Today, as you are all aware, is iPhone 3G day. All across the land eager fans are waiting patiently in lines waiting for their chance to drop their hard-earned cash for a shiny new iPhone. Of course, I was one of them. Braving the wee hours and heading to my local Apple Store of choice, Sherman Oaks Fashion Square, I arrived around 6AM for an 8AM store opening.When I arrived there were about 50 people in front of me already waiting -- some with folding chairs and one or two even with sleeping bags. So, I got into line and waited. As time went on the line behind me got longer and longer and after about an hour they decided to move us all inside the mall to wait. That's where the real fun began.
Once inside, we waited for another hour and finally, to thunderous applause, the store opened and the first thirty people in line went in. As they did, a blue-shirted Apple employee went along the line telling us it should be about 15 minutes a person when inside the store to buy an iPhone and go through the activation process. Sadly, his estimate was a bit on the optimistic side.
It took almost 45 minutes for the first person who had gone in the store to exit with a new iPhone. So, my time inside the mall stretched on and on. Finally, after another hour, around 10AM at this point, I was let inside. Once inside, the process went relatively smoothly and I got my iPhone, opened it and connected it to a Mac with iTunes open for the "final" step of activation. At that point I felt my iPhone 3G saga would finally be at an end and I would be enjoying all the 3G goodness in just a few moments. Sadly, I was still to be denied.Activation via iTunes at the Apple store failed. And then failed again. And again. Finally, after about seven or eight attempts, a manager come over and told me just to take the iPhone home and connect it there. So, after about four hours total from arriving and getting in line to leaving the store, I still didn't actually have a working iPhone.
That was about 30 minutes ago. I've attempted activation at least three more times since arriving home and still no love from AT&T. So, for the moment, my brand new iPhone 3G is a relatively expensive paperweight. Perhaps AT&T will get its act together soon and this will all be over and my iPhone will actually work? I won't hold my breath.
Update: After another hour or so my iPhone got a text message from AT&T saying it had been activated. After that, the "activation" via iTunes went all the way through. Next. I was able to restore everything and the iPhone seems to be working fine now.
Couple other points: You will have to set up your voicemail again after activation completes, so hopefully you remember your password. I didn't. Fortunately, it can be reset at the AT&T website once you log in to your accout. And, it seems I don't have very good 3G coverage at my house, so I don't even know how well that works yet. More on that as I test out the iPhone.













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
7-11-2008 @ 2:33PM
totoro said...
Don't hold your breath, Chris.
I've been "activating" my original iPhone since 6:15 am. Still stuck on "Accessing iTunes Store".
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:54PM
Big John said...
Eh? It took ten minutes to connect and it was fine after that. Eject it and hook it back up.
7-11-2008 @ 4:12PM
totoro said...
What part of 6:15 am didn't you get? The fact you got it up in 10 minutes has nothing to do with what others experienced this morning. It took me 7 hours.
7-11-2008 @ 2:34PM
Rayne said...
For what it's worth, it's nothing with AT&T's systems. It's the server load on iTunes this morning.
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:35PM
Bill said...
Put blame where blame belongs. AT&T has very little to do with the mess. Apple did the activation stuff that is giving everyone fits (including me who is still waiting to "buy" the upgraded firmware for his ipod touch...)
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:36PM
Vince said...
Damn it, I just got home and it's not working.
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:38PM
Fred said...
Poor Baby, him did not anticipate large demand and load on Apple servers did him? Freakin' Whiner.
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:44PM
Vince said...
After paying over $400 for an iPhone, I expect that they should be set up to be able to activate them all quickly and efficiently. Quit whining about people who are pissed off.
7-11-2008 @ 2:55PM
Big John said...
I tend to agree, and I bought one! I don't know why people are so impatient about this. It's really annoying that this will go down as a 'disaster' when tons of people have had a perfect experience.
7-11-2008 @ 5:04PM
Fred said...
Hey Vince, as one of the suckers who paid $600 (well, $500) for my 1st gen I think I have earned my stripes, friend. You don't show up on launch day with expectations. Stuff is gonna break, things are gonna get overloaded. Of course if anyone had done that everybody would be decrying Apple as a failure and ripping the iPhone. It's a catch-22 for them either way. And I'm not upset that you're pissed, I'm annoyed with the self-righteous, "Apple has wronged me." attitude because you can't use your phone IMMEDIATELY! God, there was a time when you had to send these messages written on paper and it took days for people to get them, and if you wanted to talk on the phone you either did it from home or you were pumping quarters into a pay phone (well, except for Woz and Jobs.)
7-11-2008 @ 2:38PM
Alex said...
Did you have to sign up for a new contract even without activation or is that done at home?
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:40PM
matthieu said...
iphone 3g were already sold out when I got to the at&t shop. I preordered mine and it should be available in 3~5 days. Hopefully the activation will be working at this time.
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:40PM
thomas said...
I left and tired doing mine and went straight back when it didnt work. the manager at AT&T put me in before those waiting as I had been first in line. only about 30 people in line though.
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:46PM
Shaun said...
We were at the Apple store in Cincinnati this morning. They had just as many problems with connection problems on their handhelds to AT&T as they did with iTunes. In fact, our first phone went through the handheld part just fine, but the second one kept coming back with a server connection error. We stayed in the store for about an hour retrying before it finally went through. At that same time, some of the iTunes activations started working. At this point were in the same boat as many, both plans active, both phones bricked and singing "Accessing iTunes Store".
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:48PM
antangil said...
Mine activated about 10 minutes ago; every time I got the error message I made it start over again, and it took about 30 minutes of attention before it worked. Everything's going swimmingly now.
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:50PM
ryan said...
I am in canoga park, ca and they are activating phones at the topanga store. It is taking forever though. This is at 11 48 am
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:52PM
JaceFace said...
Took me just over 6 hours from arrival to departure. Now its been a bit over 2 hours trying to get the damned thing activated. To no avail, mind you.
I know its ATT that is to blame for having this situation, but I'm also pissed at Apple out of principle.
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:53PM
asg said...
yeah my wouldn't activate for about 30-45 mins i just kept quitting itunes and restarting and eventually it went through. everything's great with my 3g iphone now
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:54PM
theforeignexpert said...
Apologies for asking this in an only slightly relevant post, but isn't firmware 2.0 for the OG iPhone supposed to be out today, too? Maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part. iTunes still says 1.1.4 is the current version.
-Steve
www.theforeignexpert.com
Reply
7-11-2008 @ 2:55PM
Dave Wood said...
i got mine activated just about 20 mins ago. wouldn't connect to Rogers for some reason though, kept telling me the network was restricted, popped in my old sim instead of the new one that came with it, and it's working perfectly now.
Reply