BERKELEY, California — It was over almost as soon as it began: A few short minutes after employees at the Apple Store in Berkeley began handing out vouchers to those faithful souls waiting in line for new iPhones, word arrived that the coveted gold version was gone.
I was about 50 people back in the line of hopeful iPhone 5s buyers (no one seemed interested in the 5c). When the news came at around 6:45 a.m. that the store had no more gold phones available, the blue-shirted Apple employee handing out vouchers had only met with about a dozen would-be customers.
A grumble of surprise rippled through the crowd, and some people — much farther back in the line — kept asking for gold, as if they couldn’t believe they had heard right. After rolling out of bed at zero-dark-thirty to come stand on the sidewalk, these poor folks couldn’t even get a silver