Technological World for November 23, consumer tech: New Apple Store in Vancouver a fitting flagship, Air Canada offers live TV, Black Friday deals

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The new Apple Store in Pacific Centre is glorious, watching World Cup on Air Canada flights, and some tech deals this Black Friday.

Apple Store in Vancouver’s Pacific Centre reopens just in time for holiday buying

The new Apple Store in downtown Vancouver is truly a flagship location for the consumer tech company.

The expansive space at the corner of Georgia and Howe in the heart of the city looks out onto the Vancouver Art Gallery. Another iconic building, the Hotel Vancouver is just over to the right.

It’s easy to see these landmarks from the Pacific Centre Apple Store thanks to the two-storey glass frontage, slightly curved at the edges in the same proportion as the curves on an iPhone.

This attention to detail is what we expect of Apple, and it’s what makes Apple Stores so inviting.

On the lower floor are the usual wooden tables arranged with Apple devices: iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks, all of them are enticing and inviting. Accessories for those devices, as well as other products like Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod are displayed on wall shelving.

The second floor can be reached by climbing a long, dramatic stairwell that slashes up the back of the store, an equally dramatic skylight overhead. It’s even more open up there. A screen takes up most of the back wall, and towards the front of the store is a loft that looks down on the entrance, and out onto the streetscape.

This second floor is the gathering space, the place for sharing and learning. The tables here are free of products but with power and networking ports and stools to support the programs that Apple hosts in its spaces – everything from coding to media production– and the support provided by its resident geniuses.

Where the first Apple Store location in Pacific Centre, which opened in 2010, was in the middle of the mall, sandwiched between retailers selling jeans and others hawking personal health products, this new space befits the brand. It is unabashedly a Vancouver Apple Store, glass and all, and I’ve no doubt it will be filled from now through the holiday season.

Air Canada offering live television on flights within Canada

Just in time for the World Cup, Air Canada has added live, satellite TV to its inflight entertainment options. For now, the service is only available on select Boeing 777, Boeing 787, Airbus A330 and Airbus A220 aircraft.

Networks available on the flights include TSN and RDS for sports, CTV News Channel, BNN Bloomberg, and LCN for French-language news.

Best Black Friday consumer tech deals

Black Friday officially begins in a couple of days on November 25, but some of the following deals are available now.

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