Apple typically opens retail stores in high-end shopping areas, and this one is as high-end as it gets.

Beneath the great glass pyramid that marks the entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris is Carrousel du Louvre, home to shops, a gourmet food court, exhibition space and, as of this Saturday, an Apple Store. This will be the first Apple Store in Paris and in France. Another Apple Store is poised to open in the seaside town of Montpellier next Saturday.

This location has the now iconic glass spiral staircase that's featured in other flagship stores and two levels total. If you can't visit Apple Store Carrousel du Louvre this weekend, check out the photos and coverage from ifoAppleStore as well as these photos on Flickr. C'est Magnifique!

Also notable this week is the new Musee du Louvre app that's available for free from the App Store [iTunes link]. Coincidentally, of course.

Forbes Fortune bestowed a significant honor on Steve Jobs today, naming him their CEO of the Decade. Fortune outlines the incredible leaps in business, technology and industry Apple has made since Steve's return. For anyone who might not remember, the 90's were not kind to Apple and nearly everyone thought the company was finished.

Consider this incredible fact: Apple launched OS X and iTunes, opened the first two retail stores and introduced the first iPod ... all in the same year (2001). Fortune also goes on to describe how Steve changed the film industry with Pixar, the music industry with the iTunes Store and the cell phone industry with the iPhone and the App Store.

He also kicked cancer's ass.

This is precisely why I'm excited about the prospect of a new piece of hardware from Apple. I won't call it a tablet because that's not what it will be. Apple didn't invent the digital music player, the mobile phone or mass distribution of media. But, they did demonstrate how to do those things the right way, which no one else could come up with.

If there's a new product coming, comparing it to contemporary tablets or netbooks is a huge mistake, because it won't behave like any of them.

Click below to watch Fortunes' video on this announcement.

[Via MacDailyNews]

Last night Philadelphia's baseball fans had something to cheer about, and soon her Apple fans will, too. After years of waiting, an Apple Store is finally set to open within the city itself at 1607 Walnut Street.

Probably.

It's not set in stone yet, as the proposed design is yet to go before the city's Art Commission. Let's hope Apple has a better time of it than they did in Boston, where Boston's Back Bay Architectural Commission had trouble approving the Boylston Street store's design.

By contrast, The Art Commission's executive director, William Burke, seems enthused, telling Metro, "...[Apple is] going to clean all that off and purify the design. It's a nice building that contributes to the character of the street."

The store currently closest to Philly is the Ardmore Apple Store. Other than that, you've got to go out to Jersey.

[Via MacNN]

In preparation for the holiday rush, Apple has stepped up iPhone production, according to ITProPortal. Specifically, Apple has supposedly increased orders to both Primax Electronics and Foxconn Electronics (both companies manufacture iPhone components) from 17% to 20%.

In a recent quarterly earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook noted that iPhone 3GS supplies were short in September, but noted that supply lines have been restored and he expects Apple to meet the demand of this year's shopping season.

In other words, If you're hoping to receive an iPhone this year, know that Apple has done its part. Now it's up to you to badger your gift-giving loved ones.

[Via Macsimum News]

Gift image: stock.xchng

As the holiday season brings additional shoppers to Apple's retail stores, they'll be making changes to ensure a pleasant experience for the new customers, ifoAppleStore reports.

First, they're going to ditch the color-coded Starfleet uniform T-shirts, which shoppers have found confusing. Instead, all employees will wear the same color. Next, the handheld checkout devices will be swapped out for specially-equipped iPod touches. A new scanner accessory will interact with point-of-sale software on the iPods. Best of all, employees will be able to accept cash from customers right where the stand, eliminating the often time-consuming walk to the cash register.

Watch for these changes at an Apple Store near you.

It's another milestone (unofficially) met, as Apple has passed the 100,000 threshold of approved apps in the App Store, according to App Shopper. If you're unfamiliar with App Shopper, they list all of the apps that are in the store, tracking updates and price changes. As of this writing, they're listing 101,847 apps approved for sale and 93,118 actually available. We imagine Apple will make an announcement when the latter number officially hits 100,000.

Just last month, Apple announced that there were upwards of 85,000 apps available for purchase with sales figures in the billions -- 2 billion apps sold in fact, though there's no word on the mix of paid vs. free.

Despite the (often significant) bumps in the road, the App Store continues to grow at an incredible pace.

