Crowds for Tiger release anything but tame

Macworld - Some people just aren't frightened by the prospect of big felines on the loose.

Hundreds of Mac users in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan certainly didn't seem to be, while they stood patiently in line and watched a man in a cat suit dance to the tune of "Eye of the Tiger," promoting the debut of Apple's new operating system.

The scene was repeated at Apple Stores from coast to coast at 6 p.m. local time Friday for the worldwide unveiling of Tiger, the latest update to Mac OS X. In New York, people had queued up in an ever-renewing line for nearly three city blocks around the Prince Street store in order to purchase the $129 update for their computer systems.

Across the country in San Francisco, the line outside the Apple Store snaked up Stockton Street wrapping around to O'Farrell. Ten minutes before the San Francisco store opened its doors, more than 200 people were lined up, waiting to get their hands on Tiger and its promised 200 features and enhancements.

Customers standing in line on Friday evening seemed particularly excited about the various new features. Willie Fuchs, a 56-year-old graphic artist from Queen who sat comfortably in a foldout chair at the front of the SoHo queue, arrived on the spot at 2:45 p.m. and read the iPod photo user's guide to pass the time.

Was there a special reason he wanted to be the first in the store?

"Somebody has to be number one," he said with a smile, adding, "I like the Spotlight and the Safari RSS. Plus, it has, like, a total of 200 new features. It's really worth it."

Mike Davidson, a high school teacher who had come all the way from Rutherford, N.J., to compete with Fuchs for the choice spot at the front of the line, agreed. "I'm excited about every one of the 200 features," he said. "I'm really hoping that the Spotlight feature makes my life easier."

In San Francisco, first-in-line honors went to Mario Ortiz, who showed up at the Apple Store two hours before the Tiger event. Ortiz, from San Francisco, had ordered a copy of OS X 10.4 from Amazon.com, but the software hadn't arrived yet; he decided to come down to the San Francisco store to get his hands on a copy.

"I've pretty much been an Apple fan for a while," said Ortiz, adding that he makes it a habit to be among the first adopters of Mac operating systems. "I want to keep