iPhone 5 preorders indicate hot demand
iPhone 5 preorders indicate hot demand
2:47

iPhone 5 preorders indicate hot demand

Culture
-Because you can't go another day without having the best iPhone ever, well, you can relax. I'm Bridget Carey and this is your CNET Update. Pre-orders for the iPhone 5 began Friday and it's sold out fast within an hour on the Apple website. The initial stock of iPhones that will be delivered on launch day were gone and anyone who ordered online after would have to wait at least two weeks for delivery or you can stand in line. For the last two iPhones, it took more than half a day for the initial pre-order supply to sell it online. So either demand is way up this time or Apple didn't have as many available for pre-orders, maybe a mix of the two, we don't know for sure. The carrier websites held out longer, but there are iPhone pros and cons for every carrier. Verizon has the largest 4G LTE coverage area, but you need to get one of their new data plans. I mean, you could keep your old unlimited plan if you wanna pay full price for the iPhone which starts at $650. AT&T lets you keep your old plan, but if you do, FaceTime video chat can only be on Wi-Fi. Sprint has unlimited data and no FaceTime restrictions, but it has the smallest coverage area for 4G. And there's another small bummer. Because of the way the iPhone antennas work, Verizon and Sprint customers cannot be on a call and also surf the web on 4G at the same time. You gotta be on Wi-Fi to look up something while on a call. Now, some reports say this could change in time as 4G technology advances, but for now, AT&T is the only one that could do both at once on the iPhone without a problem. Even the adapters for the lightning connectors sold out fast. By early Friday morning, Apple pushed back shipments for the adapters to October. Some accessories might not even work with the adapter. It's hard to be sure until it comes out. The 30-pin adapter supports audio output, USB audio and syncing, but no video output. There are unconfirmed reports that Apple may be creating extra adapters for video in the coming months. And since we're on the topic of ordering online, let's shift away from Apple to the biggest online retailer. Amazon will be collecting sales tax at checkout for California customers for any item that's sold directly by Amazon. There is a loophole. You see, there still will not be sales tax charge for buying an item that's from a third party that uses Amazon. These are called sales fulfilled by Amazon and about a quarter of things sold on the site fall into this loophole. California isn't the only state with this. New York and a few others are the same way. It's a growing trend and you may not be able to avoid taxes online in the coming years. That's your tech news update for today, but you can always find more details at cnet.com/update. From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.

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