It's now safe to shop for Apple products without fear of getting burned by a last-minute release, at least for the next few months. Apple's senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller, told Gizmodo today that "... the holiday lineup is set." Apple typically does this in late autumn to simply let customers know that it's safe to start spending money.

Gizmodo notes that they originally stated, "No more Apple products this year," but they subsequently received a call from Apple asking (by "asking" we mean "telling" ) them to use the language, "The holiday lineup is set." Conspiracy theorists will say that means there could be new stuff still in the pipe, but we think it's just meant to get people in a shopping mood.

[Via The Loop]

A little while back we posted about the unboxing of an Apple job offer, and now here's another unboxing having to do with becoming an Apple employee -- Mac Rumors has shots up of an unboxing of one of the t-shirt giftboxes recently given to AppleCare call center staff, and once again, even in something that the public was never really supposed to see, this company shows just how much care and attention they put into their design. From the way the t-shirt's folded, with the stark three word design sitting perfectly centered, to the embossed gift note and company stickers, clearly this is a company that believes presentation is important.

In fact, it almost makes me want to go over to Apple's Jobs site and start looking for myself. Apple, any interest in hiring a witty, sarcastic and cynical blogger? I'll work for peanuts!

In a bold report released this week, DFC Intelligence states that if current sales and development trends continue, the iPhone and iPod could surpass both Sony and Nintendo in the fast-growing handheld gaming market in as little as five years.

Now, DFC isn't describing the number of units sold. They expect the Japanese companies to retain that lead. Instead, they expect the iPhone/iPod's growth rate to expand while PSP and DSi sales have plateaued. In other words, DFC predicts that the iPhone and iPod touch will be the only portable gaming devices still seeing significant growth by 2014.

It's interesting because Apple has never paid much attention to gaming... until the most recent press event where they went overboard to promote the iPod touch as a gaming platform. I play games on my iPhone and my original PSP and while it's a different experience, they're both enjoyable.

Of the apps you own, how many are games? If you own either a PSP or a DS plus an iPhone/iPod touch, how would you compare the three platforms?

[Via Electronista]

Last week I was in Boston and drove past the ad pictured at right, as I have done many times. Even though it first went up in 2007, I still think, "Man, that is a big ad."

Boston's Outdoor Advertising Board agrees.

Two years ago, they declared the 13,750 square-foot monstrosity illegal because of its size. Yet it's still in place. Last June, the groups behind the advertising agreed to pay the state $110,000 as a settlement, according to The Boston Globe.

Now, according to the Globe, there's a political backlash. It seems that the settlement was reached with some "help" given to a business person from a campaign aide from Boston Mayor Thomas Menino's office. The same acquaintance reportedly has made annual donations to the Mayor's office since 2005.

The owners argue that the ad promotes sales inside the self-storage business just behind the huge wall, where customers can buy iTunes gift cards.

The ad space first went into use 6 months before Apple opened the flagship retail store on Boylston Street.

[Via iPodNN]

Photo: Yoon S. Byun, The Boston Globe

Nokia isn't happy with the iPhone. In a suit filed today in U.S. District Court, Nokia claims that Apple has violated 10 of Nokia's wireless technology patents. The company says the patents "relate to technologies fundamental to making devices," that are compatible with the GSM, UMTS, or 3G WCDMA, and wireless LAN standards.

The claims involve cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption technologies. Nokia says Apple has been in violation of these patents since the iPhone launched in 2007.

Nokia says it has invested more than 60 million billion dollars in research and development, but says Apple has not adequately compensated the firm. Nokia is the world's largest supplier of smartphones, but most recently reported a loss of U.S. $836 million dollars, while company shipments of phones has dropped.

Apple, on the other hand, reported 4th quarter results Monday with iPhone sales up 7% from the same period a year ago.

Nokia sued Qualcomm over wireless patents and settled that dispute in July of 2008, but the terms remains confidential.

[Thanks to many of our readers for sending this in]

One of my favorite podcasts is Stuff You Should Know [iTunes link]. Hosts Josh and Chuck (call him "Chuckers") are smart, funny and professional.* There's an article on the show's companion site this week that explores 5 myths about Apple. I encourage you to go and read it, but here are some highlights.

"Apple is going out of business." If we had a dollar, nay, a penny for every time we heard that, we'd all be eating caviar in the South of France. While the funeral dirge may have been warranted in the '90s when Gil was building beige boxes, things have been going swimmingly since Steve returned with the iMac in tow.

