Police investigating accusations in bizarre lost iPhone 5 case

Apple and possibly some San Francisco police officers may have overstepped legal bounds in attempting to retrieve yet another missing iPhone prototype that was reportedly left behind at a San Francisco bar. The SFPD has now begun an internal investigation into allegations that officers were involved in a late July search

of a San Francisco home where Apple had apparently tracked the missing device.

iPhone prototype redux

In 2010, an Apple engineer left an iPhone 4 prototype at a Mountain View bar after going out for drinks for his birthday. Another bar-goer named Brian Hogan found the device and took it home. After removing a case designed to disguise its appearance, Hogan discovered he was in possession of what appeared to be a prototype iPhone device. Hogan and a friend shopped access to the prototype around to several news sites, Ars included, and Gizmodo ultimately bought it for $5,000. The site subsequently published details of the device long before Apple unveiled it publicly.

Now, it seems the story is playing out all over again, but the sequel is a bit different. In July of 2011, a similar incident occurred with what may be an iPhone 5 prototype. The device was reportedly left behind at a tequila bar named Cava 22 in San Francisco's Mission District. Two people who are part of Apple's security team attempted to track the device using its GPS location feature, apparently pinpointing it to the home of an individual named Sergio Calderón.

According to Calderón, six people came to his home in late July asking if he had been to Cava 22 on the night the phone went missing, and if he had it in his possession. Calderón admitted he had been there on the night in question, but said he knew nothing about a missing phone. At least one of the people present at Calderón's home claimed to be an SFPD officer.

Calderón said he agreed to a search after being told the police could return with a warrant, though the search turned up nothing. Apparently members of Apple's security team also went through Calderón's computer to look for evidence that the device had been plugged in. Those same Apple investigators—one of which was later identified as retired San Jose Police sergeant Anthony Colon—offered money for the device and even made veiled threats about contacting the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) when the search turned up nothing. "One of the officers is like, 'Is everyone in this house an American citizen?' They said we were all going to get into trouble,'" Calderón said.

No police involvement—until now

The story up to this point was already stranger than last year's version, but here's where it gets even more confusing. 

There was no report filed by the SFPD officers involved in the search of Calderón's home, it was later revealed, because they didn't personally assist in the search. Four of the six people that went to Calderón's home were SFPD officers while two were Apple's own investigators—and it was the two Apple investigators who reportedly searched the home. Apple also didn't file a report of missing property, ostensibly to avoid details of the missing device becoming public.

However, CNET reported this week that the SFPD has finally begun an internal investigation into the unusual search. Calderón claims that the Apple investigators did not identify themselves, and he believed they were police. Criminal attorneys who spoke to CNET said that the threats and lack of transparency about who the Apple investigators were could be the basis for action against the police department. However, since nothing was damaged or lost in the search, Calderón may have little recourse aside from filing a formal complaint.

Police Chief Greg Suhr told the San Francisco Chronicle that the SFPD often assists private investigators in similar cases. "The reason we do civil standby is to make sure there isn't a problem," he said. Still, he insisted that his officers did not participate in the search itself. "Whatever conversations the [Apple] employees had with the resident, I can't say."

The department's internal investigation will attempt to determine if the officers themselves stepped outside of bounds during the incident.

This isn't the first time police have been accused of going too far in helping Apple. Last year, police raided the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen to gather evidence of possible criminal wrongdoing in the events that led up to Gizmodo's iPhone 4 exposé. Hogan and friend Sage Wallower were recently charged with misappropriation and possession of lost property, while Gizmodo and its editor were not charged with any crime.

How this year's story will play out remains a mystery. Short of turning Calderón's home upside down to locate the missing iPhone 5, it doesn't sound as if Apple or the SFPD have many leads—not that Calderón would comply at this point, given his recent experience dealing with Apple. Then again, the company might be keeping any leads it has under wraps, lest the company be faced with another high profile leak like it did with the iPhone 4. 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Best of the Franchise

Rise of the Planet of the Apes backtracks a bit, telling the origin story of how a planet that is ruled by apes came to be. Set in present-day San Francisco, the movie focuses on how genetic engineering resulted in the increased intelligence in apes, which ultimately leads to a war over domination. Though the film includes

elements of revenge that seem to be validated, it proves to be quite entertaining and very well-written. It is by far the best film of the entire Planet of the Apes franchise.

