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For some lucky New Yorkers living in two of Manhattan's largest mega-apartment complexes, Fios super high-speed Internet access is here. As for the rest of us living in New York City, we'll have to suck it up and deal with sub-10-megabit-per-second speeds.

Verizon said Monday it has struck a deal with Tishman Speyer Properties to deploy the Fios fiber-to-the-home service to Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the two biggest apartment complexes in Manhattan with 110 buildings and more than 11,000 apartments covering 18 city blocks along the East River of Manhattan.

But for most of the 8 million people living in New York City, such as myself, Verizon's fiber network, which offers 50-megabit-per-second downloads, is only a dream. And now we have yet another reason to be jealous of the lucky folks living in what was once a rent stabilized enclave for middle-income New Yorkers.

Seven buildings in the complex have already been hooked up to the fiber network, according to the Associated Press. And the rest of the deployment is expected throughout the spring and summer.

Initially, Verizon targeted single-family homes in its rollout of Fios. About a year ago, it started targeting apartment buildings in major cities like New York. I was excited about the news when it first came out--until I talked to my contacts at the company who sadly told me it was highly unlikely that my six-story walk-up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan would ever be considered for Fios.

Currently, Verizon has deployed Fios to a handful of high-rise apartments in each of the city's five boroughs. Residents today are only able to get telephone service and high-speed Internet. But the company is negotiating a TV franchise deal with the city, the AP reported.

This means that unlike most New Yorkers, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village residents will soon have three choices for their phone, TV and high-speed Internet services: Time Warner Cable, RCN, and now Verizon.

Stuyvesant Town and Peter Copper Village were built by the insurance company MetLife in 1947 to house returning veterans from World War II. And up until 2006 when it was sold for $5.4 billion to real estate developer Tishman Speyer Properties, the complex offered thousands of apartments to working class families far below market rate.

The apartments are known to be much more spacious than most shoe-box sized apartments in Manhattan. And because many of the apartments were rent-stabilized, living there was the envy of many New Yorkers in a city that has seen rents and property values soar decade after decade. As you might imagine, scoring one of these apartments was like winning the lottery. For years, I daydreamed about what I would do with all the saved rent money and all that wonderful living space had I ever been able to live in "Stuytown."

Today, many of the rent-stabilized apartments in Stuyvesant Town are gone and rents are just as high as they are all over the city. But now that residents are getting Fios, which offers broadband downloads up to 50Mbps and uploads up to 20Mbps, I'm green with envy once again.

I understand that it's not financially practical for Verizon to spend the capital to dig up streets and lay fiber to my tiny building. But I think I speak for millions of people in Verizon's territory, who see the Verizon Fios TV commercials and will never be able to get the service, when I say, "If you can hear me now, Verizon, please bring fiber to my home!"

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.

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.

The emergence of a 'Halo 3' line on Monday afternoon outside a midtown Best Buy store.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

It doesn't hold a candle to the lengthy queue that assembled a few blocks north for Apple's iPhone in June, but a handful of New Yorkers decided to sacrifice a full day's work (and then some) to wait in line for Halo 3, the highly anticipated title for Microsoft's Xbox 360 that hits stores at midnight on Tuesday.

First in line at the Best Buy on Fifth Avenue and 44th Street, the official launch site for the city, is 28-year-old Uche Nwachukwu, a Web designer from the neighboring borough of Staten Island. "I want the experience," Nwachukwu told CNET News.com when asked why he chose to wait outside for the game rather than simply buying it on day one or preordering it. "I want to meet new people, maybe get some prizes."

Waiting in line for a highly anticipated product, it seems, has become the tech world's equivalent of visiting Mount Rushmore.

The stage display crammed into the Best Buy store.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

He'd been in line since about 6 p.m. ET on Sunday night and said that this was the longest amount of time he'd ever waited for something, but by no means the first time--Nwachukwu had queued up for the earlier Halo 2 release in November 2004 and the Xbox 360 system in May 2005.

"For Halo 2, I was out there at 11:00 the morning of (the release) and about the same time for the 360 as well," Nwachukwu said. "This is the first time I've waited overnight for something."

At about 2 p.m. ET, there were slightly more than a dozen people in line for the midnight release, but the Best Buy store was crammed with gawkers and curious shoppers who wanted to know why there was a massive stagelike contraption set up in one corner of the store. (It's for the broadcasts that the cable networks G4 and Spike TV will be holding later on Monday night.) The doors to the store close at 9 p.m. in anticipation of the launch, and then at midnight, the Master Chief shall rule Manhattan.

Or at least that's what the gamers hope.

The Internet, as we all know, has taken a toll on the venerable newspaper industry--so we'd understand that print media folks would be a little bit sensitive when their writers crack jokes about it. But, as it turns out, they might be more thin-skinned than we thought. Humor writer Elliot Kalan, who writes a column for the free daily newspaper New York Metro, might've just gotten fired over it.

