Crave

Foo Fighters performing at Wednesday's LA launch party for the BlackBerry Storm. (Photo taken with a BlackBerry Curve.)

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News )

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--The BlackBerry Storm got its chance to be a child star Wednesday as Research In Motion threw it a coming-out party at the legendary Avalon Hollywood club.

There was the full runway action, as paparazzi photographed celebrities going down the red carpet on their way into the club. As I arrived, a couple of cast members from the new 90210 show were making their way down the carpet. (Perhaps my favorite line of the evening was one of the show's cast members saying she hadn't actually seen the original show, but had "seen pictures" of the show's stars).

Annalynne McCord of the new '90210' show walks down the red carpet at the BlackBerry Storm party. (Photo taken with a BlackBerry Curve.)

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News)

I hung out near the red carpet as long as I could, but was urged to move it along so John Mayer could get his turn in front of the cameras. (Mayer and Apple fans alike will note he has made more than his share of appearances onstage with Steve Jobs but now stumps for RIM).

Since I know, I'd get comments along the lines of "Pix or it didn't happen," I've included a number of shots I took with my own BlackBerry (a Curve, alas). The pictures that were taken with the Storm's 3.2 megapixel camera look a lot better than the ones I took with my Curve, but well, there you have it.

In the VIP section, while the celebrities largely drank and took in the Foo Fighters, there were a few geeks that also managed to score a coveted white wrist band (often friends of friends of friends of the VIPs). They could easily be spotted tapping away on one of the many demo Storm devices at the event.

You can say a video game has really made it to the next level of commercial appeal when it gets treated to a midnight launch event. Only a handful of games rise to that level, including Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, and (more for being a cult favorite) Super Smash Brothers.

Somewhat surprisingly, Bethesda's Fallout 3 is the next game to get the midnight launch treatment--the game industry equivalent of a red carpet premiere. The game is buzz-heavy, to be sure, but lacks the clear mass-market appeal of Halo or GTA, and is the kind of talky, drawn-out, plot-driven role-playing game that usually appeals mostly to serious gamers, not the adrenaline-fueled, trigger-happy masses.

Best Buy stores will be opening at midnight on October 27 in Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Dallas, and Chicago. The New York event is being held at the same midtown Best Buy that hosted last year's Halo 3 launch, which featured, massive TV coverage and a visit from a full squadron of costumed characters from the game.

Having spent the last week playing Fallout 3, we can safely say it's one of the year's best gaming experiences. Built around the same game engine as Bethesda's 2006 hit Oblivion, Fallout 3 keeps the same wide-open world and morally gray decision-making, but trades the swords and sorcery for guns and high-tech gadgets in a post-nuke Washington, D.C.

Still, the new game isn't as accessible as Oblivion, which had miles of lush forests to explore and cities full of friendly (and not-so-friendly) people to talk to. The storyline in Fallout 3 takes a few hours to really kick in, there are fewer people around, and the terrain is much sparser and more dangerous (expect to be reloading your game a lot). The drab palette and post-apocalyptic environment make for an experience that isn't exactly uplifting.

But don't let that scare you off. Investing some time into the game eventually opens it up (we're about 20 hours in so far), and there are few moments in gaming as satisfying as firing a shoulder-mounted nuke at a 20-foot mutant giant, right after using your chemically enhanced charisma to charm a much-needed MacGuffin out of a wasteland trader.

Check out the latest Fallout chat on the latest episode of the Digital City Podcast, and then peruse this list of some of the Best Buy Fallout 3 midnight launch locations:

With the exception of the Netbook, all the laptops share the existing red-and-black Samsung brand design.

(Credit: Michelle Thatcher/CNET)

Samsung has long sold laptops in Europe and Asia, but for years its reach in the U.S. mobile computing market has been limited to the Q1 UMPC, a niche product. That's all set to change after Tuesday, though, when the company announced that it would begin selling laptops in the United States.

