iGot it

After waiting in line for 10 hours, James Everett walked into the AT&T store with his arms in the air, and said, "iPhone. Right now!"

"Do you know how long I waited for this machine? I waited months for this thing. I was on the (Apple) Web site every day," said Everett, 25, a Boston resident whose family lives in Framingham. He was the first of about 50 people in line at the Rte. 9 AT&T store yesterday.

At 6 p.m., Apple Inc. released its long-anticipated iPhone, a combination wireless phone, video and photo iPod and mobile Internet device, in partnership with wireless carrier AT&T Inc. The device has been deemed revolutionary by many market watchers because it features a 3.5-inch glass touch screen, full Internet browsing and intuitive software, among other reasons.

Hype-generated lines formed outside Apple's retail stores in Braintree, Burlington, Cambridge, Chestnut Hill, Hingham and Peabody, as well as its 162 other locations. This time, the lines were also outside AT&T's 1,800 company stores nationwide, including 80 in New England.

Outside the Framingham AT&T store, Everett said the group became an "iPhamily," which "ate together, played together and had a good time." The group all ordered out from UNO Chicago Grill, next door, he said.

Nadia Mahmoud, 15, of Ashland, said she had a friend who went on a trip to Italy but she couldn't. So the $599, 8-gigabyte iPhone was her "something great." The phone also comes in a 4-gigabyte, $499 model.

"I can't even imagine my life without my iPod and my phone," said Mahmoud. "Them together, along with my pictures and the Internet, that's all I need."

Steve Krom, vice president and general manager of AT&T New England, said anyone who didn't end up with an iPhone yesterday could still buy one.

"Customers can purchase a product and accessories in the store, and we'll ship it to them in three to five business days," Krom said.

Inside the store, accessories from DLO, Case Mate, Belkin and Griffin were already on sale.

Buying the iPhone at the store is different than buying any other smart mobile phone. Customers can buy the device there, then take it home and connect it to their computer. Only through iTunes software program can customers activate the device.

To get unlimited Internet, e-mail and visual voice mail service, 200 text messages and 450 rollover minutes, with free AT&T to AT&T calling on the iPhone, customers pay $59.99 a month. Similar plans with more rollover minutes cost more.
Source :http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/

Break For Internet Radio?

A key concession Friday by a recording industry trade group might help ease the way toward an eventual settlement to end a bitter battle over royalty fees paid by Internet radio stations.

SoundExchange, a former subsidiary of the Recording Industry Association of America, said Friday that it has agreed to extend a cap on a portion of the fees that Internet radio operators will have to pay under new rules scheduled to take effect in about two weeks.

The $2,500 cap on an annual $500-per-radio-channel fee that Internet radio stations have to pay could represent a significant break for major streaming-audio services run by Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ), Pandora and CBS's (nyse: CBS - news - people ) Last.FM, which feature multiple, customized audio feeds for their listeners.

Current rules already include such a ceiling, but no such ceiling was included under a new free structure issued in March by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), an arm of the U.S. Library of Congress.

SoundExchange is proposing that the cap be extended through the end of 2008. But the Digital Media Association, which represents Internet radio stations, countered Friday that it would only accept a cap that extends through the end of 2010.

Under the new CRB rates, which are scheduled to take effect July 15, Internet radio operators will face a sharp jump in the "performance" royalties they pay record labels and recording artists. In addition to losing the cap on annual fees, Internet radio operators will also have to increase the royalty they pay for each song they stream from 0.08 cents in 2006 to 0.19 cents in 2010.

Performance royalties are distinct from the publishing royalties that terrestrial, Internet and satellite radio operators must pay to songwriters. Only Internet and satellite radio stations have to pay performance royalties, but record labels are now gearing up for a battle to extract performance royalties from terrestrial radio stations as well.

Internet radio operators have warned that the increase in royalty rates and the elimination of the cap on annual fees will force many of them out of business and might prompt large portal sites like Yahoo! and AOL to reconsider their commitment to music services. On Tuesday, thousands of Internet radio stations observed a day of silence in protest of the pending royalty hike.

In an earlier concession, SoundExchange offered to extend, with some modifications, existing provisions allowing small commercial and nonprofit Internet radio operators to pay lower royalty rates based on a percentage of their revenues, rather than on a per-song basis. Under the proposal, such operators would pay a royalty rate of 10% on their first $250,000 of gross revenue and 12% on all revenue above that.