In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) is greatly affected by his father’s debilitation, as he is plagued by Alzheimer’s disease. Rodman becomes consumed by the notion of finding a cure for the disease before it’s too late, and is willing to do whatever it takes to do so.

Rodman experiments on Chimpanzee Number 9, also known as Bright Eyes, to find the cure, and after five years of perfecting his drug, the female chimp is showing marked improvement in her cognitive development as a result of the experimental drug, ALZ112. Excited by the results, Rodman begins to push for the drug to be used in human trials, a request that his supervisor, Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo), sees as a means to acquire great wealth.

The men prepare for a meeting with the medical board and corporate reps, who may be interested in investing in the drug, but the meeting goes haywire when Chimp Number 9 becomes enraged and attacks her handlers and destroys property. She is killed in the process, and Jacobs insists that the entire project, as well as the experimental subjects, be destroyed.

Later, however, Rodman learns that Chimp Number 9 had given birth to a male chimp the night before, without anyone having known. He realizes her behavior was not a reaction to the drug, but the mother’s way of protecting her son. Rodman throws aside his sense of medical ethics and administers the drug to his father, whose condition quickly improves. Rodman is so excited by what he observes that he seems to have lost his sense of ethics. He decides to continue the work on his medical experiment entirely on his own, and take Bright Eyes’ son home and hide him in the attic.

Meanwhile, the baby male chimp, which Rodman named Ceasar, appears to be developing at a fast rate. By the time he is 24 months old, he is signing over 20 words and solving puzzles that are too difficult for a second grader.

Unfortunately, the progress Will’s father has made from the drug begins to wear off, and his father loses some of his faculties, leading to a confrontation with a nasty neighbor. When the neighbor grows increasingly angry with Charles, Ceasar jumps to Charles’ defense, which forces local authorities to take him from Will’s home and place him in an ape sanctuary, where Ceasar is mistreated.

At the same time, Will confesses to his boss that he had used the drug on his father, and that the drug was an initial success. Hearing this, his boss encourages him to develop an even more powerful strain of the drug.

Will becomes overzealous and overambitious, but his intentions are good, as he wants to develop something that will have a massive impact on mankind. And those who are familiar with the Planet of the Apes films know that Rodman does in fact get his way, but the impact is likely not what he intended or expected.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes has a number of positive elements, such as the intense love between a father and a son. It is Will’s love for his father, Charles (John Lithgow), that drives him to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease in the first place. Unfortunately, that desire leads Will to make some poor and unethical choices.

Likewise, though Will elects to hide Ceasar in his attic, Will and his father come to love Ceasar and treat him as a member of the family, and Ceasar returns that love.

The film also calls into question the notion of playing God, and seems to take a stance against genetic engineering.

This film does not entail as much violence as one would expect, though there is a definite violent presence in the film. The first bouts of violence focus on hand-to-hand combat, some of it a bit gruesome. For example, when Ceasar defends Charles against a neighbor, he knocks the neighbor off the porch and bites a finger off the neighbor’s hand.

Later, when Ceasar is in the primate shelter, he is mistreated by an attendant there. Ceasar later gets revenge on that attendant by doing many of the same things to him that were done to Ceasar, but in the process, Ceasar accidently electrocutes the attendant.

When the apes develop an army, the apes wreak havoc on the city, destroying property and administering beatings to their human counterparts. However, Ceasar does not seek the death of humans and orders his army to spare human lives. There is a clear emphasis on compassion and mercy within the film. The humans, however, are not quite so humanitarian, and utilize any weapons they can against the simian army to defeat them.

