I finally got my iPhone 3G around noon today but not without some adventure and waiting in the process. I would love to hear if anyone else has a story about waiting for their new iPhone today.
First I stopped at a local mall to see if I could “pop” in and pick up the 3G. Needless to say the line there was 700+ people long. After waiting for a while and not making much progress I went with plan B which was to go to an AT&T store close to my office.
The line being only 20 people I thought this would be my ticket to getting the 3G. After about 30 minutes of the line not moving very much I started to second guess my decision. On a side note, I ran into a guy that I went to high school with that I had not seen in over 15+ years! I also got to meet his great family (wife and two daughters). It is a small world considering I did not grow up in Dallas.
As the line dwindled down and it was unknown exactly when the phones would run out it became clear that it was going to be very close based on the AT&T rep updates. When there were four people left in front of me they announced that they only had 4 phones left total! There were at least another twenty people behind me. I thought… wouldn’t it be great if they ran out right in front of me.
So as their was one person to go they came to me and said that one of the people did not meet the criteria, i.e. primary account owner… so there was one black 8 GB left so I took it immediately! I was eligible for the upgrade so the cost was minimal and the wait at the AT&T store was roughly an hour and a half.
As far as the phone it is better than I had hoped. The feel of the phone is a bit more natural than v1. The back has a slight curve to it and their is a difference in terms of the feel of the screen. The app store is a nice addition although I miss some of the free hack programs. The App store is tied to iTunes. There are a number of free apps, including a great lightsaber app. Other apps are sold in the same model as other iTunes products. I immediately started downloading apps to my hearts content!
My restore from a v1 iPhone went very smoothly once I was actually able to get the activation completed. It took about 15 attempts to connect to the Apple servers to get the phone setup. I backed up my v1 one last time, popped the SIM with the SIM removal tool that now comes with the phone and once connected ran the restore from the “previous phone” option to import all of my settings from my v1.
All in all it was a very seemless transition. I have to say I love the active sync with Exchange! No more duplicate effort on deleting items from my phone and inbox. My calendar and contacts will now stay in sync so no more daily sync routine.
I have been on the 3G network before with a BlackJack so the added speed will be nice. The only downside so far is the battery life seems to be significantly less than the v1. I will have to adjust some of the defaults to try and preserve juice while traveling. My only other complaint is that this model does not fit into the existing docks. It will require a new accessory!
All in all I am very happy with the upgrade and it was definitely worth the wait!!! For those of you with the v1 I really recommend the hardware upgrade. I was surprised by how much I enjoy v2. For those of you who have yet to take the plunge now is the time. The 3G network, full exchange integration and a great user interface! What are you waiting for???
Here is a shot of my newly opened iPhone 3G