Because the CRB's new royalty structure for Internet radio will take effect in the absence of a settlement, the recording industry would appear to hold the upper hand. But legislation pending in Congress would throw out the CRB decision and set royalty rates for all Internet radio operators at just 7.5% of gross revenue.
Source :http://www.forbes.com

“Obvious” missing features

OK, so I promised a list of “Obvious Features Missing from the iPhone.” Basically, these are features that you would have expected the iPhone to have — either because most modern phones have them, or because the iPhone is such a Mac- and iPod- like device that it seems odd they’re missing.

The good news is that, since the iPhone runs a version of Mac OS X and can receive software updates (likely via iTunes), and Apple has made clear that new features will be rolled out via such updates, I expect a good number of these features to eventually make their way onto the current iPhone — in other words, you shouldn’t have to go out and spend another $500 or $600.

iChat/IM: AIM is hugely popular, iChat is on every Mac, the iPhone’s SMS feature looks exactly like iChat, the iPhone has true Internet connectivity, there’s a keyboard for input — am I missing anything? Oh, yeah: AT&T makes lots of money on SMS messages. This was likely one of the (few) concessions Apple had to make to the carrier.

MMS: Basically, MMS is the multimedia version of mobile text messaging. Whereas SMS is plain text, MMS lets you send images, audio, video, and rich text. For example, if you take a photo with your phone and want to send it to someone else’s phone, you would send an MMS. Or at least you would if the iPhone supported it.

Interesting note: according to a leaked AT&T iPhone training guide, “MMS and IM messages are included in the customer’s iPhone Data Plan.” Typo? Or a sign of things to come?

Voice dialing: I haven’t seen a decent mobile phone without voice dialing in years. Of all the “missing” features, this one is the most puzzling to me.

One-button dialing: A minor drawback of the iPhone’s “one-button” interface is that basic phone-dialing, even via “shortcuts,” requires more steps than on most phones. For example, even though I’ve added my wife to my Favorites list in the iPhone’s phone section, calling her requires 3 (or 4) steps: waking up the phone, switching the iPhone to phone mode (if it’s not already there), touching the Favorites button, and touching her entry. On my previous phone, I could perform the same action by simply pressing 2 and then Send; on the phone before that, I could just hold down the 2 button for a couple seconds. (And, I should add, on both phones I could perform the action without actually looking at the phone.) Unfortunately, I think we’re stuck here; given that the iPhone doesn’t have physical buttons, I’m not sure how Apple would be able to implement such a feature. It’s one of the drawbacks of the iPhone’s impressive touchscreen interface. (Although this makes the lack of the previous feature, voice dialing, that much more painful.)

MP3/AAC ringtones: Again, it’s been years since I owned a phone that didn’t let me use my own MP3 or AAC files as ringtones. (Which is another way of saying that I’ve never been a Verizon customer.) And, in fact, early demos of the iPhone clearly showed this ability. But the iPhone I have in my hand doesn’t let me. We’ve seen reports (a.k.a., rumors) that a possible upcoming feature in iTunes will let you convert snips of your music to ringtones for $0.99. Hopefully this is one of those rumors that’s partly wrong (specifically, the $0.99 part — although this could be another concession to AT&T).

Video recording: It’s got a decent camera, but you can’t currently record video using it. Think about the possibilities, especially with YouTube built into the iPhone: What if you could record video and then upload it directly to YouTube, sans computer?

To Do list: Not much to say here. I’d use it.

iPhoneAccessIncompat.jpgVoice memos: Many current phones can do this. All current dockable iPods can do this if you connect an iPod microphone. The iPhone can’t, and — as you can see from the image to the left — doesn’t work with iPod microphone attachments.


I’ve also noticed a few features missing from the iPod side of things:

Lyrics: There’s no way to view them on the iPhone; too bad, as the iPhone’s screen is much more suited to reading text than that of any “normal” iPod.

