Shiny New iPhone 3G

This is my first iPhone and I was so excited I couldn't sleep. Even the re-runs of the Tour de France didn't put me to sleep. So I trekked on down to the Apple Store in Tampa where I knew I'd have company.....

At 5am EST there were almost 40 people in front of me in line. People I talked with thought the line was actually shorter than they expected. It ended up being about 150 people long when the mall opened its doors at 7:40am. (BTW Apple employees came out before 7am and served everyone in line coffee and handed out bottled smart waters - pretty classy....) B)

There were lots and lots of employees in our (rather large) Apple Store and the line went quite fast.

Haaaa! False sense of security. After picking out everything and entering all the data with the rep I found out that because Verizon (who I was porting my land line from) wasn't responding to AT & T that I wouldn't be able to get an iPhone ----- but I do have to say that the gal at the genius bar really did work on the problem --- for almost 3 hours actually. It seems that this in store activation is a mess if there is any quirk with porting your number - like Verizon or another company just not responding back. And this doesn't even consist of porting your number which I understand with a land line takes a week maybe. But because Verizon was probably jammed too with so many porting requests and wouldn't acknowledge AT & Ts request to port - well Apple really has lots of problems at the moment because they have insisted on in-store activation.

My problem is probably (hopefully) handled and it looked like my number is in the process now of being requested to be ported but the Apple Store had to give me a temp phone # just to sell to me and get me out the door with an iPhone.

See I actually thought it would be a good idea to go today so the phone I wanted wouldn't be sold out and I could attend their workshop tomorrow to learn how to use it. Well, live and learn....

Plus no one I saw was able to activate their iPhone in the store as iTunes got jammed.

So I'd say many, many people across the US now have shiny new iPhone 3Gs with blank screens. But I'm sure we can figure out some use for them...

In Apple's defense things must have gotten way more jammed than expected and I do expect most everything to be sorted out promptly.

Sure would be nice to use that shiny new iPhone.......

My advice - Wait! Wait to buy and wait to upgrade your existing iPhone.....

Later, Carol

This is my first iPhone and I was so excited I couldn't sleep. Even the re-runs of the Tour de France didn't put me to sleep. So I trekked on down to the Apple Store in Tampa where I knew I'd have company.....

 

At 5am EST there were almost 40 people in front of me in line. People I talked with thought the line was actually shorter than they expected. It ended up being about 150 people long when the mall opened its doors at 7:40am. (BTW Apple employees came out before 7am and served everyone in line coffee and handed out bottled smart waters - pretty classy....) B)

And people think that getting up early for diving is tough Good account of the situation Carol. I am waiting for another day or so to update my iPod Touch to the new firmware and get some apps for it. Really want the iPhone but AT&T in my neck of the woods does not have a good rep. Sigh. So did you get an 8 Gig or 16 Gig (and what color if 16 Gig )?

And people think that getting up early for diving is tough

 

So did you get an 8 Gig or 16 Gig (and what color if 16 Gig )?

Yea, people routinely think I'm crazy for doing manatees just before sunrise.

That's nothing compared to the prolific "snoring" I heard in the Tampa, International Plaza line as I passed 40 people at 5am for a spot in line to get an iPhone - I guess a lot of people slept there all night..... From where I stand early am manatees make a whole lot more sense......

I got a black one, 16GB - that seems to be the most popular choice, although the white wasn't as bad as I thought either. Sure is cool looking and it will really be neat when I can see a screen on it!! Or maybe even make a phone call... But I guess it is cool enough to just gaze and admire at, huh?

Later, Carol

PS - Oh, the Apple Store still has lots of iPhones as of right now but the AT & T store nearby sold out before 8:30am......

Yea, people routinely think I'm crazy for doing manatees just before sunrise.

That's nothing compared to the prolific "snoring" I heard in the Tampa, International Plaza line as I passed 40 people at 5am for a spot in line to get an iPhone - I guess a lot of people slept there all night..... From where I stand early am manatees make a whole lot more sense......

Very true, though a brand new iPhone does make it a bit closer than it would be otherwise.