In fact, owing to the elevation of the apes, the film blurs the distinction between man (who possesses an eternal soul) and all other creatures (over whom man has dominion). Obviously, the more seriously the sci-fi thriller is taken, the more troubling this will be. Viewers may be troubled, in particular, by the notion that apes can acquire human-like souls through biological and genetic engineering — or any other process for that matter.

The film makes excellent use of state-of-the-art technology that makes the apes in the film look entirely real. The visual effects utilize motion capture and performance capture to create a realistic impression, and apparently Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the first film to use performance capture technology in direct sunlight rather than just on a sound stage.

The technology also manages to capture a wide range of emotions on Ceasar’s face, revealing the emotional turmoil churning beneath the surface.

In addition to the impressive technology, the film is driven by excellent performances and brilliant writing.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes also seems to celebrate the struggle for freedom.

Overall, however, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an entertaining film with a number of positive elements. While it is not intended for extremely young audiences because of some of the more intense and perhaps frightening moments, it is certainly capable of appealing to most other moviegoers. It will likely be the blockbuster of the summer, and has enough quality to earn some Academy Award nominations.

Carlos Beltran's talent still impressive

San Franscisco Giants outfielder Carlos Beltran moves with a fluidity and grace that suggest he could fall out of a hammock and hit for the cycle. Scouts nod their heads knowingly when assessing his tools, and players who have crossed paths with him through the years recall the encounters as though they were mystical

experiences.

Jeremy Affeldt was a minor leaguer in the Kansas City chain in 2000 when Beltran, then a budding star with the Royals, passed through Class-A Wilmington on an injury rehab assignment. After Beltran launched two homers and a triple in 13 at-bats, Affeldt took a hard look inward.

"You can't hit a ball out of Wilmington, and that guy was hitting it out of there like it was nothing," Affeldt said. "I was like, 'If this is what guys are like in the big leagues, I've got no shot. I quit. I'm going home.'"

Brad Lidge was closing for Houston in 2004 when the Astros acquired Beltran in a mid-season trade with Kansas City. Nestled in the third spot in the batting order in front of Lance Berkman, Jeff Kent and Jeff Bagwell, Beltran hit 23 homers in 90 games. Then he tacked on eight more homers during a one-man demoralization tour in the postseason.

"At the time, he was maybe the most athletic player I've ever seen," Lidge said. "If you were talking about a guy with everything you wanted to have in a baseball player, he was the guy."

Beltran's face is a little rounder and fuller than it was in his Houston days, his knees are a lot crankier and he's more than $100 million richer. As he joins his fourth career organization, he remains what baseball people like to call a "difference maker."

The big question now is, how much difference can he make over the next 60 days?

The Giants got their first glimpse of their new right fielder and third-place hitter Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park. A day after coming over from the Mets in a trade for pitching prospect Zack Wheeler, Beltran went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts against Kyle Kendrick and Michael Stutes. But the Giants won 4-1 behind Tim Lincecum to take two of three games from one of their prime National League competitors.

Beltran insists that he feels no pressure to be the focus of attention in San Francisco. When the roster features Lincecum, Matt Cain, Brian Wilson, Brian Wilson's beard and a guy known as the Kung Fu Panda, he's probably right.

"I'm just coming here to be a part of what they already have," Beltran said. "I don't feel like I need to do anything differently."

Before taking the field for batting practice, Beltran appeared at a news conference that was about as placid and non-bulletin-board-worthy as you'll find from a star player leaving the biggest market in sports for a gig as a two-month rental. He's given little thought to his upcoming free agency, and he expressed a sense of wistfulness over his time in New York. Beltran made five All-Star teams as a Met, but never got the team to a World Series.

"It was hard leaving in a sense, because I've been with that organization seven years and I have friends there," Beltran said. "But the decision wasn't that difficult because I knew I was coming to a team that's in first place. For the Mets to win that division is uphill because of the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. I always made it clear to the organization that I was willing to go to a team in contention."

