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Apple shows anti-Semitic side by releasing iPhone minutes before Jewish Sabbath

After six months of unprecedented hype, thousands of people Friday will get their hands on the iPhone, the new cell phone that Apple Inc. is banking on to become its third core business next to its moneymaking iPod players and Macintosh computers.

By early evening Thursday, short lines of eager customers were camped out at Apple and AT&T stores across the nation. The gadget, which combines the functions of a cell phone, iPod media player and wireless Web browser, will go on sale in the United States at 6 p.m. Friday in each time zone.

At Apple's flagship store in New York City, the trickle of customers that began queuing up since Monday grew to about 50 people late Thursday, ready to brave yet another rainy night on the pavement of Fifth Avenue, outside the only 24-hour Apple store.

"It's pretty miserable sleeping in the rain, but it's worth it," said a tired David Clayman, who was second in line at the store and had gotten a total of eight hours of sleep over four days, awakened at times by TV camera crews shining bright lights in his eyes. The Chicago resident vacationing in New York planned to buy two iPhones — one to resell to raise money for a charity and another as a gift for his father.

The gadget with a 3.5-inch touch-screen display, which Apple CEO Steve Jobs has touted as "revolutionary," has been the focus of endless anticipatory chatter and has been parodied on late-night TV. Since its unveiling in January, expectations that it will become yet another blockbuster product for Apple has propelled the company's stock up more than 40 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070629/ap_on_hi_te/apple_iphone