Including Hong Kong in the total, Apple's 29th Apple Store in "greater China" is set to open on
Saturday, January 9 with a second Shenyang store at the MixC mall there. The new store, which will open at 10AM, will feature normal store hours of 10AM to 9:30PM local time seven days a week. Apple has been building and opening stores in China rapidly for the past year, as part of a retail initiative in Apple's fastest-growing market that hopes to see 40 stores opened by the middle of this year.
The iPhone maker has a number of other stores underway, but has dropped no hints about where the next official opening will take place. Apple CEO Tim Cook attended the opening of the 25th store in Dalian in October, and his frequent visits are reflective of the importance Apple places on China as an important market, despite some recent economic turbulence there. The region now accounts for about a third of Apple's revenue, and grew at a 99 percent rate year-over-year in the most recent quarter.
Apple TV search options expand to include PBS, PBS Kids
Search options for children's shows on the
fourth-generation Apple TV now return results from
PBS and PBS Kids, an indication that Apple has opened up developer access to the device's search API, allowing other services to include their relevant results when viewers are searching for a particular show or theme. Both children's programming and other PBS shows appear now in search results for programs that air on the network. Of course, Apple's own iTunes results are seen, but third-party networks, such as Hulu and Netflix, are also included when users perform searches.
Apple had originally said it would bring the search API to other developers, but never specified an exact windows when it would become available. Some partners, such as the aforementioned third parties along with HBO and Showtime, were included in search results from the debut of the device. At the time, Cook said that universal search was "great for users" and that "even if you're fortunate enough to have the content you want to watch in an app, you sometimes don't remember exactly where that show is, so you're going to Netflix or Hulu or Showtime. You shouldn't have to do that. It should be very simple."
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