Beltran's acquisition changes the dynamic among the National League's elite, at least perceptually. The Giants have had a yawning chasm in the middle of their batting order since catcher Buster Posey went down with a broken ankle in late May. Stick Beltran in the No. 3 hole behind Andres Torres and Jeff Keppinger and in front of Pablo Sandoval, Aubrey Huff and an emerging Nate Schierholtz, and it's a more challenging group for opposing pitchers to navigate.

Beltran arrived to find several familiar faces in the San Francisco clubhouse. He played with Affeldt in Kansas City and alongside Guillermo Mota with the Mets. Nine years ago, Beltran was playing in Kansas City when he gave some batting tips to a young Detroit Tigers outfielder and fellow Puerto Rico native named Andres Torres. Beltran's thoughtfulness still resonates with Torres today as a Giant.

"I respect him and I want to thank him for that," Torres said. "Not everybody is going to come to you and help you like that. I'll never forget that."

Manager Bruce Bochy is doing his best to make Beltran feel welcome with the Giants. Before this week, both men wore jersey No. 15. When the trade with New York was near completion, Bochy was asked what it might take to surrender the number, and he joked that it was nothing a nice Rolex couldn't cure.

To which Beltran replied, "Do you want it with or without diamonds?"

Neither, it turns out. Bochy handed over No. 15 as a welcoming gesture, no strings attached. The Giants manager is now wearing No. 16.

"I didn't hesitate," Bochy said. "I'm not real sentimental about the number. I'm not playing anymore, and I have a jacket on for the most part anyway. I was glad to give it up. I think 15 has been on the bench long enough. It's good to see 15 out there running around."

It wasn't quite so good when Beltran raced in to catch a Jimmy Rollins pop fly in the fifth inning Thursday, and the brace on his right knee got caught in the turf at Citizens Bank Park and left a gargantuan divot in right field. Beltran quickly got to his feet and replaced the sod with the diligence of your average 26-handicapper, but not before giving his manager a few heart palpitations.

"I'm not gonna lie. I'm thinking, 'First game -- don't start doing that,'" Bochy said.

Beltran walked out of the trainer's room after the game with two man-sized ice packs on his knees, but still in one piece and ready to gear up for the stretch drive. The Giants might not be able to repeat as world champions this year. But with Beltran in the fold, it'll be fun watching them try.

Alex Trebek is Hurt Chasing a Burglar

"Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek injured himself early Wednesday as he pursued a female burglar who stole items from his hotel room in San Francisco.

The 71-year-old, who was in San Francisco to host the National Geographic World Championship at Google,

told ABC7 his Achilles tendon snapped as he chased down the culprit, who had entered his room around 2:30 AM and took several items, including cash and a bracelet from his mother.

Lt. Troy Dangerfield of the San Francisco Police Department said in a statement that a 56-year-old white female was arrested and booked on felony burglary and possession of stolen property.

The cash and bracelet haven't been found but other items were recovered. Dangerfield said officers found several items near the hotel ice machine.

Trebek, who will continue his hosting duties at the championship, is scheduled for surgery on Friday and is expected to be in a cast for six weeks.

Google to dub its mobile-payments service 'Google Wallet'?

It appears that one of Google's mobile-wallet partners has stolen some of the Web giant's thunder ahead of tomorrow's planned announcement. Google, which is widely expected unveil its long-rumored mobile-payments system on Thursday, will dub the service "Google Wallet," according to what appears to be an internal memo from The Container Store. According to the memo, which was published by Thisismynext.com, the Web giant plans to launch Google Wallet near the end of summer: Google representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google is holding a media event in New York on Thursday in which it is expected to unveil a system that would allow users to pay for retail purchases by holding select Android-based Sprint smartphones up to a specialized reader at checkout counters (point of sales). The service is expected to tap near-field communications technology (NFC), which lets devices exchange information wirelessly with one another over very short distances, about 4 inches. Google reportedly plans to introduce the service initially in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., as well as partnering with MasterCard and Citigroup to allow the financial giants' customers to use their debit and credit cards to pay for purchase from their Android smartphones. The event is scheduled to be held at Google's New York offices. And it will kick off at 12 p.m. ET. CNET will live-blog the news using the Cover It Live tool. So come back about 20 minutes before the press conference starts to get in on the pre-event chatter and follow the news here as it happens.

