Store hours modified for iPhone launch

The iPhone launch is geared to be a massive PR exercise, with Apple pulling out all the stops to ensure that there is a constant buzz around the June 29th date, with major and minor things being reported. So, here's another one:

On June 29, the day the Apple iPhone goes on sale, AT&T-owned stores will close early at 4:30 p.m. and reopen at 6 p.m. to sell the iPhone for the first time. Some Apple stores I spoke with said they were not planning a pre-6 p.m. shutdown before the iPhone goes on sale. Still, other Apple stores did say they were going to shut down as they got ready for the onslaught of want-to-be iPhone customers to fill their stores.
People wishing to be the first to get their hands on the iPhone will only be able to buy the iPhone at Apple stores and AT&T-owned stores. The Apple Web site will also be accepting orders on June 29. And AT&T says it will offer iPhones through its Web site some time in the future. Authorized AT&T resellers will not be selling the iPhone on June 29. Many resellers I spoke with said they expected iPhones sometimes in August.

So, if one reads between the lines, there is a clear expectations that customers would show up in the hordes to lay their hands on an iPhone, sort of replicating the buzz around the first release of Harry Potter books, or the release of a new Star Wars movie.
I am not sure whether all this will actually happen. Is the profile of people willing to buy a $600 phone (with a service plan) such that they will stand in line, or come once to get a bracelet, and then come again at the actual release so that their bracelet will show their place in line to buy the iPhone. Apple and AT & T dearly wish that this is the sequence that should happen.

Microsoft attacks open-source Linux with lawyers

Microsoft has been an open advocate of dangers posed by open-source systems; trying out concepts such as Total Cost of Ownership (to make it seem that MS was cheaper than Open source if you add training and support), that these systems were unsafe, and now Microsoft has launched its latest attack on Linux, using its famous method of legally harassing a competitor to death. This policy is certainly not going to win it any friends, even if it may be a legal way. Refer this story:

Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday that open-source software, including the rival Linux operating systems, violates 235 of its patents, making its most detailed intellectual property challenge to open source.
The maker of the Windows operating system said it wants to work out licensing deals with open source companies instead of fighting out the patent disputes in court.
"The real question is not whether there exist substantial patent infringement issues, but what to do about them," said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft Vice President of Intellectual Property and Licensing in an e-mail statement.

This can be a serious challenge, because Microsoft will use it arsenal of lawyers to harass open source companies, and at the same time, if they actually have some patents that seem to have been copied, it will be open season.
Of course, with open-source being a big thing, such moves by Microsoft are likely to draw even more bad press and deal a blow to its efforts to portray itself as promoting some form of open source for a section of its technologies. Developer mistrust of Microsoft is deeply entrenched, and such moves are likely to make them even more so.

Paying your way to a high Digg ranking

Digg is a very popular service for breaking news, and has become incredibly popular in the recent past. What is Digg ? It is a service where anybody can submit articles, new stories, anything at all. If other people like this story, they will Digg the story and if a story gathers enought Diggs, the story will move to the front page so that more people can view the story.
Now such a service would seem to be very prone to misuse, but Digg claims that it can tell when people are trying to manipulate the service and prevent such fraud from happening. Such a claim is ripe for people to try and expose that this is not a fool proof method. So here is a story from Wired about a paid service that claims to promote stories on Digg for money, and how the writer of the article actually got a pretty useless blog to the front page. It stayed for some time, and actually took on a life on its own before it got moved off.