Jadadora’s Weblog

NEW YORK (REUTERS).- For the French, it may always remind them of delicious escargot, but for most everyone else the @ symbol has come to embody the age of the Internet and its constantly evolving language.

In honor of the little squiggly’s potency, the Museum of Modern Art in New York announced on Monday that it had added the @ symbol to its architecture and design collection, citing its “design power.”

The @ symbol, currently used every day by millions around the world in email addresses, text messages and on twitter.com, is thought to be ancient, the museum said, possibly dating back to the sixth century.

Because the symbol is not a concrete thing but an abstract idea, it has changed meaning many times in the course of its existence.

Calling it a “design act,” the museum celebrated the @ sign’s multiplicity of meanings, from symbolizing a dog for Russians and a cat to Finns, to becoming ubiquitous in email exchanges.

“The @ symbol is now part of the very fabric of life all over the world,” said Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of the Department of Architecture and Design, in a blog posted Monday on the museum’s website.

“It has truly become a way of expressing society’s changing technological and social relationships, expressing new forms of behavior and interaction in a new world,” he said.

The symbol’s association with the Internet dates back to 1971 when the @ symbol appeared in the first email ever, sent by engineer Ray Tomlinson.

By adding the symbol to its collection, the museum called the move an acquisition, but the museum does not obtain ownership of the symbol — which remains in the public realm.

“It is a momentous, elating acquisition that makes us all proud,” said Antonelli, celebrating the move as a daring feat because it shows that “physical possession of an object as a requirement for an acquisition is no longer necessary.”

(Reporting by Basil Katz; editing by Christine Kearney and Todd Eastham)

Apple finally announced the exact date of iPad availability in the U.S.: It’s Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models, while models with both Wi-Fi and 3G will be available in late April.

As far as other countries go, all models of iPad will be available in Australia (Australia), Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

If you’re interested in pre-ordering your iPad, you can do it from March 12 onwards; U.S. customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

Pricing and availability are the same as announced: Wi-Fi models will be available for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB.

According to a leaked document by Apple, everyone will now be able to buy an iPhone in Apple stores without an ID and without an AT&T contract.

You can buy one iPhone per day; the devices, however, will still be locked to AT&T, meaning you must either use an AT&T SIM with it or unlock it.

The prices are: $499 for the iPhone 3G 8GB, $599 for the iPhone 3GS 16GB and $699 for the iPhone 32GB.