Tim Cook greets shoppers, team members at Birmingham, Alabama Apple Store

What you need to know
- Apple CEO Tim Cook was in his home state for another engagement.
- He visited a local Apple Store while there.
- He took pictures with team members and shoppers.
Apple CEO Tim Cook paid a visit to a Birmingham, Alabama Apple Store during his visit to his home state. Cook was already in the area as part of the EdFarm announement.
"Apple employees and customers greeted Cook with a standing ovation" according to a Fox Business report, with the CEO taking the time to take photos with those in attendance.
Cook is well known around those parts and he received his undergraduate degree from Auburn University.
While the report says that Cook's visit was a "surprise," it certainly doesn't seem it from the photos and videos that are included. It's unlikely that Apple's CEO woke up and decided to just call in to see what his colleagues were up to. It's more likely that the visit was planned to ensure the team members and store are spick and span for their boss's visit.
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Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.
Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.