iPad MANIA Hits Europe, Asia

LONDON — Technophiles mobbed Apple Stores in Europe and Asia on Friday in a quest to snatch up the hottest gadget of the moment – the iPad. (See photos below)

Long lines snaked down streets in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Tokyo as eager buyers vied to wield their credit cards. Screams and cheers rose from the crowd in central London as students, professionals and self-proclaimed computer geeks clutched boxes containing the slim black device.

"If I was a music fan, it would be like the launch of a Lady GaGa album in the U.S.," said comedian Stephen Fry, known in Britain as a champion Tweeter.

At the Apple Store in Frankfurt, Germany, hundreds lined up – including a few who arrived as early as 3 a.m. Some said they'd arrived so early not because they wanted to own it first – but simply to get an iPad at all.

By 8 a.m., some 450 people squealed as Apple employees inside lowered a black curtain and began applauding. The glass doors swung open and people who had been given numbered tickets while waiting in line were let in by security to buy the device.

"I'm a bit embarrassed to be part of the masses, but the thing is, tonight it's going to be sold out," one man, who was not identified, told AP Television News.

(Story continues on next page)

 

Lines, stores, unboxing and more: Do you have photos of the iPad's international launch? Send them to us!

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Comments

[zfire]

03:32 PM on 06/07/2010

Geez youd think it was the end of a war!

[themasterspeaks]

02:49 AM on 06/02/2010

CNN world did a short piece on foxconn where they could only speak to a preselected
'happy' employee with a 'minder' present. One had the distinct feeling this was not
an ordinary worker who was free to speak. To the contrary, the level of fear and
intimidation was exactly like that in Bagdad before the invasion and contemporary Miyamar.
The question which the BOARD OF DIRECTORS of APPLE needs to address is whether or
not their representative on the ground has free and unfettered access to find out what is
going on, or does not as in the case of the CNN crew which did as good a job as they could.
If they do not, then any statements made by APPLE regarding knowing hows its products
are made is totally worthless, pure unadulterated nonsense. This should be obvious to
anyone, irregardless of their attitudes towards APPLE. If goods from China coming into
USA ports are manufactured under barbaric conditions Americans need to know, and know soon.

[mike72]

10:58 PM on 06/01/2010

Apple pays its supplier $11 dollars to build this gadget and turn around and sell it for $700! Do you really think Apple does not know what that $11 means to its supplier? The signal is very simple: go ahead and squeeze the Chinese workers to their bones and make a profit out of that $11.

Apple is soaking in bl00d!!!

Boycott Apple!!! If you have a hint of concions!!! iPad is the new Mink Coat that is sipping in bl00d for your pathetic enjoyment.

[therealguy]

01:58 PM on 06/06/2010

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9150045/Apple_makes_208_on_each_499_iPad?source=rss_news

It's not Apple's fault that suppliers in china are willing to pay their workers, slave labor wages. If it weren't for the available supply of cheap labor in China and other developing nations the entire world economy would suffer.

Granted you are complaining about apple "soaking in bl00d" and yet your very own keyboard that you typed that on was (probably) made in China. People that work in keyboard factories make much less per day than those in these Apple supplier factories, and are exposed to the same dangerous materials and by products.

The *conscience* of the consumer is not the problem here, if we thought about the conditions of the worker for everything we purchased we would all have no clothing, electronics for the most part.

[themasterspeaks]

02:53 AM on 06/01/2010

The customers of Apple Stores are not being shown the large pictures and video of the so called dormitories where the workers who built their ipads sleep after their l2 hours shifts. Au contraire the Apple Stores are presenting an image of slick smooth modernity, as if their ipads and iphones had a Virgin Birth. The reality of course is that Apple is just like BP where the main thing is massive profits at any cost - dead workers are just part of doing business. It is clear as well Apple is not posting signs showing the radiation dangers involved in their 3g ipads
and one has to wonder why not? Perhaps they assume like the cigarette companies it will
be years before the damages appear, and hell the regulators like those of BP are not regulating so why be concerned at all. Store customers don't need to know about the
fact the brain is far far closer to the antennae on a ipad than might be safe, for long long
periods of time, and store employees all look so healthy, just like the Marlborough Man.
No reason to have large pictures in Apple Stores of brain tumors, etc. This is after all
a company with pure motives -- the one whose ipads and iphones have a Virgin birth
far far far away. Ummm..........

