Adventures in iPhone Land
When the iPhone launched last year, I promised myself that I would wait until the 3G version came out before I took the plunge. You see, I use a pda (Palm Pilot TX) on a daily basis for such things as checking email, reading ebooks (a lot), watching the occasional video, tracking todos and maintaining a large list of text files (think ‘memos’ on steroids) Besides the pda, I also carry around a 20GB ipod photo for listening to music and podcasts during my daily commute, which can end up being nearly two hours round trip on very bad days. And of course, I always always always have my cellphone with me no matter what.
So there is a certain logic in yearning for a convergent device that rolls all of the necessary functionality into just one, shiny little object. I wouldn’t need to lug around three different devices (all with separate charging needs, no less) and lighten my load, so to speak. I’ve kept a close eye on the iPhone developments over the past year (including the whole ‘jailbreak’ thing) but after seeing how quickly the new 3G version sold out, I realized it would probably be a few months before I finally got my hands on one.
I would regularly check the stock levels for our local Apple stores (of which we have two!) after 9:00pm each evening and as could be expected, they’ve been regularly sold out day after day. Friday night I checked again and to my surprise both local stores showed that they would have stock of all models for Saturday. Not getting my hopes up, but thinking I would just go by one of the stores a bit early in the morning to scope things out, I arrived at the larger of the two stores around 9:00am. The mall doesn’t open until 10:00am, so really this was kind of silly. I left my ipod in the car because I was just going to walk around the mall once, scope out the Apple store and probably just head back home. (this turned out to be a mistake, it would’ve been quite handy later)
I entered the mall and was shocked (why I didn’t actually expect this, I don’t know) to see at least a hundred people already in line! I walked the length of the line, noting that people seemed to have been there for quite some time already. I found out later that people had started lining up before 7:00am! I found the end of the line and out of curiosity more than the expectation of a new phone, I took my place at the end of the line. Before too long (mere minutes in fact) the line had already grown to half a dozen people past me.
An Apple employee was quickly moving down the line handing out a pamphlet of some sort (maybe they would be vouchers!) so I waited to see what they were. They turned out to be just some informational pamphlets regarding rate plans, but then I noticed that a couple more Apple employees were moving down the line (albeit at a much slower pace) and pulling people out of line, walking them into the store, then escorting them back to their place in line a few minutes later. I also realized that the store was actually open, and those in the very front of the line were making their iPhone purchases and leaving! The line was moving at a pace that would make a snail zoom past us, but it was moving!
I figured, what the heck! I drove all the way down here, I’m already in line… the people at the very front of the line were actually making their purchases, I might as well stick it out for what, maybe an hour? Well, after an hour and a half or so, the Apple folks that were escorting people in and out of the line finally made it back to me. They brought me so that they could ‘pre-qualify’ my purchase. They wanted to make sure I was already an AT&T customer, that I was eligible for the upgrade, and that I wasn’t trying to use any corporate rate to get my iPhone. Once I was escorted back to my place in line, I was actually given a voucher for the iPhone of my choice! (black, 16gb btw)
A couple of hours later and there were a group of about four or five of us that were getting along like old friends. Chatting about our children, our phones, how silly we felt waiting in line. This lasted for the first couple of hours after which point we were commiserating about our aching feet, our full bladders, our empty stomachs and our parched throats. We kindly watched one another’s places in line for the inevitable bathroom breaks, but alas Starbucks was not pushing a cart up and down the line so our thirst went unquenched.
About noon (yes, three hours later) there were only three people ahead of me in line. And that’s when the Apple employees must’ve gone to lunch. The line didn’t move at all for forty-five minutes!!! But at this point, there was no way any of us were going to give up! We were too close! We had waited for too long to just give up!
Finally around 12:45p I was allowed into the Apple store to make my purchase! I was only in the store for maybe ten minutes while my new iPhone was activated and the Apple employee gave me a quick tour of all the features. Then I was free! After four long hours in queue I left with my new iPhone.
Next up: What do you mean ‘There’s no native ssh client’? Are you kidding me?
