Tag: iPhone

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iPhone mania gets violent in Pasadena

Well, this stinks.

A brawl broke out at the Apple Store in Pasadena after a man “hired” approximately 70-80 homeless folks to wait in line overnight for vouchers to be able to buy new iPhones that he could then sell for more than retail.

Problem was after buying a bag full of phones he stiffed the homeless folks outside. Didn’t take long for things to escalate:

Two people were already arrested for fighting in the long line outside the Pasadena store before dozens of people hired from a nearby homeless shelter attacked a man who refused to pay them for their hours-long wait, cops said. “He was cheating us,” Calvin Windell Pleasant told the Los Angeles Times.

The destitute group said they were driven to the Colorado Blvd. store by vans from a Los Angeles shelter, where a man promised $40 each for them to wait in line for the coveted smartphones. But when the doors opened, the businessman only managed to buy a handful of phones before the store ordered him out and deemed the rest of his vouchers useless. And when he refused to pay the rest of the 70 to 80 people he hired to stand in the line, the furious group pounced.

(h/t JMG)

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New iPhone 5S is out today – record lines at Apple Stores

The new iPhone 5S hits stores today and like years past, the Apple faithful are out in droves to get the new toy.

Mashable reports there were 1,417 people in line for the launch at the flagship store as of 8 a.m. ET Friday. According to Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, that is the longest the line ever at the flagship store for an iPhone launch — beating the line for the iPhone 4 — and it marks an 83% increase from the number of people who waited in line there for the iPhone 5.

I’m an Apple fan myself. Definitely. I like the software; like the computers; like the iPhone. But you won’t catch me lining up to wait hours to pay hundreds of dollars.

I’m currently up for an upgrade from my iPhone 4S but I’ll wait a few weeks for the party to die down before I head down to get a new phone.

Word is the new “gold” (or “champagne”) iPhone 5S is in very, very short supply. Apparently these are uber-popular. Funny thing is, I kinda thought it was tacky looking. I’m a more sedate, silver/grey phone kind of guy.

I am excited about getting a phone that takes better pics as my current 4S has never done well by me in the picture department. The new iPhone features an improved camera and TWO flashes to help skin tones in low light situations.

I’m currently on a slow learning curve having downloaded the new IOS 7 operating system. It comes included in the new iPhones but is available for older phones also. I’m seeing some new things I like, but not big on having to learn new things. Is that me getting older?

Anyway – you can stop by your nearest Apple store or order online. If you go to a physical store you can also trade in your old iPhone for credit towards a new one. BUT you have to trade it in and get the new phone. No “credit for something in the future.” Walk out with a new iPhone and 2 year contract or no trade credit.

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Apple announces new iPhone 4S

click for larger view

From Apple today:

Apple today announced iPhone 4S, the most amazing iPhone yet, packed with new features like Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics; an 8MP camera with advanced optics; full 1080p HD resolution video recording; and Siri, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. iPhone 4S also ships with iOS 5 — the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, with over 200 new features — and iCloud. Read more by clicking here.

Apple also today announced that iCloud — a breakthrough set of free cloud services that includes iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream, and Documents in the Cloud — will be available on October 12. iCloud stores your music, photos, apps, contacts, calendars, documents, and more, keeping them up to date across all your devices, including iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC. When content changes on one device, all your other devices are updated automatically and wirelessly. Read more by clicking here.

Among the things announced that sound very cool are: the personal assistant software on the new iPhone “Siri” that through voice commands can send texts, set reminders, dial calls for you and a host of other things; and the iCloud actually looks very useful in that anything you download from iTunes gets sent automatically to all your Apple devices – no more manual syncing. Also, any photos you take with your iPhone get sent to your other Apple items.

Click the links and explore. I love this kind of stuff.