The other dynamic is that fans are learning to do more than just forward videos on to friends.

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"There was much more to this than just trying to make friends with important people, " said one official.

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This is rather more than just a few people whinging (as our friends from Oz would put it) about a small decline in battery life.

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Now suppose you want to do more than just have a video chat with 10, 000 of your closest friends.

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It was one of the early iPhone applications that redefined the smart phone as more than just a geeky way to store contacts: it can also gross out your friends.

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Having re-Christened it iTunes Ping, or just Ping, Apple now says the service has more than one million users who can view what music their friends are playing or streaming, and can create profiles for themselves.

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Let's just hope that our British friends are a little more dignified when it comes to waiting for consumer electronics than we are.

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