That doesn't stop pundits from making claims of Apple's demise, however. But they're greatly exaggerated.

Myth number four on their list is that Apple can't survive without Steve Jobs. This has been a hot topic since Steve took medical leave and opinions are as numerous as stars in the galaxy. Our take in a nutshell: Apple will be just fine without Steve.

We won't spoil the rest of the list for you, so go ahead and check it out.

*Maybe I'll get a shout-out on an upcoming show for this post. What do you say, guys?

Apple and Psystar have been embroiled in litigation for quite a while now. At the core of the dispute: Psystar modifies Apple's operating system software so that it can run on its clone machines. It then sells its computers with Mac OS installed to, well, anybody who wants one. As you can imagine, this does not make Apple happy.

Anybody familiar with The Great Clone Crackdown of 1997 will tell you that Apple likes to keep a very tight grip on any device that presumes to run its software. Apple points out that Windows machines are a mishmash of often conflicting hardware and suffer from quirks and errors and incompatibilities that such a set up can bring.

So Apple's cadre of lawyers descended quickly on Psystar. In July of last year, the company sued Psystar for copyright and software licensing violations, quickly amending its lawsuit to additionally charge Psystar with violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

And there was much lawyering.

More than a year later, now that discovery has been completed, the two parties have each filed for summary judgment, which, in effect, asks the judge to rule in favor of the filing party because enough evidence has been shown that either makes or breaks the lawsuit.

Psystar's argument, and the one covered in its motion, somewhat relies on the "first sale doctrine" which says that any purchaser of a copyrighted product can then take that lawfully-made copy and sell it, so long as no additional copies can be made. For its part, Apple says that when one "purchases" its OS, you are only purchasing a license to use the product. Its Software Licensing Agreement (SLA) quite clearly states [PDF link to Snow Leopard SLA] that the user cannot modify the software to run on a non-Apple system.

The idea that what you are purchasing is a license to use the product is pretty commonplace among software manufacturers, because, the argument runs, you can cut any software company's profits off at the knees if every purchaser became an owner with free rein to redistribute the software. Apple states that no software company in its right mind would put the money into research and development of any software product at all if that were the end result of bringing its product to market. Groklaw suggests this could have ramifications for FOSS and and the GPL.

It's the end of an era for the relationship between Google and Apple -- Google has announced that Dr. Arthur Levinson has resigned from its board of directors, meaning that the last common member between the boards of the two companies has now "chosen a side," so to speak.

I doubt it was that serious, but you never know: the Department of Justice had announced that they were looking into the connections between the two boards, with both former Apple boardmember and Google CEO Eric Schimidt being one link, and Levinson being the other. Not that the DoJ was really breathing down any necks (they'd only requested documents, and there were no signs at all, other than, you know, Google Maps being an original iPhone application, that there was any collusion between the two companies).

But it is possible that between them, they decided to play it safe, and with the two companies getting closer and closer to competition every day (with Google's Android OS and the continuing saga of Chrome going on), this is probably for the better. Levinson and Schmidt, meanwhile, will both still continue to make millions of dollars anyway. So they have that going for them. Which is nice.

Greenpeace has decided they'll get more attention from praising Apple than by trying to bury it.

The environmental organization is singing hosannas and heysannas to the Cupertino-company for taking a green stand and resigning from the US Chamber of Commerce. Apple walked away from the organization on Monday over Chamber actions seen by Apple as opposing efforts to limit greenhouse gases.

Chamber President Thomas Donohue says his organization does want to see "legislation to address climate change," though the Chamber is against current proposals that, he says, will "significantly raise energy prices, (and) throw more Americans out of work."

Greenpeace revels in the kerfuffle, saying in a post on its website, "Apple has stormed out of the biggest lobby group in the United States. At issue is the US Chamber of Commerce's use of funds to oppose climate change legislation. Apple has done the right thing, and IBM and Microsoft should think different too." (See what they did there?)

The environmental organization says the Chamber should consider the number of jobs that would be created by helping clean up the environment. It's hard to see these two groups hugging it out.

Still, it's praise and adoration for Apple, with the "save the whales" set saying, "The stakes have never been higher for the climate. Apple's move will throw an uncomfortable spotlight on any company that stays on in the Chamber but doesn't act to change its policies."

Interesting. I wonder if Apple thought of that.

[via cnet]