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U.S. iPhone Launch, More Photos, and Impressions

Will Steve Jobs Appologise Tomorrow?

To further my ire (and likely others') is to go to Apple's support web site and find no mention of any problem whatsoever. No acknowledgement - just sunshine and light. And oh yeah - I can't even call AppleCare because my phone is a brick!
Click to expand...

Today I too was struck by the deafening silence of Apple not evening mentioning the iPocalypse on their website.

At the very least they owe their paying customers an explanation of what happened. More realistically a $100 cash rebate (No damn Apple Store Gift Card).

When I say I want an explanation, I don't mean I want to hear some sanitized corporate PR Bullsh-t. I want to know, in technical terms, what exactly went wrong and who will be fired.

With all of the bricked iPhones (v1.0) out there that were working before the 2.0 upgrade, you have to wonder how many people lost a job or critical business deal costing who knows how much money or reputation.

Steve Jobs owes everyone an apology.
 
Got my iPhone activated earlier today, but was wondering if anyone was having THIS problem. Now when I plug my iPhone into my computer, iTunes launches, but freezes with the spinning beach ball and won't respond. I have to force quit every time.

Doesn't happen with a iPod touch. Does the phone automatically call the server when you plug it in and the server problems are plaguing me?

Thanks for any comments or experiences.
 
Here's How It Went...

11am - Go to ATT Store - "Sorry no iPhones for sale, we only had about 40 of them", I go home.

7:45pm - Friend calls from Apple Store in Norfolk saying they still have 16GB White and Black iPhones, no line....get in car and go.

8:30pm - In the store buying two new white 16GB iPhones.

8:35pm - Apple reps says when they try to process my order, ATT has my account locked for no upgrade on iPhone eventhough I'm and iPhone 1 owner. Apple says to dial 611 on my iPhone and have them check their system.

8:45pm - ATT reps says there is an error in the system and she has fixed it. Should be fine for Apple rep to purchase my new iPhones at the Apple store. We wait.

9:05pm - They Still can't check me through the system at the Apple store, 16GB iPhone blacks are gone and they only have a few 16GB whites left, two of which are sitting in front of me and I can't buy them.

9:15pm - Apple manager comes over and says I have to come back. They take the two 16GB iPhones away from me and sell them to someone else. I leave.

Steve, You have a major problem with this ATTpple business model when I can't go into your stores anymore and buy an iPhone without ATT saying I can. ATT controls this whole buying channel for you and the experience sucks, plain and simple. The iPhone3G looks sweet, but your customer service model for selling and activating these phones is a complete failure. Seriously, I left with over 650$ of product sitting at the register because ATT had and error in their system and said I couldn't buy YOUR product. What a joke. I won't be back to upgrade to a 3G anytime soon. Very disappointing that ATTpple has made this whole exclusive iPhone agreement a total nightmare for your customers. Service like this will eventually catch up with you, it always does.
 
Get A Grip

Elsewhere said:
Today I too was struck by the deafening silence of Apple not evening mentioning the iPocalypse on their website.

At the very least they owe their paying customers an explanation of what happened. More realistically a $100 cash rebate (No damn Apple Store Gift Card).

When I say I want an explanation, I don't mean I want to hear some sanitized corporate PR Bullsh-t. I want to know, in technical terms, what exactly went wrong and who will be fired.

With all of the bricked iPhones (v1.0) out there that were working before the 2.0 upgrade, you have to wonder how many people lost a job or critical business deal costing who knows how much money or reputation.

Steve Jobs owes everyone an apology.
Click to expand...

You've totally lost perspective here. If you knew you were going to be expecting an important call, like a new JOB, then you had no business activating a new phone today. Even non-smartphone switches can sometimes screw up and take many hours to fix. There's no way Apple is responsible for what calls you missed in the 6 hours the servers weren't working.
 
<BEGIN RANT>
hey did anyone that was an "authorized user" but wasnt the primary account holder have any problems?
<RANT>
i had some terrible problems.. but after i left the store abd they held my phone till my dad could come. that was okay i guess.. i call at&T and they said that a lot of people that were authorzied users were getting turned down due to the fact apple can not see that part of the account.. (but we had a undercover at&t rep working at the genuis bar but he didnt get there till after i left. at 12.

we come back at 4 with my dad. they end up pressing the wrong process on the ez pay system and activate the iPhone to my dad.. which he didnt want. he then lost all of his business' voicemail.. and had to buy a sim card. i think it was the lady that helped us.. (had to be over 45) after the managers and at&t rep helped.. we were out.. but getting there at 630 in morning.. that was a long day
<END RANT>
 
Update went flawless

Just to let everyone now.

