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AT&T Vs. Apple Store At the iPhone Launch
MBCook tips an article at Gizmodo that begins with a reader's experiences trying to buy an iPhone yesterday at an AT&T store and an Apple store. Many, but not all, of the comments on the post echo this reader's experience: Apple good, AT&T bad. "Day one revealed what all Apple aficionados fear. That AT&T, through the depths of its incompetence, could derail the iPhone."
I feel especially bad for the people who waited in line for hours, only to have their iPhone be useless for several more hours as they waited for it to activate.
The NEO1973 is arriving July 9th. At least, the early-bird version is, without WiFi. The WiFi, official version arrives in October.
I'm pretty damned happy. I've been waiting a long time.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
i was trying to be classy calling them colleagues, but technically they're employees at a company in which I own a majority stake. i've chosen to purchase the iphone for them as I believe it benefits their productivity. but thanks for assuming the worst.
ACing this because i don't feel like wasting karma on you.
That's because that character of Tomlin's, Ernestine the Phone Operator, pre-dates SNL: It goes back to Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in.
Here's a clip from The Cher Show.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Um, clearly you have no idea how the whole release worked. There was ZERO activation in the stores; everything is done through iTunes. The only thing that was performed (and it was optional--could also be done online) was a credit check that all mobile providers conduct.
So precisely how can the AT&T 'monkeys' panic over activation?
I'm not sure what market everyone else was in, but in my small Tennessee town, it couldn't have been a smoother purchase. I walked into the AT&T store Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm, they had 4 8gb, 4 4gb iPhones in-stock. I needed to transfer my number form my dad's account (I've been paying the bill for the last 2 years) and possibly pay a deposit for a new contract under my name with my old number. It took me about 15 minutes on the phone with a transfer rep. and less than 5 minutes to confirm everything was correct (with no deposit) to get in and out. Got home, activated the phone in about 5 minutes; everything works perfectly with my new awesome phone. They couldn't have been more helpful at the AT&T store; looks like a case of YMMV.
iPhones were not activated in ATT stores, you had to take it home and use iTunes like everyone else.
You mean the FIC Neo1973. OpenMoko is the software stack.
The "go to an AT&T store" was just a buzz-building maneuver. The entire quote, in context, was something like (I'm paraphrasing), "If you want to get an iPhone, you should go to an AT&T store. A lot of people are going to go to the Apple stores because they don't realize they're also for sale at AT&T stores, so if you go to an AT&T store, you'll have a better chance of getting one." That's just an attempt at a self-fulfilling prophecy (for vast lines at Apple)--and evidently, it worked. There were also vast lines at some AT&T stores, of course--Steve made the remark hoping to equally overflow BOTH outlets.
Apple's reputation is also more compatible with the "line up, stay overnight in line, and be on the news when the store opens" hoopla than AT&T's reputation is. By the way, the AT&T stores in Spokane, WA were indeed selling actual iPhones, although the AT&T kiosk in Moscow, ID was selling the vouchers.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
I did the AT&T line thing from around noon on and it went well. They had around 60 8G units and I was around #40 so my wait was worth it.
Quite a few people were holding places for bosses, parents and spouses. Most of the people seemed to be Mac users. Everyone was in a good mood and it made the time pass.
The Store was great, good attitudes all the way around, I gave them a credit card they gave me a phone. Can't get much easier than that. They told us ahead of time that the # accessories was limited and tried to set expectations. We were told ahead of time that they would only sell one phone per person which I think really helped.
Online activation was easy, note that I'm a current AT&T customer so that may account for something.
The phone is nice and it's easier to learn to type on than doing Graffiti (sp) on my old Treo. The edge works as I expected (note: I spend a lot of time in a non-3G area so that wasn't a problem). The voice quality is good according to friends I've talked to.
For those out there that don't like it, don't buy one. Most of the arguments against it (it's going to cost $$$ over 2 years, like I won't have a phone otherwise) are just silly but such is the world it seems.
Of course, today my Nokia 770 arrived (from the Woot last week) so now I have two toys to play with...
Digging through the manual, calling 611 to get help, and googling all take about 2 hours to figure out a new phone. Some people waited in line for days.
Think about that. You were more willing to stand around for 4 to 10 hours, than spend 2 hours learning.
I believe that sums up Mac people's inclination to pay more for the same computer, but with a marginally better user interface. They are just massively lazy in a weird kind of autistic, neurotic way. Like a kleptomaniac who will work all week to steal a day's honest pay, they will work all day to avoid having their pristine little creative minds intruded upon with evidence of humanity's general stupidity.
Not that there is anything wrong with that, as long as they are spending their own money. When you have a mac-addict girlfriend you have to do a lot less free sys admin work to do. Never give them an "ibook loan" though.
I've never spent any time reading the manual for any of my phones and I've never had a problem with any of them. Surprisingly enough, there are also several operations that my phones can perform that the iPhone can't. A phone that can't be used as a modem, that has no accessible filesystem, no IM, no junk mail filters and doesn't even have a development kit outside of web applications isn't even an option for me. I think a lot of the people pushing this "using any phone besides the iPhone is HARD" idea are just trying to find a way to justify their purchase.
And yes, I've used an iPhone. While it was fairly nice, I wasn't overly impressed and definitely not enough to buy it over other phones on the market.
That's funny. I thought there was a limit of two iPhones per person. Hmmmm?
I own a Nokia E61. You will be very disappointed with a Nokia smartphone - buggy, crap features, etc. I was completely surprised at the shoddy execution.
I'm guessing that in the UK you get return rights, tho. Make sure that you do.
The more automation you have the more important the people you have are. If your workers don't care for quality you wont get it from the machines either,