Square payment system uses iPads as cash registers

Square, the mobile payments startup co-founded by the creator of Twitter, showed off technology Monday that it said could one day replace cash registers and eliminate paper receipts.

Using the San Francisco company's free software and credit card reader, merchants can effectively turn an iPad into a cash register to accept payments and receive real-time analytics of their sales.

Customers can also run a virtual tab at their favorite stores. After swiping a card at any participating shop, a user can link the card to a Square account. From then on, the merchant can accept a payment simply by tapping on the user's photograph from inside the Square software. Receipts are e-mailed to the customer electronically.

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and CEO of Square, said the new app will make transactions easier and build stronger relationships between merchants and customers.

"Today we want to take away all of this clutter, all of the paper, all of the mess, and get rid of the takeout menu, get rid of the loyalty card, get rid of the receipts, and merge all of this mess and replace it with one clean digital card," said Dorsey.

Credit card reader

Square released its first product in 2009, allowing anyone to make and receive credit and debit card payments using a free reader that plugs into smart phones and tablets. There are no contracts or fees to join; Square takes a 2.75 percent cut of each transaction. (The startup leases space in a building owned by Hearst Corp., parent company of The Chronicle.)

The company has shipped 500,000 card readers and is on pace to process $1 billion in payments this year.

On Monday, 26 Bay Area small businesses began using Square's tab function, allowing them to charge customers with a couple finger taps. The companies include Sightglass Coffee, Smitten Ice Cream and Mission Minis bakery.

Keith Rabois, Square's chief operating officer, said the company focused on small businesses because historically they have resisted paying the high fees associated with credit card payments. They have also been less likely to pay for software that tracks and analyzes sales, which Square's updated software now does free of charge.

Sophisticated tools

"We're launching this in the market where it has the most possible impact," said Rabois, who was formerly an executive at PayPal and LinkedIn. "We're allowing local sellers to have the most sophisticated tools, for free."

Square's rapid growth has been accompanied by skepticism, in large part because of the high failure rate among companies that have tried to enable payments on mobile devices.

"They're running out of space in the graveyard for payment startups," said Aaron McPherson, an analyst with IDC Financial Insights.

McPherson said that while Square has shown good instincts about bringing payments to mobile devices, they still face huge challenges. Persuading both merchants and consumers to adopt a new form of payment has been difficult, and it's unclear whether Square's newest features will be enough to get their attention, he said.

He also called the notion of using iPads as cash registers "robber bait."

"How are you going to secure those things?" he said. "If I were a store owner, I wouldn't dare have that out on the counter."

Cheri Mims decided to take the risk. Mims, who runs the flower shop Lilybelle in Mint Plaza in San Francisco, didn't want to pay high transaction fees for accepting cards. But she found that many of her customers were purchasing flowers on a whim and showing up without cash. Square has let her serve those customers more easily, she said.

Brandon Arnovick, owner of Mission Minis, said he had happily abandoned his old credit card processing equipment after discovering Square. The software has made the company's iPads more versatile sales tools, he said, because employees can show prospective customers a catalog of cupcakes in one app and then make the sale using the Square app.

"It just seems like it's a no-brainer for a bakery like ours," Arnovick said. "This is totally the future."

Mark Purdy: Bobby Bonds is dragged into the muck at son's perjury trial

At heart, the Barry Bonds perjury trial is still a baseball story about a man and his legacy. And I regret to report that the story has taken a reprehensible turn for the creepy in regard to one of the best San Francisco Giants ever.

I'm not talking about Barry Bonds. I'm talking about his father, Bobby. He died of cancer in 2003. But his ghost is floating in a very unseemly manner through the 19th-floor courtroom of the San Francisco federal building.

