Well, that didn’t take long. The folks over at Gizmodo have already set free the new iPhone 3G. This occurs seemingly just a few hours after some new owners actually got their iPhone’s activated. I’m not sure if this is a comment on the hacking skills of the folks at Gizmodo, the security Apple placed on the new iPhone, or a combination of the two.

I was one of the masses of people that had to have it the day it was released. I couldn’t help myself. It’s gadget porn at its best.

The Line

I ventured out to my local Apple store at 8am. I might have been there earlier had I not needed to drop my kids at their summer programs. For some reason, I was thinking the line would not be terribly long. I mistakenly thought that the demand would not be as high as the first iPhone. Wrong!

As I walked past the Apple store, the line snaked around the building and down a breezeway. I kept walking and walking to find the end. About 500 people later, I entered the line. Within minutes there was another 100 people in line behind me.

The guy right in front of me said he had just come from an AT&T store, but they only had 40 in stock and quickly sent everyone else away. I have a feeling Apple, rightfully, reserved the majority of iPhones for themselves. Way to stick it them Steve Jobs. In turn, they are sticking it to customers by charging us for texting now.

Some of the people that got in line around Arbor Day were leaving with their iPhones. One guy, walked all the way down the line holding his new iPhone 3G over his head. I can only guess that he had no idea how close he was to getting smacked. That’s practically taunting. But then again, he probably slept in his close on the curb in front of the Apple Store last night, so he can have his moment of happiness.

An hour later, the line had progressed but I was still not close enough to see the actual store. It would be quite some time before I was that close. Apple Store employees were working the line with a cooler full of SmartWater, which they were giving away for free to anyone in line. Nice move. They were also checking to make sure you had everything ready for the purchase: credit card, social security number, photo ID, etc.

Two hours later I was finally close enough to actually see the front of the Apple store. That was at least something. It made me feel like I was close, even though there were still a good 200 people in front of me. Conversation was mostly about the phone: does it cut and paste? No. Can you delete more than one email at a time now? Yes. Does it make you look sexier? Absolutely.

People were being escorted in the door in groups of 15-20. What was interesting, is that as the group was let in, all the Apple employees would cheer to welcome them into the store. Then, as people got their phone’s activated, they’d high five you as you walked out the door.

That was before the system went down.

Around 10:15am, the line stood still for almost 1 hour with no one being let in and no one coming out. No cheering, no high fiving. Around 11, they finally told us it was because the system was down. The Apple store must have been running Vista for the iPhone 3G launch.

Whereas before there was a small bulk of Apple Store employees working the line, they were all gone now. I think they were sensing frustration by us in line, so they hid inside. They didn’t come back out until after the system was booting back up. They probably didn’t want people to leave the line, so better not tell us until afterward that the system was overloaded.

That’s what happens when you are selling 500,000 new iPhones on launch day, offering a massive software update for the original iPhone, and the iTouch… and handling it all through iTunes — the uber Apple software product. Apple’s own little version of windows. You need to have the current version of iTunes to do anything.

The Apple Store employees told us it had to do with the West coast. With the time diffenrence, the Apple Store out west were opening and all those people were also trying to activate and upgrade. Smooth move, blame it “on the west.”

After awhile, the system must have come back up, because people were leaving with iPhones and more groups were being let in.

In the Store

Finally, a little after 12noon, I was in the store… in another line. Luckily this one was much shorter, about 8 people, but I kinda had it with lines at that point. But here’s my beef. There was no cheering for us. They cheered for the early groups, but not for us. I think even for them, the day was getting long.

A nice lady in an orange Apple shirt walked up to us and showed us a demo iPhone 3G and said, “You can play with it if you want.” I replied by saying, “Thanks, but I’ve been in line for almost 5 hours; I want to play with my own iPhone now.”

Gadget Porn

So now it was my turn. An Apple employee - a personal shopper - walked up and introduced himself. “Let’s get an iPhone in your hands,” he said.

I have to admit, they had been at it all day, dealing with a never ending line of customer, some of them probably frustrated at the wait in line and the system down time. Yes, they were no long cheering as people walked in, yet every employee inside the Apple Store seemed as happy and energetic as could be. Maybe the Apple Store employee are on the juice, Jose Conseco-style.

I picked out the version I wanted — 16GB, black — added in MobileMe subsciption and the purchase was done. It was quick and simple. Then I was handed off to another station to activate my new phone.

Surprise, the system was still down. The activation of the iPhone is nothing more than plugging it into iTunes. They were just doing it in-store before you could leave. So they attempted to do it once, and if it didn’t work, they sent you out the door and told you to do it at home.

So Apple sort of lied to us. They can be activated at home after all. Apple is sort of like President Bill Clinton — the more they lie to us, the more we love them. It’s some sort of masochistic relationship we have with them.

So, around 1:15, I was heading home an unactivated iPhone 3G.

iPhone Activation

What’s an iPhone that isn’t activated? A $299 brick. Until it’s activated, you can’t even use it as an iPod. So when I got home I plugged it into iTunes and… nothing. 10 minutes later, nothing. 10 minutes after that, nothing.

Anticipation turns into frustration as I contemplate the thought of having an iPhone that would be nothing more than a paperweight until the next day. Then, suddenly around 3:30PM, iTunes woke up and activated my iPhone.

Cherubs sang and rays of light bathed my weary soul from the skies above. I was now holding an actual working iPhone 3G. I could call people, txt and stuff. All things I could do from my old phone, actually, but this was cooler because Steve Jobs told us it’s cooler.

Up next… my review of the iPhone.

This past weekend I popped into my local Apple store to ask a few questions about the new iPhone. Particularly that if I wanted to get my hands on one, would I have to come early and stand in line. Here is what they told me:

Each store is still uncertain as to how many they will actually have. So they could all get a few metric tons of iPhones, or fewer. They don’t know yet and won’t know until the middle of next week.

Whether or not they have enough iPhones to make it the whole weekend has yet to be seen. That depends on demand. But the Apple store employee I talked to (who was there for the first iPhone launch) said they may not get their next iPhone shipment until the next week. So if they all sell out on Friday, it could be a few days before they get more in.

For the last iPhone launch, they did not go on sale until 6PM EST. The Apple stores closed at 4PM, then reopened at 6 and only sold iPhones after 6. They do not know yet if that will be the same, or if they will be available as soon as doors open.

UPDATE: new rumor, reported by MacLife, reports that Apple is preferring putting them on sale at 8AM. I suspect that means a few people will be taking sick days on July 11 to stand in line.

James and I might be among the line-standers. If anyone is interested in forming a small posse to stand together at the Columbus, Ohio store, let us know. We can have a Llama’s met up.