Okay, so the cat's out of the proverbial translucent bag on this whole Apple-operated retail store deal, and Uncle Steve's probably none too pleased about one of his Macworld Expo keynote surprises being spoiled. Still, he's a smart guy and he knows the way of the world, so he can't exactly be stunned that a venture requiring the involvement of lots of outside agencies led to a bit of premature chatter on the subject. Sadly, we can fake putting a man on the moon, but we still lack the technology to conjure forth a slew of retail stores overnight without all that tedious mucking about with loose-lipped architectural review boards, zoning commissions, and the like. Bummer, huh?

But wait, there's more! Not only do we know about the three stores Apple plans to open in California this spring, but now we also know that it's not just a Left Coast thing. According to a Crain's Chicago Business blurb we first saw mentioned at MacNN, it appears that the Windy City is also slated to host an Apple store that'll probably open its doors "next spring." A "person familiar with the matter" indicates that Apple is about to sign a lease on a 28,000-square-foot former home of the Gap, located at Michigan and Huron in the swanky shopping neighborhood known as the Magnificent Mile.

An Apple-branded store on Michigan Avenue in one of AtAT's spiritual home towns? Hey, you can't beat that with a stick. While it's true that the Magnificent Mile isn't exactly the place where the Unwashed Masses might go to do their computer shopping (the area's more conducive to on-foot window shopping, not to picking up an iMac or two), it draws a lot of tourist traffic, and during the holiday season the throngs of shoppers are three people deep. Apple picked a great spot for visibility and mind share alone, even if it doesn't sell a single Mac. However, given that Chicago's big design and advertising firms are a stone's throw away, we bet that business might actually be pretty brisk.

Apple's somewhat ritzy choice for a Chicago location is starting to clarify the primary goal for its retail project: to increase the visibility and strength of the brand, rather than to compete hardcore with its own resellers. (At least, we hope that's the case.) By the way, we imagine that zoning permissions and stuff like that's all a matter of public record, so we're guessing that details about other Apple stores slated for a spring grand opening may start to surface soon enough. Stay tuned to find out if one will be coming to your town soon.

Last night we got to experience that rare joy once again-- the surprise sighting of a brand spankin' new Apple commercial on broadcast TV. There we were, tuned in to Buffy as per the usual sacred Tuesday night ritual, when Jeff Goldblum's inimitable presence commandeered our set and proceeded to tout the Internet as the ideal holiday gift, and the iMac as the ideal way to give it. If you weren't watching the WB (may the powers that be have mercy upon your soul) and missed this new addition to Apple's stable of ads, for once the company's right on the ball; there's a QuickTime version of "Internet Gift" already available, the very day after the commercial first hit the airwaves.

Be warned, though, because the page in question features a rather large and unsettling still of Mr. Goldblum scratching his chin-- a pose that we presume is meant to be "pensive," but which strikes us as "confused" instead, or possibly "befuddled." Indeed, we don't know how intelligent the man is in real life, but we've noticed that whenever Jeff stars in an Apple commercial, he apparently goes to great pains to come across as the wide-eyed techno-newbie-- which, of course, makes perfect sense, since that's the iMac's target audience. And while our first thought was that the Average Shmoe might take offense at being characterized as such, we soon recalled the stupendous popularity of the "* For Dummies" books and realized that as far as technology is concerned, the public loves to be talked down to. So we figure Apple's taking exactly the right approach (though that picture on the "Internet Gift" page still creeps us out a little).

Now, while the rest of us were all rejoicing at Apple's decision to advertise the iMac as a holiday gift-- hey, just because it's blindingly obvious doesn't mean that Apple would actually do it-- eagle-eyed faithful viewer Ross Karchner was busy scoping out the URL for Jeff Goldblum's iTools home page. Yes, just like Steve's page (which the iCEO revealed during the first iTools demo back in January), Jeff's page is a real thing, available for public consumption at http://homepage.mac.com/jeffgoldblum/. Don't expect to find too much there, though... other than a photo album with the puzzling title of "Dog Face" and an iMovie page with a broken file reference. Hmmm... maybe that "clueless newbie" act isn't so much of an act after all...

We admit it; as far as long-standing Apple rumors go, the "Mac OS on Intel" one sort of leaves us cold. Sure, the PowerPC is hideously behind x86 on the clock speed front (if not necessarily in terms of performance), and it's undoubtedly hurting Apple's sales. Sure, there's a ton of info revealing that an Intel port of Mac OS X would be a cakewalk, and there's plenty of evidence that Apple has indeed been keeping Intel builds of Mac OS X relatively current in its secret underground bunkers. But frankly, we just never saw all that much evidence that Apple was actually planning to move to the Intel platform (or ship a boxed version of Mac OS X for x86-compatible hardware), instead of just keeping the project warming on the back burner in case the PowerPC completely craters or Apple needs a bigger stick with which to smack Motorola.

Until now. You're aware, of course, that the original secret project to port System 7 to the x86 architecture was code-named "Star Trek"? (The project succeeded, though it was never released for political reasons.) You may also be aware that rumors of a "Star Trek: The NeXT Generation" project have been floating around for over three years now, ever since Steve's return to Apple. Well, against the backdrop of Mac OS X's Intel-compatible NeXT pedigree and its imminent release sometime within the next six months or so, faithful viewer David Gardner unearthed some startling evidence that the "Star Trek: The NeXT Generation" project is real and approaching at warp factor 7.

Check it out: the next Star Trek movie is, suspiciously enough, the tenth in the series-- and it's currently going by the title "Star Trek X"-- that's "X" as in "Roman numeral 10." Not enough evidence for you? Then take a gander at the Star Trek X logo and tell us that its glowing blue "X" doesn't look a whole heckuva lot like Apple's glowing blue "X." Suddenly the pieces all fall into place! Hopefully we're not looking at a simultaneous release, though, because STX only just signed a writer-- it's probably years from release, while Mac OS X is due by May at the latest. Then again, given the title of the porting project, maybe it's just the Intel version of Mac OS X that'll ship alongside STX's release. Yeah... That's it...