All Apple Stores In New York City Have Closed Due To COVID-19

Due to an increase in COVID-19 cases around the world as a result of the Omicron variant, some corporations are closing their retail locations once again. After temporarily closing other stores across the US and Canada, Apple has now decided to close all of its stores in New York City.

All Apple Stores in New York City were partially closed on Monday, as Bloomberg's Mark Gurman originally reported. Customers will no longer be able to visit the stores, but they will be able to pick up online orders in-store. The following is a list of recently shuttered retail locations:

• New York, Upper West Side
• New York, Upper East Side
• New York, SoHo
• New York, Fifth Avenue
• New York, World Trade Center
• New York, West 14th Street
• New York, Grand Central
• Brooklyn, Williamsburg
• Brooklyn, Downtown Brooklyn
• Bronx, The Mall at Bay Plaza
• Staten Island, Staten Island
• Elmhurst, Queens Center
• Garden City, Roosevelt Field
• Huntington Station, Walt Whitman
• Lake Grove, Smith Haven
• Manhasset, Manhasset

Apple closed seven more stores last week due to the spread of COVID-19 among staff in Atlanta, Houston, and New Hampshire. Other Apple Stores in Miami, Maryland, and Ottawa were shuttered earlier this month because of the epidemic. When 10% of a store's employees test positive for COVID-19, the corporation usually closes it down.

Apple has also reintroduced the mask-wearing requirement in all of its US retail locations. According to the corporation, it is "frequently monitoring [COVID-19] situations" to determine which stores should be shuttered to "help the well-being of customers and employees."

New York City's MTA Will Support Apple Pay Starting Early Summer

New Yorker’s will soon be able to use your iPhone as your MetroCard. During Apple’s Q2 earnings call, Tim Cook revealed that New York City's transit system would support Apple Pay in early summer. He didn't say just which services and routes would be covered, but the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's tap-to-pay OMNY system is supposed to launch May 31st with coverage on the 4, 5 and 6 subway lines as well as Staten Island buses.

The MTA will only support tapping on a per-ride basis until the feature is available across the entire subway and bus systems in late 2020, so you'll still have to pull out a MetroCard if you use routes that aren't covered. 

NYC Subways Get NFC Equipped Fare Systems Starting Late 2018

The New York City transit payment system is about to be to modernized. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is green lit a hefty $573 million contract that will install NFC-equipped fare systems across NYC. The plan should start installing readers in 600 buses and 500 subway turnstiles starting in late 2018, so you may tap your phone or card sooner than you might have thought with a 2021 rollout. The rollout won't reach every corner of the city (plus Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North trains) until late 2020. MetroCards will continue to work through 2023, so don't worry about rushing to replace your phone or bank cards. The new system shouldn't be picky about payment types, either, so you can expect Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay among others.

NYC Subway Cars Will Have WiFi And USB Ports In 2020

The New York City subway system is preparing up for a major overhaul to bring a”modernized look and feel” to lighting, wayfinding and subway cars by the year 2020. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's $27 billion, five-year plan to add 1,025 new subway cars, more informative digital screens, better security features and underground  WiFi and USB charging ports in the cars and stations. "People want to work, and they want their device to work 24 hours a day," Governor Cuomo during the event at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn. "They don't want to have to look up. There has to be WiFi, and there need to be charging ports." The new subway cars will sport "full color digital customer information displays," as well as new digital ad space. The subway cars will also offer wider doors to expedite boarding times and up to 750 of new cars will feature an open-ended design that allows for more passenger space. This announcement also included plans to create a new, unified design standard for all subway stations, starting with some extensive renovations at 3 stations across the city. Like the train cars, those stations will be getting WiFi, improved cellular connections and new digital signage with real-time updates at entrances and count down clocks on the platform. If the first phase of renovations is successful, there are plans to upgrade another 170 stations in the future. What do you think of this ? As a New Yorkers I am beyond excited for this and hope it comes to pass.

Google’s Sidewalk Labs Brings Free Wi-Fi To NYC

Google’s city-focused innovation company, Sidewalk Labs is going forward with “Project Sidewalk,” which is a project representing a plan to create a district in which it can begin to trial self-driving cars, Wi-Fi solutions, new public transport, and other city planning advances that modern technology make possible. The first product is LinkNYC, which is turning more than 7000 old public pay phones into kiosks providing free Wi-Fi, video and voice calling, and access to emergency and other city services across New York City; ‘Links’ are currently being installed across NYC with more cities to come in the future. 

