Apparently under construction since the waning days of the Carter Administration, Apple is now opening its North Michigan Avenue store in Chicago on Friday June 27th from 6:00 to 11:00 pm. A lot of celebrity guests, including Cheap Trick and Paul Wertico on a regular series of Music Nights, are lined up for the month of July, and the grand opening will feature Eddie and Jobo of the WBBM morning show (demonstrating iTunes, no less, and holding a trivia contest), plus a live DJ and sweepstakes. And of course, Apple will be giving out its trademark grand opening t-shirts. Way to go, Chicago, some great events lined up and you’ve scored the first-ever “Apple Store Internet Cafe” — no more crowding around display eMacs just to check email.

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Lunch breaks have never been stretched this long. More details are coming in about where you can catch the live stream of Apple’s Keynote at WWDC. A particularly thorough user on MacRumors has posted a complete list of Apple Stores confirmed to have broadcasts, though you can bet any store with a theater and a dish will have it — provided Northridge fixes problems they’re having with their dish. MacMinute reports the University of Michigan, University of Manitoba, and Winona State University will have broadcasts. Know of other locations? Post a story to the Newswire or email me and I’ll compile a list before Monday.

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As we’d hoped, MacMinute has confirmed that Apple will be broadcasting the WWDC Keynote by Steve Jobs at Apple Retail Stores with theaters, 10 AM (Pacific) on Monday the 23rd. I’ll be watching (and uploading the news to the Powerpage via the fabulous Airport connection in the store)! See you at the Apple Store Soho, New Yorkers.

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Trolltech has announced it will release its Qt/Mac development environment in a free version, available for download at WWDC. (Thanks, Rand, for the tip!) The release is part of a dual-licensing strategy in which the company’s products are available both via a GNU General Public License and a commercial license. What does this mean for Mac users? Well, as near as I can figure as a non-UNIX guru, apparently we can look forward to a whole lot more free software running native in OS X that previously ran only in the X11 or full story and discussion. This opens up the Mac to nifty apps from Safari’s predecessor Konqueror to another Office alternative, KOffice, and even powerful PIM software with phone and Palm sync (yes, an iSync alternative). Any experienced KDE users or developers want to chime in, please post to the Newswire and enlighten us!

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Love it or hate it, this week has been all about Microsoft killing MSIE for the Mac. Some love it, some hate it, but all view the MSIE decision as historic. The question is, what does it mean for the Mac’s future: a portent of Microsoft abandoning the platform? The loss of a great browser? Good riddance to an outdated browser? The Dark Ages of web development in which Microsoft calls the shots from its fully Windows-based, integrated web browsing? (Read more)

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MacSkinz is shipping designs of case covers for the 12″ iBook, with more Apple portable models planned for the future (stay tuned). There are 30 designs, or clear models to display photos or your own artwork. Not since the PowerBook 1400 have we had this much fun. If you’re going to Macworld in July, up to 100 people can get their US$30 purchase price refunded if they photograph their machine at the Expo. (Just be sure to take part in our traditional PowerPage Class Photo, too.)

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Reuters reports today that Palm will buy Handspring,an odd twist given that Handspring began when Palm’s co-founders left to start the new company. Read more . . .

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Yesterday brought a couple of new revelations about Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Aside from rumors Apple may join forces with Amazon.com to promote the new service, Apple now is planning to court the hundreds of independent labels it left out of the original release. The bad news is, continued success of the store may bring a battle with the Beatles. Read more . . .

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Mark/Space is working on Missing Sync for PocketPC which will support data backup, shared Internet access, application installation, iSync Address Book/iCal support, iTunes/iPhoto support and desktop mounting for PocketPC devices. Entourage support is promised for a later date. An early adopter release is coming in time for Macworld July. Sign up on their mailing list to stay posted.

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We received a nice note from the SETI@Home project:

Dear O’Grady’s PowerPage SETI@home Team:
Armed with the results of 1.4 million years of computer time,
SETI@home scientists recently traveled to the Arecibo radio observatory
in Puerto Rico for a closer listen to our 155 top “candidates”.
Thanks for participating in this history-making effort.
Your contribution of computer time to SETI@home is greatly appreciated.

For some quick stats about Team PowerPage, Read more…

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