Posted: Jun 30, 07
9:59am
Despite the hype, I brought my 8 GB iPhone baby home after only 45 minutes of labor at 7 pm EST. Activation was another matter...
I debated whether to go the Michigan Avenue Apple Store (Chicago) for the "scene" and proximity to great bars to celebrate, or to the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Apple Store for the bad hair and fashion and easy parking, but opted instead for a Cingular superstore in the Rivertown mall about 35 minutes away. It struck me that the last time I was willing to stand in a long line was in the early 80's to buy tix for a Paul McCartney concert at the Greek theater.
I arrived at 6:15 pm and as so often has been the case in my career, was the only woman in a line of about 6 geeky-looking men, which length stayed fairly constant. The Applehead in front of me who looked like he had just rolled out of a tent at Woodstock, said the line had peaked at 40 while the store had shut down from 4:30 to 6:00 pm to prepare for iPhone sales. The burly security guard looked bored, and the greeter/cheerleaders had plastered on smiles. One of the greeters, a young blonde, was fielding calls, "everyone wants to know if we still have iPhones in stock." Apparently other Cingular stores were running out. She told me she was instructed not to tell callers how many they had, as even if they ran out they wanted people to come in and place an order. The boy cheerleader chimed in, that "it was Steve Job's plan to create an aura of mystery and excitement to further hype the launch." Not bad marketing analysis for a pretty boy from Hooterville, MI (oxymoron?).
After only a 15 minute wait, the attractive and helpful, 20-something, Sidra Tees, guided me through the complexities of switching two lines from T-Mobile to AT&T's family plan, while keeping the 415 number I've had for 10 years. I also wanted to keep my Motorola worldphone as a backup to the iPhone, but that involved more steps: I have to call T-Mobile to cancel the two lines and "unlock" my current two Motorola phones. In the meantime, she gave me a freebie Nokia to "hold" my old 415 number, which would remain my primary account number. Once T-Mobile unlocks my worldphone, I can switch the old 415 # to it, and then convert the freebie Nokia and another, oldie but goodie Motorola, to prepaid phones to donate or give away. She said I would get a new phone number for my iPhone upon iTunes activation, which would be the second line on my AT&T 2100 minute family plan. Sidra said it might take a few hours to fully switch my 415 number, but that activation on iTunes would "only take minutes."
The costs of the two plans are about the same, but you allegedly get better coverage and more services on the AT&T plan. I was paying $129/month for 2 lines on T-Mobile with 2400 minutes and no rollover. The cost for 2 lines on AT&T's 2100 minutes with unlimited data and rollover is $128/month with a 24 month commitment.
After adding a leather carrying case and car charger and shelling out $700 for the lot, I belted out a big "Woohoo," high-fived the cheerleaders, and walked out of the store at 7 pm EST, joyful at my purchase and loving the fact that I had my iPhone in hand hours before my Bay Area buddies--one of the bennies of having a house in "Am Arsch der Welt!" I made a beeline for the car so I could open the sealed bag.
The iPhone packaging is typical of Steve's insane attention to detail. It is a beautiful box to behold and hold, a smooth and sleek objet d'art, itself "un petit cadeaux d'advant." The iPhone is both lighter and slighter larger than I expected. Without activation is an elegant tabula rasa and great conversation piece.
Knowing I would have to wait a couple hours anyway to for the 415 number to switch, we stopped off at a friend's Friday open-invitation/dinner party/sunset watch at her lovely, French country style estate overlooking Lake Michigan. Of course, I brought my new baby with me. Everyone oohhed and aahhed over the box and the feel of the iPhone. Without activation, all I could do was explain how it would work. No one in the group had considered buying one. They thought me a bit strange to be so excited about buying an iPhone. It's a hard passion to explain to the uninitiated. I built my first computer in 1978 from a Heathkit. It was a Z-80 with all of 16K of RAM.
The iPhone is another milestone in a long line of great and not so great products I've owned courtesy of SJ. I had one of the first Apple II's (was Apple OEM #18), had a IIe, III, Lisa, Newton, worked on an early prototype of the Mac (the "Sand project" for Microsoft), had all versions of the early Macs, then all the NeXT machines (one of my companies was a major sw publisher for NeXT), owned all the iMacs and Powerbooks, up to my current MacBookPro and iPod. Of course I've owned scores of PCs along the way as well, but they were because I had to for work, not because I wanted them.
But after hearing all the iPhone can do and seeing its elegant footprint, Tony, Mayor of Saugatuck and former IT Director for Abbott, said he might have to get one as did my friend, Julie, an allergist, and gracious hostess of the Friday night event. The others either didn't want to switch carriers or would wait til the iPhone's price declined. At the last rays of a crimson sunset (about 10 pm), we headed home so I could activate my iPhone.
Activation is not for the faint of heart. First I had to download a newer version of iTunes and a couple of security patches and restart my MacBook Pro twice. Then I went on iTunes. The instructions are clear, but it took me awhile to figure out that Sidra had entered our Reno office address as the place of business. By 11:30 activation was underway and underway and underway. At midnight I had an email saying processing would take some more time so I went to bed. This morning, I awoke to an email that the iPhone processing was complete. After a few more clicks and entries, my iPhone was ready to go and fully synched with my iTunes library, contacts, calendars, etc.
Like any new computer, settings take bit of time to put in time zones, sound and wallpaper andn other preferences, stocks, maps, photos, etc, but I was quickly calling, texting, surfing and viewing YouTube videos. The speed is better than expected. Print size is small for serious web reading. Have to find out how to make it larger. Email is still not working so that's my next big project. All in all, I love my new iPhone and think it was worth every minute and every penny.
More to follow as I learn the tips and tricks.
