I’m watching the iPhone lines get longer and longer while I’m shackled to my desk all day. I’ll be lucky if I get out of here late afternoon. I’ll probably head to a mall in South San Francisco in the vain hope it’ll be less of a zoo than downtown San Francisco.
Who else is stuck at work?
Though San Francisco’s Union Square Apple Store didn’t develop an iPhone waiters line until yesterday evening, the line has grown to quite the monstrosity as of this morning, running from the store’s front door for a good block and then rounding the corner. There are tents, a bizarre pie-throwing booth, and the people look restless.
I didn’t get a shot off before my bus rounded the corner en route to Caltrain. Anyone out there in line already? Who’s got photos? What’s the mood?
Christopher Null has created a special drink to loosen your wallet before buying an iPhone.
Any doubts about laying out thousands for the iPhone will magically melt away after three stiff Appletinis.
2 oz. Vodka
1/2 oz. Apple Pucker Schnapps
1/2 oz. Goldschlager
1/4 oz. Cointreau (or Triple Sec)
Photo of Greg Packer, first in line at Apple’s 5th Ave. store, from Wikipedia.
People think Apple users are all black-turtleneck wearing graphic artists who wear poncy designer glasses, but look at the mixed bunch lining up in NYC for an iPhone.
There’s a Air Force vet, a hair stylist, and a guard at the UN, according to a list drawn up by one of the waiters:
1. Greg Packer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Packer)
2. David Clayman (Future Inforte – CHICAGO SAP Consultant)
3. Jessica Rodriguez (Whipsmart woman with wicked soundbites
4. Rebecca Boorsma (Hair stylist)
5. Anthony Cardozo (Air Force Vet, Arabic Speaker, Purple Heart)
6. Kai Pauli (Security Guard at UN, German Speaker)
7. Benjamin Sherman (Unknown)
8. Vincent Nguyen (Entrepreneur, myitablet.com)
9. Damian Charles (High school student)
10. Mark Conn (Watch him wink!)
At Apple’s town hall meeting today, an employees asked Steve Jobs why the iPhone is being released at 6PM on Friday?
Jobs said Apple didn’t want people to have to take off from work, so they scheduled the launch after hours.
More on the all-staff meeting at Ars Technica.
Unconfirmed rumor — I’m getting word that all Apple employees are getting an iPhone from father Steve at the company gathering now under way.
Update — employees are getting them at the end of July.
Further Update: The free iPhone is only for full-time employees that have worked there for a year or more — and it’s the 8-Gigger.
Steve Jobs is so stoked about the iPhone launch on Friday, he’s giving a rare company-wide pep talk at Apple HQ on Thursday. As far as I know, he’s not held one of these since the early days of returning to the company in 1997.
From: Steve Jobs
Date: June 27, 2007 1:47:55 PM PDT
To: XXXXXX
Subject: Town Hall Meeting TomorrowTeam,
We’re launching the most revolutionary and exciting product in Apple’s history this Friday. And given Apple’s legacy of breakthrough products, that’s saying a lot.
I’d like to get together and share my thoughts about this amazing moment for our company. So please join me for a company-wide communications meeting tomorrow, Thursday, at 11:00AM in Town Hall.
This meeting will also be broadcast to other Apple campus locations. Please check XXXXXX for details.
See you there,
Steve
Photo: David Phillips/Columbia News Service. “Greg Packer stood in line for eight hours before meeting Brandy, the pop singer.”
There’s more fascinating detail on Greg Packer at Wikipedia:
“Greg Packer (born December 18, 1963), an American highway maintenance worker from Huntington, New York, has been quoted in more than 100 articles and television broadcasts as a member of the public (that is, a person on the street rather than a newsmaker or expert).
Packer’s status as a frequent interviewee came about due to his hobby of attending public appearances of celebrities and other media events and being first in line on such occasions. He has consequently had the opportunity to meet people including Mariah Carey, Garth Brooks, Dennis Rodman, and Ringo Starr, as well as at least three presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.”
Even columnist Ann Coulter has sussed him out. After Packer was widely quoted in a NYT piece about fans of Hilary Clinton, Coulter went investigating. She found:
It was easy for the Times to spell Packer’s name right because he is apparently the entire media’s designated “man on the street” for all articles ever written. He has appeared in news stories more than 100 times as a random member of the public. Packer was quoted on his reaction to military strikes against Iraq; he was quoted at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Veterans Day Parade. He was quoted at not one — but two — New Year’s Eve celebrations at Times Square. He was quoted at the opening of a new “Star Wars” movie, at the opening of an H&M clothing store on Fifth Avenue and at the opening of the viewing stand at Ground Zero. He has been quoted at Yankees games, Mets games, Jets games — even getting tickets for the Brooklyn Cyclones. He was quoted at a Clinton fund-raiser at Alec Baldwin’s house in the Hamptons and the pope’s visit to Giants stadium.
