Halx

On my way home from work, I decided to swing by the Apple store in SoHo to see how long the line for the iPhone was. When I got there, I walked the length of the line to discover that it was ONLY one avenue block (the length of a medium strip mall, for you suburban people). I stood there watching the line and contemplating whether to get in it or not. Finally I decided to just get in and see how fast it was moving. To my surprise, I was easily halfway through the line 15 minutes later. Then, in another 15 I was walking through the Apple store.

Lines of employees ushered me and my fellow shoppers through the store towards the cashier. They were cheering and clapping obnoxiously the whole time and I was trying to figure out if people actually like that. It seemed like a stupid concept... you knew deep down inside that none of them were really THAT excited about standing around all day and greeting we sheepish consumers. The store was set up to welcome and process people specifically for purchasing an iPhone and it evidently worked real well. I got my phone quickly and left the store to more cheers and applause.

On the way home I was very excited. My wife sat next to me on the train and was excited for me. I pulled it out to impress my fellow subway passengers and turned it on to see if it had battery. The kids went "Wooaaahh" and I heard murmurs of people talking about it down the car. Yeah, that was a $500 "cheap thrill" but it was fun none the less. The phone was functional and fully charged, but only allowed emergency phone calls in its unactivated state. It was neat to play with the key pad anyways.

I was beaming with anticipation as I walked up the stairs to my apartment. I sat down at my computer, installed iTunes (ugh!) and began the activation process. After I had gotten through to the point where I had to wait for my old AT&T account to transfer over, I decided to show my new phone to my roommate. He wasn't impressed, but nothing could really bum me out.

Then, it went blank. I tried turning it back on, but nothing. I tried and tried and tried but it was dead, Jim. My iPhone was a brick.

I've been waiting on the line for tech support for a while now. My wife is actually doing the grunt work for me, listing to the hold music with my old phone next to her ear while she reads her novel. I write this now and try to not be pissed off. What happened? Why? Why me?

I hope everyone else who got their iPhone isn't having this problem. I hope I can fix it. At the very least, I hope there's one left at the store if I have to replace it.

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Cynthetiq

damn.. that blows. I'm amazed though that with all the hype that it was that short of a line. I'd have felt stupid to be that guy who was online since 4 days ago.



even a video of him...

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...ays_early.html

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Redlemon

I happened to me in the local mall food court at 5:58 this evening, with an AT&T store adjacent to it. There were about 35 people in line at the time. Stopped by again at 8:30, and they were cleaned out.

They are very cool, but not for me because (1) I'm a cheap-ass about my cell phone, barely use it for calls, and (2) an 8gb capacity is useless to me; call me when in reaches 50gb. I'm not going to pre-select my music, I want it all at-hand.

However, if the 6gen iPod is anything like the iPhone, I'll be all over it.

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Willravel

You have to charge it.

Halx

Note: it was fully charged.

Anyways, I got to the store around 6:45, and the line had been moving very quickly. It had already been moving for 45 minutes. I bet the line was more than impressive when it first started out.

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Redlemon

You've hit the Apple support website, right?

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Borla

I'm shocked that it doesn't even support 3G. My guess is that in 4-6 months they'll come out with a second gen that supports that, has a few other bells and whistles, and they'll charge $500 all over again.

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Cynthetiq

AT&T isn't completely 3G, it's the EDGE thingy... which is a major complaint for some.

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Borla

I know, I have a Blackjack, there is a huge difference in speed when I'm within range of a 3G network. It is painfully slow when I'm far enough away from the city that I can't get it.

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cyrnel

Bummer, Halx.

I would have camped in our little smallsville lineup for one, but phone as modem is mandatory for me. When they have that feature an get better net speeds I'll do it. Not that Sprint hasn't been dropping my data calls like molten lead lately.

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LoganSnake

Actually, the network speed isn't the only complaint. The iPhone doesn't support many basic features that one would expect for the ridiculous price.

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Jetée

The way the thread was entitled, and what terminology I know of for "brick", I thought that your phone was both over-sized yet also under-funtionalized.


After reading though, I see that by "brick", you mean non-functional. Is this right?

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LoganSnake

Correctomundo!

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Strange Famous

idk, I reckon Apple probably paid him a good rate for this stunt.

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warrrreagl

Maybe Hal tried to shoot hoops with it and could only hit iron?

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trickyy

hopefully they get all the bugs out and release one in the future with a much larger HD

EaseUp

I must be a dinosaur. My 4 gig Nano is fine with me, because I use it on a stairstepper, and I've heard too many stories of people whose iPod hard drives ate it prematurely.

I also leave my phone off a lot, because most of the time, my calls are from someone who want me to expend effort in their behalf.

Yes, I guess I'm antisocial.

biznatch

It annoys me that people get so excited over that thing. Sure it's pretty, and it has some cool features.. But most people seem to buy it because it's trendy, as all new apple products are nowadays.
I guess I was very excited when the Wii was revealed, to be fair. But I don't think it's the same. Wiis are fun. You play with them in cool ways. But the iPhone is just a phone with an internet browser and multimedia capabilities, IMO.

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Roark

No MMS, Video Record, or SMS.. but you can email It's got alot of things going for it but I decided i'd wait until the next version for UMTS and to see about reliability issues with the screen, etc.

Knowing alot of people who work for ATT I can say there have been issues with activation or them taking really long via Apples site, or invalid preapproved codes, etc. I can only assume due to the amount of activations? Needless to say one of my friends just got activated late last night so he wasn't too happy to be w/out a phone for 30 hours.

