iPhone 4s sold more than 1.7 million in the first three days

Apple Inc. said Monday that it sold more than 1.7 million iPhone 4s in the first three days since the device went on sale, fueled by current iPhone owners upgrading their phones.

While the iPhone has enjoyed early success, some analysts believe that sales could have been even stronger had Apple had more phones stocked. In an acknowledgment of a shortage, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, 'We apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.'

Overall, the iPhone 4's early sales were significantly higher than the one million units that Apple sold of the previous iPhone model, the iPhone 3GS, in its first three days last year. In his statement, Mr. Jobs called the latest i Phone's sales 'the most successful product launch in Apple's history.'

The iPhone 4's early sales include preorders for the device through Saturday. Apple said it took advance orders for more than 600,000 new iPhones world-wide on June 15, the first day it opened for preorders, the most ever taken by the company in a single day.

The iPhone 4, which starts at $199 and has a higher-resolution screen than its predecessors and other improvements, went on sale in the U.S. and four other countries last Thursday. Throngs of enthusiasts lined up at Apple stores and other retailers world-wide to be among the first to get the gadget. Sales didn't appear to slow even after reports of antenna reception problems, which Apple said could be solved by getting a case or changing the way users hold their phones.

In total, Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since it introduced the first model in 2007. Wall Street is expecting the latest model to help Apple sell about 37 million iPhones in the fiscal year ending in September, up nearly 79% from 20.7 million a year earlier.

Earlier this month, Apple admitted to problems manufacturing the white version of the iPhone 4. U.S. carrier AT&T Inc. also stopped taking new orders on the first day of preorders, citing processing problems.

Harry Potter fans swarm new theme park

"Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe led groups of excited kids dressed in Hogwarts uniforms as the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park officially opened on Friday to long lines and snarled traffic.

Radcliffe, Rupert Grint who plays the boy wizard's best friend Ron Weasley, and other actors from the blockbuster movie and book series, were on hand at Universal Orlando as fans lined up more than eight hours to be among the first visitors.

Before dawn, the backup of Potter fans began to block the main highway through Orlando near the entrances to Universal, prompting the theme park to open its parking garage at 5 am -- 30 minutes earlier than planned, according to local media.

Visitors said that by 8:30 am the line to get inside wrapped around the exterior of Universal's Islands of Adventure park, of which the Wizarding World is one of six unique sections. And the wait for the signature ride, the Forbidden Journey, reached at least 90 minutes, at one point.

"It was worth it, just because I'm a Harry Potter fanatic," said Kelsey Rigg, 18, a British transplant to Florida who at 3 am joined a crowd of several hundred people.

Universal executives did not immediately have information about crowd size.

The 20-acre Harry Potter park reportedly cost $250 million to build and recreates the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and other places dreamed up by author J.K. Rowling in her fantasy novels about the boy wizard and his friends.

Attractions include the Dragon Challenge, a high-speed ride based on the Triwizard Tournament, a fictional 13th century contest between students of the three most prestigious magical schools of Europe.

A year later, MJ fans out in force

LOS ANGELES - Erin Jacobs once traded her brand new bicycle for tickets to see Michael Jackson. Now, more than 25 years later, it's her time, organizational skills and gas money that she's giving to the King of Pop.

As an organizer of two major fan groups, Jacobs is just one of thousands of supporters keeping Jackson's legacy alive - along with the pursuit of justice for his untimely death a year ago Friday.

Since then, the singer's notoriously loyal followers have traded vigils at the hospital and family home for pilgrimages to his tomb and protests at the courthouse where the doctor charged with killing Jackson will be tried.

"It's absolutely humbling that he has so much support from fans," Jacobs said in a recent interview.

A travel agent who lives in Yorba Linda, California, Jacobs made her first 80- kilometer (50-mile) trip to the Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California, shortly after Jackson was buried there in September. It was a personal trip.

