“Goodbye, I don’t think we’ll miss you,” Cherie Blair told the assembled media in Downing Street as she and her family left Number 10 for the last time this week and she clearly meant it.

After ten years of close scrutiny through the lenses of the world’s press since the morning after Labour’s landslide victory when she was photographed with sleep tousled hair opening the front door to receive a delivery of flowers she had had enough of us.

Who could blame her? Some people the camera loves, others are less fortunate. It must be galling to be repeatedly made to look ridiculous, particularly for someone as eminent and accomplished in her own right as Cherie Booth QC. Whatever aspect of her character the cameras revealed, self consciousness or lurking neuroses, it certainly wasn’t stupidity but somebody should really have told her about the rugby balls.

Here’s a more flattering picture to go out on. She may not miss us but I think we might miss her.

(Pictures by Ian Waldie, Stephen Hird and Kieran Doherty)

Until June 29, only Apple employees had the phones, but now they are in the hands of ordinary Americans with a lot of patience and at least $500 to spare.

In one of those rare cases where fame may not be an advantage, a few celebrities were spotted in line as well — Whoopi Goldberg in NYC, Kevin Smith in Los Angeles. The Mayor of Philadelphia was confronted by a former city employee while waiting. And at the last minute, Spike Lee stepped in at the front of the line at the Apple Soho store in New York to help raise money for Keep A Child Alive, who plan to sell their iPhone on eBay to raise money for African children with AIDS. Others have also gone online to sell their newly-acquired phones, many probably for less altruistic reasons; bids were above $1,000 on eBay. The early purchasers seemed pleased with their new gadget. Gadget Lab’s Mark McClusky found himself grinning with “gadget love” at regular intervals, and Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin said the “Jesusphone” felt like “just about the coolest device I’ve ever owned.” She marveled at the interface and largely dismissed the speed issues with AT&T’s Edge network that some critics pointed to. (As for that other major critic — no downloadable third-party apps — there are already web-based apps available.) But another Gadget Lab blogger, Scott Gilbertson, said his first impression of the iPhone was that it’s not worth the money at the current price.

Proud new owners are uploading photos, many showing close-up views of the phone’s hardware and interface. Over at Think Secret, they were busy breaking the hearts of the empty-handed by taking an iPhone apart, the logical conclusion of what Wired called “unboxing porn”.

If you didn’t wait in line, and still want an iPhone, all is not lost. Craigslist and eBay aside, Gizmodo reported (and commenters confirmed) that last night, several Apple stores — including in New York and San Francisco — still had phones available, leading to discussion about whether that was because demand was lower than expected or because Steve Jobs is a supply-chain genius. Apple’s own iPhone store is now open, though supplies there are limited and you’ll likely wait a few weeks for delivery. If it’s the long AT&T contract that really puts you off, there’s always a way out of that too — bad credit.

Did you buy an iPhone on opening day? Do you plan to purchase one soon? Comment below.

After waiting in line for hours, iPhone fans were relieved to finally get hold of their devices at a Manhattan AT&T store. “We’ll activate it, like, tomorrow. We’re tired right now,” said Nick Gonzalez, 19.

Gonzalez said he was going home for a nap because waiting in the fifth spot in line since morning was enough of an accomplishment for one day.

His girlfriend Christina Stevens, who is studying to be a make-up artist, also bought a phone and planned to spend a lot of time using it to watch YouTube videos.

“I think the coolest feature is the YouTube,” she said.

Both put their AT&T plastic bags containing the phones out of view in their own bags rather than walk around the city streets advertising the fact they were carrying devices worth at least half a grand.

“I’m really excited,” said Alan Pueblos, 36, a New York restaurant manager who planned to activate the phone and load his pictures and music on it that evening.

“I’m not big on waiting on lines, but I figured once in my life I’d do it for a new product … I love Apple,” said a smiling Pueblos whose girlfriend waited with him and then on an impulse also decided to buy a phone.

Jewelry business operator Courtney Crangi, 34, waited in line for two-and-a-half hours with her partner Sheri and their 8-month-old baby Coco. Crangi said she has held onto a taped-together Treo phone she described as a “piece of crap” for about 1.5 years while waiting for an Apple phone.

“I’m totally embarrassed I’ve been waiting for this device, but I’ve wanted it from the day they announced it — before that,” said Crangi. ”Now I have to hide it,” said Crangi, who was worried about getting mugged if she walked around with the telltale AT&T bag in her hand.

That’s a handy way to describe the zone around the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. As you can see from the photos, folks were getting pretty ragged by Friday afternoon.

Then there was Imran Khan, the entrepreneur who tried to sell his seat in line. He said his best offer was $4,500 when we talked to him earlier on Friday. He was holding out for the big money, last we checked.

Jennifer Mendlowitz, meanwhile, brought her Maltese, Emma, and the Princess Diana biography by Tina Brown. Emma turns four next week!

You know what they say: If you’re not first, you’re last. Just ask Greg Packer, the first man in the iPhone line at the Fifth Avenue Apple store in New York City. Packer has been in line since Monday at 5 a.m., and has gained a certain notoriety, not to mention hordes of reporter interviews.

We also decided to ask him a few questions.

Q: Are you a professional advertiser?

A: No.

Q: Then what’s all the swag for?

A: What do you mean? (We point to his T-shirt and various other items). Oh, it’s from Prizebook.com.

Q: Who will you call on your iPhone first?

A: Steve Jobs.

Q: Do you have his number?

A: I’m sure if I want it bad enough, I’ll get it.

