on the way, in Antwerp

Apple recently confirmed that it’s opening its first Apple Store in Belgium, in the capital Brussels. Job listings spotted by Dutch site iCulture suggest that a second Belgian store will follow, in Antwerp.

According to the job descriptions, Apple is looking for staff in the “province of Antwerp.” An exact city or location is not listed, but linked with the vacancy is a map of the city of Antwerp indicating that the store will be located in the center of Antwerp and not in a mall outside of town.

One suggested location has been the former Trade Fair building (above), due to be refurbished as a Marriott hotel with possible retail space beneath.

Apple is set to open the world’s largest Apple Store in Dubai later this year. The company is also preparing to finally make the Apple Watch available for sale in its retail stores.

• Apple Pay
• Belgium

Apple Pay coming to Belgium this summer, KBC Bank tweets (Updated)

Update: KBC Bank has retracted its original statement, now saying in a second tweet that Apple Pay is “not yet in scope.”

Apple Pay may be making its way to Belgium following WWDC, KBC Bank indicated on Twitter today. The bank recently added NFC support to its payment cards, prompting a customer to ask if the institution would ever add support for Apple Pay.

The bank replied that the service would be available starting this summer, indicating a possible announcement at WWDC. Other countries and financial institutions worldwide are likely to gain support as well around that time.

[tweet https://twitter.com/KBC_BE/status/601038434451460096 align=’center’]

• AAPL Company
• Apple News
• AppleCare
• EU
• Apple online store

Apple changes wording of warranty policy in EU to clarify two year guarantee

Update 2: The changes appear to be EU wide as pictured above.

Update: Apple updated its warranty policy in France and Germany too. (Thanks @settebit)

Belgian consumer groups have been following the move of Italian regulators in recent months to push Apple for changes to its warranty programs in order to clarify rules regarding a statutory warranty enforced by EU law that requires companies to make sure products are free from defects for two years. It isn’t the only other nation pushing for changes to warranties, consumers groups in at least Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, and Portugal had also filed lawsuits against Apple over its AppleCare and warranty practices. Now, Dutch-language a-n-v.be reports Apple has tweaked its online warranty program in Belgium to meet EU law.

The change in the online warranties tweaks the wording of Apple’s 1-year warranty for free repair and replacements to clarify the 2 year statutory warranty, much the same as what happened in Italy.

Apple published a document on its website highlighting the changes.

• AAPL Company
• Apple News
• AppleCare
• TechCrunch
• Italy

Belgian consumer group files complaint against Apple over AppleCare warranty practices

Apple agreed to comply with Italian regulators’ requests last year to alter AppleCare warranties in the country after being fined $1.2 million (and an additional $264,000) for “misleading consumers” regarding two-year warranties mandatory by European Union law. We expected to hear much more about AppleCare in other EU countries that also employ the mandatory, free, two-year warranty, and now Belgian consumer watchdog Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats has filed a complaint to escalate its case (via TechCrunch):

For many years warranty issues are at the top of the charts of complaints dealt with Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats. One of the recurring problems are the complaints about Apple. Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats found major problems fixed on the information provided by Apple and its authorized distributors regarding the legal guarantee, the commercial one year warranty, and the warranty extension through the “AppleCare Protection Plan” of 2 or 3 years.

In March 2012, consumer groups from 10 countries requested Apple make changes to its warranty policies after the case in Italy. The Belgian consumer group was one of them but filed a complaint today with local courts because “Apple remained deaf to the demands.”

During negotiations with Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, Apple ultimately changed its warranty policies on its website, terms and conditions, and even removed AppleCare from brick-and-mortar store shelves.

• Apps
• App Store
• Mac App Store
• Mac OS
• Canada

Nuance releases Dragon Express Mac app in 7 additional countries, 3 new languages

Nuance announced it is releasing the Dragon Express Mac App Store app today to seven new countries in three new languages. Originally released last year, the app is now available in the following countries for around $50:

Dragon Express 1.1 now supports the French language in Canada, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, the German language in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and the Italian language in Italy.

Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland (French), Switzerland (German)

According to iPhonehellas [translated], Nuance also held a press event today in Greece to announce the availability of Dragon Dictation for June 6.

The full press release from Nuance is below:

Nuance’s Dragon Express for Mac OS App Store Now Available in French, German and Italian Languages

BURLINGTON, Mass., – May 31, 2012 – Nuance Communications, Inc., (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that its Dragon Express App, an introductory voice recognition app for Mac OS X Lion, has debuted in seven additional countries, supporting three additional languages. Dragon Express 1.1 now supports the French language in Canada, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, the German language in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and the Italian language in Italy. Available exclusively for download from Apple’s Mac App Store, Dragon Express is an easy and fun way to put words to work without the hassle of typing, allowing users to do more in less time.

Released in late 2011, Dragon Express quickly rose to the top of the charts in the Mac App Store. It’s a fast, hands-free way to quickly turn speech into text, whether sending email, surfing the Web or posting an update to Facebook and Twitter. Dragon Express is priced to provide people with an opportunity to experience the power and performance of speech recognition.

“The excitement for Dragon Express has been overwhelming, and we’ve heard our customers’ requests for additional language support,” said Peter Mahoney, chief marketing officer, senior vice president and general manager, Dragon, Nuance Communications. “We know that people around the world are embracing speech as a useful and fun interface, and we’re excited to bring the Dragon Express app to a broader worldwide audience.”

Dragon Express can be conveniently accessed from the menu bar at any time and doesn’t require a network connection. Users dictate directly into the Dragon Express window, using the internal Mac microphone or a USB headset microphone (which can be purchased via http://www.nuance.com), and the text instantly appears in the Dragon Express window. When finished, Dragon Express places the transcribed text into the application of choice. The download comes with a short enrollment so that the app can better recognize a user’s unique voice.

Dragon Dictate, the most full-featured and advanced speech recognition software for Mac OS, was recently updated to version 2.5. Dragon Dictate 2.5 includes many features beyond those in Dragon Express. These features include the ability to dictate directly into applications, edit, format and correct recognition errors by voice, open and close applications by voice, control the mouse by voice, create custom voice commands and support for the Dragon Remote Mic app for iPhone.

Related articles

• Fantastical Mac Calendar gets updated with iCal and iOS reminders, bugfixes (9to5mac.com)