Bobby Bonds was a fantastic ballplayer who conquered his alcohol demons to become an excellent hitting coach for the Giants and other major league teams. I knew him some. Not well. I was around him enough to be certain that Bobby would be saddened and disgusted by this week's events on the 19th floor of the federal courthouse in San Francisco.

It all began with the government's opening statement. Prosecutors flashed the jury a visual slide on a large screen. The slide was a picture of Barry Bonds posing for a supplement advertisement with two other men -- his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, and BALCO chief Victor Conte, who masterminded his company's steroid-distribution scheme.

Bonds' attorney, Allen Ruby, quickly tried to counter that image. Ruby used his own opening statement to explain that Bonds had posed for the picture only because Conte had been "kind" to Bobby Bonds while he battled his terminal illness. Conte had provided protein supplements and other holistic supplements to Bobby. Supposedly, Barry just wanted to do Conte a favor.

As Ruby quoted Barry: "I didn't get paid for it or anything."

(Yes, that definitely sounds like Barry. Of course, if Conte was providing discount steroids to Anderson as the government maintains, that could be another reason for such a picture.)

And guess what? Apparently, one dubious mention of Bobby Bonds was not enough. Because on Wednesday morning, a star defense witness also used Bobby as the rationale for a questionable act.

This happened when Steve Hoskins, Bonds' former business partner and friend, took the stand. Hoskins brought along a digital audio recording. Voices on the recording were muffled. But they documented a 2003 discussion between Hoskins and Anderson in the home clubhouse at AT&T Park.

Slime drips off the two men's conversation. At one point, Hoskins mentions to Anderson that too many steroid injections in the same spot can create a painful cyst and asks if that's "why Barry didn't just shoot it in his butt all the time."

"Oh no, I never just go there," Anderson replies. "I move it all over the place."

(Feel free to dream up your own ugly vision of that.)

Before the audio was played in court, Hoskins was asked why he would ever choose to make such a recording -- and he claimed that it was done for the benefit of Bobby Bonds. During the 2000 season, Hoskins said, he had warned Bobby of his son's steroid use. But Bobby didn't believe it after getting denials from Barry and Anderson.

More than two seasons later, Hoskins said, he took the next step of secretly recording Anderson's words regarding the injections in the hope this would finally convince Bobby of Barry's drug use.

"I was hoping Bobby would be the one that could get Barry to stop doing it," Hoskins said.

So what happened, you ask, when Bobby did hear the recording? He never heard it, Hoskins said. Right about then, Bobby became very ill during his cancer treatment. Hoskins did not want to toss another troublesome element into Bobby's fight against the disease that would claim his life a few months later.

Hoskins' testimony was later shaken by Ruby, who asked a series of questions meant to draw the inference that a nasty business dispute with Barry Bonds was the real reason Hoskins made the recording. The jury will have to decide if that's correct.

But as I watched the whole scene, my thought was this: It is beyond pathetic that Bobby Bonds' memory is being utilized as legal backfill this week. Barry is using his dad's death as an excuse for hanging out with Conte and Anderson. Hoskins is using Bobby as an excuse for making his secret audiotape.

Why couldn't both guys just man up and admit the likely truth? Bonds posed for the picture because he liked what BALCO was doing for him far more than what BALCO was doing for his dad. And Hoskins made the audio recording because he wanted to have some evidence he could use against Bonds, just in case.

I don't know how this trial will turn out. I do know that Bobby Bonds' ghost deserves better. Much better.

Bonds' personal trainer jailed after refusing to testify against him

The second day of Barry Bonds' perjury trial gets underway Wednesday in a San Francisco courtroom.

Prosecutors will try to convince a jury of eight women and four men that Bonds knew his trainer was giving him illegal steroids and that he lied about it to a grand jury in December 2003.

The trial, which is expected to last three or four weeks, is taking place less than two miles from the ballpark where Bonds, 46, broke Hank Aaron's major league home run record in August 2007. At the time, he played for the San Francisco Giants.