I got a black one, 16GB - that seems to be the most popular choice, although the white wasn't as bad as I thought either. Sure is cool looking and it will really be neat when I can see a screen on it!! Or maybe even make a phone call... But I guess it is cool enough to just gaze and admire at, huh?

 

Later, Carol

 

PS - Oh, the Apple Store still has lots of iPhones as of right now but the AT & T store nearby sold out before 8:30am......

Will be interesting to see what the numbers are for the first day. There was alot of pent up demand by this point and kind of overwhleming it seems.

And as a consequence of all this I lost my eMail for almost the entire day because apple decided to do "maintenance" o the me.com site.

totally hosed thos of us mac.com users.

All this for a crappy non-computer piece of hardware....

Taht said, I'll probably be getting one for test drive later in the week...

Yes, there were certainly a lot of "Mac Casualties" today for sure....

I feel most for those who had previous iPhones, then the stores tried to get them into new 3G phones and then they got caught in all the "lockup" mess = no cell phone operable for how ? long?

The somewhat good news is I got a screen on my phone as of an hour ago and even made a call. But the syncing of my address book, etc is full of error warnings and time-outs and I still have the temp phone number to switch to my phone number which is hanging in "porting cyberspace" somewhere? Hopefully I won't lose it and end up with a new, strange phone #.

What I really think happened here is Apple is so upset with folks "unlocking" iPhones and AT & T wants that exclusive contract so much that both parties just made it so difficult to activate because of all the specific "rules" for in store only activation, etc.

So I'd say that Apple and At & T created their own monster here.

Hopefully it will all work out soon.

I do like the "Shiny New iPhone 3G", although it is my first smart phone and I have a bit of a learning curve. Still it does so much and there are so many apps available now (if you can get your phone set up correctly) - there is a huge future for this cool device!

Good Luck To All - I'm going back to the Apple Store tomorrow to (hopefully) take a workshop on the phone tomorrow and get some sync bugs worked out. And I'll post if my phone number ever gets ported............ Carol

Hey, Carol. Congrats on the new phone!

I'm on the old phone, but I upgraded my firmware yesterday and posted some applications I like over at my personal website:

http://echeng.com/journal/2008/07/11/my-ip...0-applications/

There are a ton of really useful apps out there!

Unlocking is only a matter of time. Or you can buy it in France in a few months. They MUST sell unlocked phones of any brand I'll still stick to my Blackberry for travelling to areas without local SIM cards and 3G/GPRS services.

I tried to use the iPhone internationally, and gave up. It was expensive, and it didn't work well on AT&T's international partners.

When I was on Blackberry, it seemed to work everywhere. It just worked.

I tried to use the iPhone internationally, and gave up. It was expensive, and it didn't work well on AT&T's international partners.

 

When I was on Blackberry, it seemed to work everywhere. It just worked.

Eric,

Yes thanks for the congrats on my shiny new iPhone "buddy" and I do believe this is the best phone for add-on software apps. I noted the ones you have on your site - Thanks!! And lucky you - you must have upgraded before the "lock-ups". The extremely kind and hard working Apple gal at the genius bar almost got everything working for me early today and some people in the store did leave with activated phones I heard (but I myself didn't see anyone successfully activate); but then, with my cycle, Verizon wouldn't respond to AT & T for my # porting and by the time a solution was worked out for my phone it was about 10am or so and all the "lock-ups" were happening.

Eric do you think the new iPhone/plans will now be a little better in Europe - and now with more widespread plans and use in Europe too? The iPhone plans still look a bit expensive in other countries, but not as expensive as before and perhaps service will improve? It would be great if it worked in more places like the blackberry..... B)

Thanks, Carol

Update:

I must add that this is absolutely the coolest phone I've ever seen!!!!

Just amazing clarity on the screen (although I agree with some users that this new iPhone 3G screen does seem to have a slight yellow tint - it is evident in our blues, etc., but it isn't horrible). Still we as u/w photographers will notice it as I think it is pretty much built into this phone - I don't think it is an anomaly/defect. I wonder if people thought the original iPhone screen was too blue? And I wonder if we are going to get iPhone color calibration devices? Oh no - don't let me go there......!

But the apps now for the iPhone are so cool and there are so many of them!

