OK, so I got an iPhone… still waiting to use it
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
Let me first say that I in NO way fell victim to the iPhone hype-machine. I bought this purely for journalistic reasons.
(Anyone buying that?)
OK, well the real reason is, I fell, and I fell hard. Plus, I knew none of the other deadbeats here would get one, so if anyone at Macenstein was going to drop $600 on a gadget that combines 2 gadgets we all already own, it had to be the guy with a day job.
Above: My iPhone patiently waiting to activate. Not pictured, ME, impatiently waiting for my iPhone to activate.
I bought mine around 1PM at the Short Hills, NJ Apple Store. The store was doing a very brisk business, especially considering how nice a day it was. I’d say in my half hour there I counted about 30 iPhones sold, or roughly 1 a minute, which ain’t too shabby for day 2.
As for my initial impressions, well, they are mainly of disappointment. Not in the iPhone, but in the fact that after activating the iPhone via iTunes at 2 PM, I have still not finished the activation process as of 10 PM.
After finishing the iTunes activation process, I was presented with a screen which read “Your activation requires additional time to complete. You will receive an email confirmation sent to —- once your activation is complete.” I thought this was a little lame, as I am already an AT&T wireless customer, just basically adding the $20 data plan to my existing account, but whatever.
As for my hands on with the iPhone in the Short Hills Apple Store, I was both amazed and worried. What amazed me was the speed and responsiveness of the interface. I knew immediately I was going to be playing with this thing all day just tapping and scrolling until the battery died. It was like giving a 5-month old baby a pair of shiny car keys to play with.
Above: At least I got the cool bag to play with while I wait.
What worried me, though, was while playing with the iPhone, I noticed that when attempting to access any web page, the iPhone would load about 90% of it, then crap out, and bounce out of Safari and back to the main menu screen. It did this on a couple sites, and when I pointed it out the sales girl, she tried another demo unit which did the same thing. Pages were also loading pretty slowly, given that we should have been in a pretty robust Wi-Fi zone. She later caught up to me while I was in line buying my iPhone (obviously even the iPhone’s main selling point not working correctly did not deter me from buying one) , and explained that the reason web pages were not working and the network was slow was that AT&T was crashing under the activation load. I asked why that would affect Wi-Fi connections, and she said, well, that’s what they told her. So we’ll see, if and when this alleged activation e-mail shows up. At least the long delay helps lend credence to her report of AT&T being overwhelmed with activations, thus causing network trouble. Sounds like Apple is moving a lot of these after all!
[UPDATE: Midnight Saturday and still no activation e-mail yet.]
[UPDATE 2: 9:30 AM Sunday and still no activation e-mail yet.]
[UPDATE 3: I just spent a half hour on hold (after getting disconnected after waiting close to an hour on hold) before getting through to the AT&T iPhone activation line. The rep there said I need an order confirmation number in order for him to help activate the iPhone. Obviously, iTunes did not give me one yet via e-mail. He suggested I call customer service to obtain a number. I called the number he gave, and it turns out they are closed today. So I supposed I will just continue to wait, and wish Apple chose Verizon.]
[UPDATE 4: 12:30 PM Sunday and still no activation e-mail yet.]
[UPDATE 5: 2:00 PM Sunday. I called and was told my account was hung up because it did not qualify for the iPhone. Apparently I had been getting a $10 a month credit for service, and that screwed up the computers. Of course, it would have been nice to have received an e-mail alerting me there was trouble and asking me to call, but at least, 24 hours later, I am now "on the right track" as the AT&T rep said. Now I assume my wait time is starting over, and those first 24 hours don't count.
[UPDATE 6: 9:30 PM Sunday and still no activation e-mail yet.]
[UPDATE 7: 9:35 PM Sunday. Called the reps again and was told I an in the queue, and the current wait is 24 hours. They can't tell me where I am in the queue, but it should be less than 24 hours. AWESOME!]
[UPDATE 8: 7:00 AM Monday and still no activation e-mail yet.]
[UPDATE 8: 9:30 AM Monday. I just called AT&T, and I don't even want to tell you want is happening...]
[UPDATE 8: 8:00 PM Monday. I have made 2 trips to the AT&T store (actually 2 different stores), the last trip was nearly 2 hours. However, I now have a working iPhone. Hooray for me. I suggest anyone who does not get an activation e-mail within about 15 minutes of attempting to activate the iphone call ATT. The problem on my end stemmed from having an OLD ATT account, pre-cingular, and there were a million reasons they came up with why that wa a problem. The long and the short of it is that eventually they were able to upgrade the 2 lines on my family plan to a current ATT plan, and then they gave me a brand new SIM card to try to cactivate at home. Once everything was set with my rate plans from the store, activating with a new SIM card via iTunes at home was indeed as easy as Apple claims. It took about 5 minutes. (Well, 5 minutes and 2 days or getting the runaround from ATT). I would love to blame this soley on ATT, but in reality the fact that Apple demands to handle all activations is the route of this problem.
Oh, and one final bit of knowledge to pass along. If you call or go to an ATT store looking for a iPhone family plan, the lowest they will show you is a 700 minute plan for $80 plus an extra line. There is a cheaper 550 minute plan for $59.99 (plus $20 for iPhone data) that qualifies, but you have to ask for it. That's what I'm on.