Ratings: You can’t view them on the iPhone, which also means you can’t set them on the iPhone. I actually rate all my music, and I use this feature all the time on my iPods. Update: My mistake. My colleague Chris Breen just let me know that you can indeed rate tracks, although the feature is somewhat hidden. Go to the Now Playing view — when the iPhone is vertical, not horizontal — and then click on the track listing button in the upper right. At the top of the screen is the familiar five-star rating scale; you can tap a star, or drag your finger to it, to assign that rating.

Bluetooth A2DP: A2DP stands for Advanced Audio Distribution Profile, a Bluetooth profile that supports stereo audio transmission. Newer mobile phones use A2DP to send stereo audio to a compatible speaker system and to support stereo Bluetooth headsets such as iSkin’s Cerulean F1. I find this omission especially odd given that the iPod is, in Steve Jobs’ own words, “the best iPod ever.” Possible good news: a couple sources have told me that A2DP is likely to be supported in a future software update.
Source :http://iphone.macworld.com

Carriers Should Hail the iPhone Shakeup

Apple (AAPL) has never been a company to shy away from risk, and the iPhone, which finally became available in the U.S. on June 29 (but won't hit Europe until this fall), could be its next important milestone. If the integrated phone-and-media device is a hit, Apple will revolutionize the mobile industry and cement its reputation for creating gadgets with chic designs that are so compelling, consumers will gladly pay a premium.

But if the iPhone does not justify the hype, Apple's ambition to become one of the few companies to bridge the technology and entertainment worlds could collapse, damaging its aura of invincibility.

To avoid that outcome, Apple will need to work with the mobile industry. Given the company's track record, carriers ought to welcome it with open arms. A successful iPhone could be the catalyst in evolving a new telecommunications business model.

Apple does face challenges. It's entering a maturing telecommunications market that's already highly saturated. With more than a billion handsets likely to be sold worldwide this year, consumers have and will continue to get lots of choice. Hyped as it is, the iPhone is just one of many devices out there.
The Power of Cool

Still, Apple's risk is well calculated. It has a strong pedigree in delivering the best combination of desirable devices and user experience. It has a robust user base from which to negotiate—IDC estimates that iTunes has nearly 80% of the worldwide music download market—and, above all, Apple is cool. Though the Nokias (NOK) and Vodafones (VOD) of the world have a cachet of their own, there isn't a mobile brand out there that comes close to Apple's buzz-creating ability.

By generating buzz in its traditional fashion—eschewing first-mover advantage to create market-leading products based on a killer blend of ease-of-use, design, and desirability—Apple has been able to make demands of the mobile industry.
The Internet Model

First among them is that the carriers must apply the Internet model. Until now, they have recognized the need for this change but, in a cozy alliance with handset makers, have largely managed to resist it. No more. Since iPhone users will want to connect their devices to iTunes and access third-party applications via the Safari Web browser, avoiding the Internet model is no longer plausible (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/5/07, "Why Vodafone Should Welcome Googlefone").

Whether or not they worry about losing control, operators are savvy enough to know that they need to get this device into their portfolios. They are aware that their high-spending customers are not highly brand-loyal and will go elsewhere to get an iPhone, if need be. Since Apple's application model may also deliver a more dynamic and innovative route to increasing average revenue per user (ARPU), operators will be willing to make concessions.

That said, Apple won't get everything it wants without making some adjustments of its own. Once Apple gets past the 10 million-unit milestone—the target it must hit to recoup its investment—it will start to erode the main handset makers' market share. Handset makers are already reacting by pointing out the device's shortcomings and, in some cases, offering competing products.
Weaknesses: iPhone Does Have Them

And indeed, there are drawbacks to the iPhone. First, it doesn't support 3G (third-generation) mobile networks. To get high-speed downloads, the consumer will have to find Wi-Fi hotspots to connect to some services.

Also, the iPhone is not a business device. Large organizations may not advocate incorporating iPhones into their systems, given that the Internet model Apple is offering may present too many IT challenges. Big business likely will stay with its tried and trusted PDAs—BlackBerrys (RIMM), Palm Treos (PALM), and Nokia Enterprise devices—which are designed for corporations and already deliver features similar to the iPhone's.