Also the way it handles mail, etc is so very user friendly. And all my addresses, bookmarks, mail etc seems to be all coming together or as Apple says now "pushed". B)

So I was wondering if all the hoopla was for real - but now that I see the device actually starting to work and come together -- well the new iPhone 3G is pretty amazing.

Best, Carol

PS now if I just get my original # ported I'll be all smiley.....

I tried to use the iPhone internationally, and gave up. It was expensive, and it didn't work well on AT&T's international partners.

 

When I was on Blackberry, it seemed to work everywhere. It just worked.

Our family iPhones have worked well internationally, but only tried Europe and South America. In fact too well. Last year, the month after the iPhones came out my daughter ran up a $12,000 (yes 3 zeroes) bill from France in a month. AT&T did not switch our plan for traveling as they were supposed to. We of course had the bill 'adjusted' down to about $3000. Yes, I still love my daughter.

I'm still happy with my old iPhone for my use, but it's lasted longer than any phone I've ever had mainly because I can't clip it to my belt before I dive in the water off the boat or jetski. So I'm sure it will need to be upgraded fairly soon.

Apple / AT&T had similar problems after the first release, so we learned from that to avoid the rush and wait a little.

I can tell you that the US carriers charge ridiculous rates for WAP roaming. $24 for 1MB for T Mobile and about the same for AT&T. ATT has better world packages than Tmobile but limited coverage with their data plans. 50MB for $60 a mth on an iPhone = nothing due to HTML browswer and Safari.

ATT has the best Blackberry plan. $67 for unlimited roaming (browsing and email with BB) and BB is so much more recognized around the world. iPhone is many things but a real traveller's phone it's not. For those who must stay in touch, BB is the best.

Re: Yellowish tint on new iPhone 3G

So its not my (or your) imagination - the new iPhone 3G screen was purposely calibrated to be more "yellowish".

That's probably good for some things but the blues and especially the cyans I see on this site and others don't look quite as good - a little muddy. But it isn't that bad. It is just something we will notice.

Here's a link on the yellowish hue on the new 3G screen:

http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/07/12/iph...screen.changed/

Other than that the new iPhone is great!!!!! Learned a lot more stuff today and the apps are amazing. Had a mock "lightsaber" fight with an employee in the Apple Store today B) . Guess that is their fav free app -- along with the "Zen Garden" to help get them through the craziness. There were still huge, long lines all day today! But they still help a very informative workshop on the new iPhone that lasted over 90 minutes. Those Apple employees are really working hard!

Cheers, Carol

Learned a lot more stuff today and the apps are amazing. Had a mock "lightsaber" fight with an employee in the Apple Store today B) . Guess that is their fav free app -- along with the "Zen Garden" to help get them through the craziness. There were still huge, long lines all day today! But they still help a very informative workshop on the new iPhone that lasted over 90 minutes. Those Apple employees are really working hard!

 

Cheers, Carol

I got the 2.0 Firmware downloaded and started downloading some of the Apps and one game Trism or something like. Souped up version of Bejeweled. Perfect for plane trips

I got the 2.0 Firmware downloaded and started downloading some of the Apps and one game Trism or something like. Souped up version of Bejeweled. Perfect for plane trips

Cool Drew! Any more plane suggestions?

I'm wrapping everything up and I just did a post on my Top 10 Fav Apps and screen shots of all I have

iPhone Goodies Link

Plus I like my iPhone 3G skin from Unique Skins! That's Winter there, more on her too...., lots of stuff updated -- got to show Dad you know! Carol

Hey Carol

That black case thing is a way of attaching your iPhone to a snorkel, right?

I got one (an iPhone that is) last week. Wicked! I struggled for a couple of days getting email to send over 3G as my ISP's SMTP settings wouldn't work. I eventually got it going using SMTP settings for the UK iPhone carrier, O2. Happy to pass on details if anyone else is finding this an issue.

And for UK subscribers overseas roaming is horribly expensive too. £10 a MB. I guess I'll find an old phone for overseas trips and forget email!

That black case thing is a way of attaching your iPhone to a snorkel, right?

Okay .. I have to ask. Has anyone tried the Sprint Instinct phone and what are your opinions. I'm going for one or the other. I have to wait for my plan to expire in 3 months if I go with the IPhone...