[X4U] Sent From My iPhone...

[Peter Zimowski]

Thought I'd weigh in with my iPhone experience....

My wife and I lined up outside an AT&T store in sleepy Cooks Corner, Maine (halfway between Brunswick and Bath on Rte. 1 - you know the place) at 1:00 PM on iDay.  A couple of folks from our local MUG (MMOOS - Maine Macintosh Owners & Operators Society) were there as well, so we took up the first six places in line.  By 4:00 PM there were 20+ folks there.  Several of the people were on their way to vacation homes up the coast before the holiday weekend, and smartly chose an "out in the boonies" store to plant themselves in front of.

Right at 4:30 PM the doors closed, and the AT&T folks set up the iPhone display and spent a lot of time themselves playing with the two demo units.  I think they were a bit unsure as to what to do with the crowd - the last time there was any kind of crowd in that area was when a bank robber had a shoot-out with Brunswick PD in the parking lot.  Anyway, they did have a sign out front announcing the 6:00 PM reopening, and a couple of rent-a-cop security types.

At 6:00 PM (now about 50 people in line) they came outside and brought in only enough people to go right up to sales staff and buy.  My wife and I were first in line, and each grabbed an 8GB model.  It took about 10 minutes to check us out, as we were the first customers for the salesman, and he had to read us the agreements.

We hung around outside to chat with friends way back in the line who had no chance of getting an iPhone, then skeedaddled home.  I figured I could be home and activating before most other front-liners had even left the malls.

My wife wanted to keep her Verizon number, so I activated hers first.  I started at 7:05 PM.  The email announcing her activation arrived the next morning at 9:30 AM.

About 8:30 PM I activated mine, deciding I could learn a new AT&T number, and had very few folks who actually had my old number...  In 20 minutes I was activated with a new phone number, and had synced the iPhone with all my stuff.  Sweet.

I love the thing.  It does everything it says it will do flawlessly.  It makes you an instant celebrity, as everyone wants to touch it.

I had changed my .Mac mail over to IMAP in anticipation of the iPhone and it works great.  I spend less time on my MacBook Pro during the day, as I can check mail with the iPhone, then go to the MBP if I have to type something long - like this post...

In a WiFi environment (like my house), web surfing and YouTube videos (a surprisingly delightful diversion) are adequately fast.  The EDGE network is borderline bearable, but the iPhone is always looking for WiFi networks to join.  On the van ride from the airport to the hotel in San Diego (I'm an airline pilot by trade) it wanted to join every WiFi along the way.

I tried today to share the internet connection on my MBP on ethernet-connected broadband hotel room access.  While the iPhone saw the network, displaying the symbol, it wouldn't load any web pages.  Hmmmm.

Oh, Shawn, great cameo on the Pogue video (don't quit your day job, though, which is being a voice of reason here on the list... :-))

TTFN,

Pete