Given the tight margins and fierce competition of the American laptop market, it's always a pleasant surprise--for consumers and reviewers, at least--whenever a new player enters the fray. And Samsung looks to be off to a solid, if conservative, start by launching seven laptops in four categories: Netbook (the NC10), slim ultraportable (the X series), mainstream consumer (the Q series and R series) and business (the P series).

With the exception of the Netbook, all the laptops share the existing red-and-black Samsung brand design. And though the laptops are competitively priced, none will dip below $1,000 (again, the Netbook is an exception), making Samsung a player in the premium laptop market and a competitor to such manufacturers as Sony and Apple.

For specs and more details on individual laptops, check our blog posts for the NC10, the X series, the Q/R series, and the P series.

Apple employees get ready to start taking iPhone orders last year in San Francisco.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News)

Apple has revealed how it plans to handle the iPhone 3G crowd on Friday at its retail stores: about 30 iPhone buyers at a time.

In an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, Ron Johnson, Apple's retail chief, explained the company plans to admit iPhone customers into its retail stores starting at 8:00 a.m. local time on Friday. There will be an orange-shirted "concierge" at each store, according to Apple, who will herd iPhone 3G buyers approximately 30 at a time to the "iPhone bay" for processing.

Apple did something similar last year, when it let iPhone customers dozens at a time into its downtown San Francisco store, alternating between the first floor and second floor. Last year, however, iPhone customers could activate their iPhones at home, which made for a much quicker buying experience. Despite lines that stretched around the block as the doors opened, after an hour anyone could walk in off the street and buy an iPhone.

This time, as we all know, Apple is requiring in-store activation. Johnson said that Apple thinks each transaction will take between 10 and 15 minutes, which means the company could conceivably process between 120 and 180 buyers an hour, depending on how quickly things move. Johnson told Bloomberg to expect something more like 100 customers an hour.

A few things to remember: if you plan on buying an iPhone 3G on Friday, you're going to need a credit card, Social Security number, a government-issued photo ID, and the account number for your current wireless account if you're not an AT&T customer. You'll have to pass a credit check, and you have to be at least 18 years old, according to the fine print on Apple's iPhone page. If you're planning on buying an iPhone using a business account, you'll have to visit an AT&T store.

As part of the Consumer Electronics Show extravaganza in Las Vegas this week, Yahoo has opted to announce the next iteration of its mobile offering, Yahoo Go. The new beta product arrives at a time when just about every other huge name in tech--Google, Apple, you name it--is making a bigger push for the handset market, and (slightly) smaller brands like Facebook and MTV have been tweaking their mobile products.

(Credit: Yahoo)

Yahoo, however, isn't about to put out a Yahoo Phone. The new Yahoo Go 3.0, rather, is a free downloadable application compatible with about 30 different handsets so far. (The company says that dozens more are on the way.) A "start page" allows Yahoo users to access a number of the company's applications, like Yahoo Mail and Flickr, as well as the requisite news-and-weather mobile features.

Yahoo has additionally launched a developer initiative to put third-party widgets into its mobile offerings. Initial launch partners include eBay, MySpace, and MTV News; these applications can be selected and installed directly from Yahoo Go's mobile "Widget Gallery."

And perhaps more importantly for Yahoo, the company hopes that the latest iteration of Go will enable it to better serve up mobile advertisements.

But, as a New York Times article notes, this isn't actually a mobile operating system, it's a piece of software that piggy-backs on a handset's existing firmware--and that could prove difficult for Yahoo. "Other companies, including cellphone makers like Nokia and Apple, and mobile software providers, like Google and Microsoft, are trying to lure third-party publishers and programmers to create services for their mobile platforms," the story pointed out.

A company eager to put its brand into the mobile market could consequently find it counterproductive to create widgets for a downloadable software package like Yahoo Mobile. The application comes pre-loaded on a number of partner handsets, but the Times article explains that U.S. cell carriers remove this prior to retail, meaning that it has to be manually downloaded. Widgets created for Yahoo Go quite likely won't have the reach of applications created for operating systems like Apple's iPhone firmware or Google's hyped Android project.

