You decided to skip the lines on June 19th and now you just have to purchase an iPhone 3GS for yourself. If you're like some of our readers, you've found out the hard way that availability of the latest iteration of iPhone is limited. Wouldn't it be nice to know which Apple Stores actually have the devices in stock before you hop in the Family Truckster, drive through traffic, and only then find out that they're out of iPhones?

The best way to avoid bitter disappointment is to use the newly posted iPhone 3GS availability page on the Apple website. Just select your state (sorry, it's US-only at this time) and a list of all of the Apple stores will appear with little green (got 'em!) or red (sorry...) icons matched to the model of iPhone 3GS that is your current object of desire. In the example shown above, most Colorado Apple Stores seem to have a good selection with the exception of the Twenty Ninth Street store in the People's Republic of Boulder.

Now that you can find out with a quick glance where the 3GS is available, what are you waiting for? Grab that credit card and go!

I just got back from the Apple Store and am now the proud owner of an iPhone 3G S 32 GB in basic black. I can't wait to get at it, but before dive in, I want to write a bit about the experience.

Driving to the Apple store at the Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington, NY, I drove past an AT&T store which had no line and very few cars in the parking lot. When I got to the Apple store, it was a different story. There was a bit of a line or actually two lines, but nothing big. When I got to one of the Apple reps at the start of the line, I was asked if I pre-ordered. I had, and my name was on the list. I was told to stand on a line of only five people, the other line of people who had no pre-ordered numbered fourteen.

It was about 1:50 pm when I got there and I was curious to see how the Apple experience would differ from what I was accustomed to. The last few times I bought a cellphone, it was a slow, laborious process where the store rep had to take a ton of information from me, get a credit check, wait, find a phone, wait, get more information from me, wait, take the phone to the back to infuse it with life by chanting arcane spells and pushing arcane buttons, wait, hear a canned sales pitch on how the phone would be absolutely no good without a dozen or so accessories that they would be very happy to sell me, refuse, wait, sign a sheave of documents, wait, get the okay, a shopping bag and a receipt and finally leave the story after well over an hour. Let's see how Apple does it.

While waiting in the line with a bottle of Poland Spring Water given to me by an orange-shirted rep, I struck up a conversation with Angelo Vergara who was trading in his three month-old 16 GB model for the same capacity in a 3G S. He told me a story that made me do a double-take. Angelo could have upgraded a year ago according to his contract, but didn't. Instead, he bought his iPhone 3G a few months ago. To upgrade it would cost him $399. That sounded a bit steep. I asked him why he couldn't just cancel his contract, sell the 3G iPhone and pay the early termination fee, and then start a new contract along with paying only $199 for his new phone. He told me that doing so would lose his phone number which he was not wont to do. The net dollars spent would be close, but it seems like he was caught in an odd concatenated AT&T policy. When I got to the front of the line, I asked Jane, my sales rep if this was, in fact, policy and she told me it was. Seems somewhat fishy though.

I was at the Aspen Grove Apple Store in Littleton, CO today for the annual iPhone event, and shot some video while I was there.

In contrast to 2007 and 2008, the lines were much shorter. It appeared that everyone was walking away from the store happy and with an iPhone 3G S in their hands.

I will return later today (or early tomorrow; it depends on how long it takes to activate the new phone) with another tradition -- the unboxing video. Be sure to check back for some unboxing fun!

Of course, like many people, I just had to have a 3G S, so my old 3G phone is off to NextWorth. I got to my local Apple Store (La Encantata Mall) about 6:30 AM, and there were about 30-35 people in line. There were 2 lines actually, one for people who reserved an iPhone, and one for those that had just come to buy. The lines were certainly shorter than with the 3G roll out. This mall is not enclosed, but the iPhone gods smiled upon us and gave us a cool morning in the 70's. Not our usual Arizona broil.

Line dynamics are interesting. iPhone owners were telling the newbies how much they'll love their new purchase. Experienced iPhone owners were trading tips with less experienced users, and I even saw one guy checking TUAW for the latest news. Nice.

One thing I noticed was that a lot of the people in line had BlackBerry or other brands of cell phones. My recollection of the last upgrade was that most people getting the 3G were replacing generation 1 phones. That's anecdotal, but that's what I saw.

One guy in line told me he worked at a hospital and that he wasn't allowed to get an iPhone until it had remote wipe. Now, his IT guys have blessed the purchase.

Read on...

Apple and AT&T are preparing for the launch of the iPhone 3G S on June 19th by opening their doors early. Specifically, many Apple Stores will be open at 8:00 AM. Of course, the phones will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis, so standing in line with your credit card might not guarantee you a handset on launch day. Go through the pre-order process if you're concerned.

Additionally, AT&T stores have setup pre-ordering online, and customers who take advantage will be able to show up at 7:00 AM. For more detail about AT&T's plans, check out Seth's video above.

Good luck, shoppers. Is it crazy that I want the white one?

[Via MacNN]

New York City's flagship Apple Store, located on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, is doing tremendous business. According to The New York Post, that store raked in $440 million in one year. Of course, the location doesn't hurt. It's right by Central Park and the huge, glass cube is a real tourist draw.