On Tuesday, Bonds' personal trainer refused to testify against the baseball home run king, prompting the judge to order the trainer held in custody until he changes his mind.

Federal prosecutors called Gary Anderson as the first witness. Anderson, flanked by lawyer Mark Geragos, told the judge he would not testify,

"It's very important that you testify so that the whole truth can come out in this trial," U.S. District Judge Susan Illston told Anderson, as she found him in civil contempt.

Geragos said he would immediately appeal the judge's decision to send Anderson to jail on the grounds that he was not given a fair hearing.

Anderson has already served several months in prison for previously refusing to testify against Bonds before grand juries in 2006. He also was sentenced to three months in prison after pleading guilty in 2005 to illegally possessing anabolic steroids with the intent to distribute.

"He doesn't trust the prosecution," Geragos said of Anderson. "He will never cooperate with these guys."

Three months after Bonds broke Aaron's home run record, he was indicted on four counts of lying to a grand jury about his use of performance-enhancing drugs during the federal investigation of steroids use by athletes. He also faces one count of obstruction of justice.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella told jurors that a urine sample given by Bonds in the summer of 2003, just months before his grand jury testimony, tested positive for anabolic steroids.

Defense lawyer Allen Ruby, in his opening statement, told jurors that Bonds acknowledged to the grand jury that he used the substances known as "the clear and the cream," but at the time of his testimony even investigators didn't know what was in it.

Bonds told the grand jury he thought Anderson was giving flax seed oil, Ruby said.

"Barry answered every question, he told the truth, he did his best and, most significantly, he provided the grand jury with useful information which supported the indictment that they later returned against the BALCO defendants," Ruby said, referring to the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative.

The witness list includes Bonds' ex-girlfriend Kimberly Bell, who will testify that Bonds told her he was taking steroids prior to the 2000 Major League Baseball season, according to the prosecution.

"Ms. Bell will further testify to personal observations regarding changes in the defendant's body during the period of time beginning in the year 1999, including bloating, acne on the shoulders and back, hair loss, sexual dysfunction, and testicular shrinkage," the prosecution's description of its witnesses said. "She will also testify about changes in the defendant's temperament, including an increase in angry, threatening, controlling, and violent behavior."

Several former teammates and friends are also on the witness list to testify for the prosecution.

Ruby, in his opening statement, attacked the former friends who are expected to be called as key prosecution witnesses.

"The bitterness of these people toward Barry that surfaced around the time of the breakup, was very pervasive, very strong," Ruby said.These witnesses "cooperated with the media as anonymous sources on many of the poisonous things about Barry," he said. "They have tried to create a caricature of Barry Bonds, a terrible guy, always bad, mean and so on."

A former IRS agent who fished through the trash at BALCO every week for a year testified Tuesday afternoon that a magazine clipping he found in the garbage bin led him to Barry Bonds as a witness in his investigation.

The article, which included a photo of Bonds with BALCO chief Victor Conte and Anderson, indicated that Bonds "was using their services," investigator Jeff Novitzky testified.

Bonds holds the major league record for home runs with 762 in his 21-year career. He also set the record for most home runs in a single season in 2001 when he hit 73 balls out of the park.

Bonds did not officially retire after he was indicted, but he never played another game.

Sony wins subpoena for PS3 hacker's PayPal records

A federal judge in San Francisco has given Sony permission to subpoena the PayPal records of George Hotz, the hacker being sued for jailbreaking the company's PlayStation 3 game console.

Tuesday's order by US Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero said the information subject to Sony's subpoena “shall be provided on an Attorneys' Eyes Only basis” and is limited to information relating to whether Hotz has enough ties to Northern California to be sued in federal court in that district. Hotz, who goes by the hacking moniker GeoHot, is a resident of New Jersey, and has argued that the court lacks the authority to try him.