It is, ultimately, a question of ubiquity.

Here, kitty kitty kitty! Rain-soaked Apple nerds wait for Leopard.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

NEW YORK--On Friday afternoon at the hour that Apple launched its latest operating system, Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, it was pouring rain in Manhattan. It was also windy and chilly. That didn't stop several hundred people from lining up outside the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue to get their hands on the new software, huddled underneath Gore-Tex jackets and umbrellas.

"It's the cult," commented another reporter who had also been covering the water-saturated event.

The line for Leopard appeared to be divided fairly evenly between rabid Apple fans and shoppers who'd figured they could stop by and pick it up quickly--and indeed, come launch time, the line moved fast as customers were ushered into a gauntlet of Apple Store employees (much like the iPhone launch in June) and directed straight to the cash registers when the doors opened at 6 p.m.

"It's a happening," said first-in-liner Bob Greenlees, a twenty-something student at the nearby Cardozo School of Law, when I asked him why he'd bothered to wait amidst inclement weather for an operating system that could easily have been pre-ordered online and delivered to his front door. "It's one of those things. It's Apple, it's Fifth Avenue, it's a flagship store. And it's an opportunity to be in line for something without waiting for three days."

Greenlees, after posing for a photo with his new purchase, said that he was going to go straight home and install it. He'd been in line since about 2:30 p.m.

The line went to the corner and around the block to the intersection of 58th Street and Madison Avenue.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

"I came for the free t-shirt," said Steven Miranda, a Manhattan College student who was ninth in line. The Apple Store was offering t-shirts to the first 500 people who showed up, and for hardcore Apple fans, those shirts were a coveted prize. I asked Miranda and his friends whether they agreed with Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg's assertion that Leopard was "evolutionary, not revolutionary."

"Compared to Vista, it's revolutionary!" chimed in one Apple fan who was just ahead of Miranda in line. Indeed, the Microsoft-taunting was hardly under the radar. One person in line was wearing a t-shirt that bore the Windows logo along with the caption "Hasta la Vista."

For the two hours prior to the Leopard launch, the normally 24/7 Fifth Avenue store had been closed in preparation--my personal theory is Apple closed the store for a longer span of time than it needed to, to assure that an adequate queue would form in anticipation, but I'm sure Apple's not about to confirm that to me.

In addition to Leopard t-shirts, buyers were also treated to free umbrellas as they were ushered into the store. Nice move, Apple. "Keep the Leopard dry!" an Apple Store employee shouted. "Cats don't like water!"

But that raises a very serious question. Now that Apple has let Leopard out of its cage, following in the tracks of Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger, the big question is--which cat's next?

My money's on Ocelot.

NEW YORK--At about 1 p.m. EDT in midtown Manhattan, I overheard a group of suit-clad thirtysomething men talking as they waited to cross Madison Avenue.

"You know, leopards are solitary animals," one of them said. The other three or four continued musing on the characteristics of the large exotic felines, and I figured that it was actually part of a conversation about Apple's latest operating system, which launches Friday at 6 p.m. I thought, wow, if fratty midtown office types are talking about Mac OS X 10.5, there must be a huge line of fanboys at the Apple store!

Wrong. There was almost no sign of a major product launch at the 24-hour Apple store on Fifth Avenue, besides a few signs and posters announcing Leopard's advent. The store was still a mob scene, of course--in that touristy shopping district just south of Central Park, it always is. But there was no buzz factor like there had been with the crazy iPhone launch in June.

Apple Store customers try out Leopard at the Fifth Avenue store in NYC.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

Apple retail employees told reporters that the store would be closed from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. for preparations, and that when the doors finally opened, there would be "demos all night long."

