Everyone knows that Steve likes his secrets. Every time he takes the wraps off of some new surprise during a keynote, you can just see that twinkle in his eye. He lives for that perfect instant when he can cast his gaze over a sea of awestruck, open-mouthed faces and know that he just blew the mind behind each and every one of them. No wonder he instituted a strict "no leaks" policy at Apple; how else could he have stunned the world with the iMac unveiling back in May of 1998? Keeping an engineering effort of that scale hidden for so long is no small feat.

Unfortunately, while developing a blue-green space egg on the sly is tough but doable, working on some things just really can't be kept under wraps all that well. Like, say, a building. Those of you who have been following the "Apple retail" rumors from the beginning know what we're talking about. For a long, long time, now, there have been whispers that Apple is planning to counter what can only be described as a pretty awful Mac presence in retail stores with the ultimate solution: Apple's own stores, in which the company has total control over those niggling little details like presentation, availability, and customer shopping experience-- which chains like Best Buy seem to consider costly and unnecessary frills.

But it's far easier for Steve to clamp the muzzle on his own company's employees than to silence outside contractors, and since Apple never planned to branch out into architecture, construction, and various other building-type areas, it comes as no surprise that details about Apple's own retail plans have come bubbling to the surface via looser-lipped outside agencies. Industry design magazines such as (appropriately enough) The Industry Design Magazine published tidbits of info about various firms who were designing Apple's new stores, etc. So this is one rumor that eventually started looking more and more like a certainty, barring any last-minute "Ah, screw this, let's just sell 'em door-to-door instead" decisions by His Mercurialness.

Here's the latest piece of the puzzle, which blows the whole story wide open: the San Jose Mercury News reports that the very first meatspace Apple Store will cater to the late-night geek crowd by selling Apple gear until 11PM each night once it opens its doors at the corner of University and Kipling Avenues in downtown Palo Alto, "just a couple of miles from Jobs' home." How do they know, you ask? Because a member of the city's architectural review board went ahead and blabbed. Thank heaven for garrulous civil servants!

As for the store itself, we're only calling it the Apple Store in lieu of any hard evidence to the contrary; reportedly the premiere Apple shop (not counting the company store at Apple's headquarters) "won't come with any signage, just two white Apple logos illuminated on glass doors." (Terrific. We sense a "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" naming scenario.) According to the board, Apple was "pretty clear" about wanting a University Avenue address in Palo Alto, and so the store is going to settle in a 6500-square-foot space that used to be a HomeChef until it "burned down"-- wow, sounds like Steve really wanted that space. The lesson here, kids, is this: never cross an iCEO with a lighter and some kindling.

We at AtAT hereby propose that the Mac community retire the whole "glass half-empty"/"glass half-full" measure for whether a person is an optimist or a pessimist, at least for the next couple of months. Instead of that outdated and overused classification method, why don't we use a "faster G4s by Macworld Expo"/"we'll be at 500 MHz until we die" dichotomy instead? It seems somehow more specific and appropriate, certainly for the next eight weeks or so.

For the record, the AtAT staff falls somewhere in the middle. On one hand, we'd love to accept Mac OS Rumors' claims of an Expo-bound 600 MHz Power Mac G4 at face value. On the other, the G4/500 has been the upper limit for so long, we're finding a clock speed any faster than that as tough for our brains to accept as the concept of 2 + 2 = 5, or a really good show produced by UPN. Still, deeply-held fundamental beliefs aside, we'd like to classify ourselves as cautiously optimistic that when Steve takes the stage in January, he'll indeed be joined by a spankin' new UMA-2-based Power Mac running at speeds up to 600 MHz and using 133 MHz DDR RAM.

Why? Well, two reasons, really. The first is that this isn't just some unsubstantiated rumor posted at a rumors site with a spotty track record; this is a "confirmed" unsubstantiated rumor posted at a rumors site with a spotty track record. That makes all the difference. The second is a firmly-held belief that no dry spell lasts forever. Come on, even the Cubs won the World Series in 1908. Clearly Motorola's due for a break any day now. Right? Right?

And the awards keep rolling in! Nary a fortnight's passed since we proudly reported that the Power Mac G4 Cube had been honored with a Popular Mechanics Design & Engineering Award, and scarcely a week went by after that that we told you about the Cube's "Grand Award" in the Best of What's New race over at Popular Science. Well, prepare yourselves for a hat trick, because the Cube has gone and done it again: according to MacCentral, this time it's Home Office Computing magazine rushing to bestow honors upon Apple's teeny little supercomputer.

This time around, the Cube tops the list of "the 100 best home office products, services, and sites of 2000," which was revealed at an awards ceremony at Comdex. The Cube snagged the "Product of the Year" honor by virtue of its "value, performance, ease of use, innovation, and suitability for home offices." Huh. Personally, if those are the criteria, we're a little surprised that the Cube took top honors; it's been blasted for its lackluster price/performance rating, and frankly, while we'd love to live in a world where the average home office sported a Cube or two, we'd expect Home Office Computing to have selected something far beiger and with more of a Windowsy smell about it. It just goes to show that sometimes you find taste where you least expect it. Congrats to the Cube for winning the award, and congrats to the judging panel for knowing what's good.

Of course, realistically speaking, the Cube needs other award like it needs a cra-- uh, mold line in its case. Sure, awards are a wonderful way to show how much better the Cube is than its competition, but considering that the competition is beating the virtual pants off it at the cash register, what the Cube (and Apple) really needs is some sales. Here's hoping that the attention these awards may bring can translate into some better stats at the checkout line.