[themasterspeaks]

03:33 AM on 06/01/2010

on the Virgin birth of ipads and iphones

"there is only 20 minutes for lunch, can you believe it- 20 minutes! and there are 1000 m from the workshop to the restaurant and you have to queue, finally you have only 4-5 minutes for your lunch, everybody in foxconn knows that"

[themasterspeaks]

05:28 AM on 06/01/2010

http://www.adamdanielmezei.com/foxconn-employee-publishes-note-about-conditions-inside-the-complex-on-the-chinglosphere-but-is-it-authentic/2958

Sometimes I feel so lost, Parents, but I know I cannot leave now. We are too deep in debt and I am currently the only breadwinner in this family. I must act. I must stay here.

I am also praying to the effigy of Master Kang (ed. Confucius) that no one has followed me to the post office, because I was not even supposed to leave the grounds, not even for ten minutes or a food break. The bosses are fond of telling us that we should be wanting for nothing in the Complex; that we have no reason to leave the building and that all we must do if we are lacking something is to simply ask for it. I had to bribe one of the nicer young guards from our county to permit me to leave and it cost me nearly a full-day’s pay to convince him, the son of a motherless whelp.

[mike72]

09:20 PM on 05/31/2010

Anyone who bought an iPod, iPhone and iPad are guilty in association with ruthless raw capitalism that lead to blood sucking and su***ides.

[themasterspeaks]

06:34 PM on 05/31/2010

Perhaps its time for Apple to close down its ipad factory for a few weeks and do a total fumigation of the 3 tier bunkbed sleeping rooms, and the workbenches areas, to clean up the cockaroach problem Its best to let the place vacant for a week after the fumigation. In the meantime maybe build a new building with private little apartments for each worker to help make up for the ridiculous dormitory conditions. Also perhaps a free all expense paid trip to visit America for all the wokers....see the Grand Canyon and Vegas and visit Google....this could be a kinda rehab trip helping he workers see something of the world outside CHINA...
Apple should do this to try to clean up its growing roach motel reputation, and because its the right thing to do...especially for a company claiming to have pure motives...

[mike72]

09:19 PM on 05/31/2010

Foxconn dorms are squeaky clean. It is the work condition that caused the su**ides. Each worker must work 12 hours each during day time for 6 months. And the rotate for 12 hours each day during night time. Coupled with highly stressfully repetitive work with close to zero defect requirement, any man or woman might break pyscologically.

All these are for one reason: Apple only pays $11 for each iPhone built! And it turns around and sell it for $700, plus the profits from the mobile contract. WHAT THE F**** IS THAT???!!!

It is time for Apple to stop pretending its innocents for NOT KNOWING how their gadgets are actually built. And it actually squeeze its Chinese suppliers so they turn around squeeze on their helpless Chinese workers.

Apple is dripping in blood. It knows it quite well. Stop the f***** pretend.

[kdlaiusa]

05:45 PM on 05/31/2010

Do we really need these gadgets? This is why we feel information are overflowing and overwhelming all of us. Very soon, some of us will look like robots carrying iPods, bluetooth ear plugs, cell phones, laptops, netbooks, iPads all around. Technology can make life pathetic.

[ilovedessert]

10:09 AM on 05/31/2010

These people need to go out a GET A LIFE!

[SanityForOnce]

03:20 PM on 05/31/2010

After you.........

[hypnotoad72]

09:21 PM on 05/31/2010

Wanna share? :)

[themasterspeaks]

09:11 AM on 05/31/2010

Everyone is wondering if the cockaroaches and ants which are said to coexist with the Apple workers in their 3 tier dormitory make it to the workbench and crawl inside their iphones or ipads? This is not exactly a wonderful thought carrying around a dead cockaroach in your pocket or purse. But its probably the case here and there. Maybe Apple will start inspecting them carefully and declare them cockaroach free soon.

[Cheesedog]

11:22 AM on 05/31/2010

Nope. Nobody is wondering any such thing.