And as a result of the column, Packer got his own profile in the Times: “Long Island Everyman Masters the Sound Bite.”
Greg Packer, the first guy in line for an iPhone at Apple’s 5th Ave. store, is a seasoned, professional line sitter with years of experience.
Packer was first in line at Ground Zero, the first to sign NYC’s Princess Di condolence book and slept in the snow in Washington to see GW Bush after his inauguration.
If there’s any kind of event in New York that requires lining up, Packer is there, reported the Columbia News Service in 2002.
“Packer has made obsessions out of being first in line and of being in the company of celebrities,” the news service wrote.
“This is what I like doing,” he said. “You only live once, you might as well make the most of it.”
From the Urban Dictionary:
1. iPerbole
The hype surrounding any product Apple unveils.
Claims that the iPhone will change the world are all part of the iPerbole surrounding the cultish company.
by Mark Hengel Crestwood, Kentucky Jan 14, 2007
We’ve known for months that the iPhone couldn’t possibly live up to its hype in all possible regards. The only question has been just how close Apple would come to living up to the device’s promise. The first reviews are in, and the answer is: Pretty darn close. See for yourself:
The iPhone is Breakthrough Handheld Computer (Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal)
The iPhone Matches Most of its Hype (David Pogue, NY Times)
At Last, the iPhone (Steven Levy, Newsweek)
Apple’s iPhone isn’t perfect, but it’s worthy of the hype (Ed Baig, USA Today)
I have to admit. I’m finally getting excited about it again. I’d gotten tired of all the hype (some of which I’ve fed) and was looking at a Helio Ocean. But now that it’s getting positive real-world reviews…I’m falling for it again.
Via Apple 2.0.
All of us have enjoyed a good laugh at Sprint’s hastily thrown-together competitive response to the impending iPhone launch. What you might not realize is that such devastating tactics as pushing inferior media phones like the two-sided Samsung Upstage with “unlimited storage” on an unsuspecting public represent just the tip of the iceberg.
We at Cult of Mac, through a research technique we can only describe as “a couple of beers with friends” and “making stuff up” have gotten our hands on a list of talking points Sprint will break out in the next few months, as their struggle with Apple escalates. Please enjoy this Top 5 list of top-secret (some would say fictional) anti-iPhone tactics.
5. Phoning it in
Picture this: A curious but fairly clueless non-techy interested in the iPhone wanders into a Sprint store, and asks about the mystical device. The Sprint team springs into action! After all, Sprint’s strategy of trying to make any phone technically capable of playing music sound like the same thing as a multi-touch driven multiplayer like the iPhone.
Customer: Can I have an Apple Phone (sic), please?
Sprint Rep: Oh, so you’re interested in being able to place a call, eh? The iPhone is an impressive device, but do you really want to spend all that money? What you might not know is that Sprint offers lots of phones that are capable of making phone calls. Apple would have you believe that you need a $500 device to make a phone call. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Customer: I’m going home.
Sprint Rep: You just do that, little man.
(Read on for the rest of the top 4)
The iPod’s scroll wheel is doomed. Multitouch is such a compelling user experience, it must supplant the scroll wheel. Writes Newsweek’s Steven Levy in one of the first reviews of the iPhone:
Also, the new way of navigating–swiping down your song list or fast-browsing by skimming your finger on a vertically arranged alphabet on the right of the screen–is a superior interface.
I can’t see Apple selling another large-capacity iPod with the old scroll wheel interface. Everyone is going to want multitouch, and maybe soon Apple will have the economies of scale to put it on a sub-$400 device. I doubt the nano will go multitouch, but it’s the beginning of the end for the wheel.
One of the biggest knocks on the iPhone (other than its slow mobile data rate and lack of unlimited storage, ala the INCREDIBLE LG Fusic) is that it doesn’t currently support live updating e-mail from corporate networks, the killer app that makes the BlackBerry the CrackBerry people know and snort. The iPhone can sync with Outlook and get push e-mail from Yahoo, it just can’t blend the two.
Well, maybe not for long. According to Mary Jo Foley, Apple might announce tomorrow that it has licensed Microsoft’s Exchange Active Sync software, the only missing piece preventing the iPhone from tapping into Exchange servers wirelessly actively to pull down messages automatically. It’s a very simple system, as seen above. No, I didn’t invent that flow chart. What it seems to mean, though, is that the last barrier to adoption of the iPhone among executives is about to vanish.
Hear that? It’s the sound of Palm and BlackBerry getting sick again.
Sprint made quite a buzz online today when a list of anti-iPhone talking points it provided to its sales associates got leaked to the web. It’s a mostly futile attempt to make Sprint’s suddenly long-in-the-tooth phones seem sprightly and futuristic. For example, in response to a customer interested in using the iPhone as an iPod, Sprint crafted these gems:
“¢ “We have many handsets that are MP3 players.”¢ “
“¢ “You want to have music with your phone? Let me show you the new Upstage or the Fusic II.”
