Troutmaster

Got An iPhone

For those of you who know Timber and me, you may wonder which of us is more into Apple stuff (aka drinks the Apple Kool-Aid). At this point I don't know because she uses the stuff all day at work and is immersed in it while I ditch my thinkpad for a macbook and iPhone whenever I can. But that issue aside, when the iPhone came out I had originally planned on buying two, selling them on eBay for a hefty profit, and then buying one later (when they were available again) with the profits. Great plan right? Well, when it got released on Friday (6/29) I watched the news, blogs, and ebay starting at 3 PM PST to see what would happen. My plan would only work if there was much more demand than supply. So as I watched them pop up on eBay and checked the news I couldn't find any information about the iPhones selling out. And then right at 6 PM PST when the Online Apple Store started selling them I snapped up two 8 Gb iPhones, but the shipping estimate was 2 - 4 weeks. That's when I started to have serious doubts about my great business plan. :-) Then Timber came home from work around 9 PM and wanted to head to the Valley Fair Apple Retail Store (they stayed open until midnight) to see the spectacle. I didn't really feel like going because I had to get up early the next day but she eventually talked me into it. We got there at 10:30 PM and the store wasn't packed but it was pretty full. I immediately noticed that there were WAY more Apple employees than normal, probably 4x. I also noticed that there was no line to buy an iPhone. So I bought one because I figured my plans were shot and I'd just get one for myself and call it a day. So I went to the back of the store, walked up to the counter and bought an 8 Gb iPhone without having to wait. I think the people that did wait in line can make themselves feel better by telling themselves that they were part of a spectacle. But it kind of makes me laugh. So after Timber and I got back home we debated my eBay plan a little bit more before deciding to pop the cork and play with the iPhone. The thing that really put us over the top was the fact that there were almost 8k of them for sale on eBay. The packaging was typical for Apple in that it was nicely packaged and attractive. They really pay attention to small details. After taking a few obligatory pictures we hooked it up to the computer and walked through the steps in iTunes to set it up. iTunes then told me that it would take a little bit of time to enable the phone and then I went to bed. The next morning I checked it before I had to leave and it still hadn't been enabled. No biggie. I went to play airsoft with Devin and then when I got back I saw an email saying that I needed to call AT&T because there was a problem. I called them and worked out the issue and then they started the process all over again. To make a long story short it took 48 hours for the iPhone to be enabled. And to further compound my frustration I couldn't do ANYTHING on the iPhone until AT&T enabled it. AT&T sucks and I would have gone with another wireless provider at this point if I had a choice. I wish there was some way for Apple to get out of their 5 year exclusive contract with AT&T because AT&T did not live up to their portion of the agreement. So it was the most high tech pet rock/paperweight I've ever had until it got enabled. Luckily it did eventually get enabled and that pain the ass is slowly fading in my memory. So what it worth it? Does it live up to the hype and cost? Yes (enthusiastically) to both questions. I think it surpasses the hype. What I told my coworkers this week when they came to my office to check it out is that there are plenty of things that the iPhone doesn't do including:
1. GPS
2. You can't buy songs directly off of iTunes from it.
3. It doesn't have any extra memory slots.
4. You can't remove the battery. -> You can, just not easily
5. It only works with AT&T. -> currently being hacked
6. You can't remove the sim card -> you can pretty easily
7. Lots more

But my response to these points was in the form of a question. What other cell phone/music player/movie player/email/internet/etc... device has all that stuff? None. And to top that what the iPhone does (video iPod, email, web browsing, YouTube, stocks, weather, notes, calendar, 2 MegaPixel camera, pictures, phone, etc...) it does exceedingly well. Seriously, as Ferris Bueller says in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), " If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up". Thus far the words that I can think of to describe the iPhone are:
unbelievable
freakin' awesome
frickin' sweet

So if you aren't convinced yet and want to check it out come by my office next week to play with it. :-)

Posted by troutm8 at July 3, 2007 10:40 PM