I've heard the Microsoft Store pays well and all, but seriously, what a dick move for making employees do this. That's what Disney World, Cruise Lines, and Windows 7 parties are for. [YouTube via Engadget]

Hey, why save up for the Apple Tablet or Microsoft Courier when you can have eviGroup's Pad? It's kinda chunky, costs over $500 and runs, atop Windows 7, an artificial-intelligence man-lady widget known as Seline10. Don't be afraid that the only pictures of this sucker are renderings, or that it's probably not even going to sell in the USA. Just know that no matter what happens, it's bound to suddenly eclipse both—not to mention all other—tablets, in terms of sales and buzz. On second thought, maybe we'll just forget about this and keep waiting for the real McCoys. [Engadget]

Jim Goldman, a newscaster more famous in the bloggyverse for mistakes and total BS than he is for any act of conscious journalism, made Microsoft's stock take a momentary plummet when he read a statement from their quarterly report inaccurately. Surely he wasn't doing this to turn some short-happy day trader into Rico Suave, but it was a clear misinterpretation by either him or someone on his team. Did he admit he or his network made a mistake? Nope. Did they issue a correction, as most or all of us who have worked in any form of journalism have had to do from time to time? Nope. He instead made a "clarification," one that righted the stock to the chagrin of said would-be Sr. Suave.

I don't care, honestly, if someone makes a mistake on live TV, and it certainly wasn't worth posting as "news" on Giz. I am just sick and tired of people thinking there's something unmanly about saying you're sorry for effing up. I had my own run-in with that attitude last week, and I'll be honest, you people got it all wrong: The act of apologizing for a mistake shows you've got nothing to hide downtown, if you know what I mean. On that note, I'm sorry for climbing on my soap box. [Silicon Alley Insider]

One of the hottest non-news items of the day was Verizon's CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, saying how much he'd like a bite of the Apple:

Obviously we would be interested if they thought it would make sense for them to have us as a partner. And so we will leave it with them on that score….We want to broaden the base of choice for customers, and hopefully along the way, Apple, as well as others, will decide to jump on the bandwagon.

While this is obvious and doesn't change a thing, it was probably pretty upsetting to Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam in the week or so following his launch of the iDon't anti-iPhone campaign. [AllThingsD; original image from CNet]

We all knew that Microsoft borrowed Apple Store talent in order to get its own high-end retail initiative off the ground, but Engadget pointed out a delightful little detail—too small for its own post—that furthers the conspiracy. A sales manager, featured in the background of a video with Bono and Oprah from back when Product RED iPods launched in July 2007, suddenly reappears a few days ago handing out Zunes at the Scottsdale store opening. Hey, at least they're Zune HDs. [Engadget]

I'm in Scottsdale today to visit the off-Broadway tryout of a Microsoft store. (MSFT goes to the big city next week when they open in Southern California. As you can see from the photos, it bears a haunting resemblance to Apple Stores. (Despite Microsoft's desire to distance their retail outfit from that of Mr. Jobs, the fact is, they did hire one of the same designers as a consultant, among other things.)

Though Windows 7 starts belting out its big opening number today, we're here to see the whole show from Xbox to Zune. Still, the chanting before the store opening—as brought to us by brightly-shirted store employees—told us what today was: "Windows! Seven! Windows! Seven!"

Among those waiting in line were John Hernandez, an unemployed south Phoenix gentleman who jumped in line around 6 pm Wednesday and found himself in 23rd place. "I'm not much of a computer person," said John. However, he heard there might be free stuff, so he stuck out the night outside the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall, and says he received food and drink from helpful Microsoft staff.

Most of the line, however, showed up this morning, including George Nesbitt. An IT third-shifter, he headed over around 7:00 am for the 9:30 am opening and found himself #134. Breakfast had already been served by 8:30 as energy bars and water kept the hardy-ish line nourished.

At 9:30, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner came out to bow and cut the ribbon, while another exec, David Porter, contented himself to stay out with the crowd and provide exhuberant high-fives to the team when the store flew open.

The store was touted as a local shop, just your Mom-and-Pop monolith in a town run by a former Wal-Mart exec. Towards that end, comically large checks with serious donations of $25k to $50k were presented to well-known local charities and partnerships announced, complete with training and software. (You'll hear $1 mil mentioned with one check, but most of that was software donation. Your charitable mileage may vary.)

Inside the store, though, a Southwest feel was curiously absent as sleek and stylish took the day. Entry into the left-hand side of the store greets you with one of a few Microsoft Surface tables scattered through the store, available to help you find the product you need or simply get your fingers virtually wet.

The only local touches that were visible were Arizona Cardinals-skinned hardware and Grand Canyon panoramas on the constantly-shifting screens lining the walls. These changing panoramas gave the store an unexpected sense of space and breathing room on a very hectic first day.

No product is left behind as laptops from numerous manufacturers always flank you from the right and Windows 7 and Media Center PCs cover the wall to your left. A kids section rests in the back left in front of the relatively few shelves of PC software (mostly games).

Center back yields to the Microsoft Answers Suite (not a bar), where Technical Advisors (not Geniuses—or Gurus) meet you to take your hardware in and make it well. One gentleman with a dead laptop and an Xbox in for its fourth replacement received more help from Microsoft today than most celebrities in a year.

Oh, don't rely on the store employees to be color-coded for your convenience. Microsoft Store employees are empowered to wear one of four colored shirts as desired, so you'll have to ask your Customer Advisor to direct you to your Product Advisor or your Technical Advisor. At least that's my advice.