Downloaded the 2.0 update yesterday evening, started installation process 30 minutes ago.

Had breakfast.

Had to stand up once to unlock the SIM.

Picked up the iPhone running 2.0 without any reactivation stuff. So it clearly IS AT&T, as I had no info to enter in iTunes Store!

Flaws: iPhone clock was set to Cupertino, but whatever.

Story short: Updates are running fine in Germany!
 
Sold out in Las Vegas

I went to ATT store near me and they said they were sold out completely in town and if I ordered one it would be 7 days to delivery; a few hours earlier it was 5 days. The Apple store should some tomorrow.
 
iPhone ordeal

Over here we've got the most expensive iPhone in the world! :(
The 16GB version costs almost $1000 :eek: and only 250 were available at launch...

Guess I'll have to wait (and save) a while longer... wrote an story about it at: http://www.HypedWorld.com called "Smurfs, French Fries and the most expensive iPhone in the world...
 
David G. said:
Anyone got any pics of you making x employee wear latex gloves while they unpack it for you?:D
Click to expand...

from the reports at the apple I was hanging outside of (in LA), they cut the plastic, lifted the box lid and then had the customer pick up the phone etc themselves. the staff didn't touch it. apparently there is a rule that if you aren't a genius you can't touch customer's stuff and they stuck to it yesterday.

also, all the reports that I got about issues (I asked folks as they were leaving) were ATT side. their servers, their crappy CS folks that didn't know what they were doing etc. even those stuck for an hour to get a phone cause of trouble said that the Apple staff was above nice and were really trying to do this right. but it seems that ATT didn't do the work on their systems to have things ready. and it was driving the store staff crazy.
 
jersey said:
Their draconian activation rules have unsurprisingly come back to bite them in the ass. I feel sorry for everyone waiting but not for Apple or AT&T
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they tired to do it on an open, we trust you, game plan and look what happened. this whole mess is the fault of the jailbreakers.
 
Apple's iPhone inventory tool stinks.

According to Apple's website, my local Apple store had all three models in stock. I got to the mall at 6:45am this morning and was 6th in line. At 8:15 (45 minutes before they opened), they went around and said they were all out of the 16GB black model. I wanted the 16gb black, so I went home after sitting in line for 90 minutes for nothing.:mad:
 
my apple store Century City experience was a throughly slow and painful experience.

after getting in line around 815am, i didn't get out of there until 345pm.
not only was the line moving hardly at all, it was a pain activating the phone in the apple store. Although I had my ATT account already, it was a pain having them figure out how to activate it with a "rebate" even though i had not really received many recent new phones. i had an iphone last year, but i was under the impression that you could buy a new one without any problems.

anyhow, after an extra 20 mins, i was able to activate it on a new line on my account, but now i have to head over to an AT&T store to figure out how they can make it work properly on my account.

the activation problems they have incurred are a real problem, the instore activations are more than a pain!!!! This makes the iPhone buying experience an honest pain, i believe this is going to hurt Apple.

That and.... while i am happy with having 3G/GPS on my iphone, it isn't apparant that enough is different on the new model to have it truly be a new phone.

It honestly isn't its just a minor upgrade to what the iphone ought to have been when it first came out.

Apple didn't add a better camera or flash
Apple didn't add a better speakerphone
Apple didn't add a physical keyboard model, ie same full screen it has, but also slide the screen up, and then you have a real keyboard.

one bright spot, the App store is everything we all wanted. though you really can enjoy that with your older iphone.
 
kiteskiutah said:
What does this mean? Is apple letting people get the phone without completing the 2 year contract?
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heck no.

all they are talking about is that the last step was for a Mac Genius to assist the customer in hooking up the phone to a carefully set up computer that would detect if the phone would connect to itunes etc but not sync to the stores computer.

they wanted to do this to avoid having anyone go home with a dead phone and have to come back. when itunes went wonky, folks that were gutsy enough to risk it were allowed to do so.
 