The Post also notes that the SoHo store pulled in $100 million, but didn't provide any stats on the West 14th Street store. In the meantime, construction has begun on what's rumored to be a fourth NYC store, expected to open at the corner of 67th and Broadway on Manhattan's Upper West Side later this year. If that store and a rumored Brooklyn store are opened, NYC would boast six stores total (including the Staten Island store).

Apple intends to open 25 new stores for fiscal year 2009, half of them outside the United States.

[via AppleInsider]

We've been inundated with emails today talking about the two international Apple Store openings.

The first new store is in Zurich, Switzerland. Reader Greg sent us a link to his Flickr gallery with plenty of documentation of the new Bahnhofstrasse store. Here's a pic of part of the huge crowd just before the opening:

Police say an inebriated man threw a brick at the front window of Chicago's Magnificent Mile Apple Store on Tuesday night. The man also broke another window a short distance away.

A Tribune photo shows a single broken panel of glass in front of one of Apple's "giant iPhone" displays. From the photo, it looks as if the brick did not go through the glass, and the display appears unharmed.

Robert Grilly, 61, of Chicago was booked on two misdemeanor counts of criminal property damage, Chicago PD said.

Thanks, Paul!

Chicago's Halsted Street will soon be the site of a unique Apple Store -- the first with three sides exposed. When seated on the odd piece of land, the store will offer visibility from every direction and 650 linear feet of storefront.

As you can see from the map at right, the architects at Bohlin Cywinski Jackson have a tough task ahead with this project. ifoAppleStore.com wants to know, how would you design this store? They're running a contest now to find the most interesting or clever design. Submit your drawing to gary@ifoAppleStore.com by June 15, 2009, and the winner will receive a $100 Apple gift card.

They note that you needn't worry about the store's interiors in your drawing. Note that Apple's chunk of property is 215 feet on Clybourn Ave., 220 feet on Halsted St., 123 feet on W. North Ave., and a curving 81 feet at the back of the transit station.

Have fun and good luck!

When I was a young lad in Scranton, Pa, pierogi in one pocket and anthracite coal in the other, my mother and I would wait for the Colts bus in front of the Globe Department Store. Now, before you assume that this post will be nothing more than endless, irrelevant Andy Rooney-style sentimentality from Dave, I'll tell you that it's only in the first two paragraphs.

The Globe staff created ornate window displays with those animatronic figures that seemed festive at the time but would later scare the daylights out of me. I was reminded of Scranton and The Globe last winter during a visit to Boston's Boylston Street Apple Store, where I photographed the elf at right. The adjacent window had a similarly-stylized Santa holding an iPhone, and both were very cute with a 1960's claymation appeal.

The Association for Retail Environments must have liked them as well, as they awarded Apple's "Holiday Santa iPhone" window display "Best Visual Presentation," along with the "Back to School" and "Cherry Blossom Nano" displays. You can read more details on the awards here or download a PDF with additional details. Well done, Apple!

Just this week, Apple was granted permission to fly a 19.5 square-foot flag at the forthcoming Santa Barbara, CA Apple Store. The only other Apple Stores to have a flag London's Regent Street and Pasadena, California. The odd thing is that the flag will be this store's only external sinage.

When Apple was developing the store on Boston's Boylson Street, they had trouble getting the facade approved by the Back Bay Architectural Commission and went through several revisions before everyone was satisfied. The Santa Barbara store, which is likely to open next month, will be California's 43rd location.

[Via ifoAppleStore]

Yes, the Apple Store is currently down -- which either means new gear on the way or nothing at all. We'll keep you posted. Engadget is suggesting (via MacRumors) it'll be a 4GB iPod shuffle. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

After extended delays and much anticipation, the Greensboro, NC Apple Store at Friendly Center finally opened its doors yesterday to paying customers.

The photo here is courtesy of the Iconfactory's Talos Tsui, who appears momentarily in this local news coverage from prior to the store open; unfortunately, his colleague Gedeon Maheux is misidentified as "Corey Marion" in the clip. Whoops! Perhaps that lingering closeup on the Twitterrific icon in the store window will help soothe the pain.

You can check out all the Greensboro excitement from those who were there:

• The Triad's newspaper story
• iPhone Savior's post
• Before and after stories from the News & Record (money quote: "'Welcome home,' general manager Dave Arnold shouted to the crowd before letting the first customer inside...")
• More photos from Frijole, and his tumblog of the campout

The store's official page, with event schedule and directions, is at Apple's retail site. See Talos' video from inside the store in the second half of the post.

We've been waiting for this opening for a long time. Way back in July, we posted a photo of what (we thought) was the Greensboro store. It turned out to be a Williams-Sonoma.

Next the launch date got pushed back, as Apple decided to make an even larger store than what was originally planned. This time, we've got official word.

Apple Store Friendly Center (doesn't that sound nice?) will open Saturday the 21st at 10:00 AM. This store is located at 3320 West Friendly Center in Greensboro. If you attend this opening, lets us know! We'd love to see your photos and stories.