Wine Journal for iPhone and iPod Touch

Friday, July 11, 2008

The Second Coming

Yep, I waited in line today. And yep, I totally underestimated the line and length of time it would take. I naively thought the lines wouldn't be as bad as last year since it wasn't new here, people would be more casual about it, etc. Duh. Finally got my phone after 5.5 hours in line and didn't have a working phone for another hour.

The time was mostly due to Apple and AT&T insistence that you can't leave the store without an activated phone. So you have a million people trying to all activate phones at the same time and Apple nor AT&T couldn't handle the traffic. It was taking anywhere between 15 and 45 minutes or more to purchase and go through the two-step activation process.

I'm a bit disappointed with Apple. One of the great things last year was that you could buy the phone quickly and easily and activate it at home. Sure there were activation issues last year, but I didn't have any and even if I did, I'd at least be in the comfort of my own home. That said, I waited in line with fun people and the Apple Store employees were there amazingly helpful selves.

On to the phone. I have not had much time to play with it, but I love the feel of it in my hand. It's a tad lighter than the previous iPhone, thicker in the middle, but with tapered edges which make it look & feel thinner. The interface is zippy and the 3G network is definitely light years better than the pokey EDGE network.

I have yet to download any Apps, but I'll definitely be trying a game or two and the MLB app. Cool stuff. This is going to be huge for Apple. The analysts have already doubled their estimate for iPhone sales next year to over 40 million.

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