As Curbed (via MacRumors) notes, a permit request to Santa Monica’s planning commission doesn’t identify the retailer that wants to build this thing, but it sure looks a whole lot like a showcase Apple store.

Bonus for whatever store’s employees do end up working here: “Secure bicycle parking” in the basement. If you’re into that kind of thing.

A quick update on Apple’s Maiden, N.C., data center and my post last week reporting that the company was considering doubling its size. Over the weekend, N.C. realtor Bill Wagenseller shot some new aerial video of the site that shows additional construction underway behind the current data center, which would seem to support that claim.

It’s worth noting that doubling the 500,000-square-foot space may have been Apple’s plan all along. Photos posted to a Catawba County, N.C., Flickr page and labled “Apple_Maiden-07-06-2009-114″ and “Apple_Maiden-07-06-2009-115″ show architectural renderings of the Maiden, N.C., facility with one and two data center structures (click on image below to enlarge).

An alternate theory being batted around here and at MacRumors, as well: The data center in the video above is actually just 250,000 square feet, and the construction occuring next to it is the beginnings of a second identical structure that would bring the total square footage of data center space to that 500,000-square-foot number. Again, just a theory. I’ll ask around and update here if I discover anything more.

(Thanks Bill, Allie)

[Image credit: Catawba County/ Flickr]

“I just noticed a flaw on my display,” one wrote in a message to Apple’s support forums. “It wasn’t very obvious, i was messing with the phone for a good 45 minutes till i even spotted it. On the bottom 10% of the screen there are 3 blotches about the size of shirt buttons that discolor the screen a brown/yellow color. Again hardly noticeable at first but now that i know it’s there my eyes get drawn too it. Shows up well when its a white background. I was hoping it was just some grime but wiping down the front didn’t help. Oh well, guess i’ll hang onto it until Apple gets a few more in stock and trade it in a few weeks from now.”

Similar reports are showing up on Gizmodo and MacRumors, where the blotch is described as more of a bar. “Just synced up my iPhone 4 and noticed that, on screens with a white background (i.e., Settings.), there is a decidedly yellow spot on the lower left corner of my screen,” another report reads. “It appears circular (about the size of a pencil eraser) but when you rotate the phone sideways, it’s more visible as running across the bottom edge of the screen a ways.”

It’s not yet clear how widespread the issue is, but there are enough complaints on Apple’s (AAPL) support forums to be concerning. I’ve asked the company for comment and will update here if offered one.

Meanwhile, reports of problems with the iPhone 4′s signal-strength bars are beginning to circulate as well. But as Walt Mossberg noted in his review, this is a known issue that Apple intends to fix:

In some places where the signal was relatively weak, the iPhone 4 showed no bars, or fewer bars than its predecessor. Apple says that this is a bug it plans to fix, and that it has to do with the way the bars are presented, not the actual ability to make a call. And, in fact, in nearly all of these cases, the iPhone 4 was able to place calls despite the lack of bars.

However, on at least six occasions during my tests, the new iPhone was either reporting “no service” or searching for a network while the old one, held in my other hand, was showing at least a couple of bars. Neither Apple nor AT&T could explain this. The iPhone 4 quickly recovered in these situations, showing service after a few seconds, but it was still troubling.

[Image credit: elitemrp, Apple Support Discussions]

While “iSlate” is classier and “iTab” or “iTablet” more descriptive, BoomTown is making an all-in bet that Apple will use “iPad” as the brand name of its new tablet computer, which is expected to be launched one week from today.

Interestingly, there was an intriguing post on MacRumors today that pointed to new trademark filings from what it claims is a dummy Apple (AAPL) corporation, suggesting that iPad could be the moniker of the much anticipated device.

While I claim no such source for my own Miss Cleo prediction, here’s what occurred to me driving home on a rain-soaked highway on the long car ride back from Los Angeles last night:

1. iPad sounds like iPod, so marketing would be easier.

2. iPad is the simplest choice and a familiar term related to touchpad, pad of paper–much as iPhone was the most obvious one.

3. iSlate–a name Apple also appears to have trademarked too–feels too much like it belongs in an episode of “Little House on the Prairie” and that chalk needs to be involved in its use.

