It wasn't some benign crowd patiently milling about as they waited for the iPhone 4S to go on sale. According to sources on the ground, the line that WAS there started developing on Monday and was already nearly 1500 long...and was of course, full of the usual squads of scalpers. As the days wore on, thousands more…

...and this could help explain a bit about the new, mysterious delay in shipping for the vaunted, new Transformer Prime that's just hitting the tech blogs. Who knows...

In the immortal words of "Tombstone's" nonplussed Curly Bill,

I spent a few days at a At a 2/3 empty high-end Atlantic City hotel two weeks ago. Not one of the grubby-smoke-infused-into-the-wall dives on the main drag, but a supposedly decent place on the water and I needed the WiFi to email back and forth a writing project—-a simple.doc file to a co-hort. The WiFi was NOT free.…

"Engadget". The land of fifty Android commenter trolls with seven user accounts each and where every writer/editor worth a damn booked up because of the said site's toxicity and general drop in reader maturity level?

Whiskey...I love how it makes me feel when I'm awake, but the wake-up the morning after makes me fee like The Williams Sisters have been blasting cross-court rallies inside my head while I was snoozing. I get plenty of sleep...but its a crappy-ass sleep.

As I noted in the previous article about this issue:

"As far as I know, everything they sell is real, and their customer service is just fine."

You hit the nail on the head here. As the devices are probably not going through authorized retail channels, warranty lookups are a huge potential problem should the end user venture beyond these small stores for help—as I can assure you they will sooner or later.

"Any smart company would see China as the huge developing market it is and learn to work with the culture rather than jam western culture down their throats. Apple is a VERY smart company, and that is why you are not hearing much from Apple. They would probably rather bring some of these stores into the official…

"Any smart company would see China as the huge developing market it is and learn to work with the culture rather than jam western culture down their throats. Apple is a VERY smart company, and that is why you are not hearing much from Apple. They would probably rather bring some of these stores into the official…

Venison, Vidi, Vici.

As laid out in a renowned oral report by noted Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Craig Mack (PhD/MC):

"bend apple over" "power hungry rapist"

The Howard Stark/John Slattery World's Fair segments from Iron Man 2 were shot to ape the many Disney promotional movies that ol' Uncle Walt shot just like this one. I'd love to see some of Walt's outtakes though—full of HIS rants about the things we know he hated...

"Death Cab For Cutie"...or not.

"Death Cab For Cutie?"—not so much.

@Courteous_Gentleman: You are NOT the only one, sir—except I kind of like the "f-u-u-u-u-u-u" face and have come to utterly despise the "trollface". Seen too many actual trolls cop that icon/avatar in forums and thus dilute its original intended irony.

Um...really want this. Now. Cold here in NYC. Seriously.