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New Apple Store opens in Australia, and a sneak preview of the new Chicago store
Apple celebrated the opening of another retail store in Australia, the fifth such store in the state of New South Wales, and the tenth in the country. The Charlestown Apple Store had a grand opening today at 5:00pm, and TUAW reader Paul L. was on hand for the festivities, replete with the usual blue-shirted employees and lines of customers. He says he waited in line and got a black store opening t-shirt for his troubles, but unfortunately, there's no word on which of yesterday's big announcements, if any, were on display in-store. Elsewhere in the world of Apple retail, the Chicago Tribune's blog site has a great sneak preview of that Chicago Apple Store that's opening up this weekend. This is that store at the North/Clybourn stop that Apple spent $4 million on, with the city's blessing, to not only design a new three-sided Apple Store, but also completely renovate the El stop nearby. Turns out the store is a "Significant Store" for the company -- rather than just imitate the normal design, Chicago's new store was specifically designed for the area that it's in. Sounds fascinating -- the store in Chicago officially opens to the public on Saturday. I'd love to go if I was still in town (I actually used to help manage the Borders directly across the street from it), but since I've moved out to the West Coast, we'll have to recruit some of you readers. If you go to the Chicago store opening this weekend, be sure to send pics and tell us how it all went.
Silver lining: THQ acquires 40 percent of Midway San Diego employees, maybe more
You've been reading an awful lot about Midway business minutiae over the last six months, so we won't bore you with too many unexciting details about THQ buying Midway's San Diego studio for $200k last week. The most important thing for you to know is that out of 100 employees, 40 have been offered jobs by THQ, and more positions may be opening, the Chicago Tribune reports. According to the SEC filing, the TNA iMPACT! license wasn't part of the deal, a strange omission considering THQ publishes UFC games. The deal is all but finalized, awaiting Midway's bankruptcy court's approval and an agreement between THQ and Warner Bros. over the sharing of certain undisclosed IPs (the terms of which have already been settled). Considering the sad tale surrounding the shuttering of Midway Newcastle, we're glad to finally be writing something somewhat positive in the wake of Midway's collapse.[Via Kotaku]
Kirk says children at risk in Second Life
The Chicago Tribune is carrying a story about Congressional Representative Mark Kirk of the district of Illinois. Kirk alleges that Second Life "is a risk for children, who could be sexually exploited" and has written a letter to the US Federal Trade Commission, urging them to issue a consumer alert to warn of this danger. We're pretty sure that Kirk isn't going to get that consumer alert.
