"I was a Windows person until about three years ago," Brown explained. In that time, she's bought an iMac, a MacBook Pro, a Time Capsule, iPhones, the works. She even wants to learn how to code. "I want to be able to do more with the Terminal," she said. Brown also reported how she managed to convert her avowedly "technophobic" husband from a "plain-Jane Nokia" to an iPhone. I don't know if I'm spoiling any surprises here, but Brown said she was planning to give her old iPhone to her daughter.

Anyone looking for signs of an economic recovery in Rancho Cucamonga crowd would have come away with mixed feelings. It's certainly encouraging to see hundreds of people lining up at dawn to pay $300 for a sweet new smartphone, especially in a part of Southern California hardest hit by the housing market collapse and with regional unemployment hovering around 12 percent.

But hundreds on this Friday couldn't compare with the , when many customers waited eight hours or more in the heat for a 3G phone. It's also worth noting that Apple sold more than 1 million units last year over three days; this time around, this weekend.

By 8:00 a.m, the Cucamonga air was getting warmer, the crowds were only a little thinner, and hundreds of people were playing with their new $300 compasses.

[]