Apple will have to keep abreast of the market it is trying to change and have an upgrade path to ensure it stays ahead of its competitors, including those who have already introduced iPhone-like devices, such as the Prada from LG Electronics and HTC's Touch. In the future, Apple will have to incorporate 3G and applications such as GPS, which rivals such as the Nokia N95 already offer.
Pressure Will Be Felt

What's more, carriers won't change their business models overnight. If Apple doesn't keep the iPhone cool and cutting-edge, operators will happily go with another vendor to get a device that will. In releasing its RAZR, Motorola (MOT) (and, by extension, other major wireless players) learned the hard way that while a handset's design can grab market share, not following up quickly with continued innovations can lead to rapid erosion.

Its track record suggests Apple will do just fine. With the iMac and the iPod, Apple proved it can innovate in established markets and carve out a place for itself. Right now, the mobile-phone market is fickle and highly competitive, but Apple's blend of design and cool may make it three-for-three. Regardless, it seems bound to energize the market—and that means good things for consumers.
Source :http://www.businessweek.com

Bald eagle soars off endangered list

The bald eagle, America's national symbol, is flying high after spending three decades in recovery. On Thursday, the government took the eagle off the Endangered Species Act's "threatened" list.

"The eagle has returned," Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne told government officials, wildlife conservationists and journalists at a ceremony held on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington.

"Today is an opportunity to celebrate and draw inspiration," Kempthorne added.

"We do have 1,300 species that have been listed and our recovery rate is about 1 percent. I would like to see us have more days like this when we can announce success and victory and delisting of species."

Since the 1970s, the government has worked hard to save the bald eagle, which was dying off because of habitat destruction, illegal shooting and contamination of its food source. Video Watch bald eagles along the Hudson River »

It was first listed as endangered, then threatened, and now is off the list entirely.

Challenger, a bald eagle, also attended the ceremony. Challenger is a teaching bird who travels the country educating young and old about the national symbol. See one bald eagle's story of survival »

The birds will be now protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

Bald eagle populations severely declined in the lower 48 states between 1870 and 1970 because of hunting, habitat loss and the use of DDT.

DDT, a powerful insecticide, made bald eagle eggshells so weak they couldn't produce viable offspring. In 1963, there were only 417 breeding pairs in the lower 48. Photo See bald eagles in the wild »

In a national effort to save the iconic bird, the federal government banned the use of DDT in 1972 and placed the bald eagle under protection of the Endangered Species Act, which allowed the government to protect bald eagle habitat.

These two key factors helped it recover, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Today, there are 9,789 breeding pairs in the lower 48 states.

But Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity conservation group said this victory comes at a price -- loss of eagle habitat protection.

The bird's nesting grounds were protected as long as the bald eagle was considered a "threatened" species. But the less restrictive eagle protection act does not put eagle habitats off-limits.

Suckling said he worries that without habitat protection, developers will move into critical bald eagle areas, push the birds out and reduce their numbers.

"There is big money to be made in cutting down and developing bald eagle habitat," he said.

The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act prohibits anyone without a permit from "taking" bald eagles, including their parts, nests and eggs. Its definition of "take" includes: pursuit, shooting, shooting at, poisoning, wounding, killing, capturing, trapping, collecting, molesting and disturbing.

"For the most part, it's a shooting and hunting statute," said Nicholas Throckmorton of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"It does talk a little about nesting and the tree that eagles are in, but it's not intended to protect habitat or ecosystems."

As part of his concern, Suckling points to Arizona, home to 43 breeding pairs. The birds nest along small rivers, which are easily affected by development, he explained. Suckling said once protection is gone, these rivers will be under severe threat.

He said he's particularly concerned about growth in Prescott in central Arizona and its impact on the Verde River, which he said could harm eagles' nests.

One landowner ready for delisting is Minnesota retiree Edmund Contoski.

Contoski, 69, wants to build five log homes on his undeveloped seven-acre property along Lake Sullivan. However, the Endangered Species Act has prohibited development within 330 feet of an active bald eagle's nest on his property -- that covers all of Contoski's usable land.

"Eagles don't pay taxes; I pay taxes," Contoski said. "I'm paying taxes, and I can't do anything with the property."

In 2005, he challenged the Fish and Wildlife Service to make good on its 1999 proposal to delist the bald eagle. He took the agency to court and won. His court battle led to the June 28 delisting.

The Fish and Wildlife Service will issue voluntary guidelines for landowners to protect bald eagles and permits to people who wish to evict a bald eagle from their property.

