Good morning, welcome to San Francisco.

Well, to the San Francisco Airport, SFO.

I'm about to leave, waiting for the plane and it was kind of quiet so

I took the opportunity to prepare a video postcard for the Techno Blog.

A short visit to San Francisco today...

Today is monday, so about 3 or 4 days after the launch of the IPhone.

I tell you, here the IPhone craze is still strong.

I dropped by in the Apple Store and...

there were people waiting in a queue

as long as the one we could see in Montreal on Ste.Catherine Street

and this, several days after the launch itself.

So even though they've sold one million IPhones 3G, it looks like a lot of people still want to get a hand on one.

This was obvious to me in San Francisco.

And... not only at the Apple Store

I also visited AT&T, which is Apple's partner in the United States

I peeked in a couple of AT&T stores and in one of them, the largest one,

I heard people still complaining about the IPhone's activation problems.

Though people seemed happy just to own an IPhone.

And again, it was very crowded down there when people tried to get an IPhone, some cops were dispatched.

So that's about it for the IPhone.

What is really interesting is the advertising that is going on in San Francisco.

Here, billboards advertise the Samsung Instinct

Sprint has launch a huge campaign.

Of course, it's a new model that is supposed to rival the IPhone.

Also... Just checking my computer, I have notes written down...

The cell phones fees shown here are so much lower than what you'd expect from Rogers, Bell or Telus.

I don't want to bug you with that but...

Just have a look at AT&T's website, or Spirit, PCS, or Mobile...

Ok, no more comments but quite a difference in the cell phones rates.

And talking about cell phones,

I just remembered that I was using my legendary Nokia N95

to figure out what was the wi-fi network like in downtown San Francisco.

and it was quite amazing

At some point, I found on one street corner about 22 hot spots.

Of course, some were secured but 5 or 6 were not.

So think about it, that's something! 21-22 accessible hot spots at a crossroads, I was impressed.

This being said, talking about wi-fi and let's stay in San Francisco...

I got caught in a Starbucks where I wanted to check the Techno Blog.

But no, because of Starbuck's alliance with AT&T, you have to become a member

and because of that, I never managed to read the comments from the blog.

I had to wait until tonight, at the airport, to be able to connect to an AT&T hot spot.

Well done, by the way. Good connection, I feel at home with such a fast connection.

And one last word, maybe you wonder why I'm in San Francisco, not in Los Angeles

where the E3 is going on right now...

Well, my trip to San Francisco was planned well in advance. I hadn't really tought about the E3.

Big news coming from E3. Apple Over holds a press conference over there today.

Also PlayStation and Nintendo are among the big news we're going to check.

I'll talk about all of this in the Techno Blog.

This will be the blog's last real-time update. I'll be on vacation (for real!)

My girlfirend will be excited to hear that!

I'll be in Europe without any gadgets... apart from my N95, but it's not what I need to write posts for the blog anyway.

So during that 3-week break, I invite you to go and read the posts that are there and to comment.

When I come back, I'll update the blog.

So there you are, goodbye. Intel will hold a big press conference today

to announce the release of new microchips

It's the Centrino 2.

So great news because they're testing the new microchip and it looks like it will be compatible with Wi-Max and Wi-Fi.

So just imagine that kind of chip in your laptop, in your car or even in your phone. That would allow you to connect either to Wi-Max or Wi-Fi.

This is almost like a dream come true.

Of course, it'll be expensive at first but aftwerwards

the market should help bring the prices lower.

So for now I wish you a great summer

Who knows, maybe you'll see me again before the end of the summer through a video on the net.

I'll also update the blog this week so please participate. I read all your comments and messages.

Have a great summer. I'll see you later... After a short break, I'll be back at work on August 11.

So long from San Francisco !