4. iTab is not enough, and iTablet sounds like some digital drug of the future.

5. The JesusTablet is probably sacrilegious, as is iMoses or iAmThatIAm, which is what God told Moses his name was. (Teasing!)

But why don’t you weigh in here with choices I selected in this poll or add one of your own (not that Apple CEO Steve Jobs cares what we think!). I will publish any really good names you come up with tomorrow:

Well, no longer. Because Apple (AAPL) is planning to refresh its iMac desktop computer in the next few weeks, and when it does, it may well offer a Blue-ray drive option.

Sources tell AppleInsider that the new all-in-one, dual-core desktops, which are also said to feature a new, slimmer enclosure, were finalized earlier this month and are already rolling off the assembly lines of Apple’s manufacturing partners.

“The late 2009 iMac line should also debut several features previously unavailable to Mac buyers,” the publication notes. “People familiar with Apple’s thinking have suggested in recent months one of these moves could see the company finally embrace Blu-ray.”

One last point worth noting here: According to the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide, the iMac is due for a refresh. Apple has updated it every 220 days on average since it debuted the machine in 2003. As of today, it has been 204 days since the last update. MacRumors’s recommendation: “Buy only if you need it–Approaching the end of a cycle.”

Well, no longer. Because Apple (AAPL) is planning to refresh its iMac desktop computer in the next few weeks, and when it does, it may well offer a Blue-ray drive option.

Sources tell AppleInsider that the new all-in-one, dual-core desktops, which are also said to feature a new, slimmer enclosure, were finalized earlier this month and are already rolling off the assembly lines of Apple’s manufacturing partners.

“The late 2009 iMac line should also debut several features previously unavailable to Mac buyers,” the publication notes. “People familiar with Apple’s thinking have suggested in recent months one of these moves could see the company finally embrace Blu-ray.”

One last point worth noting here: According to the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide, the iMac is due for a refresh. Apple has updated it every 220 days on average since it debuted the machine in 2003. As of today, it has been 204 days since the last update. MacRumors’s recommendation: “Buy only if you need it–Approaching the end of a cycle.”

The site is the work of Peter Rojas, who helped build Gizmodo and Engadget, and Ryan Block, who took the torch from Rojas after he moved on. Gizmodo and Engadget are the best known and most powerful of the new generation of gadget sites, which makes Rojas and Block revered by the gadget gang. That’s why we’ve been hearing about gdgt, in dribs and drabs, for many many months.

But as well known as Rojas and Block are, they’re still going to have to work hard to make a dent in the crowded field. In addition to the two blogs they created, the gadget spectrum includes everyone from staid players like CBS’s (CBS) CNET to rumor sites for Apple (APPL) obsessives, like MacRumors, to sites for real obsessives, like the handful of people who still own Palm (PALM) Treos. (And, of course, there’s All Things Digital’s Walt Mossberg, who bestrides all of this like the colossus he is, and is also my boss. Hi, Walt!)

Rojas and Block argue that their site is different because it’s not going to be driven by editors but by the site’s users, who will gather there to swap info, stories, rumors, opinions, etc. In other words, Facebook for gadgets, though I gather they’d recoil if they heard that. The other pitch, though they won’t spell this out, either: Their site takes a bunch of features and content that you can find other places and presents them in a better way.

There’s a bunch of nifty features, like a gadget-finder that lets you find products via specs instead of brands, and the site seems to be pretty slick. But it’s better if you have a look yourself instead of having me describe it. And gdgt.com won’t really hit its stride until actual users start using it. I look forward to hearing what they have to say about my upcoming phone dilemma: iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre or Blackberry Tour?

But as much as Rojas and Block argue that this is a community site, it’s their names and reps that have people interested in the project. And that’s what has convinced investors to plow money into an ad-supported Web site in an era when the economy sucks and there are way too many ad-supported Web sites.

The duo won’t discuss funding, but I’m told that last fall they were discussing investments of up to $1 million, but ended up taking less than that via a group of VCs and angel investors. I don’t have a complete list of investors, but people familiar with the company tell me that early-stage investor True Ventures led the round, which also included New York-based incubator Betaworks and Mahalo’s Jason Calacanis.