New York City's MTA To Debut Smartphone Based Payments By 2018

The MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) of New York issued a public bid on Wednesday, asking for proposals for a new contactless ticketing system to replace the MetroCard, potentially allow iPhone users to pay for public transit on their smartphone. Starting in June, the MTA will begin accepting proposals for the "New Fare Payment System" that will replace the MetroCard for both subway and bus operations. The authority's new system will rely on both smart cards and mobile devices, like the iPhone. The MTA hopes to have the new payment system roll out by mid-2018, first debuting on the Select Bus Service, according to ABC 7. Apple's latest mobile devices, the iPhone 6, 6s and iPhone SE, feature NFC support for Apple Pay at retail. The company is also a member of the NFC Forum, which is working to bring contactless payments to U.S. public transit, potentially signaling that Apple Pay could be opened up to support the likes of the new system the MTA plans to implement. While Apple has not yet opened up NFC in the iPhone and Apple Watch to third-party developers, the company is said to have quietly shown interest in enabling features like transit payments and secure building access. Could New Yorkers so be able to use Apple Pay to ride transit ? Only time will tell. What do you think of using Apple Pay to ride transit ? 

Microsoft Opening Flagship Store In NYC

Microsoft will soon be opening their own flagship store in NYC. The store will be a huge 5 story 22,269 square foot retail space will open October 26th. This new shopping outlet, which has been in development for nearly a year, is located at 677 Fifth Avenue, only just a few blocks away from Apple's iconic 5th Ave store. In the store you can expect to get hands on time with Windows 10 devices, the Xbox One and much more. Microsoft is also said to be opening another flagship store in Sydney, Australia, but store would open until November 12th.

The Best Buy Theater Is Now The PlayStation Theater

Sony has announced that The Best Buy Theater, Times Square's concert and events venue has been renamed to PlayStation Theater. The new name comes as the venue celebrates its 10th anniversary and as part of a partnership that will see rebranding of all the theater's interior and exterior signage. Additionally, it'll lead to live performances being shown on the PlayStation Network. "PlayStation Theater is an exceptionally exciting initiative, allowing us to marry our tremendous brand momentum with an amazing venue right in the heart of Times Square," said John Koller, Vice President, Marketing at PlayStation.  "We believe the PlayStation brand should be deeply integrated with large cultural events, and this partnership provides that opportunity.  We are looking forward to exploring significant cultural moments at PlayStation Theater." What do you think of the change ? Are you excited to see some future performances on the PlayStation Network ? 

Microsoft Holding A Windows 10 Briefing on October 6th

Microsoft is hosting a media briefing featuring new Windows 10 devices on October 6th in New York City. The briefing begins and 10AM ET. Microsoft isn’t giving specifics, but they promises Windows 10 hardware, so we might get a closer look at products like the Surface Hub, a product we recently learned will start shipping to customers on January 1st, 2016. The Hub is priced between $7,000 and $20,000. Plus, there's always the Surface tablet, Lumia smartphones, Xbox One, PC devices and maybe even HoloLens. What do you think will be shown off at the briefing ?

Microsoft Opening A New Store In NYC This Fall

Microsoft is getting ready to open a flagship retail store this Fall on New York's Fifth Avenue. Microsoft Extended Experts Team member Gokan Ozcifci tweeted the image below, which show the storefront at 677 5th Ave with a sign that says "Microsoft Store Coming Fall 2015".The company has 100 outlets in the US, Puerto Rico and Canada though most of those are those Microsoft-branded store within a store sections you see at Best Buy and Staples. This will be its first flagship location, just blocks from one of Apple's iconic stores in New York City. Looks like Microsoft is pushing stores. Are they trying to compete with Apple with stores ? What do you think ? Will this Microsoft store make a difference ? 

Apple To Renovate Iconic Fifth Avenue Apple Store

Apple's iconic Fifth Avenue store in New York City will soon close for renovations and temporarily relocate to the soon to be closed FAO Schwarz toy store. FAO Schwarz is the most famous and oldest toy store in the United States, is set to vacate its building in July 2015 due to the rising cost of rent. The storefront is located just a short distance away from the current Apple Store at 58th Street and Fifth Avenue. Apple reportedly plans to renovate about 20 existing retail stores in the United States to accommodate for increased foot traffic, with many stores set to double in size.