(L) said:
Don't know about you, but back when I bought the first iPhone, it was a nightmare trying to get it activated. I felt that iTunes was OK, but working with AT&T ultimately proved to be problematic for many people like me for whom activation just wouldn't work,
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that is the other reason they are doing it in store.

A person with my experience would not want to leave the store without a working, activated 3G iPhone.
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but you aren't. not totally. the phone is activated on the ATT side. in theory, if you go home and hook it up to a computer with the latest itunes, it will fire up no issues and sync etc. that is the only step you are doing at home. you aren't dealing with ATT. that has been done.
 
I'm an Apple Store employee... iPhone3G launch went from something exciting (my first product launch) to a 16 hour nightmare. The iTunes servers were only down for about 20 or so minutes-- the most difficult part was dealing with every customers unique situation. For example, once I spent 5 minutes with a customer waiting for AT&Ts activation, and another time I spent 2 whole hours with a customer waiting for AT&T's approval. My store stayed open until nearly midnight.

I worked the line a lot, so I thanked every single customer that was standing out there. Those of you here that stood on the lines without blowing up at us, thank you.
 
charlituna said:
this whole mess is the fault of the jailbreakers.
Click to expand...


Apple's iPhone 2.0 firmware has already been successfully unlocked and jailbroken to run with unsanctioned carriers and apps.Dev Team group has successfully developed a version of its Pwnage Tool that not only modifies iPhones and iPods using the 2.0 firmware to run bootleg code but is simple enough that nearly any user can run it.
 
nickXedge said:
But does it work is the question? If it does, you had a pretty good day as compared to the rest of us.
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It does work, yes. Happy with the phone itself, but I feel burned by the experience of buying it. Which is what I thought was one of the innovations the original iPhone solved quite splendidly. But not this time around. :'(
 
Horrible Experience Waiting

I waited for 6 hours yesterday at Perimeter Mall (Atlanta, GA). At 1:30am I was finally admitted into the apple store. You could see the employees buzzing about and kept coming up to the manager who was trying to make small talk. Finally, my wife said "that's the third employee who said the server has timed out."

At 1:45am- the manager huddles his employees. 10 minutes later they make an announcement:

"Sorry, the AT&T servers are down for the night. We can't process your orders. You can't even purchase the phones here and activate at home."

:mad:

People were nothing short of livid (myself included). After waiting 6 hours! There were 3 people ahead of me in the line in the store...the 4th guy ahead of me did manage to walk out with a phone (around 1:15am).

We were all issued the "golden ticket" (ie, a ticket with our names attached to a physical phone in stock) and asked politely to come back tomorrow.

Serves me right...I told myself I wouldn't wait more than 2 hours. At any point I could have went home. At any rate, I'm disappointed in the whole buying process. I'm not sure who to blame (other than myself for waiting that long on a Friday night) but I had to vent somewhere.

Hopefully I'll be able to pick up the phone today...assuming the servers don't go down again. :(
 
I'm in line at the Sacramento, CA store. Got here about 7:30a. They gave out line #s, I'm 47th in line. Hoping that activation will be smooth this AM. I don't yet know how many phones they have left. The store is supposed to open at 9.

I also don't know if they sent folks home with 'golden tickets' last night or what. One person I talked to said that they stopped letting people get in line at about 830 last night.

As long as I make it through by 11:40 - I have a Genius Bar appt for my MBP!
 
Walked into the Cambridge (UK) Apple Store at 13.00, left 80 minutes later with my new toy. Took as long to queue as the activation/sales procedure :)
 
charlituna said:
they tired to do it on an open, we trust you, game plan and look what happened. this whole mess is the fault of the jailbreakers.
Click to expand...

I'd hate to tell you, but you're blaming the wrong crowd.

Jailbreaking = gaining access to the file system, to modify OS and install 3rd party applications

Unlocking = modifying the modem firmware and baseband to remove the service provider lock
 
charlituna said:
they tired to do it on an open, we trust you, game plan and look what happened. this whole mess is the fault of the jailbreakers.
Click to expand...

Don't agree there - the same would have happened either way as the system wasn't up to it. Any company with sense would never have released so much on one day when it could have been spread out over 3 or so days.
 
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