Day 2: iPhone still available at every Apple Store. Is this a good or bad sign?
Filed under: News, Opinion, Rampant Speculation, iPhone
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
When Apple opened its online store for iPhone orders last night, they also added an area where you can check the availability of current iPhone stock at your nearest Apple Store. Given all the hype and line waiting surrounding the iPhone, this is a thoughtful gesture on Apple’s part to help iPhone hopefuls avoid making the trip only to walk away empty handed.
However, it seems that it might have been unnecessary. Just a day after the launch, EVERY Apple store in EVERY state claims to still have a healthy supply of iPhones in stock. Is this a good or bad sign for the iPhone’s launch? Well, it depends how the media wants to spin it.
On the one hand, given all the hype surrounding the iPhone, headlines could easily say “iPhone’s failure to launch: Unsold iPhones line store shelves“. However, that would be a bit dramatic.
I prefer to think of this from an optimistic Apple stockholder’s perspective. It appears to me that, unlike Sony’s infamous PS3 launch, Apple was prepared for the iPhone’s launch and had enough units on hand to last the weekend. Given all the news reports of fans lining up outside Apple Stores, it appears there was indeed a strong demand Friday and the fact that Apple still has iPhones available today means Apple will reap the maximum amount of monetary reward from the free publicity the launch has generated.
Now, I wouldn’t mind if a couple Apple stores ran out of iPhones by Monday, just to give the press something to talk about, but in reality, I think this is actually a great sign for Apple, and their bottom line.
Online Apple Store estimates iPhone purchases to take up to a month to ship: Suddenly waiting in line for a couple days doesn’t seem quite as stupid
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, News, Opinion, iPhone
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
As cool as the iPhone is, most of us here thought those brave, jobless-yet-presumably-independently-wealthy souls who were able to camp out in front of an Apple store for a week were being a bit overly dramatic. Sure, the iPhone was going to be a hot item initially, and perhaps even sell out this weekend, but we knew that if worse came to worse, those of us with jobs, lives or families would be able to purchase the iPhone online on launch day from Apple, and get it by Monday or Tuesday. Yes, we’d miss out on the fun of playing with it over the weekend, but what’s waiting 2 - 4 days in the big scheme of things? After all, we’d still be in the first wave of early adopters, right?
Wrong.
While Apple did indeed open the online store tonight at 9PM for online iPhone orders, estimated ship times are in the neighborhood of 2 to 4 WEEKS. That’s right. By not waiting in line for a day, you may have to wait as long as 30 more in order to get your shiny no-longer-so-new iPhone.
Now, we have been pleasantly surprised in the past with Apple ship times. We once ordered a Mac Pro with a custom graphics card that caused the estimated ship time to slip from 24 hours to 3 weeks, and the machine ended up shipping in 48 hours. So we’re cautiously optimistic that this 2-4 week estimate is just Apple’s best guess at the moment, based on unknown demand.
AT&T unveils 5x Edge speed increase for iPhone launch
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
I was SO not planning to get an iPhone. Really I wasn’t. The rumored plan costs of $100 a month had my mind firmly planted in the “I can live without it” camp. Then Apple announced the iPhone’s plans would start at $60.
hmm…
OK, well, now I CAN afford the monthly plan… but, really, aside from the coolness of the interface (I tried to reason) the only thing really different about the iPhone to me would be the web browser, and according to reviews, that is apparently just to darn sow at the moment.
Well, looks like AT&T may have addressed the only legitimate criticism levied against the iPhone.
According to numerous forum reports, AT&T has boosted the speeds on the Edge data network the iPhone will be using. Users who were seeing download speeds of 40 kb/s just last week are now reporting speeds close to 200 kb/s. Some are speculating that AT&T may even be unveiling their rumored “Fine Edge” plan.
Damn! i REALLY didn’t feel like standing in line today…
Macenstein to Remote Desktop Team: “Get With the Program”
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, News, Opinion, That's Weird...
Posted by Brain in a Jar
Anyone who spends as many hours a day on the Mac forums as we do surely remembers the flap over the numbering of the latest incremental OS update, 10.4.10. Not to re-ignite the debate, but it turns out super-geeks may not be the only folks to find fault in Apple’s numbering logic.
While adding a new system to the Macenstein Labs stable, we noticed something strange. Despite having run the requisite out-of-box Software Update, our new system showed up in Remote Desktop claiming to run OS 10.4.9. How strange, we thought to ourselves, and became even more perplexed after checking System Info and seeing that, yes, we were indeed running 10.4.10.
Above: Would a build by any other number not smell as up-to-date?
On closer inspection, we noticed that ARD seemed to show three flavors of 10.4.9 running happily in the labs, builds 8P135, 8R218 and 8R2218. A little quick research revealed that the latter two are the build numbers for OS 10.4.10, PPC and Intel respectively. Apparently, Apple’s own Remote Desktop refuses to recognize the “illogical” numbering.
With a few months remaining until OS 10.5 makes its debut, and major OS updates scheduled further apart than in the past, here’s hoping that the OS Update team brings everyone else in Cupertino into line. Or they could just do away with version numbers altogether, and move to the completely consumer-unfriendly build numbers. Maybe that’s what the super-geeks have been hoping for all along.
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