[themasterspeaks]

01:16 PM on 05/31/2010

You're not serious, have you contacted the more than one million domestic ipad owners and personally queried them about whether or not they are concerned there might well be dead decaying cockaroaches inside their ipad. Thing is this - if there are cockaroaches in the 3 tier bunkbeds, they make little baby cockaroaches that get in the workers' clothes which they wear in their l4 hours shifts. Some no doubt make it to the ipads. So this means Chinois cockaroaches are probably now in America, though probably dead. But some by selection have no doubt survived. This is the problem. Some ipads might actually have a new species of cockaroach inside
chewing on their batterey right now. Awesome.

[salomon2]

08:46 AM on 05/31/2010

These Europeans must have a lot of money to spend. Why spend all this money on the first version when you know there will be better versions out soon. But at least we can give Apple credit for being recognized worldwide. http://www.digitalundivide.com

[BruntLIVE]

08:06 AM on 05/31/2010

Android will never take over Apple, because open source people can't work together and really wanted to be gates or jobs but didn't make it.

[themasterspeaks]

08:23 AM on 05/31/2010

(((open source people can't work together)))

Look at what the developers of Tweet have done for it. And Google maps, etc. Android
coming on stream will deliever Flash, and totally decimate the iphone. This is common knowledge
and widely accepted from pole to pole, on every continent, and in every language. The
little Cupertino island and its brothel iTunes is on a runaway train to nowhere.

[hypnotoad72]

09:40 PM on 05/31/2010

Agreed.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/194318/apple_locks_iphone_developers_in_its_walled_garden.html

In 2007, Jobs was playing the market manipulation game to quash Java as well. (it's in the link, about 10 paragraphs down.)

Android is available on more carriers, and Adobe is working with them. Apple will still make excuses, even if Adobe bent over backwards for them. because Apple wants to use unsavory means to eliminate competition.

http://www.wirelust.com/2010/05/21/10-things-flash-can-do-today-that-html5-cant/
(just to help get rid of the wretched stereotype that Flash is only good for 'ads' and what they install to block them, which is the b.s. that Apple store parrots - oops, store clerks, are told to tell customers. Most iPhone/iPad apps are designed with Objective-C, a language first developed in 1986 (10 years before Flash) so it's weird how HTML5 is being hyped up so conclusively.)

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2481463/can-html5-do-most-of-what-flash-does-today
(a good post, with a good response or two.)

Another sundry article:
http://slate.com/id/2250993

And another:
http://developers.slashdot.org/story/10/05/07/1259205/Is-HTML5-Ready-To-Take-Over-From-Flash

http://www.gotoandlearnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&p=122042

Flash can do live streaming, HTML5 cannot.

And lastly,
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20006259-266.html

Nokia and Opera side with Adobe.

[themasterspeaks]

05:49 AM on 05/31/2010

Now that summer is about here it would be interesting to know if the Apple factory
where FAIR LABOR rules don't apply has regular breaks allowing workers to
move around and improve their circulation during their l2 to l4 hour work day. This
is an importrant fact that CEO Jobs should tell the world about when comes forth
with his new iphone, being himself the leader of a pure motive company.

[BruntLIVE]

11:00 PM on 05/30/2010

I posted this on an iPad, in epic iPad glory. Took back my $495 Sony Reader Daily Reader add $200 in birthday cash POOF! iPad

[chuck prebys]

11:22 PM on 05/30/2010

Well, isn't that special.
May I have your autograph?
Signed "one cool dude" would be fine.....

[themasterspeaks]

05:40 AM on 05/31/2010

yes of course yours eyes have seen the glory of the comin of the ipad. if you
are using it for reading best not to fall asleep with it on where the antennae
is too close to your brain. people often wake up with their face in the book
they were reading. thing is books are not radioactive. probably best
to find an app which turns off the ipad when its inactive for say 5 minutes
or a little more. otherwise you may wake up from a long sleep
really really zapped.

[nukemind]

08:52 PM on 05/30/2010

That's weird. I hear the iPad has a lot of kinks to work out anyway. Plus, if we're getting to this size, might as well have a laptop so I fail to see the 'mania' gripping people. Must just be because it's new. Apple does do a great job marketing, I'll give 'em that.

[microsoap]

07:14 PM on 05/30/2010

"That's right, folks, keep putting your nickles and dimes into the humongous media vending machine known as iTunes. Enter the infamous Walled Garden. Come one, come all!!"