iPhone fanboys eager for the latest

Predictions of shorter lines at Friday's iPhone 3G opening, figuring Apple die-hards had already bought the original iPhone, must have underestimated Apple die-hards.

The lines were at least as long as the first version's launch last year — and populated by many of the same faces.

Those first in line outside the Apple Store in University Village, the earliest of them having camped out since 5:30 p.m. the previous day, said they planned to upgrade their iPhones as soon as the new model was announced or even rumored.

The second iPhone handset has some notable changes from the first, including faster data speeds and a GPS chip. It comes with a major software update that is also available free to original iPhone owners.

But the new hardware was enough to lure hundreds of buyers, some of them, like Garret Low, veterans of last year's opening-day line.

For David Sundquist, sixth in line on Friday, a change as minor as the flush headphone jack which, unlike the last model, is not limited to Apple's headphones, was a huge draw.

What happened to all those old iPhones? Many were sold on Craigslist, sometimes even for a profit, to hackers eager to unlock the devices to use on networks besides AT&T's.

Others were kept as spares or given to a friend or family member who can still use the iPod function.

The crowds at AT&T retail stores, such as the one in University Village, tended to be more first-time iPhone customers. Less committed to the full-blown Apple experience, they came for the shorter lines or, in some cases, specifically to get away from the Apple maniacs just round the corner.

The word on tech

Merriam Webster, the dictionary people, came out last week with new entries in the Collegiate Dictionary.

The Associated Press listed a bunch of them and, as usual in a world driven by PCs, cellphones and the Internet, a number of them resonate in the tech world, including (as taken from AP, with our little comments added):

Fanboy: Boy who is an enthusiastic devotee, such as of comics or movies. (Or of Apple products, we might add.)

Malware: Software designed to interfere with a computer's normal functioning. (Should be part of every PC user's vocabulary.)

Netroots: Describes the methods of grass-roots political activists who communicate via the Internet, especially by blogs. (May be most overused term of the season.)

Pretexting: Presenting oneself as someone else to obtain private information. (Not necessarily a techie word, unless it applies to Hewlett-Packard contract investigators.)

Webinar: Live, online educational presentation during which participating viewers can submit questions and comments. (Presuming the connection holds up.)

On the record

Partnerships: Seattle-based Visible Technologies is teaming up with Beyond Interaction, a unit of MediaCom, to provide companies with different ways of tracking and measuring usage of social media.

Sales channels: Bellevue-based Sotto Wireless has announced that it is beginning to sell its Sotto@SOHO wireless and office phone service through Costco Wholesale Business Center. ... Entellium, a Seattle developer of customer-relationship-management software, is selling its Rave software through PC Mall and Zones.

Download, a column of news bits, observations and miscellany, is gathered by The Seattle Times technology staff. We can be reached at 206-464-2265 or biztech@seattletimes.com.