By Josh Dubois
Last year, I waited in line with my Mom for the original iPhone. We spent two hours in separate lines--she waited at the Apple Store in Tyson's, while I waited in the mall's AT&T line. At the time, no one really knew how many (iPhones) there would be, so everyone was nervous about getting their hands on one. The stores opened right on time, and everyone who wanted one got one--quick too.
Needless to say, this year when I showed up outside an Apple store in Clarendon, VA and hopped in a line one-third the size of last year, I thought it would be no problem--I will be in and out, new phone in hand in no time. This year it was a little more important that I have one the first day than it was last year. First, I was working on a video tutorial, and trying to get it done as quick as I could. I had already run into a couple delays early in the week as my old iPhone was stolen the week before in NYC, which was reason number two why I wanted to get one on the first day.
The doors to the Apple Store opened right at 8 AM, and the first 15 or 20 customers went inside. It took around 25 minutes before anyone emerged with a really fancy bag and an even fancier phone inside. Then the delays started. Apple's new process of activating the phones in-store, to avoid people "jail-braking" their phones, selling them overseas, or buying them simply to sell on eBay was taking its toll on the Apple servers. They crashed and crashed and crashed, and the normally cheery Apple employees were equally freaking out, claiming, "Listen, we are more frustrated than you right now." That was probably true at 11AM, when I didn't yet have my phone and still had about 60 people in front of me. However, at 1PM, when I was sitting on a stool inside the Apple store with only three other customers and 35 employees standing around, I was starting to feel a little frustrated.
Finally at 2PM I got my phone, but I couldn't make calls from until I took home?!? (In store activation = terrible idea). Overall, it was sweet, I got a tan from waiting in the line outside, felt like a huge nerd, and still had 10 hours to go to complete my video. The phone is really cool though!
Was it worth it? Check out my new video entitled How to Use the iPhone 3G, and let me know what you think.
