Apple opened its first European retail store in London's Regent Street today [20 November]. The store will offer two floors where customers can buy and learn about its latest products and services and Apple has promised dedicated sections for music, movies and photography. Get in. It will also house a Genius Bar [see pictures below], which is not, as some may speculate, a chocolate snack, but an area where visitors can put questions to so-called 'Mac Geniuses' about the firm's offerings. An area designated The Studio will allow customers to get free one-on-one help with their creative projects from trained Apple staff who specialise in photography, publishing, movie-making and music. The shop will also boast two specially equipped studio classrooms and a 64-seat cinema where customers can attend workshops, demonstrations and other special events. And in other Apple news, Apple has confirmed its third UK retail location: the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, just outside London's M25 orbital freeway. The announcement came from the Mac maker's retail chief, Ron Johnson, in London yesterday to officially launch its Regent Street store, which will open to the public tomorrow. Apple is already known to be gearing up to open its second UK store, in Birmingham's rebuilt Bull Ring mall. The Bluewater outlet is site number three. Both are expected to open "sometime in 2005", Johnson said, Macworld UK reports. "We want to open as soon as possible," Johnson said. Apple is also preparing to open stores on continental Europe, he added. There are a number of Apple-branded stores around Europe, but the London location is the first to be owned and operated by Apple itself, rather than members of its reseller channel. Have you been? Then let us know ...