Hope you were able to get it straightened out Halx!

Charlatan

What? You can't SMS with an iPhone? I find that very difficult to believe.

SMS is the single most useful feature on any mobile phone (even moreso than the basic phone function).

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ratbastid

I upgraded my years-old Treo 650 to the sexy new Treo 755p on iPhone release day. Kinda ironic, I thought.

Any news Hal? Got your toy working again?

thingstodo

I personally love my Treo and Nano. They work and I can do everything. My corp office won't support the iPhone and says there are currently too many firewall issues so they won't connect with the server. Plus, there aren't any software programs like Blackberry or Goodlink to interface effectively?

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LoganSnake

Roark is a little mistaken. You can SMS, but you can't MMS. In fact, here's a full list of what it does and does not do:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/26/i...first-reviews/

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mobboss

hhahaha wait for the windows version to come out

Craven Morehead

Apple needs to design it so that consumers can change the battery. There's no way anyone who requires a cell phone for business purposes can withstand close to a week of downtime when the battery is being replaced.

ubertuber

I imagine they'll do in-store battery replacements through the genius bar.

I really don't see battery replacement as a deal breaker for the iPhone. Network speed, storage capacity, and file management (.doc, .xls, etc.) are much more important.

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Cynthetiq

looks like you aren't the only one... interesting that this is BURIED on the wired news page.

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Willravel

They said that about the Zune. Hahahahahahaha....

biznatch

Sorry for everyone who's had bad experiences. My mother in law recently bought a Blackberry. She wanted an iPhone real bad, but it'd be useless half the time, because we get crappy AT&T reception in her house.

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Shoowop

I just don't get the fascination of them. I never bought into the Ipod craze either. I'm sure with most new shiny metal tech fads, something will go haywire.

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ShaniFaye

man if I was going to spend that much money it def wouldnt be on a cell phone lol

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Glory's Sun

The iPhone is a sexy piece of technology but yes it does fall short in some areas. (removable battery, storage) This is why I'm waiting for the 2nd or 3rd gen before I even look at it. My main hope is that they actually go with other networks than AT&T. I do know that 3G support is in the works and should be available by late 2007 iirc.

I wonder what the chances of seeing this on a CDMA network would be?

ubertuber

Gucci: pretty slim, I think. I recall reading that AT&T extracted a 5 year exclusive deal from Apple. Seems like both companies gave a lot to make the deal work...

It certainly seems like the current iphone frustrations mirror the reviews I read of the iPhone: Apple rocks and AT&T can't keep up. Hopefully they'll catch up to themselves and get their service in line with the product.

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quadro2000

With you all the way on this. JustJess and I get a sweet deal on our two phones + plans from Sprint (a result of being a longtime customer and playing the retention game), and there's no way I want (or can afford) to leave them now. Also, I'm not big into the "early adopter" game, especially when doing so would lock me down for 2 years. And if the iPod is any indication, v1 of iPhone is just the beginning - this baby's only going to get better in the next few years.

That being said...I stopped by the AT&T store on Friday night and HOMINA HOMINA do I want one. I was unbelievably impressed with the touchscreen.

I'm also hoping that Apple will finally update their iPod line and do a widescreen, touchscreen, bluetooth version before the end of '07...

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Glory's Sun

A 5 year deal?? Bummer! I remember reading an article (or 12) before it came out and Verizon's CEO was pure trash-talking the AT&T network. He forsaw huge problems with their network. Looks like he was right. I was disappointed when I saw it was exclusive to AT&T, but I figured it would be out to other nets within a year. I guess it will be a while before I grab one because I refuse to go to Ma' Bell.

Cynthetiq

I just want widescree and touchscreen. I can live without wireless connectivity if those two show up.

this was a funny vid of this lady who paid $800 to be first in line, only to get just 1 ipod. The kid got one for free

I wonder if I can play with one at the Apple store down the street today.

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Redlemon

Halx, is it still a brick?

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Walking Shadow

My 'rent and stepmom, as well as most of my friends think that anyone who buys into the iphone thing are idiots, as well as money wasting fools.

As far as we can tell, the cheapest plan that you can buy will set you back at least $2,500 (including the initial purchase price of the phone) for a year.

Now there is no way in hell you're going to get your money's worth or get your money back even if you use the damn thing 24/7. It just isn't going to happen.

Barnum was spot on.

ubertuber

Walking Shadow, can you share your math on that?

Cheapest possible gives me this:

$499 4 gb iPhone
$720 12 months of service at $59.99/month
$35 Activation Fee
$1254 total cost for one year, including phone but not including taxes

You could add $720 more to get $1974 for 2 years.

I'm not an iPhone apologist - I've held off of buying one so far. I'm just not sure where you are getting your numbers or attitude.

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Frosstbyte

You've got me on the math question, but I'm pretty sure the attitude comes from Apple's tendency to polarize the market. People tend to be lovers or haters of their trendy and elitist marketing image. In some ideal world where I didn't think Steve Jobs was a huge douche and the stock wasn't paying for my wedding and they didn't make a good product, I'd be just as happy to see it all disappear.

The iPod is far and away the best mp3 player out there, but even so I was given one as a surprise Christmas gift. I'm loathe to be without it now, but I wouldn't have plunked money on it myself. The iPhone is a combination of slick design and great advertising, but it's not the best equipped phone out there, nor is it the best value-two titles that the iPod holds in the mp3 player realm without a whole lot of competition.

I'm sure it will be successful because of what it is and I'm sure people will take design ideas from it, but I won't be buying one myself and will certainly wonder at least a little at other people who do.