apple store virtual tour

Apple Store

Though it has been open for less than a decade, the Apple store under the glass cube at the base GM building is already one of the best-known and most successful retail sites in the world.

The entrance cube to Apple’s underground store on Fifth Avenue represents probably the purest form of transparent architecture. First, the cube is empty, avoiding the challenge of transparency simply revealing the clutter within, as for example at Dominique Perrault’s Hôtel Industriel in Paris. This emptiness is shared with I.M. Pei’s Pyramid at the Louvre: both are grand entry canopies over a spiral staircase into a subterranean plaza. Yet the reality is that the Louvre pyramid is strongly visible in its courtyard, both becasuse of its contrast with the surrounding buildings, and because of its black metal structural frame. The 32-foot cube at the Apple Store is made from structural glass, with no metal framing; and its rectilinear profile blends in with the General Motors skyscraper behind it.

It has been designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and built in 2006.

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Revisit Apple's First Store in 3D With This Awesome New Mac App

Apple Store enthusiast and creative extraordinaire Michael Steeber today announced the launch of The Apple Store Time Machine , a new interactive Mac app that lets you "travel back in time" and revisit four iconic Apple Stores on their grand opening days.

The app is free to download and runs on Apple silicon Macs and recent Intel-based Macs. There is an option to make a donation on the project's website . Michael's brother Robert Steeber was also involved with the project, creating music and UI sounds.

The app is similar to a video game or a simulator, complete with keyboard controls for moving around stores, but Steeber prefers to describe the app as an experience. However you view it, it's clear that Steeber put a tremendous amount of effort into this project, with every detail accounted for, down to the last iPod and box of software.

For more Apple Store coverage, subscribe to Steeber's newsletter " Tabletops ."

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Back when Apple Stores were a joy to go to. Back before AA & Timmy completely demolished what made them so special.....

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2 days ago by Tim Hardwick

Your Apple Update

The Apple Store Time Machine is a really fun way to revisit four of Apple’s retail stores as they looked the day they opened

Part game, part digital museum, this is a must-have app for fans of apple and apple retail..

“Surprise and delight” is one of the guiding principles of Apple Retail, and I was indeed both surprised and delighted by the launch of a new Mac app by Michael Steeber which lets you revisit four iconic Apple stores in a digital, interactive experience. Called The Apple Store Time Machine , this app is available for free from Steeber’s website , but you can also donate to support his work there. As a former Apple Retail employee, this is a particularly fun app for me, and I think it would be for any Apple fan.

The app works a bit like a first-person shooter video game, only without the shooting part. But if you’re familiar with any first person video game, the controls for moving around the environment will be familiar. Mouse/trackpad to look around, WASD or arrow keys for moving, Shift to run, C to crouch, and E to interact with items. There’s no actual game component though. Instead this acts as a lovingly replicated historic recreation of these Apple Stores: Tysons Corner (the first ever Apple Store), Stanford Shopping Center (one of Apple’s old mini stores), Fifth Avenue (the iconic underground store with a glass cube atop it in New York City), and Infinite Loop (the Apple Store located at Apple’s former main campus at 1 Infinite Loop in California). Incidentally, I visited the Infinite Loop location back when it was known as the Company Store when I spent two weeks in Cupertino in 2007 for training. Somewhere I still have my “I Visited The Mother Ship” tshirt, and this was well before the announcement of Apple Park, which actually looks like a space ship!

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Walking virtually through these stores is a really neat experience. It brought back so many memories seeing the software titles that are on the shelves. (Remember buying boxed software in a retail store?) I began my Apple retail career in 2005, and the stores then still had a similar layout to Tyson’s Corner, complete with the white corian counters. Apple Fifth Avenue opened about a year after I started with Apple, and seeing all of the third-party products on the shelves in the app was a fun stroll down memory lane.

There are lots of fun little touches throughout the app. The menus are done in Mac OS X’s original Aqua style, and in the Tyson’s Corner store, you can actually walk up to a G3 iMac and boot up Mac OS X version 10.0!

I first became familiar with Steeber’s work when he was writing about Apple Retail for 9to5Mac . His coverage was fantastic, and filled a void in Apple Retail writing left by the passing of Gary Allen of ifo Apple Store . Steeber left 9to5Mac last year, but I just discovered that he has a newsletter dedicated to coverage of Apple Retail , and I immediately signed up.

I mentioned to him on Twitter that I’d love to have a virtual version of my old Apple Store (Apple Green Hills) as it appeared when it opened in June 2005. (I was part of the team that brought Apple Retail to Nashville, Tennessee.) He replied that he’d love to do more, but that the work on these creations comes out to about 1.75 months per store! I do hope more stores get added in the future, but as-is this is an amazing treat for Apple fans.

Download The Apple Store Time Machine here .

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Apple Retail

Revisit the world’s first apple store as it appeared 20 years ago with augmented reality.

On May 19, 2001, Apple opened its first two retail stores in Tysons Corner, Virginia and Glendale, California. Now you can revisit the world’s first Apple Store exactly as it appeared twenty years ago on grand opening day through an interactive augmented reality experience.

🎈 This is part three of a four-part series celebrating twenty years of Apple Stores. Read more feature stories and special content at the links below.

• 20 years of Apple Stores: The enduring art of celebration
• 20 years of Apple Stores in 20 quotes
• Before the Genius Bar: Behind the retail designs that paved the way for 20 years of Apple Stores

Ahead of its grand opening, Steve Jobs recorded a video tour of the first* Apple Store, walking through the aisles of Apple Tysons Corner.

