The Tribune

Rush for iPhone6

Apple had more than four million advance orders of its new, larger iPhones in the first 24 hours, exceeding its initial supply, the company said on Monday.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be delivered to customers starting on Friday but many will not be delivered until next month, Apple said. Phones will still be available Friday on a walk-in basis at Apple retail stores and from various wireless carriers and authorised Apple resellers.

Apple’s website had intermittent outages last Friday because of heavy traffic as orders began online. The company said the four million orders set a new 24-hour record, beating the two million orders in 2012 for the iPhone 5.

The new phones will initially be available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK. Availability will expand to more than 20 more countries a week later.

A free update to Apple’s iOS software for mobile devices - iOS 8 - will be available to existing users today.

(there are AP pics of this)

Talk the walk

The Chinese city of Chongqing has created a smartphone sidewalk lane, offering a path for those too engrossed in messaging and tweeting to watch where they’re going. It’s intended to be ironic.

“There are lots of elderly people and children in our street, and walking with your cellphone may cause unnecessary collisions here,” said Nong Cheng, the marketing official with Meixin Group, which manages the area in the city’s entertainment zone.

Meixin has marked a 165-foot stretch of pavement with two lanes: one that prohibits cellphone use next to one that allows pedestrians to use them - at their “own risk.”

Nong said the idea came from a similar stretch of pavement in Washington DC created by National Geographic Television in July as part of a behaviour experiment.

She said that pedestrians were not taking the new lanes seriously, but that many were snapping pictures of the signs and sidewalk. “Those using their cellphones of course have not heeded the markings on the pavement,” she said. “They don’t notice them.”

Dirty laundry

Samsung has accused senior executives from rival LG Electronics of vandalising its washing machines at stores in Germany earlier this month and has asked for an official investigation.

In a statement on Sunday, Samsung said it had asked the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office to investigate executives from a South Korean company who were seen damaging Samsung washing machines displayed at shopping malls in Berlin. A Samsung spokesman confirmed that the Korean company referred to was LG.

One of the incidents that will come under investigation took place a day before the IFA electronics trade show in Berlin earlier this month.

LG denied Samsung’s claim. It said in a statement that that some of its executives and staff, including a president, had visited a Berlin store and looked at various products, but it is common for its employees to examine rival company’s products abroad.

Samsung, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of smartphones, said an investigation is necessary in the interests of “fostering fair competition.”