The great iGrab: Fans brave crowds, rain to take first bite of new Apple iphones
The first byte of the new Apple iPhone was sweet for Brian Ceballo.
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New York
The Brooklyn musician spent two weeks camped outside Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store to become the first New York owner of the new model on Friday morning.
London
“It feels pretty amazing,” said 19-year-old Ceballo, after buying two phones -- the limit for the new iPhone 5S and 5C. “It feels pretty awesome,” he added.
David Kaminsky, first in line at the Apple store in Bethesda, Maryland, said he had waited more than 12 hours to ensure he got one of the gold-coloured iPhones. “It’s not just the technology -- it’s the experience, the simplicity,” said Kaminsky.
Sydney
Elsewhere, in what has become a worldwide ritual, people lined up around city blocks in Tokyo, braved the rain in Berlin and stood shoulder-to-shoulder in London on Friday to get their hands on Apple’s latest creation.
Paris
In Beijing, at the biggest Apple Store in Asia, security guards kept the line in order. Last year, eggs had been thrown and all hell had broken loose outside a store.
Tokyo
People were waiting eagerly in the United States, too. People lined up a day ahead at the Apple Store in Miami Beach, and they camped overnight on Boylston Street in Boston -- chairs, blankets and coffee at the ready.
However, not every line was free of incident. Shoppers camping out in front of an AT&T store in Houston were robbed at gunpoint.
In Berlin, Yahor Paplouski, who came all the way from Belarus, was so excited that he couldn’t take the time to shed his sleeping bag. He wore it into the Apple store.
In Belfast, Northern Ireland, a customer reported that the gold phone sold out long before the grey and silver options.
Apple topics were trending online, but all that Twitters is not gold: #Apple made the list of top talkers in the United States, as did #iOS7, the new operating system for iPhones and iPads, but not the new colour.
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