These days, Jacobs has gone on to coordinate monthly pilgrimages to the cemetery by the Official Michael Jackson Fans of Southern California.

Hundreds are expected at Forest Lawn on Friday to commemorate Jackson's death. The singer's tomb inside the cemetery's gothic Great Mausoleum remains closed to the public, and Friday's memorial won't change that.

But through the efforts of Jacobs and others, it's become a place where Jackson's international fan base comes to grieve. Many who can't make it in person send letters, poems, artwork and other gifts so that Jacobs and others can deliver them to the cemetery, where they are placed at the singer's tomb until new items arrive.

"A year later, it feels like it was yesterday," Jacobs said.

Another focal point for Jackson fans has become the downtown Los Angeles courthouse where Dr. Conrad Murray will be tried on an involuntary manslaughter charge for Jackson's death.

On hearing days, fans wearing sequined gloves and T-shirts calling for justice wait for hours clutching signs denouncing Murray and shout at him for the brief moments it takes him to walk from the curb to the front door.

Johnell Johnson, 19, an actress from Fontana, California, woke up at 4:30 am to get to the courthouse in time for a recent midday hearing in Murray's case. Wearing a vintage pin from Jackson's Bad era, Johnson said it was important for her to be there to support Jackson's family.

It's a sentiment echoed by many others who try to attend the proceedings. Only a handful are allowed into the courtroom, but others are content to shout their support to Jackson's parents and siblings, who occasionally stop to hug or speak to fans. At the hearing earlier this month, the singer's mother, Katherine, carried roses that fans handed her.

Fans at the cemetery Friday hope to bring more than 3,000 roses, Jacobs said, although officials don't want the memorial to include the release of doves or balloons, as was originally planned.

None of this fan passion is really new. Jackson's supporters have long been among the most devoted and vocal of any entertainer's in recent history.

Jackson mania

The money is rolling in. The bills are being paid. And all those people who said Michael Jackson might earn more in death than in life are being proved right.

Like the estates of Elvis Presley and Yves Saint Laurent, Jackson's has grown immensely since he died on June 25, 2009.

Without Jackson's lavish spending sprees, and with the help of new revenue pouring in from nostalgia over the reign of the King of Pop, estate co-executors John Branca and John McClain have dramatically turned around Jackson's finances.

A kingdom that was on the verge of collapse from more than $500 million in debt now looks to be able to support his three children and his mother and donate healthily to children's charities.

The estate has earned more than $250 million in the year since he died. Executors used some of that to pay off $70 million in debt, including the $5 million mortgage on the Jackson family compound in Encino, part of Los Angeles. The interest payments on the remaining debt are now covered by a steady flow of cash.

Gary, Indiana, the childhood hometown of Michael Jackson, is planning a tribute on Friday at his former house to mark the one-year anniversary of his death, and the mayor says his mother is among the people expected to attend.

Workers at the house on Tuesday said Katherine Jackson wanted the house spruced up for the event and visited for several days recently to plan the renovation.

A Jackson 5 exhibit has opened at the Motown Historical Museum in Detroit this week, with photographs, awards and uniforms the brothers' group wore throughout its career.

It will be open through October, with a Michael Jackson impersonator outside the museum on the weekend.

World will hear more from Indians

Toronto - My colleague and I flew from New York to Toronto on Tuesday afternoon.

As we made our way through the airport, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by Indians waiting to collect their luggage.

To be exact, there were nearly 100 Indian families - husbands, wives, the elderly and children - who had just arrived in Canada's largest city after taking the long flight across the Pacific. Their luggage carts were piled high with suitcases. A few even cut us off in their hurry to get to the customs area.

After clearing customs, we found another large throng of Indians waiting to greet the new arrivals. Outside the airport more Indians driving taxis, many of them Sikhs with turbans.

This was not the first time I have noticed the large number of Indians in North America. During a short visit to Stanford University last summer, I met quite a number of Indian families with their teenage children, who were apparently preparing to enter the prestigious university in the fall.