The augmented reality model below represents a painstaking reconstruction of that original store, from the number and color of Macs on each table to the third-party software titles on the shelves. Artwork on the walls and window displays are true to the era. The model is designed to be as accurate as possible within the parameters of available information.

Tap on the button below in Safari on an iPhone or iPad to launch the model (17MB) and tap “View” when prompted. Place the model on a table to explore in as much detail as you’d like, and learn more about the store design below.

Optimized for A12 and newer devices .

Beyond a black stainless steel entry bordered by glowing Apple logos, early Apple Stores were organized into eight distinct sections labeled by backlit signs on the ceiling: home, pro, music, movies, kids, photo, genius bar, and etc. Sections were divided by pinstripe glass partitions that resembled the original Aqua interface in Mac OS X.

Instead of large wooden tables and stone floors, Macs were displayed on white Corian tables shaped like kidney beans. Merchandising in each section of the store highlighted solutions and products that worked great with Mac OS X, like digital cameras, camcorders, and MP3 players. How do I edit photos from my digital camera on a Mac? How can I create a home movie in iMovie? What software is available for kids?

The etc. section housed accessories like printers, keyboards, and cables, and the Genius Bar was located in the corner, not centered at the back like in later Apple Stores.

More than three hundred third-party boxed software titles were arranged on two rows of black shelving spanning from a checkout kiosk near the front of the store to the Theater in the back. In the Theater, Apple hosted Workshops, software demos, and sometimes iTunes visualizers on a 10-foot projection screen. Larger stores often welcomed musicians and creative experts to the Theater for live events.

Cupertino Calling

“If that person doesn’t know the answer, they’ve got a hotline to call us in Cupertino at Apple headquarters, where we have somebody who does.” 

When Steve Jobs introduced the Genius Bar, he picked up a classic red rotary phone on the back counter. All of the earliest Apple Stores were outfit with a similar red phone, ready and waiting as a lifeline for Geniuses with a vexing technical issue.

You won’t find a Cupertino hotline in today’s Apple Stores, but using the augmented reality model above, you can put the same red phone Steve Jobs picked up on your counter. Open this page in Safari on an iPhone or iPad.

Volume up! Give it a ring and take a close look. You never know who might answer.

🎈 Continue with more stories celebrating twenty years of Apple Stores:

Follow along  on Twitter  for daily Apple Store news.

*There is some disagreement in the Apple community about which Apple Store is the true “first” store. Many consider Apple Tysons Corner the first Apple Store because it opened three hours before Apple Glendale Galleria due to time zone differences. It’s also the location Steve Jobs chose to tour and host a media preview at before opening. Others consider Apple Glendale Galleria the first Apple Store because it bears the rollout number R001, indicating that it was the first project planned internally. For the purposes of this article and the author’s sanity, Apple Tysons Corner is referred to as the first Apple Store.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

Apple operates more than 500 retail stores acros…

Michael is a Creative Editor who covered Apple Retail and design on 9to5Mac. His stories highlighted the work of talented artists, designers, and customers through a unique lens of architecture, creativity, and community.

Contact Michael on Twitter to share Apple Retail, design, and history stories: @MichaelSteeber

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360visit 4+

360 virtual tours in a snap.

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360 Virtual Tours in a Snap Have you ever wanted to make a 360 Virtual Tour? This app is for you. Simply rotate to capture first room, open to view, long press on a door to connect next room or on an object to add a description, capture next room. A tour of a 2 bedroom apartment should not take more than 5 minutes. All the processing is instantly made on your phone. Sign up for a free account, upload the tour and you will get a link. Everyone with the link will be able to see your tour. Your viewers don't need to have the app, the tour is viewable in any web browser. If you use a recent phone (starting iPhone 11), the app takes advantage of the ultra-wide lens to capture more on top and bottom. With an optional clip-on fish-eye lens, you may be able to include everything, from floors and ceilings to your tours. With this app, you can make an unlimited number of tours, but with only 5 spots per tour. To remove this limit and have *many* more features such as exporting the tour as a video for Youtube, get the PRO version.

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It’s easy to use once you get the lay of the land and quality is spectacular!

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The app does what it says: 360 tours made with the phone

Good but I can’t find out how to download that same 360 image.

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The developer, Dermandar , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

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The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

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This virtual museum lets you experience Apple’s most iconic store openings

Relive that early aughts nostalgia or visit an Apple Store that you haven’t been to yet.

Thanks to writer and designer, Michael Steeber , we can go back in time to virtually visit four Apple Stores on their opening days without any of the crowds. Steeber’s passion project, dubbed the Apple Store Time Machine , lets us roam through some of the most iconic Apple Stores and revisit all those tiny little details.

Steeber even included little history lessons just before you enter each of the four storefronts.

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Astrakhan may not be as popular as other cities in Russia, but don’t let that fool you. Astrakhan is a smaller but beautiful upcoming tourist destination that is worth a visit. You will be surprised by some of the unique things to do and places you can explore at this hidden destination.

You might wish to revisit it someday again, to take a break and relax at Astrakhan.

If you have plans to visit Russia and are not sure if Astrakhan should be included in your itinerary, keep reading. In this list, we have put together some of the things to do in Astrakhan and around. We have a hunch that if you include this city in your travel plans, you will be thrilled you did so.

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