Today’s Scuttlebot: As iPhones Go on Sale, Tim Cook Tweets

Every day, The New York Times’s staff scours the Web for interesting and peculiar items.

Today, Applemania surged as the new iPhones went on sale to the public. Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, commemorated the occasion by issuing his first post on Twitter.

The Price of Precious - Photo Gallery
National Geographic |  As new iPhones come out, National Geographic has great photos and story on the children mining their minerals in Congo. - Quentin Hardy

Can the Government Access iPhone Fingerprint Data?
Franken.senate.gov |  Senator Al Franken questions Apple on privacy implications of new iPhone fingerprint technology. - Ashwin Seshagiri

Homeless Used to Buy iPhones in Pasadena
Los Angeles Times |  Homeless people, hired to stand in line for iPhones, go unpaid and a fight ensues. The downside of Apple mania. - Quentin Hardy

Jony & Craig
Parislemon.com |  Insightful take on the strategy behind Apple’s P.R. push this week, because with Apple P.R., there’s always a strategy. - Claire Cain Miller

Here’s what we noticed today:

Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins
Wired |  “We’re kind of the homeless geeks. We all got laptops and smartphones.” - Jenna Wortham

Google Revamps Logo and Search Page
BBC NEWS |  Did anyone notice? - Victoria Shannon

Joy Covey, 1963-2013
Clusterstock |  A touching tribute to Joy Covey, the former Amazon executive who died, from Henry Blodget. - Victoria Shannon