I was surprised, because I do not remember seeing that many Indians when I studied at Stanford between 1985 and 1986. In fact, I don't remember meeting a lot of Indians during my overseas travels until a few years ago.

On the way to our hotel, our taxi driver - a Pakistani - told us that the Indian community has become the second largest in the greater Toronto area, second only to the Chinese.

According to the Toronto city government, South Asians account for 12 percent of the city's population; Chinese come in second, at 11.4 percent.

Indians have a long history of emigration. There is a large community in the United Kingdom, as well as in Southeast Asia and Africa. I visited four African countries in February last year and discovered that Indians have long controlled the banking, media and other major businesses there.

In China, we've also seen growing communities of Indian business people and professionals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. There are quite a number of Indian students in medium-sized cities like Zhengzhou in Henan province. A number of my colleagues at China Daily are Indians, and we seem to have a lot in common.

But the number of globe-trotting Indians these days is just amazing. Like all nationalities, they have noticeable characteristics. Some of them speak loudly, and they seem to like to jump the queues. But the most noticeable characteristic is their confidence; they seem to be more self-assured than other Asians, particularly Chinese.

I've noticed that Indian scholars are particularly adept at expressing their views and putting forth their ideas. A friend of mine who has attended a lot of international scientific conferences tells me that a moderator has nothing to fear if there are participants from India a lively discussion is assured.

No wonder, over the past few years, I've seen more and more Indian names in the list of leading academics at universities in English-speaking countries.

According to a recent global opinion survey by the Pew Research Center, 66 percent of Indians have positive views about the US, but their support for US-led anti-terrorist campaigns in South and Central Asia is slowly declining.

Most Indians have a positive view of their own government and its handling of the global economic crisis. However, only 11 percent of Indians surveyed regarded China as a world economic leader.

Whatever their views, the world is bound to see and hear more from Indians. As they become more prominent on the world stage, they will become more vocal and resolute on global issues and their views are certain to become more important.

Expo word: artificial intellegence

artificial intellegence：

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it.

The gold-digging game

China's first successful dating show is under attack for showcasing materialistic starlets and wannabes rather than true love

When Jiangsu Satellite Television came out with a hit show early this year my sixth sense told me it would be axed.

If You Are the One is not China's first dating show, but it is the country's first successful one. For each episode, 24 young women stand behind a podium, in control of a light. Half a dozen bachelors are paraded, one for each 10-minute segment. The female contestants turn off the light when they decide to opt out. After several rounds of "showing off his talent", including expositions on love and marriage, the guy gets to choose one of the women who still have their lights on.

The bachelor either walks away with one of the women or, more likely, leaves alone. After which another bachelor is brought in.

What makes the show spicy is the remarks by the female participants when they comment on the bachelor. As there are 24 of them and not everyone is given equal opportunity to pontificate, they have a tendency to make utterances that will not fall to the cutting floor during editing.

One of the women described her marital vision as such: "I'd rather be miserable sitting in a BMW than be happy riding a bicycle." As the bicycle is a mode of transport in China, not a tool of recreation or fitness, what Ma Nuo, a budding model, wants is very clear: wealth over love. She knows money may not bring her happiness, but it is her top priority nonetheless.

This statement quickly became the de facto motto for women like her, and by extension, this dating show, which borrows its title from an earlier hit feature film. For a while, there were so many material girls and gold diggers on China's small screens you'd be forgiven for thinking it was 1920s New York.

Essentially, the show is a victim of its own success. Before the industry watchdogs unleashed their fury, even usually liberal commentators were condemning it as "too boorish". However, defenders had a point when they said the show accurately reflected our social mentality. Say what you like, this is how a lot of Chinese approach dating and mating.

We Chinese, especially women, have always attached great importance to the social status of those we want to marry. Today status is mostly embodied in bank accounts, outsized housing units and luxury vehicles. In the more "idealistic" time when I was a kid, people looked at things like social class - whether one's family was "revolutionary" enough. The very first question asked about a potential date often was: What does his father do?