For an idea of what the scene might be like, they told the press to look up the Japanese launch of Leopard the previous night, which apparently had eager buyers lined up around the block. Then, clearly uncomfortable about saying too much, they said to contact company public-relations representatives instead and encouraged the press to test out the new operating system--it was already installed on all the demo computers at the store.

A few minutes later, reporters were informed that Apple retail employees had just been told not to speak to the press any more, until Leopard's launch at 6 p.m.

Meow.

(Credit: Apple)

After much speculation, Apple has confirmed that the next version of its Mac OS X operating system, "Leopard," will hit stores on Friday, October 26, at 6 p.m.

The company has stated that Leopard, which was delayed this spring due to the high-profile iPhone, includes more than 300 new features in comparison to its predecessor, Tiger.

Among these are an improved "dock" interface for easy access to applications, more robust parental controls, the Time Machine automatic-backup service and a redesigned Finder interface.

The operating system is set to cost $129 for a single-user license and $199 for a five-user "Family Pack" license.

In addition, Apple also plans to launch the Leopard version of its Mac OS X Server in conjunction with the standard version of the operating system. Included in this release of the Unix-compliant server software are a host of new features, including Podcast Producer, for automatically publishing audio to iTunes or the Web; Wiki Server, for collaborative Web site work; and iCal Server, for enterprise calendar management. The new OS X Server is set to cost $499 for a 10-client edition and $999 for an unlimited-client edition.

Apple's home page has been updated with a Leopard countdown clock. The online store is now accepting preorders--and meanwhile, the next iteration of the legendary Apple rumor mill is already rolling.

The man of the hour: Jim 'Master Chief' Cush

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

Leave it to Microsoft to turn the glitz factor up to eleven. The company that brought us interpretive dancers on bungee cords for its Vista operating system has brought in spotlights, prizes, NFL players, and rappers for the launch of Halo 3, the final installment of its hit first-person shooter trilogy, which launches at midnight on Tuesday.

They kind of need to do it. As Halo is a piece of software, not a harder-to-manufacture gaming console or handheld device, the way that Microsoft has drawn the crowds for this Xbox 360 release is with star power. If there weren't a high-profile launch event, fans could just nap until midnight and then stroll over to pick up a copy. Many of the almost exclusively male, almost exclusively under-25 queuers showed up either to meet other fans, or to be a part of the experience.

Throughout the evening, a host of local NFL players like Osi Umenyiora and Brandon Jacobs of the New York Giants and Leon Washington and Nick Mangold of the New York Jets have been showing up to play the new Halo game--behind the windows of the store, which closed to the public at 9 PM. Outside, the crowds have been picking up free t-shirts and inflatable goodies, yelling "Hi, Mom!" for the cameras from the cable networks G4 and Spike TV (both are broadcasting the launch), and sampling the Mountain Dew "Game Fuel" being handed out in plastic shot glasses. (For the record, it tastes like prescription cough medicine.)

Later in the evening, rappers Chingy and Ludacris (who was the guest of honor at Sony's PlayStation 3 launch last year) and R&B singer Bobby Valentino are scheduled to show up, too. But for now, the center of the photo ops is Jim Cush, an IT professional who is, for the night, the guy dressed up in the armor of Halo protagonist Master Chief.

When asked about the temperature inside his plastic suit of armor, Cush responded that it was "extremely hot. I've been trying to drink a lot of water and everything, but I'm trying not to drink too much so that I'd have to go to the bathroom." He'd apparently earned the gig through connections to some prominent Xbox Live folks, and said that the night had brought him "probably the craziest look form a woman I've ever got in my life."

But it's been a great evening, Cush insisted. "Everyone's pretty friendly," he explained. "Look at these guys," he said, gesturing toward the bubbly young crowds in line, who were waving around inflatable rods and glow sticks. "None of them knew each other before tonight." He's planning to join the crowds at midnight in obtaining the game.

It is, really, all about the experience.