News Blog

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My friend Chad, a techie and savvy lawyer at a tech firm, and I had lunch today where we spent more time pawing at my iPhone than catching up. He said to me that he's been reading blog after blog, review after review and lusting after one of these puppies. Apparently, there are now outages of the 8 gig, which validated my 10-hour wait, in some part.

Anyway, in the midst of sitting at a street cafe on Belden Lane on a sunny day in San Francisco we were more focused on the hot little item in our hands than the hot weather here. But we paused for a moment to reflect on how successful Apple has been at creating such hype, buzz and popular attention for the iPhone.

We had to think long and hard as to the last time as when popular media and imagination was captured with a mere product launch. Cabbage Patch Kids? Beanie Babies? No, the last time, we agreed, was probably the launch of Windows 95. It's pretty funny because, as Mac-philes will note, Macs had a great graphical OS for some time already. To me, the iPhone is the difference between having a DOS-based user interface and suddenly fast-forwarding to Mac OS X. That leap also happens to be the difference between my Razr and the iPhone. Hence the paradigm-shift comparison.

But we mused that the iPhone launch is somewhat more social than that for Win95. Sure, you have to bring an iPhone home to activate it, but it is inherently a mobile device, unlike an OS, which was inherently stationary. The iPhone is to be pulled out at dinner parties, lunches and on the bus. Will it become ubiquitous as an Evian bottle? What's keeping it from this level of usage, at least today, is the price. As such, the iPhone may well assume its place as a yuppie/guppie status-symbol accessory that just happens to have the functionality of no other device up to this point. The first must-have of the 21st century? Perhaps, but how cliche.

NEW YORK--They're heeeeeee-ere.

Actually, I owe you all an apology. When I first showed up at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store earlier this afternoon, I didn't spot anyone waiting in line yet. That's because I didn't spot the one person in line, who'd gotten there at 5 a.m. EDT. Security personnel for the building, however, have mandated that Camp iPhone be located off to the side of the building, out of sight of people who are approaching the Apple Store from 59th Street (the nearest subway stop). The Craigslist crowd was assuming that people would have to line up on Wednesday at the earliest. So I figured that it was no surprise that no one was there yet.

But then, around 10 p.m., I checked my Twitter feed and noticed that there were several posts announcing that people had already started to wait in line. So I sprinted to the subway and hopped off at 59th Street...

The two guys in line (there are actually three, but Packer's friend was offsite at the time) couldn't have been more different. Packer, a retired highway maintenance worker from Huntington, N.Y., is the sort of person you'd expect to find waiting in a line for the latest gadgets. He's after the iPhone partially because he's an Apple fan, and partially because it's the hottest item on the market and he wants one. But he's no eBay opportunist, he assured me--he actually wants to keep it. He's also a seasoned "waiter," having stood in line for the PlayStation 3 last November at the Roosevelt Field mall on Long Island. He chose Manhattan, this time, because he "learned from PlayStation about how security will not let you line up at a mall for hours on hours." He's also started a blog to document the week.

Clayman, on the other hand, looks exactly like the sort of person you'd expect to see waiting for an Apple product. A recent University of Chicago graduate, he's slight and soft-spoken and wears the black-frame glasses found on many a Genius Bar employee. But the funny thing is, Clayman doesn't actually want the iPhone. He's blogging the experience, hoping to learn a bit about New York before he starts a full-time job. "My parents thought I was nuts when I told them," he related to me, adding that he's planning to buy the iPhone and then sell it and donate the proceeds to the Taproot Foundation.

That seems very Apple of him. Bono would approve, I'm sure.

For food, there's a hot dog stand as well as a ubiquitous Mr. Softee truck on the corner. The 24-hour Apple store has bathrooms (Packer informed me that its downtown sibling in SoHo does not), not to mention computers with e-mail access. There's also a Starbucks several blocks away. Both Packer and Clayman said that they're accepting donations while waiting in line--Packer to pay for food (um, if you're short on cash, is the $600 iPhone really a good idea?), and Clayman to add to his Taproot Foundation donation.

The early iPhone queuers, as well as the others who will inevitably be joining them over the next few days, will have to deal with some blistering heat--highs in the mid-90s Tuesday--as well as some thunderstorms that are predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday. Especially considering that they're right near metal barricades, that could get dangerous. But when I asked them how they plan to deal with potential weather hazards, they both said, "We'll deal with it."