And that, folks, is exactly what happened to me. After a few hours in line and some major revelations re: Apple 'halo' effect which I'll share later, I got my hands on that gorgeous iPhone. It stayed shrink-wrapped in the box for another 3 1/2 hours while I and my children enjoyed the Greenville Little Theater's production of "Hello, Dolly!" What discipline I have. As soon as we got home all the kids wanted to witness the unveiling and marvel at the revolution the iPhone represents and I was only too happy to oblige.
We unpackaged the phone to my daughter's comment that "Apple sure makes pretty boxes". All of us let out a little gasp when we actually saw the thing - it's absolutely beautiful and more svelte than the videos make it seem. I plugged in the included USB cable and was immediately advised to download the latest version of iTunes. A little annoying, but necessary. No worries, I have a 6MB connection so in two minutes I was ready to go. The phone was immediately recognized and I was presented with exactly the screens I should see. "Let's activate the phone." Yes! "New AT&T customer?" Bummer, but Yes. "Porting a number" Hmmm. No. (And this turns out to be a VERY good decision.) "Pre-credit check?" Yes. Annoying, but yes. "Please wait while we activate your phone. This may take up to three minutes." Fine. I've waited 6 months, three minutes is no problem! "Your activation is going to take a little more time. You'll receive an email as soon as the activation is completed" What? Is this just me? Well, surely this will all be over in a few minutes. One hour later and no joy. Check the forums. Whoa! This definitely isn't an isolated case and it's definitely going to be a while. Bummer. Guess this is once again life on the bleeding edge.
OK. So I'll just play around with the iPod and web features. Uh, sorry. Nope. Not going to happen. Until the activation is complete the phone is a 911 emergency call only device. Who knew? Oh, well. Life on the bleeding edge again but those paper cuts surely do hurt. The greatest frustration? All those brand new Apple customers who may not figure out this is an AT&T problem. And there are a LOT of those customers. Believe me. The conversations in that wait line were fascinating.
So, at 21:38 EDT I have a gorgeous 8GB iPhone that will power up and let me make an emergency call, but that's about it. Still, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside 'cause I know that when it DOES finally activate, it'll be wonderful!
Tim
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