Apple stores to close from 2 to 6 on Friday

I'm in New Jersey, I we get it first on the east cost, so I will try to get photos, I'll bring my Macbook Pro, and camera so i can use Apple's WiFi to register the iPhone, and take some pics and upload them. :D

@Randy

Unless the crowds are much smaller than expected, then Apple has huge egg on their face. I sincerely hope the hype will translate into sales b/c if it doesn't it will be a PR disaster for both Apple & AT&T.

Giant post-it note = genius.

Hey 6. The reason for the 6pm launch is simple: Publicity. Apple wants the mania to be seen all over everyone's 6 o'clock news. People will tune into their evening news hour that night and see scenes of long lines in front of Apple and AT&T stores, and crazed people happily waiting to get the new iPhone. And the mania will travel like a wave accross the country, because it releases at 6 o'clock local time in each time zone, so this coverage will be repeated every hour in a new time zone going east to west. This release time and the slow drip of new information each day is a well thought out and executed marketing plan by Apple. I think it's quite brilliant actually.

Some Apple Store, somewhere, has got to do the giant post-it note thing. A sheet of yellow poster paper and a giant Marks-a-lot and you've got a great visual gag.

PLEASE PLEASE someone run through a mall somwhere and YouTube it. That is the best idea i've heard in a long time!
I unfortunately live in the UK, so thats a no go!
Please.!?!?!?!?!

Hey 6.
I think it's to keep people from calling into work to get one (not that it's working) because they just figure they'll swing by the store after work.

But will there be a giant yellow Post-It note on the door?

I will not be buying an iPhone but I will hit the mall (en route from my day job to my night job) to check out the madness.

@Rick. Doesn't really matter, does it? I mean, you wont be GETTING the iPhone the second you buy it.

Does anyone else find it an odd coincidence that the iPhone and Pixar's Ratatoille come out on the same day. An why 6 PM? It would be much easier to start selling them on Friday morning or Saturday morning, after being able to set-up over night, instead of during normal shopping hours....

Dan