The ruling comes in a copyright case Sony brought in January against Hotz and 100 other hackers believed to have also devised a way to run unauthorized games and apps on the PS3. Earlier this month, Sony got approval for a subpoena allowing it to obtain the IP addresses of everyone who visited Hotz's personal website for the past 26 months.

At the same time, Sony also received permission to subpoena Twitter, Google and another service for information related to accounts held by the 21-year-old Hotz.

In Tuesday's order, Spero went on to order Hotz to sign a consent form permitting Sony to obtain his Twitter posts from January 2009 to the present and to “appear in California for a deposition relating solely to the question of personal jurisdiction.”

Sony's lawsuit alleges that Hotz violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by posting videos and blog posts showing how to bypass technical measures Sony put into the PS3 so it would run only games and apps permitted by the console maker.

The PayPal subpoena covers “documents sufficient to identify the source of funds in California that went into any PayPal account associated with geohot@gmail.com for the period of January 1, 2009 to February 1, 2011.”

Sony has argued that such information will prove that he has ties to Northern California and therefore can be sued in San Francisco, which is about a half-hour's drive from headquarters for Sony Computer Entertainment America, the division that's suing the hacker.

Census shows big gains by Asian Americans, Latinos

U.S. Census figures released Tuesday gave Asian Americans and Latinos plenty of reason to bask in their growing population clout in California - but for the Bay Area, the numbers foreshadowed what will surely be a lessening of political power.

The first detailed release of statewide numbers from the 2010 census showed that the Asian American population grew 31.5 percent from 2000, faster than any other ethnic group. The Latino population grew by 27.8 percent, the second-fastest.

The white population grew by a comparatively paltry 6.4 percent, and African Americans at an even slower 1.6 percent.

In raw numbers, the state still has more white people than any other racial type: 40.1 percent of the total, compared with 37.6 percent Latino and 12.8 percent Asian.

But what demographers found most telling was how the growth rates point to a markedly more diverse tomorrow for the state overall - and for San Francisco in particular.

"What you're seeing is the future, a growth trend in the communities of color that we expect to continue," said Michelle Romero, a redistricting fellow at the Greenlining Institute, a public policy group. "There is going to be some change."

As significant as the ethnic shifts, she said, is the acceleration of population growth inland. This means that when the state Citizens Redistricting Commission redraws the boundaries for congressional and legislative districts, some power will shift away from the Bay Area and other areas near the coast.

San Joaquin, Kern, Riverside and Tulare, all inland areas, were the fastest-growing big counties in the state. The slowest-growing were San Francisco, Monterey, San Mateo and Los Angeles, all along the coast.

"Right now you can't say which seats will be affected," said Hans Johnson, director of research at the Public Policy Institute of California. "It all depends on how they draw the lines. But in general, you can't just eliminate a district - you redraw it, and that means the lines will shift to the inland areas."

In San Francisco, which grew by 3.7 percent to a population of 805,235 in the past decade, the big story was the growth in the Asian American and Latino population.

Asian numbers grew by 11 percent, while the white population shrank by 12.5 percent. The Latino population also grew by 11 percent.

The black population of San Francisco shrank by 22.6 percent, reflecting a flight to outlying areas and other states.

In pure population figures, San Francisco breaks down now like this: Whites number 337,451, or 42 percent; Asians 265,700, or 33 percent; Latinos 121,774, or 15.1 percent; and blacks 46,781, or 5.8 percent.

"This is a city of immigrants, and the Asian community is too large to be ignored," said David Lee, executive director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee in San Francisco. "It's becoming a political force in the city, and is now one of the most powerful voting blocs."

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, the city's first Chinese American mayor, said the population boom of Asian Americans living in the city's southeastern neighborhoods signaled the demographic shift as much as anything.

"It's well beyond Chinatown, Richmond, Sunset," he said, "so it doesn't surprise me. At the same time ... I'm also worried about the out-migration of certain groups, and I need to pay attention to that as well."

To counter the loss of African Americans, he said, the city needs to do more in the areas of jobs, housing and education.