The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

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.