So here I am, waiting on line at the Apple Store in Soho:
And here it is, Friday's loot:
Nothing like some housewares to go with one's shiny new piece of technology!
I've been thinking about how I'm not generally an "early adopter" of technology, but then I remembered that my family was one of the first amongst those we knew to get a computer (a ZX Spectrum) and I was also carrying around a Palmtop before Palms and Blackberries and Treos really took off. I started my first website in 1996 and I had a blog before the word blog even existed.
Still, I was pretty late in getting a cell phone (I believe it was 98 or 99) and I never had the coolest one. And I have never had a fully fledged mobile e-mail device. I coveted the Blackberry when it first came out, but I've never worked for a firm that gave me one, and the natural upgrade from the Palm, the Treo, never really appealed to me.
The iPhone has been the first device of this kind to really seem to me worth getting for myself. The second computer my family got was a Mac and I've been on them ever since, including for seven years at my previous job. Oh I've had to use PCs too, and even owned one once myself when I was learning AutoCAD, but mostly I've been an Apple girl. I'm not particularly fanatical about it but I do love their products and plan on sticking with them for personal use.
I have to say, though, who knows when I would have succumbed to the lure of the iPhone myself? However, as I said, my lovely husband (also known on occasions such as these as Best Husband Ever), not only got me a MacBook Pro two birthdays ago, but he got me an iPhone before they even came out, in the form of a gift certificate!
And so it came to pass that on Friday morning at 8.55am I found myself standing on line outside the Apple Store in Soho.
So far, everything has gone incredibly smoothly. I tried not to spend too much time checking various message boards but I did see a lot of ranting and raving from frustrated owners who had difficulties with the activation process, and then were disappointed with the lack of features in the phone. I was almost going to wait for the initial furor to die down and order it online... I didn't want my vacation time to be sucked into a frustrating experience with this thing.
However, my husband encouraged me to go in when I saw they were available on Friday, I think more for his sake than mine - there's only so much vacillation one can observe in one's spouse!
So, at the store, there was a bit of a line, but it wasn't too bad, maybe 40 or 50 people ahead of me? The store opened at 9am and it probably took only 10 or 15 minutes more to get to the front of the line. We did hit a small snag - apparently, we were supposed to have tickets that were given out at around 8am in order to buy the iPhone before 10am. The woman behind me got VERY angry at this and claimed she'd been waiting for an hour already (as she arrived after me, I'm guessing that was a bit of an exaggeration). I really didn't see the point of making the experience into a negative one for both herself and those around her... and about three minutes later, they got hold of a supervisor who said it was fine to start selling them now to those without tickets. Honestly, I think I've stood on line longer at that store just on a regular day!
I met up with a friend who also bought some things (although not an iPhone) and when we left at around 10am or so, they still had a few left, so it really wasn't that big a deal. I see from the website that both Manhattan stores have them in stock now for tomorrow and as we know, I could easily have bought one at AT&T on the first day.
Anyway, on to activation which, as I mentioned, went really really smoothly! In under five minutes, I was up and running with my T-mobile phone number ported successfully over with no waiting period at all. Cancelling my old plan would cost more than keeping it running without bells and whistles for the remainder of my contract, so I was able to get a new phone number assigned to my SIM. That did take a couple of phone calls but that's all sorted now too!
Needless to say, I've been playing around with my new toy all weekend. I have to agree with pretty much all the complaints about lacking features (no search feature, no copy and paste, slow internet connection when not on wifi, no notes or to-do etc) but I can't say I really care because it's PRETTY and SHINY!!!!
And the internet looks amazing on it:
(Yup, that's my Ravelry site with all my projects.)
See, this device is primarily for my personal use. My job doesn't require constant access to e-mail and I'm really not going to volunteer it. I may see if I can get set up to get work e-mail but I plan on only using it during business hours ie whilst travelling and not on evenings and weekends.
So, it's really just for fun, and one of the things I've had a lot of fun doing is taking photos and e-mailing them to my family right away.
On the BQE (AT&T billboard in background unintentional!)
Torrential rain as we head to CT for the weekend:
But look, a rainbow!
And here we are at the lake:
I'm also looking forward to finally getting all my contacts organized and cleaned up and in one place, and although the calendar feature is pretty rudimentary, it's better than what I was struggling with on my old Palm.
We also already used the Google maps feature a lot this weekend.
Anyway, I don't know if anyone is interested, but if you'd like to see your website on the iPhone, post a comment with your URL and I will post photos!