Whoa, eat it, Apple! Sprint has a phone that’s twice as good as the LG Fusic! I mean, look at the original: It’s almost unimprovable.
Or check this out: Even though most other SmartPhones only come with 64 to 128 MB of storage, compared with the iPhone’s 4 to 8 GB, the former are clearly superior, because they have the ability to accept external memory cards. Check it,G!
Wow, who knew that the ability to accept storage media was the same as unlimited storage! Under that definition, the original Apple II had unlimited storage – it could record data to as many cassette tapes as you could possibly provide. It’s like Sprint is living in the future!
Via MacDailyNews
Photo by AFP. Greg Packer, first in line for an iPhone at Apple’s 5th Ave. store.
iPhone waiters are coming out of the woodwork: there’s dozens now advertising on San Franciso’s Craigslist.
The competition is driving down prices. There’s several advertising for $100 or less.
There’s one guy who wants $500 — but says he’ll deliver.
There’s some new kinds of ads also.
There’s a couple of lonely weirdoes advertising for instant friends to hang out with during the long wait in line (one’s mentions his sexuality, but assures it’s platonic). An unspecified media company is looking for reporters to do man-on-the-street interviews.
And another company claiming to be Apple is looking for people to hand out flyers. But the ad has typos, which makes one suspect it’s actually the Musty Chiffon Strip Club.
One of the infamous iPhone waiters at Apple’s 5th Ave. store has gone home to New Jersey for some shut eye, he writes on his blog.
In addition, Vicarious Music, the blog that first spotted the pair, reports that the line has now grown to five, but both chairs at the front of the line are empty.
Suspicious. Will the others hold their spots for the next three days?
An enterprising New Yorker has a small office for rent right above an AT&T store on 34th Street. The lease is very short. It expires on Friday, the day the iPhone goes on sale. It’s being offered as the perfect place to camp out for an iPhone.
The ad reads:
“small office space available. short term rental next week. directly above att 34th street store in manhattan. if you are camping out for the Iphone this is the place to hang out. limited number of spots available. bathroom and coffee. spots wont last! directly above main door to att. one flight up!”
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Normally, I wouldn’t believe any photos of iPhone use this close to launch, but the above picture of three of the devices from 9to5Mac looks too crummy to be fake. Has the first outside blogger wrangled a collection of the mighty phones?
Via MacRumors
Apple always does things its own way, so it’s little surprise that the iPhone presence in AT&T stores will look radically different from the other fixtures in the store. Crunchgear managed to snap off the above shot from a Seattle AT&T of a new iPhone kiosk, which loops through the amazing device’s UI. The site claims the shelf has a variety of docking and charging options for visitors.
An anonymous tipster sent me this screenshot from NBC’s new series Chuck, written by OC creator Josh Schwartz. In the show, premiering this fall, a guy named Chuck receives all of the spy secrets in the world via a friend who steals them from the most powerful computer in the world: A Mac Classic.
Nice.
As you might expect for a major product launching on Friday, the iPhone has arrived stateside. According to AppleInsider, the much anticipated devices touched down over the weekend in a variety of locations. A bit more surprising is that Apple apparently had armed guards on hand to ensure a smooth arrival.
Awaiting the freight at each location on Sunday were armed personnel, who were reportedly hired by Apple through its courier’s ground handling agent and then cleared by the Transportation Security Administration. Armed guards are extremely unusual for freight coming out of the Asian sector, those familiar with the matter explained, and are typically reserved for shipments containing riches such as gold and diamonds.
Once on the ground, the iPhone shipments were to be broken down under the watch of the armed personnel, who would then observe the loading of the freight onto ground vehicles and become party to its transportation outbound.
You hear that? The iPhone is made of gold and diamonds! Will the magical features never cease?
Via Apple 2.0
Been wondering just who is actually camping out to buy the iPhone when it gets released? Wonder no longer. Gizmodo has an interview with the lucky guy out front of the Apple Store in New York, and, let’s just say I don’t think they would hire him to dance in an iPod commercial.
Still, he’s going to have an iPhone on Friday, and I’m not. What’s dignity worth, anyway?
Technorati Tags: genius bar, iphone
Philip Elmer-Dewitt, author of the excellent Apple 2.0 blog, has rounded up the blogosphere’s analyses of Apple’s new guided iPhone tour. Definitely check the list out – it’s really awesome that Apple built in read-only support for PDFs, Word docs and Excel spreadsheets. A friend from Toronto showed me a PowerPoint slideshow on his Motorola Q. Having seen that, I’m desperate for Apple to do the same thing. You listening, Cupertino?