The agency took the additional step of defining what it actually means to "disturb" an eagle under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act: "To agitate or bother a bald or golden eagle to a degree that causes, or is likely to cause, based on the best scientific information available, 1) injury to an eagle, 2) a decrease in its productivity, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding or sheltering behavior, or 3) nest abandonment, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding or sheltering behavior."

The conservation organization National Wildlife Federation called it a "solid framework" that will keep the bald eagle around for generations to come. Dr. Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society, said he feels confident that "good things will happen for the bald eagle" as a result of the government's actions.

Suckling said while that definition will help protect the birds, it fails to protect their habitat.

"The definition is linked to bothering or agitating actually present birds; it does not apply to logging the nest area when the bird is not present," he explained.

Suckling offered this analogy: "You come back from your summer vacation and someone has trashed your property so badly that you can't live there anymore. Have you been 'disturbed'? I would say so, but the Fish and Wildlife Service definition says, 'No.' "

Paul Schmidt, the Fish and Wildlife Service's assistant director for migratory birds, told CNN.com the government is confident the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act will "afford adequate protections" and the agency won't see a decline in populations after delisting.

"Americans can and will coexist with a healthy and sustainable population of bald eagles," Schmidt added.

Endangered species delistings are often contentious. The proposal to delist the Northern Rockies gray wolf worries conservationists, who argue that without safeguards, wolf populations will dangerously dwindle. But ranchers say that if the wolves are protected, they will over-reproduce and packs of them will attack their livestock.

Earlier this month, conservation groups filed a lawsuit asking the government to restore Endangered Species Act protections for the Yellowstone grizzly bear. Lack of habitat protection and climate change threaten the bears' future, says Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest law firm representing the environmental groups.

The Yellowstone grizzly bear was delisted in March. For more than 30 years, it was considered a "threatened" species.
Source :http://www.cnn.com

GPLv.3: 'A Great Improvement'

Version 3 of the GNU General Public License is out.

The Free Software Foundation released GNU GPL v.3, its latest version of its popular free software license, Friday.

"Since we founded the free software movement, over 23 years ago, the free software community has developed thousands of useful programs that respect the user's freedom," FSF Founder and President Richard Stallman, said in prepared remarks. "The programs are in the GNU/Linux operating system, as well as personal computers, telephones, Internet servers, and more. Most of these programs use the GNU GPL to guarantee every user the freedom to run, study, adapt, improve, and redistribute the program."

The organization said that the latest version of the GNU GPL strengthens protections that allow users to use, study, change, and redistribute programs. It allows users to modify the free software on their personal and household devices. The new license also extends compatibility with other free software licenses.

Jeremy Allison said, on behalf of the Samba team, that the latest version is "a great improvement" and "a necessary update to deal with the new threats to free software that have emerged since version 2 of the GPL."

The FSF said much of the free software community warmly embraced the release after an "unprecedented drafting process," which included four published drafts in 18 months. Those generated discussions, which drew thousands of public comments. The comments helped committees, representing the public and private sectors, and legal experts from the Software Freedom Law Center, write the final text, FSF said during its announcement Friday.

"By hearing from so many different groups in a public drafting process, we have been able to write a license that successfully addresses a broad spectrum of concerns," the FSF Executive Director Peter Brown said in a prepared statement.

He added that the groups found common ground on issues like patents, TiVo, and "Treacherous Computing," FSF's tongue-in-cheek term for Microsoft's Trusted Computing Initiative, which covers PC security standards. The FSF scorned the standard and "Tivoization" during the announcement, labeling them schemes to prevent users from utilizing modified or alternate software.

The group said TiVo blocks modified software, while Trusted Computing standards stop Web sites from working with modified software. The FSF said "both are typically used to impose malicious features" like DRM, a term that FSF also changes from Digital Rights Management to Digital Restrictions Management.

The license begins with a preamble, laying out ideals for free software. The FSF said the new license does not prohibit DRM, but it does not allow users to block software modification.

"Thus, they are free to remove whatever features they dislike," FSF announced Friday.

The FSF said that more than 15 GNU programs would be released under the new license Friday and that the whole GNU Project would follow. The FSF plans educational and outreach programs to promote the new license.

