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!
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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?
Check out the whole sad, crazy tale over at the Consumerist…
Live in the USA and want an iPhone 3G? Better get up early! We already told you how AT&T stores would be opening up at 8am sharp, and now Apple Stores will be following their lead. (And if you’re in NYC and want to get it at the giant glass cube flagship, the line-up has already started, so hurry up and get your spot behind the hippies!)
As to what you’ll pay for an iPhone 3G, we’ve already covered how taking the contract price and then canceling may well be cheaper than trying to buy it unsubsidized, but now there’s word that even if you don’t qualify for the new or upgrade price, there may just be some dirty tricks a way around it (provided you don’t mind playing fast and loose with the rules, and have a friend with an iPhone SIM card and the will to let you active with it…)
Either way, make sure you’re iReady, figure out what you’re going to do with your old iPhone 2G, and get ready for Friday!
Apple Insider claims to have gotten their hands on a three page memo from Apple to Apple Store staff containing a form of Frequently Asked Questions. We say “a form” because the officially dictated answers to almost all customer questions are pretty much variations on “we dunno.”
Highlights include:
- No holding iPhone 3G’s
- First come, first serve
- No personal shopping reservations
- No info regarding upgrades
- iPod Touch is competitive due to lack of contract requirement
- No info on future iPod Touch price drops
- Talk to AT&T about activations
- Talk to AT&T about corporate and bulk purchases
- Talk to AT&T about roaming
- Wait for AT&T to release detailed rate plans
Apple also reminds staff that loose lips sink ships. (They’re not to speculate beyond the meager amount of information already released to the public.)
Should be easy, given that it’s only a few weeks before release, and we still know so very little…
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BoomBoom. BoomBoom.
Would, for Kiefer’s sake, that it was an episode of 24 and he could just ask the writers to script him in a tasty new iPhone 3G (or just work out a product placement with Apple). Sadly, in the real world, no matter who you might think you are, how entitled a cele-bratty you may have become, and how much fiction has become substantially linked with fact in your braid, no one — and we mean no one — plays the snob card better than Apple.
So, if you walk into a New York Apple Store and demand the manager give you a pre-lease iPhone 3G, even if you’re the star of a decreasingly popular, increasingly formulaic serial drama, don’t expect to leave with anything more than a perfectly balance, elegantly finished, state-of-the-art DENIED for your trouble.
(Most likely, the manager, like 99% of other Apple employees, hasn’t even held the iPhone 3G yet, much less been given a secret stash to pass on to celebrity walk ins. Either that or the manager must have feared Kiefer would try to unlock the iPhone right there in the store. He is, after all, a well known pirate… Video proof after the break…)
Update: Or maybe not: Jules lets us know in the comments that it was all just a fun game by The Defamer. Still any chance to watch Kiefer take down a Christmas tree is one worth taking. – Dieter
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We repeat, this is not a drill! The Apple Store is Down! Reports are flooding in from all over the globe… Details are sketchy but authorities urge everyone to stay calm and proceed to TiPb where live meta-blog coverage of Steve Jobs’ WWDC 2008 Keynote will begin soon.
Now find your loved ones. Cling to them. And hold to hope. The Apple Store WILL be back. And it will once again restore your childlike sense of wonder.
Boom-time approaches people…
First up, Engadget reportedly got their techie mitts on a leaked version of the iPhone’s (final?) 2.0 firmware and are kind enough to share the following juice details:
Infineon PMB6952 / S-GOLD3 six-band UMTS / HSDPA transceiver (as we’d heard)
- Murata LMRX3JCA-479 tri-band amplifier (we’re assuming for the 3G)
- Sony SP9T antenna switch for GSM / UMTS dual mode
- ARM 1176JZF-S – Main CPU (same as in 1st gen iPhone)
- Skyworks 77427 chip – UMTS / HSDPA tx 1900MHz, rx 2100MHz
- Skyworks 77414 chip – UMTS / HSDPA 1900MHz
- Skyworks 77413 chip – UMTS / HSDPA 850MHz
- Internal build model number: n82ap (1st gen iPhone was model m68ap)
- UMTS Power Saving option – on or off
- Hooks for Global Locate Library (GLL), software that handles A-GPS related commands for the host processor
No processor speed bump is a downer, as everything from video size to MobileSafari rendering speeds are CPU bound tasks. Am I saying bye-bye to my 720p 480p dreams? And will Webkits spiffy new SquirrelFish Javascript engine make up for at least some of this (if it’s included, come showtime?)
Next is word from Ars Technica that Apple Stores have received “secret” shipments and new display signs under strict orders (and lock and key!) not to be opened until D… er… WWDC day. Whatever it is Apple’s announcing tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, it just may be in the building…
Okay, so their names weren’t really Harold & Kumar (Fukaba and Vincenti, for the record), but then again it doesn’t really sound like they were banned for life from the Apple Store as initial Interwebs rumor mongering suggested, b’okay?
Seems some Palo Alta teens were waiting for a classmate, ducked into the Apple Store to burn some time, and ended up getting burned instead. You know the story, boy finds iPhone, boy Jailbreaks iPhone, boy downloads Raging Thunder, to show another boy, Apple Store management, security, police, and parents become involved and hilarity ensues. (Though perhaps not for our hapless hax0rs and their two friends).
Fake Steve has the full fake details on what sounds to me like a bit of a fake — or more accurately overblown — story.
Hopefully no iPhones were bricked in the course of these shenanigans and the boys will be back to giving all their money to Apple again in the near future.
24 hours. 7 days a week. 365 1/4 days a year.
That’s how often the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in New York City is open. Don’t know which one I’m talking about? The big glass cube on the most expensive street in the world! This flagship store is perhaps the brightest jewel in Apple Retail, often hosting performances from the likes of Maroon 5 & Linkin Park and becoming a new landmark for tourists to visit in the city that never sleeps. It’s open all day, everyday.
Well, if you don’t count today.
The Apple Store on 5th Ave. is closed from Thursday, May 29 3:00 p.m. to Friday, May 30 9:00 a.m. Apple Store Employees have been telling customers that a commercial is being filmed and reports are floating around saying its a 3G iPhone commercial. Remember, Apple doesn’t close this store for any old reason, the only times it has been closed before: the original iPhone launch and the release of Leopard. Hmm..
What do you think?
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Well known consumer-friendly site, the appropriately named Consumerist, brings the confessions of an anonymous Apple Specialist. While these cover everything Apple sells, from Macs to iPods, they certainly apply to the iPhone.
Top tips? If you can’t reset or restore your iPod (or iPhone!), it’s done. AppleCare extends your warranty, that’s it. .Mac and ProCare may not be worth the cash, but One-to-One is a deal. If your item (and iPhone?) is outside the return date, Apple may take it back if it’s still sealed, maybe even if it’s not. No insider info on unreleased product. And the email survey is your one way ticket to managerial ear-time.
Of course, your mileage, and your individual Apple Store, may vary, so buyer still beware.
