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Apple Store Camp is back for summer 2014 with iBooks Author, iPad content creation

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Apple has posted a new page on its retail website to announce that Apple Retail Store Camp is back for the summer of 2014. The annual event allows kids on summer vacation to work on projects within their local Apple retail stores. Interested campers can sign up on Apple’s website. This year, Apple says that kids will create movies in iMovie and books in iBooks Author.

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Macs will be used for final production (editing in iMovie and making books in iBooks Author), but music for the movies will be made using GarageBand for iPad and and drawing apps on the iPad will be used for illustrations for the iBooks. It’s amazing that just ten years ago Apple Store campers edited movies in iMovie HD for Mac, and now the participants will be drawing and making music on iPads. (Via iFOStore).


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BlackBerry announces BBM coming to iOS and Android later this summer

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Although BlackBerry has been rumored to bring its BBM messaging platform to iOS and other devices before, today the company has made things official announcing at its event that support for both iOS and Android will be arriving in the coming months. The service, which BlackBerry says currently has about  60 million monthly active users, will come to devices running iOS 6 and Android 4.0 or above when it’s launched as a free app sometime this summer in the App Store and Google Play.

The company said that it would be bringing messaging and groups functionality to new platforms first but also has plans to introduce voice features, screen sharing, and its just announced “social engagement platform” dubbed ‘Channels’ in future releases. BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said the company is “committed to making the BBM experience on other platforms as fully featured” as possible.
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Apple vs Samsung war moves to retail as Best Buy plans to open 1,400 ‘Samsung Experience Shops’

When we heard late last month that Samsung planned to open Apple-style ‘store-in-store’ locations within Best Buy retail stores it was still only rumor. Today Samsung and Best Buy have made things official for its plans to roll out 1,400 “Samsung Experience Shops” in Best Buy retail stores across the United States. Best Buy plans to have the store within a store Samsung shops up and running by the summer with 900 scheduled to open by May:

The image above shows what a typical Samsung Experience Shop inside Best Buy will look like next to a current Apple store-in-store location.

9to5Google has the full story.

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WSJ: Analysts now agree we’re going to see new Retina Macs in June

A newly redesigned 15-inch MacBook Pro was all but rumor until we reported earlier this month that Apple indeed has a slimmed down, all-new MacBook Pro sporting a Retina display, Ivy Bridge, and speedy USB 3. We followed that up with a report revealing Apple’s new MacBook Airs and iMacs will both likely include super-high resolution Retina displays. At the time, we reported Apple’s WWDC in June would be expected for at least the unveiling of the new slim MacBook Pro; although, a gradual roll out of Retina iMacs and Airs following the Pros would not be much of a surprise. Apple typically rolls out new Mac features such as higher-res displays gradually.

Following those reports, The Wall Street Journal published a story today quoting analysts who now all seem to agree that we will see upgraded Macs this summer. Ben Reitzes of Barclays Capital claimed the new Retina Mac lineup would debut at WWDC in June:

Reitzes said it is likely the Mac line will feature the retina-display technology used in the iPad, as well as the new Ivy Bridge quad-core processors from Intel Corp. (INTC) He also estimates that Apple’s new operating-system upgrade, called Mountain Lion, and the new MacBook Airs should be on the market before the first Ultrabook laptops with Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Windows 8 operating system hit the shelves in the fall… “We believe recent data reflect a pause ahead of new products, which we believe will be released this quarter in June,” according to Reitzes, who has an overweight rating and $750 target price on Apple’s stock.