According to FSF, the GNU GPL is the most widely use free software license in the world, with nearly 75% of all free software packages distributed under it. Stallman wrote the first two versions with legal guidance. They were released in 1989 and 1991. The third version -- a result of collaboration between Stallman, the public, industry experts and the Software Freedom Law Center -- aims to address changes in computing and policy around the world.

Stallman's GNU software system, coupled with Linux, is a free operating system under GPL version 2. The GNU components of the system will be released under GPL v.3. If Linux kernel developer Torvalds sticks with the earlier version, as he has previously indicated, the GNU/Linux system will contain GNU packages using the latest version, along with Linux under the old, the FSF said.
Source :http://www.informationweek.com

AMD says for Opteron, it's 'Barcelona' in August

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said Friday that it will start shipping quad-core versions of its Opteron microprocessor in August and that it expects hardware vendors to follow in September with servers based on the new chips.

According to AMD, the quad-core Opterons will deliver a performance gain of 40% to 70% over its existing dual-core chips, depending on the application. And they will do so without consuming more power, said the company, which will come to market with its quad-core offering nine months after Intel Corp. released versions of its Xeon server chips with four processor cores.

The quad-core product line, code-named Barcelona, gets some of its performance improvements because AMD is using a 65-nanometer manufacturing process to build the new chips vs. 90nm for its dual-core chips. In addition, the quad-core devices are being manufactured on a single die of silicon, which allows for faster and easier memory sharing, AMD said.

The new chips will initially ship in two versions with different energy-usage levels: a standard model that consumes 95 watts of power and a lower-power edition that operates at 65 watts. AMD said the clock speed of the quad-core processors will range up to 2 GHz in the standard devices and 100 MHz to 200 MHz slower in the reduced-power chips.

Additional processors will be released in this year's fourth quarter with faster clock-speed frequencies that eventually will reach 3 GHz, AMD said. It added that users who are running servers with dual-core Opteron chips will be able to easily move to the quad-core devices because the two processor lines have similar power usage characteristics and were designed to operate within the same "thermal envelope."

John Fruehe, AMD's worldwide market development manager for server and workstation products, said that the bulk of Opteron sales have always been for the standard-power chips but that customers are increasingly asking for better energy efficiency. Because of the demand, company officials wanted to make sure that the lower-power devices got to market quickly, Fruehe said.

Intel launched its quad-core Xeon processors last November and claims to have shipped more than 1 million of the devices, which were code-named Clovertown.

Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at research firm Insight 64 in Saratoga, Calif., said more details need to be disclosed about the performance of AMD's quad-core processors, including benchmarking data and the real-world experiences of users, before much can be said about how they compare to Intel's Xeon 5300 line.

"AMD didn't give us enough information to make a definitive statement," Brookwood said. "They believe that at 2 GHz, their performance will be very competitive with Intel's Clovertown products. However, there is no data to back that up."

Moreover, Brookwood wondered what will happen "over the next few months as Intel introduces 45nm versions of its current products." He said that he expects AMD to reach 3-GHz clock speeds by this time next year.
Source :http://www.computerworld.com

Even Apple's co-founder is standing in line for an iPhone

Those standing in line around the Bay Area to be among the first to spring for a new iPhone shouldn't feel bad: Even the cofounder of Apple was queued up.

Steve Wozniak arrived at the Apple store at Valley Fair Mall in San Jose at 4 a.m. to begin the wait wearing a button that read, "The line starts here. Woz #1."

In fact, he hadn't been the first to show up but in deference, Apple fans stepped aside to give him the first space.

"This has been the main mall my whole life," Wozniak said, explaining his choice of venue. "This is where I and Steve Jobs came when we were kids."

When the Apple store closed at 2 p.m. to prepare for the 6 p.m. onslaught of business, 200 people stood behind Wozniak.

Why did they bother, when Apple is offering to ship its new product at no extra cost?

"Yeah, you can order a CD online, too -- or you can go to the concert and hear it live," Wozniak said.

Over in Emeryville, more than 150 iPhone devotees had lined up outside the Apple store, many chatting, tapping away on Apple laptops or grooving to music on iPods.

The Apple store provided free WiFi, and Bay Street shopping mall let people power up electronic devices from nearby poles while they waited.

