Hard to believe, but the month of October is rapidly drawing to a close. We've likely seen the last of Apple's 2012 product announcements this week, and with less than a week of this Halloween month left on the calendar, that means iTunes 11 -- which was a total no-show at Apple's Tuesday event -- should be popping up on the radar soon. In the meantime, kick back and catch up on some stories you might have missed yesterday, won't you?
According to 9to5Mac, Apple has sent out an email invitation announcing the grand opening of a redesigned Apple Store in Palo Alto, California this Saturday, October 27. The new location at 340 University Avenue will open its doors at 10am local time and as usual, the first 1,000 people in the door will get a commemorative T-shirt for their time. The Palo Alto locale is 15,030 square feet of Apple goodness mere blocks from its former location, and is rumored to have cost the company $3.15 million to build.
Microsoft's busy Skype division announced the availability of version 6.0 of its popular Mac and Windows clients on Wednesday. The desktop Skype editions now include integration of both Microsoft and Facebook accounts, allow IM chatting with friends on Messenger and promises the introduction of audio and video calls with Windows Live Messenger users in the very near future. The Mac version also brings two additional features: Retina Display support for higher resolution screens, as well as the ability to open chats in multiple windows. Skype for Mac 6.0.0.2946 can be updated from your existing copy or downloaded directly from the company's website.
On Wednesday, 9to5Mac noted that the Coupons.com mobile website was now offering up Passbook coupons for iOS 6 users. The mobile coupons include brands such as PETCO, Barnes & Noble, Jo-Ann, Old Navy and Michael's, with each coupon added to your Passbook app with a tap. Of course, like all coupons, they include an expiration date, so make sure you add and use the ones you're interested in before that date passes. Oddly, the Coupons.com iOS app has not been updated to offer the same Passbook integration, although that's likely on the horizon should this mobile experiment be successful.
Notification Center may be the cat's meow for OS X Mountain Lion users, but it doesn't exactly help iOS users much. That's where Growl has stepped in, offering third-party apps some of the same functionality, and developer Zachary West's universal Prowl client pulls those desktop-based notifications and brings them to your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Prowl has now been updated to version 1.4, bringing full support for both the iPhone 5 as well as iOS 6, along with a trio of bug fixes related to passwords, Safari redirects and a few random crashes and display issues. The $2.99 app is available now from the App Store, and the update is free to existing customers.
9to5Mac went straight to the source for confirmation that Apple's new 12W USB Power Adapter will actually charge an iPad faster than the old 10W model. “We don’t have an exact percentage of how much faster it would charge but you should see an increase in speed," an Apple spokesperson said. Unlike the company's new Lightning video adapters, the 12W USB Power Adapter is available to ship in one to three days at a cost of only $19.
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