The first video shows a queue three city blocks long for Japan's post-tsunami launch
Earthquakes, a tsunami and a few nuclear meltdowns don't seem to have cooled the ardor of Japanese Apple (AAPL) enthusiasts for the iPad 2, which launched Thursday after a five week postponement.
The first customers took their place on line at 8 p.m. Wednesday and withstood a night of heavy rain, according to the Wall Street Journal. A video posted on YouTube Thursday morning shows buyers lined up for three city blocks. Some were there for the white iPhone 4, which went on sale the same day. But most, according to the Journal, were there for the iPad 2.
The YouTube video is available here and below the fold. Note to videographer stevenagata: Next time, shoot from the front of the line to the back so we can see their faces.
UPDATE: The vodpod version of a second video, from NTDTV.com, is posted below steveagata's.
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Here's what Apple COO Tim Cook might call another "fantastic use" for the company's nearly $60 billion cash reserves.
According to a report Thursday in DigiTimes, the Taipei-based daily that is a rich source of electronics supply-chain rumors, Apple (AAPL) has agreed to absorb all the additional component costs created by the Japanese earthquake MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Mar 31, 2011 10:53 AM ET
In a post-tsunami teardown, iSuppli identifies vulnerabilities in Apple's supply chain
Many analysts have tried to gauge the effect of Japan's troubles on Apple's (AAPL) supply-constrained iPad 2, but the report issued Thursday afternoon by iSuppli's Andrew Rassweiler is the most thorough we've seen. He identifies five key components:
NAND flash memory from Toshiba Corp.
DRAM (dynamic random access memory) from Elpida Memory Inc.
An electronic compass from AKM Semiconductor
The touch screen overlay glass MORE
Apple can only do so much for the beleaguered country
Although Apple claims that it's on track to deliver iPad 2s to the other 25 countries that were scheduled to get the new tablet on March 25, it has confirmed what it told All Things Digital's John Paczkowski earlier today: The company is postponing the launch in Japan while its people there focus on recovery.
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Mar 15, 2011 2:45 PM ET
The tool is an easy registry creator to help victims and loved ones communicate during emergencies.
Natural disasters such as the EarthQuake/Tsunami in Japan last night disrupt traditional channels of communication. When homes are destroyed, cell communications towers toppled, and people taken to emergency rooms or worse, there is very little in the way of a full organized registry of people who may be missing.
For this, Google (GOOG) deploys its People Finder tool. People Finder is MORE
Seth Weintraub - Mar 11, 2011 9:15 AM ET