Kalan, who is also a segment producer for Comedy Central's The Daily Show, wrote a column in the publication's August 3 edition entitled "Newspapers: Information's Horse & Buggy, in which he asserted that "Nobody reads newspapers anymore...As this very copy of Metro shows, the only way to get most people to read a newspaper is to literally force it into their hands." Ouch. A potshot not only to the print media as a whole, but also to the phenomenon of free dailies that are ungracefully waved in your face like giant newsprint mosquitoes as soon as you emerge from the dank underworld of New York City's subways.

New York magazine's Web site reported that the powers that be over at Metro, which also runs Boston and Philadelphia editions, weren't too happy, and sacked Kalan immediately.

Betting pool time: Which blog will hire him now?

(Via Jossip)

The New York Post is reporting that green-centric uberblog TreeHugger may have been purchased by Discovery Communications as a companion blog to its forthcoming new cable network, Planet Green. The new channel is slated for a launch in the first quarter of next year, and has already built up some buzz for its series Eco-Town, created in collaboration with actor and Prius poster boy Leonardo DiCaprio; an already-trendy eco-blog would indeed be a desirable companion for the company.

According to the Post's Peter Lauria, the price tag for TreeHugger was somewhere around $10 million.

The New York-based TreeHugger, which currently occupies the #18 slot on Technorati's ranking of the most popular blogs, claims to have raked in over 1.9 million unique visitors in June. It's no garage operation: the blog has about a dozen staffers on its payroll, and content is contributed by over 40 writers around the world. There's also a smattering of video and podcast content as well as an active community of readers, and TreeHugger has partnered with the likes of the Sundance Channel and Domino magazine on past collaborations.

If the Post article turns out to be true, it won't be too surprising, as Discovery engaged in a very similar strategy when it purchased PetFinder.com as a companion to the Animal Planet network. It'll also be the company's first acquisition under CEO David Zaslav.

We've put out a (paperless) note to TreeHugger for comment.

(Via PSFK)

Yeah, yeah, I know. Harry Potter this, Harry Potter that, OMG-does-Harry-die, OMG-OMG-it's-on-BitTorrent... We're so ready to move on to the next cultural obsession from across the pond. Regardless, here's some video from Friday night of some of the people who showed up at the official New York book launch event hosted by Scholastic, the publisher that handles Harry Potter in the States.

The wizardly confab was held in New York City's shopper-friendly SoHo neighborhood, on a stretch of Mercer St. between Prince St. and Spring St. Conveniently, not only is Mercer St. right around the corner from the Scholastic bookstore, but it also happens to be paved with cobblestone--a rarity in Manhattan. Folks, welcome to Diagon Alley.

P.S.: In case you were wondering, this video is spoiler-free, unless you consider weekend book sales data to be spoilers.

Click To Play

One of the things talked about most in the aftermath of the iPhone's New York debut was how streamlined the launch was. A gauntlet of Apple store employees kept everyone in a single file, and upon entering the Apple store customers were ushered directly to the checkout line where they received (and paid for) their iPhones. The press, however, was not so calm--seriously, I felt like I was taping something that would wind up on TMZ or Perez Hilton.

At last count, there was no shortage of iPhones, and many of the people who happened to walk into line around 6:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. didn't have a problem just waltzing in. As one guy put it, strolling out of the store at 7:15 p.m., a black iPhone bag in hand, "This is f***ing great!"

Yeah baby!

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

The first New Yorkers have their iPhones, showing off the sleek black packages to a massive crowd of paparazzi-esque press (really, we're animals), Apple Store employees, and a large number of spectators. Yes, spectators. Stadium-style. Yes, David Pogue is still hanging around, taping the scene with a personal camcorder but largely avoiding the sweaty press mobs. No, there is no sign of Steve Jobs, Bono, John Mayer, or any other celebrities associated with Apple.

There is not yet any word on shortages or the lack thereof. It's 6:26 PM and they are still letting people in, so I'm not positive as to how long it'll keep going on.

UPDATE (6:33 PM EDT): There do not yet appear to be any iPhones listed on eBay.

UPDATE (6:49 PM EDT): Still no end in sight. Just called out to the guys at the head of the line, who speculate they were at position #500-550 in line. Does this mean the "only 400 iPhones at the 5th Avenue store" rumor was bunk?

UPDATE (6:55 PM EDT): They're still flooding in. Now we're down to people who didn't wait in line for very long; most of them are 20-somethings who look like they stepped right out of a dancing iPod ad (minus the silhouette). Some even still have earbuds plugged into their ears as they walk in.

UPDATE (7:01 PM EDT): The line is largely over and people are just walking in now. Press is now allowed in. An iPhone reportedly just sold on eBay for $1500.

UPDATE (7:39 PM EDT): Line of the night: I'm carrying my open MacBook down the spiral staircase of the Apple Store when a company employee calls out to me, "No blogging on the stairs! You'll hurt yourself!"