The iPhone chronicles

So exactly 3 weeks before the new iPhone came out, Nick's old phone decided to die on him. Well, it wouldn't charge anymore...and a battery only lasts so long. So, we decided to brave it, dot matrix style, and only live with one cell phone in the house for 3 weeks. Those were three very long weeks.

However, the day finally arrived when Apple would launch the new iPhone to Apple and AT&T stores everywhere. And, we had an Apple store less than 1 mile away at the Cambridgeside Galleria (there was even an AT&T store and a kiosk in the mall as well). Thus began the iPhone adventure.

Day 1 - Launch Day
Nick is up before the sun and out the door in order to get to the Galleria and in line before the store opened. He arrived around 7am (store opened at 8) and was 57th in line.

Apple only sent 50 phones to this prominent, mall location, adjacent to MIT, Apple store location. Nick was talked into pre-ordering a phone at the AT&T store. They said only a few days and he would have one.

Well...days later, and his order is still backordered.

Attempt 2 - 5 days after launch
Nick decides the AT&T promise of a phone is bogus and doesn't want to wait any longer (remember he doesn't have a phone...) so he gets up before dawn again to head to the other Apple store in Boston.

Now, this Apple store is the largest Apple store in the country (only the one in Tokyo is larger). Right here on Boylston street in little old Boston.

He gets there ready to wait in line (still, days after the launch), but there is a sign on the door saying that they didn't get a shipment in and have no phones.

Attempt 3 - Same day
Coming back from a job site, Nick calls me (he's at work using his desk phone) and asks if I'll stop by the Apple store in the Galleria and see if they have any phones. My office is two blocks from the Galleria, so I agree. I get there just before 10, when the mall (and the Apple store open). There is a short line, of 10 people or so, so I que up.

Then they announce that they didn't get a shipment and only have white 16 GB phones. I'm not waiting in line and paying a lot of money for the color Nick didn't like. So I left.

Then...90 minutes later, I get another call from Nick...thus...

Attempt 4 - Same Day
Nick tells me the Galleria did get a shipment in, just in and asks if during lunch I could head over there again. I agree.

When I arrive I'm told the line is 90 minutes long. Sure, a long lunch, but I am promised they have enough phones for me to choose black or white. Sweet.

THREE HOURS LATER...I leave the Apple store with a black phone and a promise that I can control the TV for the next 10 years.

Of course Nick had to wait for his phone as I had to make up the hours at work that I stood in a line, filled with MIT geeks on summer vacation (and some professors also taking a long lunch). But he finally has a new black 16 GB fancy new phone, and he can not only check baseball scores, but actually update his fantasy baseball team with it. Fabulous (do you hear the sarcasm?).

(I'll admit that the internet and the GPS tool are actually really cool. But I still don't have control of the TV...perhaps someday). How I wish I could take a picture of Nick on the couch right now, in his underwear, checking baseball scores/stats while watching the Cubs game, but I won't subject anyone else to that...