While the original iPhone 2G's shiny metallic backing was powdered by the uber-chopper, the iPhone 3G's plasticky backing, counter-intuitively, survived pretty much in one piece (one really thrashed piece, granted).
Macenstein claims their birdy pointed out "Apple never said it was plastic."
However, Steve Jobs said just that during the WWDC 2008 Keynote (at roughly the 1:26:20 mark in the podcast version): "It's got a full plastic back."
So I ventured out to an Apple Store yesterday hoping that since the iPhone 3G was a couple days old that I could easily grab one. No, not for me. For the girlfriend and my sister. I could have gone to the AT&T store only a few blocks away but whenever Apple releases a new product I prefer the full Apple experience at an Apple Store (Brea, CA); it’s just more complete that way. Expecting to get some hands on time with the iPhone 3G and pick up the Macbook Air again, I was pretty excited to get to the store.
As I cheerily walked through the mall eagerly anticipating the iPhone 3G, I stopped dead in my tracks. There was at least a 100-person line that stretched multiple storefronts! The Apple Store Employee ‘in-charge’ estimated the line to be a 5-hour wait! This was a Monday afternoon, didn’t people have work to do?
But it gets better (read: worse).
Read on for the rest of this very weird Apple Store Experience!
Given the general sluggishness and overall er... crashing issues many -- including us -- have raised about the new iPhone 2.0 update, it can't come as any surprise that Apple is prepping a 2.0.1.
But could we already have confirmation? Intrepid Boy Genius Reporters scoured their server logs and came across:
We had sort of been expecting that the iPhone 3G would be more difficult to unlock because it would be impossible to walk out of a store without signing a contract and activating the iPhone. We all know how that worked out on launch day -- iPhones were flying about unactivated anyway. Honestly, given that the 2.0 software has already been fully pwned (read: opened up, jailbroken, made to serve the whims of hackers everywhere), the early unlocking really should be no surprise.
Greg "Joz" Joswiak, Apple's head of iPod and iPhone marketing shed some light on the iPhone 3G/2.0 and some of its highly requested, yet still missing functionality, like where's our ability to select text, cut it or copy it, and paste it?
Apple has a priority list of features, and they got as far as they could down that list with this model
Why isn't there a constant yet ever-so-slightly-disappointed voice telling us we missed our last ten exists and threatening to "re-calculate"?
[T]here are some murky "complicated issues" preventing driving directions apps at the moment. "It will evolve. I think our developers will amaze us."
If Casey saw some bad experiences at the Apple Store, these poor people's experience can only be described as horrendous. Short version? Lady gets defective iPhone 3G, brings it back to Apple, Apple drops it, Apple tries to give her a new one, AT&T says sorry, nope, no activation for you! Apple ends up eating the price difference (good on Apple, boo hiss to AT&T), AT&T pockets the ill-gotten gain.
And telco's wonder why they routinely bottom out the customer satisfaction charts?
The App Store went live last week (what day exactly depends on whether you snuck in to iTunes 7.7 and snooped around on your own, or waited for the official links to surface), tying in to the iPhone 3G and 2.0 software launches. How'd it do? According to Steve Jobs:
“The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days. Developers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and iPod touch user instantly.”
Probably why Apple has finally started putting a dent in its backlog of developer acceptances, eh? But is all happy in App Land? Nope. Find out why after the break...
Could last Friday have been any more massive for Apple? Following on the heels of slew of preparatory updates including OS X 10.5.4 and iTunes 7.7, the transition from .Mac to Mobile Me, and -- oh, yeah -- the highly anticipated launch of the iPhone 3G hardware (see Dieter's review), Apple also dropped a little something called the 2.0 firmware. Available pre-baked in the new iPhone 3G, Apple didn't spare the love for owners of the original iPhone 2G who receive it as well as a FREE downloadable upgrade, as do owners of the iPod Touch (minus the phone, camera, SMS, and GPS functionality, and the FREE part -- $10 please).
The 2.0 firmware was first demonstrated back at the Apple iPhone SDK Roadmap event in March 2008 and immediately went through a very long, very public beta process where almost anyone could sign up and download it. In spite of the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), during the 8 different betas released to developers, many new features that weren't originally demonstrated still leaked out all of the interwebs. But did all of them?
3 days. That's how long it took Apple and their carrier-partners to sell one million iPhone 3Gs. Says Apple CEO Steve Jobs:
"iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend. It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”
