Let the word go forth: this past Saturday, Apple officially met an original deadline-- without moving the finish line, and without sneakily changing the specifics of what would be delivered. (Those of you who remember when the Premiere release of "Rhapsody" was supposed to ship back in early 1998 should feel free to take a moment to be appropriately stunned.) You see, last May Uncle Steve officially took the wraps off one leg of his elaborate scheme for world domination-- namely, the bit about opening retail stores. At that time, Steve indicated that Apple would have no fewer than twenty-five locations with cash registers a-ringin' by year's end.

Color us suitably impressed, then, that on Saturday, less than seven months after the official announcement of that lofty goal, Apple hit its deadline: the Rockingham Park location is Magic Number Twenty-Five, and Apple beat its deadline by over three full weeks. The AtAT staff feels blessed to have been present at such a momentous occasion. As proof of our attendance, we'd like to point out that faithful viewers Dundee and Macintech both spotted us in several photos published over at MacCentral; we'll leave it to you to pick our various body parts out of the crowd. (Figuratively speaking, of course. Eeeeww.)

But wait, there's more: on the same exact day-- indeed, just minutes after meeting its original twenty-five-store goal-- Apple exceeded its target and opened its twenty-sixth store at Palisades in West Nyack, New York. We noticed over at MacNN that a gentleman named Brian Burton has posted photos of that grand opening, but as far as we can tell, the AtAT staff doesn't appear in any of them. Curse the laws of time, space, and dimension. (But we think we spot an AtAT t-shirt in this shot.) In any case, congrats to Apple on overdelivering; does this mean that the company's true calling is neither software development nor hardware design-- but retail? A question for the ages.

While you're chewing on that one, Apple isn't standing still; faithful viewer Luke pointed out that the CambridgeSide store is now in the on-deck circle on Apple's retail page. As usual, no date is given, but the odds are good that the grand opening will take place this Saturday morning. Yes, the AtAT staff will be there (this'll be our fifth), and we're hoping for a better crowd than at the Rockingham Park opening, which was fun, but a little on the light side. Boston area Mac fans, come on down and say hi to us there-- we'll be hanging around for the first couple of hours, handing out stickers and hawking shirts as usual. Like you have anything better to do on a Saturday...