Google Voice For iPhone Pulled From The App Store Because It Keeps Crashing (AAPL, GOOG)

Google has pulled its Google Voice iPhone app from the App Store because the latest version keeps crashing, Engadget reports.

Google told Engadget that the app's latest update causes it to crash at sign in.

The app has been pulled from the store until the bug can be fixed. (Don't worry, if you already have Google Voice on your phone you can still use it.)

We've been having problems with Google Voice since upgrading to iOS 5. The app crashes almost every time we try to check our inbox. Still, the problem doesn't appear to be affecting everyone. We'll keep you posted once the bug-free version is live in the App Store.

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Guess How Much Each Apple Store Costs (AAPL, MSFT)

Between $8.5 and $10 million.

And that's just for the physical stores -- not including the leases, the inventory, or the site selection.

That's according to Horace Dediu at Asymco, who ran the numbers today.

He looked at Apple's spend on "leasehold improvements" over the last six years, which amounted to $1.9 billion, then divided them by the 220 stores opened. He came up with an average of $8.5 million, but it's been increasing lately, so $10 million seemed more likely.

His point: if Microsoft (or, someday, Google) wants to match Apple's footprint, it will have to spend $2 billion just to open the same type and number of stores.

But unlike Apple, which sells hardware at a heavy per-unit markup, Microsoft makes much less money per item sold in its stores, so will have a harder time recovering those costs. Maybe that's why Microsoft has been so slow to roll out its stores, although it now says it will build 75 new stores over the next three years.

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The Grand Opening Of Uniqlo's Amazing Flagship Store In New York City

Image: Karlee Weinmann, Business Insider

Thousands of shoppers trekked to Fifth Avenue on Friday to be among the first to see Uniqlo's largest global flagship store revealed (at 89,000 square feet, it's the biggest single retail space on avenue).

When Mayor Bloomberg cut the ribbon at noon, he said the store would add more than a thousand new jobs; and Uniqlo CEO and Japan's richest man Tadashi Yanai -- whose father started the company as a tiny menswear shop in Japan more than 50 years ago -- said the opening was the realization of his "American Dream." 

Retail workers trained for up to three months just for the store's opening day. We captured the moment while alongside members of the media from around the world (including many from Japan and at least one from France), and even braved the chaos once the doors were opened.

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Google Music Store Will Launch This Quarter (GOOG)

Google's long awaited music store is on schedule for launch this quarter, and the major labels are starting to spread the word to their subsidiaries and partners.

We got word from the owner of an independent record label.

Recently, his distributor -- which is run by one of the big major labels -- contacted him to say that Google Music's download store would launch in Q4, with major catalog titles first, followed by more obscure titles.

The distributor told our indie-label source that he had a few days to make any concerns known.

Our source is concerned that the majors will take big up-front payments from Google Music then not share those payments with the smaller artists that his label handles.

But it sounds like the deal is progressing regardless. No date was given, except "Q4."

Yesterday, the New York Times first reported that Google was entering final negotiations with the major labels and was hoping to have a store in "weeks." The Wall Street Journal reported that Google was still having trouble getting deals with some of the labels, but might open the store regardless.

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Australian Ikea Store Builds A Playroom For Men Where Wives Can Drop Their Husbands While They Go Shop

By Sarah Firshein

An Ikea store in Sydney, Australia, has either set retail shopping forward by three decades or set gender equality back by three decades—you decide: they're testing out Manland, which is, as one local newscaster describes it, "basically a creche for husbands and boyfriends with short retail attention spans, a place to hang out while their wives and girlfriends run the aisles of Ikea."

Think ultimate man-cave stuff such as video games, foosball tables, free hot dogs, pinball machines, and oddly enough, no books. (Apparently reading is not encouraged in Manland!) As with Ikea's childcare creche, women dropping off their husbands and boyfriends are given a buzzer. "After 30 minutes, the buzzer goes off, it reminds you that you have to come pick up your man or else, you know, we may have to all the authorities," explains one Ikea sales associate.

Clearly there are a number of loopholes in this whole program, not the least being the fact that it overlooks gay couples. And secondly, when is 30 minutes ever enough time to successfully navigate an Ikea.

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