Apple today released the iPhone. It was released at 6pm on Friday June 29. Who releases a product at 6pm on a Friday? While walking up 5th Avenue before dinner I noticed a line of people outside a Cingular (now the new AT&T) store (the only phone network you can get an iPhone for).

Apparently people had been lining up at the New York Apple store for two days. Fools. So after dinner tonight at 11pm I headed up to the NY Apple store with Andrew and Jo, given they had never been there before. Lucky the store here is open 24 hours.

No lines, but inside it was the normal mayhem with some extra fanfare around the obvious new iPhones. Check out photo.

A few minutes later I got to play with one, really cool. Smaller then I expected, I had some difficulty understanding how to zoom in on web pages, I needed to learn the pinch and expand step. The keyboard is smaller then my Nokia E62 PDA so that was a little annoying.

You could even get a free box bag with a picture of an iPhone on it. Check it out.

Of course the box is free when you buy an iPhone. I got the 8GB model at $599 US, plus case plus tax set me back $681.82

Ok, so that’s nice, just had to wait the 1hr 15min to get home.

It’s now 1am, and the first requirement is to download the latest iTunes. Reboot my laptop into Windoze, and of course it’s like a 56MB file. While downloading I grabbed the image from my camera, upload the image to my Fotolog account, and started this blog. Download and install complete, and guess what, Windows has to restart your computer. There is just one more reason why I hate Windoze and simply don’t use it. Reboot later, and finally I get to start.

Activation of phone is via iTunes. Of course this doesn’t work. Please Call AT&T. This was to be expected as my phone is under an a corporate account. I did specifically check with the store before purchasing that I could use this account for the required 2 year contract commitment.

Of course the number presented on screen, and that I rang (1.877.419.4500) could not help me because I’m a business account. I have to call the Business Center on 1.866.907.3484. Ring that, and guess what I’m on hold, 20+ mins later still nothing. It’s now 2:14am, I hang up, I was on the phone waiting for 27 minutes. Rather disappointing, I guess that’s one reason why you start a sales promotion at 6pm on a Friday. All the phone support the Business Center have gone home for the weekend.

This had better turn out for the better in the morning. I’ll be rather peeved if I find out, I need some account information I simply don’t have then have to wait until Monday to call my office (of course wait until midday as that is 9AM Pacific time).

Right now failure, after such a great evening with friends, food and just excellent service it’s just one of those bummers in life.

Update 1. I’ve added video of the NY Apple Store iPhone activity.
Update 2. My phone is still not activated. Read about it at iPhone for corporate users. What a debacle.
Update 3 It’s alive iPhone activation – Finally after 3 days