Picketers outside proposed Apple Store on Walnut

Picketers outside 1607 Walnut Street. Photo taken by Hughe Dillon.

Laborers’ union members are picketing the Apple Store-to-be at 1607 Walnut Street, according to the above camera photo from Philadelphia’s paparazzi legend Hugh Dillon.

“[The picketers are] against owners of [those] prepping the [building] for the Apple lease,” reports Dillon. “They [are] using non-union workers. They stress it’s not against Apple, as Apple is using union workers.”

In December we reported that this, the first official Apple store to be located in the city, was hiring.

Friday Q&A: Keith McGinnis on Philadelphia Weekly’s free Happy Hour Guide app

No one is suggesting that iPhone applications are going to save legacy media. But the conversation so often turns to profitability on mobile platforms, that it may be a surprise there are so  few truly local products from Philadelphia media.

NBC10 and 6ABC have free apps developed with the help of their national parents. Shopiks offers Philly coupons, and there’s the popular Philadelphia Concert Hub.

A screenshot of the app's interface. Click to enlarge.

“The rest are tour guides, canned content, RSS readers of Philly feeds or some sort of national content that is supposed to relate to our area,” says Keith McGinnis, who recently left a role heading up IT for Review Publishing, whose flagship brand is Philadelphia Weekly.

In December, PW likely made the region’s strongest big media play into mobile by launching a McGinnis-led Philly Happy Hour Guide application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The application offers users the chance to search and find the best happy hour deals at specific locations, specific bars, specific neighborhoods or wherever is nearest. There are options for calling a cab, getting directions and tracking just what’s your favorite.

Last month, the app became free to use, after a paid trial version, and so now, McGinnis says, PW has an excellent opportunity to test the waters of localized mobile profitability, ahead of anyone else in Philadelphia (No particular provision is being made for the few hundred who paid $1 for the app, McGinnis says, “I figure you saved $1 on your first drink special.”)

McGinnis is now joining the staff of Northern Liberties Web development firm o3world, but the Happy Hour Guide is still close enough to his heart that he took the time to chat with Technically Philly about how the app plans on making money, how it got made and what it means for PW’s always active competition with crosstown rival CityPaper.

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Walnut Street Apple Store location now hiring

While we are kind of upset that Steve Jobs has chosen to neglect our Jobs Board, it seems Philly’s first Apple Store is now hiring and it’s using Craigslist to find employees. It is the first official confirmation that Apple will launch a retail store in Philadelphia proper.

Posted last week, Apple is seeking Mac-head “Geniuses” for its new reported 1607 Walnut Street location. In the company’s typical we’re-super-serious-yet-friendly fashion, the ad calls for those looking to join the “retail revolution.” Rumor has it that retail workers make roughly $9 an hour while its Geniuses support team can make up to $24 an hour. [Full Disclosure: Local Apple specialist Springboard Media is one of TP's sponsors.]

Reports of the strict corporate culture at Apple’s retail stores have been circulating on the web for some time. Last year, one employee made waves with a confessional style LiveJournal that was quickly removed. Employees of the Apple Store in Lynnwood, Washington, staged a walkout in protest of management’s “abusive” behavior in October.

Reports like these should be taken with a grain of salt. Many retail chains are criticized by staff, but don’t have the same press buzz as Apple. After the jump, a Genius hiring offer from 2008, should you decide to take the plunge:

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Philadelphia to get Apple retail store

According to the Philadelphia Metro, Philadelphia is finally going to get an Apple Store.

The store will be located at 1607 Walnut street which is a few doors down from the long-suspected location of 1619 Walnut. Earlier in the year, peices of 1619 crumbled to the street , and so we wonder if the decay led Apple to switch addresses.

The blog Talking Apple predicted the move down the block last month.

The store has not been officially announced, though the plans are set to be presented to the city’s Art Commission tomorrow. It is mandated in the city’s charter that all new architecture and buildings be presented to the Commission which likely means that Apple is looking to heavily renovate the space.

The architechture firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson will likely design the new store. The firm’s Philadelphia office refused to offer any information when called for comment.

Springboard Media opens new store in Exton

An exclusive shot of the new sales floor at Springboard Media in Exton before Saturday's Grand Opening.

If you see dozens of renegade balloons floating high above the region this weekend, blame Springboard Media.