In the end, it is an awful lot like an Apple Store, albeit one with Surface tables, Xboxes and more employee t-shirt colors. There's no shame in that to start with, though; there's certainly something to be said for building a show similar to the one that's doing gangbusters down the street before taking it out on the road.

This is effectively an extension of their brick-and-mortar retail push (or is it the other way around?) which will also include third-party hardware, software, and accessories compatible with Windows, and particularly Windows 7. The first round of hardware for sale is heavy on laptops and netbooks, with Dell, Sony, Lenovo, HP and Acer portables all making appearances—basically, a similar lineup to what you'd see at any Best Buy.

This makes a lot of sense for Microsoft, who's watched Apple do pretty, pretty well with a broad, inclusive online store, but who couldn't cash in on a similar concept without their own hardware as an anchor. It's the same direction they're taking with Windows Phone: In liew of Microsoft hardware, they're just drawing others under the Microsoft tent with blanket branding and Microsoft-centric marketing. In other words, to the customer, it may as well be Microsoft hardware. [Beyond Binary]

Ashley Tisdale Image: Wikipedia

The paper says the Scottsdale store will look just like the freaky fake shop Microsoft built on its Redmond campus back in January. Also, a second store in Mission Viejo, California is expected to follow in the immediate weeks after.

Ahh, the glitz and the glam. The paper confirms the floorplan will showcase everything form Windows 7 to WinMo 6.5 and the Xbox 360. And yep, there will be a 94-inch screen for folks to play on.

More: Inside the Microsoft Store With Wall-Sized Screens and the Answers Bar

And Apple isn't the only inspiration. The Microsoft stores will also be close to either a Best Buy or Wal-Mart. Oh, and the Microsoft store head-honcho was actually poached from Wal-Mart. I think I was more optimistic when I heard they were head-hunting Apple Store staff. [Wall Street Journal]

Looks like a total of 16 positions are open right now and positions range from store managers to retail assistants. We assume job applicants will have to demonstrate that they have the "answers" in order to be positioned at the "Answer Bar."

For now you can only apply for the announced Arizona and California locations. Microsoft says information on the future store locations is forthcoming. Send all thank you notes for U.S. job creation to Steven Ballmer [Microsoft via Ars Technica]

That would suggest at least some of the stuff in the leaked plans is definitely a go. I wonder if they've decided whether it's going to be Guru Bar or Answers Bar? [PC World]

The presentation is by Lippicott, a "design and brand strategy" consultant firm with extensive retail experience that it appears Microsoft has hired to help develop the store's concept, principles, and design. It looks pretty legit to us—if it's a fake, it's fairly elaborate, with detailed graphics, research, plans and even rough store layouts.

Essentially, Microsoft is taking the best elements from the Apple Store, Sony Style and other "flagship" stores. The main focuses are going to be Windows 7, Xbox, PCTV (Windows Media Center) Surface and Windows Mobile, revolving around this concept customer they call "Emily," who's basically a younger version of your mom, since they make all the buying decisions.

Frank Shaw w/ Waggener Edstrom, left a comment below on behalf of Microsoft, implying that many of these concepts are merely that and not final plans:

"As a part of our process in briefing creative agencies, we shared some early prototypes and concepts of our retail store plans. No final decisions have been made. As we previously announced, we are on track to open retail stores this Fall."

That said, it's still probably a pretty good indication of how Microsoft and its consultants are thinking about their store, at least at the beginning of this month, since the presentation is dated July 7.

Here are the highlights of the slides, if you just wanna skip to the meat of the 140 slides we got and the 54 we posted:

• There's going to be a Digital Media Wall—a massive screen—that wraps around the entire store showing various messages, which you can see in some of the slides
• Personalization is something they're stressing big time, with fancy areas devoted to customizing computers and gadgets using an "Xbox style" interface at various kiosks
• Here's a sample store layout
• Lots of Surface demos
• Stage areas for Windows 7, Windows Media Center (PCTV) (it's kinda surprising how much they're pushing PCTV, actually), Windows Mobile and netbooks
• Their take on the Genius Bar is the Answers Bar (or Guru Bar or Windows Bar, depending on which slide you look at, showing it's slightly up in the air, though we prefer Answers Bar since its sounds like slightly less like a Genius Bar ripoff)
• Apple Store-style table layouts
• Some of the stores they profiled for ideas are Nike, Nokia, Sony, Apple and AT&T
• They're already planning out huge demos and events around Project Natal and their secret mobile project Pink
• A fancy Microsoft shopping bag
• You can pay to have your birthday party at the Microsoft Store

In short, if it's anything like what Lippincott is planning, it sounds absolutely amazing, and we'll be lining up the first day it opens.

The obvious fear for most users buying ESD products is not having the software on physical media to re-install the product at a later time. Microsoft Store solves this by letting you re-download the product until mainstream support for the product ends. Typically this is 5 years after the product is released. You always have the option of copying the downloaded products to physical media if you want to have it available longer than the mainstream support lifetime.

When I buy a copy of Windows (or anything else), I expect to keep it forever—what if my older PC borks out and my cheap burned disc has degraded? Essentially taking away something I bought is no good, after five years or hell, ten years. On Steam, stuff is there to download forever, like a digital vault, which would make people feel safer about going all-digital. Also, when it comes to your whole OS, it just feels safer to have a hard copy in that lovely swinging plastic box. Updated post for clarity. [Microsoft Store via Trevin Chow via ZDNet]