First in the line of loungers was Jiggs Davis Jr., a 73-year-old biotech entrepreneur from Piedmont, who was accompanied by one of his employees, project manager Chi Pak, 24.

Davis, wearing a red American flag ball cap to shield the sun, said he's been an Apple fan since the company's inception. His own Alameda company is outfitted with all Apple products. He appreciates their simplicity, he said.

He nabbed the first spot in line by arriving at 4:45 a.m. and was passing the time working on his Powerbook G4. He will be happy, he said, to replace the Cingular Treo hooked to his belt with the new iPhone.

Sitting next to them was Saul Sutcher, an 18-year-old Occidental college student, a self-proclaimed Apple fan since birth who owns several iPods, a few laptops and couldn't wait to add the iPhone to his collection.

He was keeping busy organizing his music and photos so they'd be ready to load onto his new accessory. His family dropped by from time to time to drop off blankets, food and electronics.

Next to Sutcher was Rick Shibata, a 36-year-old information technology manager for a Richmond freight company, who was wearing a MacWorld T-shirt. He gave up a good-paying consulting gig, he said, to wait in line for an iPhone.

The Apple fan, who has attended every MacWorld convention for the past eight years and catches all the Steve Jobs keynotes on the Web, said he couldn't wait to replace his Motorola Razr cell phone. "I just love their user interface, and their design is top-notch," he said.

All four got to the Emeryville store so early, they helped set up the barricades through which the line snaked this afternoon.

At the end of the line was the most recent arrival: Kyle Killion, 29, of Oakland, who co-founded JamLab, a Web site for musicians. He had to work, he said, so he got there about 1 p.m.

He got hooked on the new product when he got a chance to play with it for a few minutes at the Apple developer conference.

Killion, who calls himself an "Apple whore" and planned to purchase two iPhones, said that he didn't like the company when Jobs wasn't at the helm.

"It's possible to love a product and hate a company," he said, adding that he doesn't like how Apple treats its developers.

Across the street and down a block, a much smaller line of about 20 people -- including a baby in a stroller -- formed outside the Cingular store. Limit for customers there is one phone per person.

That's OK with Angelica Contreras, 20, a college student from San Pablo, and her boyfriend of six years, Owen Perez, 22, who arrived at 9 a.m. and jumped to the head of the Cingular line rather than wait in the already long line in front of the Apple store. They had heard rumors that the Apple store would be giving away T-shirts, but they didn't care. They just want one phone for Contreras, who has been pining for the product for six months and can't wait to play with its touch screen. She has had it with her Razr phone. "Everybody has it," she said. "I want something else, something better."

So what does Perez, a Merritt College psychology major, think? He laughed. "I'm not getting one. But she wanted one bad."

In San Francisco, about 200 hopeful consumers had queued up by 3 p.m.

Some had been on-hand the previous evening, when an unknown benefactor delivered pizza, and a local company handed out chocolate.

Those in line had plenty of time to spread rumors. A bearded man at the end of the San Francisco line this morning, who would only identify himself as Ray, insisted that the store "only had 600 phones.''

Where did he hear that?

"From the media, man,'' Ray said.

Actually there have been no reports of how many will be available. However, postings on the Apple Web site remind potential buyers that they can order online, have a phone shipped to them and not even pay a delivery charge. That may be keeping the lines in check.

Or, like San Francisco Art Institute student Chris Silva, they may just think "the whole thing is totally over-hyped.'' Silva, number five in line at Walnut Creek, has no interest in buying an iPhone himself -- he's earning $100 for every 24 hours he stands in line. But his guess is the buyer who's paying him didn't have to bother.

"Just wait,'' Silva says. "At 8 o'clock tonight you'll be able to walk right in and buy a phone.''
Source :http://www.sfgate.com

What your website says about you

It was like a scene from A Clockwork Orange : armed with metal bars, baseball bats and bicycle chains, pupils from three schools in Devon converged for a mass brawl. But this particular fight - thankfully averted by police - had been arranged online, largely on the social networking site Bebo.com.

The volume of people now using networking sites means that illicit behaviour is bound to occur online, and the forces that police the web have to guard not only against paedophiles and terrorists but everyday users, too. If a child is being bullied at school, their peers will frequently bombard their email account or homepage with abuse.

