So anyway—I went this evening to the Apple store at Friendly Center and asked them if there was anything that could be done about it, even though my warranty expired last November. After asking a few questions they responded that this sort of scenario was a known problem with some of the MacBooks like mine, and they could replace that part of the casing that was cracking and breaking. I figured it would mean shipping the computer off to some facility somewhere and waiting a week or ten days…Nope, they did it right there in the store in less than two hours. Marcella and I went shopping in some of the other stores at the shopping center and were about to grab some dinner while we were over there when they called and said it was done. Awesome. And no charge!

And now I have a computer that while it isn’t new, still sort of seems that way. I was very impressed with all the people who assisted me at the store and am amazed at the speed with which the problem was resolved. This was top notch customer service. Well done Apple Store Friendly Center.

Anyway, I think we were about 150 people back in the line. Opening began at about 10 AM. By the time it did open the line was around the block. I heard estimates ranging from just below 400 to over 500 people, and the line probably kept growing after the doors actually opened because even when they did open not everyone was allowed in right away. I’d say we got in the doors at about 10:15 or so.

We were given our boxes with a free t-shirt as we entered and shook hands and congratulated some of the cheering employees and then we took a quick trip through the store looking for a new power brick that matches our MacBooks. We’ve been wanting to have a spare one of those around the house. We received a little assistance from a few of the employees making sure we were getting the right one for our model of MacBooks and then made the purchase and left…clicking a button or too and ogling a cinema display on the way out of the door.

I’m sure the Apple store will become one of our regular destinations when we go shopping at that shopping center in the future, and it is nice to know that we now have a place to go and get advice if we do have problems with our computers at some point.

It was my understanding this was to happen sometime this summer. I would have thought there would at least be an Apple logo on a construction entrance or something. Just to say, “future home of….”

Does anybody have any idea which location will house the store, and when it is scheduled to open? I’m looking forward to browsing on my trips to that shopping center, along with my visits to REI and B&N.

The rumors seem to indicate that 10.6 will not contain as many new features as the last couple of major updates, but will focus more on security, speed and stability. That’s great, but I suspect there will be at least a few advances unveiled to make all the fanboys salivate. The only question though will be what price point it will come in at if it actually doesn’t add any new features. Recent releases have been priced at $129, but without new features it remains to be seen if Apple can expect that kind of price point to move.

The rest of the rumors seem to focus on changes to the dotmac internet service Apple currently sells. It has long been criticized for not offering enough for its price point of $99, and rumors have been swirling that it is about to undergo a name change as well as feature growth. Perhaps it will finally be considered a worthwhile purchase.

Nobody, to my knowledge, has been discussing the iWork suite of products, but this conference seems to me to also be an ideal time to unveil the next generation of that particular product. I’m expecting to see Numbers, the suite’s spreadsheet program, take a step forward in features to make it more competitive with Microsoft Excel. I also can’t help but wonder, in a world where online applications are becoming more and more the rage, if some sort of interactivity with dotmac, or whatever it is to be called, might not be unveiled.

We’ll find out tomorrow what is in the cards for the near future at Apple. Jobs gives his keynote at 10AM pacific time, 1PM eastern.

Visit your local favorite Starbucks and let me know if you find these cards with the song code. Not a bad way to find some new music, I guess.

I’m not sure if I’m really interested in a few of the artists that are mentioned, but I’ll give them a try. I’m also unclear whether the songs will be DRM free or not.

I found this story first at TUAW, which in turn linked from iLounge.