Basic_B

Marcella and I went over to the grand opening of the new Apple store at Friendly Center…next to the Williams-Sonoma. We got there about 9 AM after stopping at Starbucks on the way to pick up our morning life-drinks. The line was already started and there were apparently at least a few people who had arrived the previous evening…crazy, it was cold out last night.

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.

We keep driving by the Shoppes at Friendly Center in Greensboro looking for evidence of where and when the supposed Apple store is to open, but as yet have not seen any sign.

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.

June 09, 2008 is Apple’s WWDC, and everybody is waiting anxiously to hear what new products will be announced. Most of the talk has been about the next generation iPhones. But I’m more interested in what is in store for the Macintosh operating system for the future. Rumors are that 10.6 will be previewed for the first time with an expected release date given for January 2009.

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.