A 22-year-old might not have much, but if his daddy was a cadre his road ahead was paved with roses. Dating was an elaborate ritual then. Young men and women would turn to a matchmaker, usually a middle-aged woman, for help. She would search her mental database and call up like-minded middle-aged women. When a candidate was identified, she would arrange a meeting for the two. It often took place in a park or at a cinema. The cost involved was not much more than a movie ticket or some snack.

Both sides would report to the "auntie". If one party said "yes" and the other "no", the one who said no would be grilled: "What don't you like about her? I don't see anything wrong? You two look perfect together."

If you turned down two or three dates, you would risk being an outcast. The matchmaker would label you as "too picky" and delete you from her database. And if she happened to be your colleague, you might be bumped from your next promotion.

During this weird tango of three, there was room for love, but not necessarily prominent. Still it was an improvement on the era of arranged marriages, when a man and a woman could not even meet before tying the knot, or in China's case, unveiling the head scarf of the bride. The result was numerous tragedies.

To understand how social hierarchy figures in traditional Chinese marriages, you need look no further than classic love stories. In The Butterfly Lovers, Liang Shanbo is a poor scholar, while the woman, Zhu Yingtai, is from a rich family. They fall in love, but are torn apart - only to reunite in death and as phantasms of butterflies. In Marriage Between Fairy and Man, a fairy maiden literally falls into the lap of a poor farmer. They start a family, but eventually she has to return to her furious mother.

This theme of poor-boy-meets-rich-girl is repeated so often in Chinese folklore that it is obvious the scenario exemplifies the public's dream rather than reality. People tell these love stories to express their yearning for true love - love that transcends social division. A less mythological version would have the poor boy attaining officialdom before walking down the aisle as the groom - which emphasizes class parity in marriage.

The contemporary variety is called "phoenix man" and "peacock woman". A phoenix man is a male from a poor rural area who goes to college and gets a job in a city. A "peacock woman" is an urbanite who has been brought up in an affluent household. They date and marry. But because of the gap in the backgrounds they often have conflict. Behind the facade of equality, they are still dogged by their parents' social standing.

It is not realistic for a Chinese dating show to have a formula like The Dating Game, the classic show on ABC network, which prohibits questions about the salary and profession of one's potential date. But Chinese producers have pushed the pendulum to the other extreme when they put on guests that scream nouveaux riche. There was one bachelor on a competing show, aired on Zhejiang Satellite Television, who walked on stage and flaunted a document of ownership for a downtown apartment, a key to his Lamborghini and a diamond ring. Diminutive in size, he overshadowed all Arabian oil barons in chutzpah.

Granted, this is good drama. But do we have to stoop so low to get entertained? Do we need to add wannabe models and starlets to every stage? Do we have to turn gold diggers like Ma Nuo into instant celebrities so they can cash in on their relentless pursuit of material wealth?

To me, many of the women are not on the show for a date. They are searching for a venture capitalist that can finance their budding careers in the entertainment industry. Maybe the television producers should tweak their show to match bombshell entrepreneurs with starlet-obsessed financiers. That way, the word love would not make an inappropriate appearance.

Father’s Day

Father’s Day, contrary to popular misconception, was not established as a holiday in order to help greeting card manufacturers sell more cards. In fact when a “father’s day” was first proposed there were no Father’s Day cards!

Mrs. John B Dodd, of Washington, first proposed the idea of a “father’s day” in 1909. Mrs. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father William, whose wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn ;and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. It was after Mrs. Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent.

The first Father’s Day was observed on June 19,1910 in Washington. And it was in 1966 that President Lyndon Johnson officially declared the 3rd Sunday of June as Father’s Day.

Father’s Day has become a day to not only honor your father, but all men who act as a father figure. Stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers, and adult male friends are all honored on Father’s Day.