Calacanis’s name will resonate with longtime followers of the tech blog world: He was one of the founders of Weblogs Inc., which created Engadget as a rival to Gawker Media’s Gizmodo, and hired Rojas away from Gizmodo. Calacanis eventually sold Weblogs Inc. to Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL for a decent pile of cash, some of which I believe ended up in Rojas’s lap.

Click the image below to see a screenshot of what gdgt’s homepage ought to look like.

BoomTown extends apologies to the late Francis P. Church, who penned the original “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus” editorial in the New York Sun on Sept. 21, 1897.

But with just a little rejiggering, his eloquent words work perfectly as a translation for Apple’s press release about its withdrawal from San Francisco’s Macworld and no keynote speech from Apple CEO Steve Jobs yesterday, which doubtlessly shook the Apple (AAPL) faithful to the core.

Oddly enough, it matches up surprisingly–and a little disturbingly–well.

Thus, here’s a little holiday inspiration to help those poor souls make it through these darkest of days:

Dear Editor:

I am 28 years old. Some of my little fanboys say there is no Steve Jobs at Macworld. My imaginary friend at AppleInsider says, ‘If you see it on BoomTown, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth, is there a Steve Jobs?

–O’Hanlon, a geek in Virginia”

Apple wrote: CUPERTINO, California—December 16, 2008—Apple today announced that this year is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show. The keynote address will be held at Moscone West on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Macworld will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center January 5-9, 2009.

Translation: Virginia geek, your little friends are wrong (and they also have no life, which is self-evident). They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia geek, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. Not as elegantly tiny as the iPod Nano, but little nonetheless. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Apple wrote: Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Translation: Yes, Virginia geek, there is a Steve Jobs. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion and the fabled touchscreen tablet Mac exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Steve Jobs! It would be as dreary as if there were no amazingly great iPhones. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance, no Pull My Finger app to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Apple wrote: Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.

Translation: Not believe in Steve Jobs! You might as well not believe in those admittedly freaky iPod shadow dancers. You might get your other pretend friend at MacRumors to hire men to watch in all the Chinese manufacturing factories on Christmas eve to catch Steve Jobs, but even if you did not see Steve Jobs ordering up new Mini desktop computers, what would that prove? Nobody sees Steve Jobs, but that is no sign that there is no Steve Jobs. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see the iPod dancers dancing bizarrely on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

Apple wrote: Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications.

Translation: You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, and the fact that the Mac guy vs. PC guy ads are pure genius can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia geek, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

Apple wrote: Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Translation: No Steve Jobs! Thank God! he lives and lives forever, despite Henry Blodget-fueled health rumors to the contrary. A thousand years from now, Virginia geek, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of Mac fanboyhood.

iPhone 2.0!

But until then, we might as well wallow in it.

So here is a funny report from Engadget about the imagined possibilities for the next cheaper versions of the iPhone. Many are, of course, already speculating on what’s next for the product, even before it hits the stores June 29, and some are saying that Apple is already at work on new ones.

Sounds like another good Saturday Night Live parody in the making, like this one:

The helpful Brian Lam of Gizmodo provides a daily “pill” of iPhone info, so I don’t have to, while MacRumors gives the lowdown on accessories (carrying case, carrying case, carrying case, pricey Bluetooth headset, blah, blah, blah).

Meanwhile, USA Today discusses the girding going on at AT&T stores as they prepare for the onslaught of buyers.

But you can’t miss this long article by John Heilemann in New York magazine, which ran on the cover with this picture and the line: iGod.

I am not so sure of that from the piece, which depicts Jobs as almost decrepit in his recent onstage appearance at the D5 conference, with Heilemann writing, “The senescence on display is jarring…”

That means Jobs-with-a-walker, I think.

I am not sure Heilemann actually attended our conference to see Jobs in action, but he looked pretty good to me up close in both his sessions–one alone with Walt and another with us both and also Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

Aside from being kind of busy over the last few years (along with a major illness), you be the judge of Jobs’s dotage in these two videos from D5: