iPad Pro available for preorder at MacMall

Online Mac specialty retailer MacMall is offering the upcoming iPad Pro for preorder with an early bird discount. The iPad Pro and its Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil accessories are expected to hit stores on November 13 (although Canadian availability and price is still up in the air). Apple hasn't enabled any preorders for the device on their website, which means early adopters will likely need to go to physical stores and take their chances on finding iPad Pros.

Being a new product, initial stock is expected to be constrained until manufacturing can ramp up production to meet demand. We saw a similar trend with the MacBook earlier this year, which trickled into Apple Retail Stores the first few weeks of its availability.

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Apple App Store gets Shopping category

It has been a bit tough for mobile shopping apps to be spotted on Apple’s App Store because these apps were previously located in the Lifestyle section of the store. Thankfully, Apple is giving them their own space with the new Shopping category—just in time for holiday shopping season. This doesn’t just help reduce a number of apps in the Lifestyle section, it also helps put the spotlight on apps that support Apple Pay, the company’s mobile payments technology. But this section won’t be limited to shopping apps, it also houses apps that will help you find apps that specialize in deals, latest trends, price checks, as well as product reviews.

To celebrate the new section, Apple also launched new featured collections such as “Save While You Shop” for deals and discounts, “Shop for Everything” with a variety of themes like “Chic,” “Rugged,” “Play Dates,” etc.

Source: TechCrunch

Google Maps and Search add business holiday hours

Unsure if your favorite restaurant or shop is open or closed this holiday season? Google is helping you out in this department by adding holiday hours of businesses. Businesses where holiday hours aren’t listed will show a warning message that alerts you that actual business hours might be different because of the holidays. If the shop you want to visit is indeed closed during the time you want to visit it, you can select the Open Now filter to see which shops or restaurant is open nearby.

Source: Google Maps

TELUS and Huawei partner to build ‘5G Living Lab’ in Vancouver

TELUS have announced that they have a memorandum of understanding with telecommunications and ICT supplier Huawei to build a “5G Living Lab” in Vancouver. The new project will have Huawei and TELUS testing next-generation converged fibre-wireless network in downtown Vancouver. Huawei will be making a “significant investment” in the design, testing, and deployment of new technology to help develop 5G-based telecommunications network. This agreement follows TELUS’ announcement of a $1-billion investment to expand its fibre optic network in Vancouver.

This partnership is also in line with helping the City of Vancouver meet its goal of making it the world’s greenest city by 2020. They will serve as providers of network capacity and speed needed to create a “smart city” as well as support for other sustainability-focused technology initiatives.