Monthly Archives: June 2007

Words and photos by T.J. DeGroat

I’ve attended my fair share of parties since joining the Web 2.0 world last fall as GUBA‘s community advocate and I am confident in saying that Thursday evening’s Drobo party at Varnish was one of the coolest I’ve been to. From the sci-fi movie posters and robot centerpieces to the coffee bar and huge candy spread, the team at Data Robotics went to great lengths to turn the commonly used art gallery/bar into a totally different world, one where a creature called Drobo reigns supreme.

Everywhere I looked I was reminded why I was at Varnish — to check out Data Robotics’ multi-drive autonomous data storage “robot.”

What is Drobo? The relatively small machine combines up to four hard drives into one pool of protected storage. For more on Drobo, check out Scott Beale’s great write-up.

The robot theme was carried throughout

Stephen Baum of GUBA and Andrew Kippen of LIVEdigitally

Varnish co-owner Jen Rogers

For more scenes from the party, check out T.J. DeGroat’s photo set. Follow us on Twitter and watch us live on Justin.tv.

Tags: bub.blicio.us drobo data+robotics livedigitally GUBA varnish hard+drive

by Brian Solis

Robert Scoble, the man that started the whole thing

Well, I had to see it for myself. Indeed, Palo Alto was the mecca for the Northern California iPhone launch. I expected a bit more than 100, instead I was greeted by at least 1,000 anxious iPhone hopefuls. The line wrapped around an entire block.

Representatives from every major broadcast station were set up as if they were waiting for the release of Paris Hilton.

It was simply unbelievable.

I bumped into a ton of familiar geeks, including Scoble, Dave Winer, Jeremiah Owyang, Lunch 2.0′s Terry Chang, Kurt Collins, Nick Gonzales of TechCrunch, Loren Heiny, Don MacAskill of Smugmug, Leah Culver, Johnny Ham of Ustream.tv, Par Ghandi of Veodia, Gabe Rivera of TechMeme, Thomas Hawk and Kris Tate of Zooomr, tech correspondent Scott Budman, Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson, Ward Cunningham — and the list goes on and on.

Nick Gonzales of TechCrunch

Kris Tate and Thomas Hawk

Leah Culver

I was there for the magic hour, the time between 5 and 6 when excitement was bubbling up to the tipping point. Once the door opened, you should have seen the wave of people rush the door — simply unbelievable. All of this for a phone … it makes you worry about what would happen in the case of an emergency.

The doors open!

Within moments of entering the store, Scoble, Culver and Winer emerged with their new toys. Suddenly a path cleared as if we were standing on the red carpet, with customer as celebrities and the rest of us as starving, overzealous paparazzi.

After I grabbed the shots from the first few victory laps, I felt I had what I needed to split. Within minutes, Jeremiah sent a note over Twitter that Steve Jobs was there.

Unbelievable.

For more pictures, visit my albums on flickr. San Francisco. Palo Alto.

Follow us on Twitter.

Read Robert Scoble’s latest post, “It Lives Up to the Hype.”

Recent highlights from Twitter.

jowyang steve jobs is here at palo alto store…its going nuts. police too

steverubel Now I have AT&T activation, porting and Verizon porting all on the phone. It’s like a summit.

cubrilovic kristopher tate just had his credit card declined at the apple store live on ustream. absolutely hilarious

steverubel OK, here’s the skinny. After talking to a bunch of T reps. They have huge demands on their system and it may take a day for all to activate.

hyku rep said they estimate that 5 million new accounts will be activated tonight

iphone mania paloalto apple steve+jobs robert+scoble nick+gonzales techcrunch thomas+hawk zooomr kris+tate jeremiah+owyang leah+culver dave+winer

BubCast Silicon Valley is back for week 2 with even more hard-hitting news and interviews. In this episode you’ll find:

• Interviews with Robert Scoble and Thomas Hawk outside an Apple store while they waited in the iLine for the iPhone
• Results from last week’s poll
• News about Myspace TV, Youtube, Mizpee and more

Check it out and be sure to vote in this week’s poll!

Tags:bubblicious bub.blicio.us bubcast silicon+valley robert+scoble thomas+hawk mizpee myspacetv facebook youtube iphone apple

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

Alison McNeil and Nandor Fejer from bub.blicio.us tv drove over to the Palo Alto Apple store to catch up with Robert Scoble and Thomas Hawk live from the iLine for the iPhone.

While they were there, they also caught up with Kevin Rose who was on site recording the next episode of Diggnation.

For more pictures, visit Brian Solis’ album on flickr and Thomas Hawk’s album on Zooomr. 

iphone apple robert+scoble thomas+hawk zooomr ustream smugmug podtech kevin+rose digg diggnation

by Brian Solis

SF Apple Store

In the inspiring and community-focused tradition of BarCamp, PodCamp, WineCamp and FooCamp, a new phenomenon emerged yesterday, iPhone Camp aka iLines.

Can you say, “You were there?”

iWas There. At least I stopped by the San Francisco store while Alison McNeill and Nandor Fejer of bub.blicio.us tv stopped by the Palo Alto location.

San Francisco was exactly what I expected to see. It was a gathering of theatrics, youth, professionals, onlookers all staged in an aura of coolness and community. I was surprised however, not to see any of SF’s famous geeks among them. They were probably too busy networking and partying at the StumbleUpon or Merchant Circle parties.

In fact, I was a little disappointed with San Francisco.

In Palo Alto, however, the theatrics escalated into a full blown media circus. Almost every news organization from the Palo Alto Daily to CNBC were on hand to capture the excitement.

Robert Scoble with son, Patrick Scoble (13) Photo Credit: Palo Alto Daily News

It all started when Robert Scoble announced that he was going to the Apple store to start the wait. Within hours, the line not only grew, but it quickly became a geek camp that attracted Zooomrs Kris Tate and Thomas Hawk, Don MacAskill of Smugmug, Jeremiah Owyang, and worldwide attention from traditional media and the blogosphere.

Kevin Rose also made an appearance, bringing his crew to the Apple store for a live broadcast of Diggnation.

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

Today, there are over 100 people standing in line with companies and people from all over the Peninsula bringing pizza, water, sodas, and snacks to keep the iPhone hopefuls well nourished in order to shell out $800 when they finally get in the store.

Scoble and the Zooomr crew are livecasting their experience on ustream…with as many as 700 people viewing simultaneously. The neighboring stores are supplying everyone with power!

Patrick Scoble, Valerie Cunningham (Podtech) and Kris Tate
Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

Here come the iPhones. Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

While it may seem absurd to many, this experience will go down in history for Apple die hards, much in the same way Star Wars and music festivals inspire their own fanatics.

6/29/07, iWas There.

For more, visit Scoble’s live report from the front line.

iphone apple robert+scoble thomas+hawk zooomr ustream smugmug podtech kevin+rose digg diggnation