The Center City-based independent Apple retail and repair specialist is celebrating a grand opening of a sister store in Exton and President Everett Katzen has spent the last few days orchestrating final touches.

“I just bought out all the purple balloons at Party City,” Katzen exclaimed during a phone interview on Wednesday.

Thirty-five year old Katzen has operated the store since 1996 and the Exton opening marks the company’s first expansion. The retailer has graduated to a 3,600 square feet space, about a thousand more than at its digs on the 2200 block of Walnut Street.

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Technically Not Tech: South Street’s J1Studios to release first video game

In junior high school most students doodle or play hangman when not paying attention. Jason Richardson, on the other hand, wrote code.

“All during school I just wouldn’t pay attention to the teacher. It looked like I was taking notes but I was just writing code on graph paper,” he says. “I have a thing for creating.”

The 31-year-old founder of South Street-based J1 Studios spent his youth making board games, card games and video games and hasn’t let up since. Richardson is taking the hobbies of his youth and slowly building a geek media empire complete with anime-style comics, podcasts and video game development and will have a booth at the upcoming GameX expo.

But, if you ask Richardson, he’ll tell you it all started with an Apple II and a Zelda instruction manual.

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Friday Tech Links: Mount Airy teen hacker in WSJ, Digital Philadelphia summit video and More

Ari Weinstein, 15, in the computer lab of Germantown Friends School, where he just finished 9th grade. Yukari Kane/The Wall Street Journal

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

Ari Weinstein is the youngest Mount Airy-based hacker we’ve featured on Technically Philly in our long and illustrious history.

Weinstein, 15, is apparently “getting job offers from Israel and all over the place,” and will follow in my footsteps and appear on Fox 29 Monday morning (See clip here), after his place in a Wall Street Journal cover story that ran this week, as reported dutifully by our boy Joe DiStefano.

Weinstein is a contributor to iJailBreak.com, a blog devoted to help users install unapproved software onto Apple’ iPhone and iPod touch products.

Dude is keeping it straight tech raw in northwest Philly, even while he’s in summer camp on the Left Coast. Dude’s father Ken is a developing playing a large role in something of a retail resurgence in Mount Airy, DiStefano reports, including his ownership of the Trolley Car Diner.

H/T Joey D

After the jump, more Ben Franklin Technology Partners dispute, a Digital Philadelphia op-ed and six other tech stories you should read, including our best read article of the week.

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Rumored Philadelphia Apple Store location suffers damage

Photo courtesy of a Philebrity.com reader

While Philly’s Apple community is served well by local retailers Springboard Media and Bundy, we often wonder what it takes to get some love from Steve Jobs and company.

After all, Philadelphia is the largest media market without an Apple Store, unless, of course you count the city’s suburban Apple outlets.

Well, the architecture gods may have exacted revenge on the computer company, Philebrity.com reports.

The rumored site of Apple’s Philadelphia location has suffered some sort of structural damage. Overnight, a piece of marble installation crumbled off the building and into the street, though no one was hurt, according to Philly.com.

Last year, AppleInsider speculated that Apple was eying the space at 1619 Walnut Street, formally the home of the Brasserie Perrier restaurant. PhiladelphiaWillDo’s DMac disputed the claim.

All has been quiet on the Philly Apple Store front, though the company continues to expand its number of retail locations nationwide. The company recently announced that it will be opening up a fourth store in the second best city on the East coast, ahem, New York.

According to public records, the space at 1619 Walnut is owned by “Walnut Street Retail Investments.”

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, the firm responsible for designing some of the company’s New York locations, declined to comment about the possibility of a Philadelphia location when Technically Philly contacted their Philadelphia office late last week.

As part of the firm’s agreement with Apple, it is prohibited from discussing any details of future locations and would not even confirm that Apple was considering Philadelphia.

Friday Tech Links: City election day results online, Skorpion Show redo and More

Technically Philly friends The Skorpion Show get love from the Daily News. Photo by DAVID MAIALETTI for the Daily News.

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

• OK, first the Daily News reports this morning that the city would not continue its freshly rolled out policy of allowing access to online election-day voting results. By noon, KYW reported that Michael Nutter was sufficiently embarrassed by Philadelphia’s primitive take on Web access that the money was found to keep it going — something about $30,000 for hosting. Hell, we’ll do it for $300 and hot pretzels.

Brian Tierney talks about the Web, libraries get faster online and five other tech stories you should read — including our most trafficked post of the week.

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