But the fact that Bebo was the forum for the pupils arranging the school fight highlights the way in which internet sites are becoming split along the lines of class and age. Bebo organises its users by the school they attend and is all the rage among pupils (although given that the site had 9.3 million British users last month aged 15 or over, the age range is clearly not just limited to kids).

A US academic, Danah Boyd, this week described how white, wealthy and university-bound high-school students tend to do their networking on Facebook.com, while those from poorer, non-university backgrounds use Myspace.com.

Is this the shape of a nascent class system - the wealthy on Facebook, average Joes on Myspace, children on Bebo?

Figures for the UK are hard to come by, but Quantcast.com, which breaks down demographic data for millions of sites, found that US visitors to Facebook were indeed wealthier and from better-educated families, while the families of Myspace and Bebo users were poorer and less well-educated.

The sites' most famous moments reflect these age and class boundaries. Bebo, popular among children, was used by Alan Shearer's daughters to post a video of him singing along to U2. Myspace, big with teens, was the launchpad for singers such as Lily Allen.

Facebook, where the students and graduates hang out, had some fascinating debates on the Labour deputy leadership contest. As Boyd pointed out, the US military recently banned soldiers in Iraq from using Myspace, to conserve bandwidth, but Facebook, favoured by officers, was left alone.

One factor that determines the audience a particular site attracts is its history. Facebook was started at Harvard, spread around the Ivy League and other universities, and only then opened up. Design is also a factor: our own MyTelegraph site was built to link to our news stories and blogs, and attracts a readership to match - intelligent, adult and engaged.

Myspace and Bebo, meanwhile, let users design their own homepages, putting a premium on youthful self-expression. Joanna Shields, president of Bebo, says these "skins" are perhaps the site's most popular feature.

User culture also plays a part: Facebook's members tend to use their full names, but only allow their friends to read their profiles. On Myspace, first names or pseudonyms are the norm - but so is leaving your page open for anyone to read.

Most important, however, is getting there first. These sites live or die by the network effect - more users means a greater pool of prospective friends, which makes the sites more attractive. Start losing people to another site and the wound can be hard to staunch.

Thus Bebo, which launched after Myspace and Facebook in America, is a distant third there, but rivals Myspace in popularity in the UK and is top of the heap in Ireland.

But much of the process is out of the sites' hands, as users discover niches and uses not originally envisaged - Myspace has gathered a host of unsigned bands; Orkut, a social-networking site owned by Google, has bombed in most places but is huge in Brazil; an older site, Friendster.com, is massive in the Philippines.

Shields admits that targeting specific features at particular demographics is nigh-on impossible. "It's much less scientific than that," she says. "We just try to make the site a platform for self-expression, something that is interesting for users, that they will want to stick around on."

Kathryn Corrick, a digital media consultant, agrees. "Facebook works because people recommend it to each other," she says. "That's because they've made it very 'viral', by creating so many different ways you can engage with your friends.

Some people just want to say 'Hey, I'm here' - which they do using the function called Poke. Some want to send private messages, so use the mail system, while others want to talk in a very open way, so write on Walls. It's very good design."

It is possible that eventually social networking will be dominated by a few giant sites, to which virtually every internet user will be signed up - but there are some important sticking points. For starters, not everybody wants to talk to everybody else.

Even within a family, it is hard to imagine everyone signing up to the same site - teenagers will not want their parents to see what they got up to the night before; adults might dislike the lack of grammar and chaotic design on their children's pages.

Already, niche networks that cater to special interests are emerging around the giants. MyTelegraph is one, as is Beautiful People (us.beautifulpeople.net), a terrifyingly narcissistic site whose members only let in those they judge attractive. One of the latest start-ups, Ning.com, allows you to build your own social networks around any interest you can envisage.

Also, as Shields points out, many users will have more than one account, hopping from Myspace to Facebook to Bebo depending on their mood. This overlap can only be enhanced by Facebook's recent decision to allow other developers to hook into its network, so that you can now share your Flickr photos on the site or recommend music through the iLike application.

Whatever their technical wizardry, sites will rise and fall on the uses people invent for them and how open they are to innovation. "One of the mistakes many social-networking companies have made is to look at the technology community as where you start things off," says Corrick.
Source :http://www.telegraph.co.uk/