Q: Do you plan to do any ad deals, or endorsements?

A: Not yet.

Q: Have you showered since you’ve been here?

A: No. Well, maybe once.

Q: Where do you pee?

A: They (the Apple store) have bathrooms down there.

Q: Do they let anybody else do that?

A: I don’t think so, no.

Q: Do you think you’ll ask Steve Jobs for a job?

A: No. I’d like to be at his next office party.

Q: There are reports that you are so often quoted by news outlets because you seek out reporting crews and behave as if you’re one more man on the street. What do you think about reports that the AP won’t quote you anymore because of this?

A: I think today is proving to them that they wasted their time and made a bad decision.

Q: How many interviews have you done on line this week?

A: I did anywhere from 50 to 100 interviews.

Just before 2 p.m. Eastern, four hours before Apple  set to start selling the iPhone from its Soho story in New York City, about 200 hipster hopefuls had lined up in hope of buying the iPhone. Some were more creative than others in entertaining themselves during the wait.

Online sales of beauty products makes up four percent of sales in the more than $42 billion business  — and are growing fast, according to a consumer research report.
 
One in ten women said they hit the Web for their skin care, makeup and perfume needs, according to a report titled “Emerging Channels: Beauty Care Products Over the Internet” by retail research firm NPD Group. More than 15,00 women were survey.
 
Forty three percent of them said they shopped more online in 2006 than in 2005.
 
Why? Because it sure beats standing in lines at stores.
 
More than 74 percent of these women, aged between 18 and 64, said it saved time while about 70 percent thought “its easier/quicker to shop online.”
 
That said, only their trusted brands enjoy good online sales, said NPD senior beauty analyst Karen Grant.
 
“We find that women are less accepting of buying new brands over the Internet, but they are spending their money on brands they know and trust,” Grant said.
 
That could spell good news for beauty companies like Estee Lauder  and Elizabeth Arden, which have said they felt a continuing pinch in U.S. sales following the Macy’s/May Department stores mergers.
 
In the past quarter, Estee said positive internet sales were partly responsible for offsetting weak U.S. sales.
 
Fifteen percent of women in the $75,000 and over range shopped beauty online, compared to 10 percent in the $35,000 to $44,000 category and 7 percent in households that make less than $35,000.
 
And “baby boomer” women — those aged between 45 and 64 — shop the most online, followed by those who are in the 18 to 34 age range, according to the survey.

 – Written by Aarthi Sivaraman

Toll Brothers Chief Executive Robert Toll is seeing a link between Chinese people wearing Gucci sunglasses and a business opportunity. And that’s one reason he is about to send a team to scout out possible homebuilding joint ventures in China’s first and second-tier cities, Toll said at the Reuters Global Real Estate summit.

China’s a solid prospect for Toll because its expanding and aspiring middle class has already encountered the company, which bills itself as “America’s luxury homebuilder,” on the Internet, he said.

Click here to hear Toll on why he sees brand-happy Chinese as Toll Brothers buyers.

EMI Music, the No. 3 music company, was once one of the record company’s more reluctant to digital change. Home to the illustrious works of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and, er, Coldplay, EMI took a somewhat considered approach to the rapid changes and deal-making that was going on at other labels.

But on Friday it announced a deal with Shawn Fanning’s Snocap to sell digital music directly from some of its artists Websites, blogs and yes, social networking pages such as MySpace and Bebo. Fanning, of course is best known for starting the original file-sharing service Napster which later got shuttered by the courts after legal action by record labels.

The deal between EMI and Snocap will let fans buy music in the MP3 format, which doesn’t feature restrictive copy protection software, better known as DRM (Digital Rights Management). It will also be at a higher quality sound encoded at 320 kilobits per second, more than twice the audio quality of standard files.

EMI found digital religion earlier this year and has led the other majors on a push to sell music without restrictions having previously announced deals with Apple’s iTunes Music Store and Amazon.com’s upcoming digital music service later this year.

By the way, this deal with Snocap will include artists you’ve heard of like Dean Martin and Korn, and some you might not have like actor Jared Leto’s 30 Seconds To Mars, The Almost and Yellowcard. Also included are artists from classic jazz label Blue Note Records.

The Reuters Real Estate Summit held in New York this week had a clear message for property dealmakers: If you’re waiting for the M&A cycle to kick into high gear, it could be a while. In fact, it’s more likely the cycle is headed for a dry spell, they said.

Indeed, with commerical property investors spooked by CMBS concerns and homebuilders seeing another year of slumping markets, the M&A outlook at the summit this week wasn’t too hot. 

But there may be deals elsewhere in the industry. Companies specializing in real estate advisory and other real estate related services — like Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle – could peak the interest of big investment companies looking for a purchase. Executives at the summit spoke about the possibility of large commercial banks or asset managers beefing up real estate capabilities by buying a real estate advisory or real estate services firms.

Advisory firm Grubb & Ellis‘ vice chairman Howard Grufferman sees real estate service companies becoming a part of bigger investment firms — noting that the number of such specialized service providers is limited.

And muted M&A doesn’t mean there won’t be consolidation: tough markets could cause some companies — especially the over-levered — to go out of business or become easy takeover targets in a recovery.

“I would expect consolidation, not necessarily because (companies) are bought but also because they go out of business,” the CFO of Hovnanian Enterprises, the sixth largest US homebuider, told the summit. “I think there will be opportunities once we can clearly see that the market has bottomed.” He also had a few things to say about the bad timing of a Hovnanian Florida deal.