After Border, I went to bed at about 2:30, and unintentionally woke up at 4. I then could not fall back asleep for an hour, and decided to do at 5 what I had been planning to do at 6:30—ship into town and buy a launch day iPhone.
I nabbed the first T into town amidst a light drizzle, and parked in line at about 5:45. I’d say I was 25th in line. The first seven looked like they had spent the night. Over the course of the next hour or so, I received free water, granola bars, coffee, izze drinks (apple flavor, of course), and an opportunity to win an Apple gift certificate if I had the most apps on my iPhone. I thought I was doing okay with 64. The guy in front of me had 134.
As the clock struck 7, they opened the doors, and ushered us in to the cheers and applause of store employees—Tyler’s dream scenario. After a short wait on the second floor, I got a one-on-one new iPhone session from an employee, in which I chose and activated a 32GB black version. I also picked up a discounted $69 MobileMe extension, normally $99. Total price for the day, with tax: $602.95 (f*** AT&T). I choked a little bit on this, and the Apple guy gave me some sympathetic reassurance. I did sell my old one on ebay for $380, and this was my belated birthday gift—I don’t just drop coin like this all the time.
I cradled it in the box through the driving rainstorm on the way home, and really played with it for the first time in my room.
I am a huge Apple fan, but I have to say, the upgrade is better than I expected. It’s really, really fast. Like, world-changingly so. I never thought the 3G was running slowly, but this blows it away. The voice control actually works really well, and has gotten 90+% of stuff I’ve said so far. It will surely become my favorite thing to play with while in d-town. Video is impressively high quality, and the autofocus camera works very well. All in all, I am really pleased and enjoy using this thing even more. I’m also glad to have checked off the “got up early for an iPhone on launch day” item on my nerd to-do list.
