Reports are coming in that the long-awaited launch of the 3G iPhone is turning into somewhat of a disaster of truly global proportions. The huge numbers of in-store activations is obviously overloading servers for both AT&T and Apple—causing Apple to send many people home with their new phones to activate them through iTunes when the servers come online again. As of this writing, iTunes is down— which is not good news for first gen people trying to update their phones to 2.0—leaving their phone inoperative until iTunes comes back online as well. Luckily, I am NOT one of those people.
Yesterday, a good friend emailed me a link to the "leaked" software update. I was able to update my phone long before the launch this morning—and start downloading apps from iTunes. I will admit, I went a little crazy—I now have close to 50 apps (of which I only paid for 4—the rest are all free). My favorites? UrbanSpoon with its slot machine interface activated by shaking the phone locates restaurants in your city by neighborhood, cuisine and price. AOL Radio works really well—which was a shock to me. The Facebook and Typepad apps are very good, as is Weatherbug and the Bank of America app. But teh iTunes remote is my hands-down favorite—control your iTunes and Apple TV playback via wireless through the phone. Absolute genius.
So, at this point—I'm glad I opted to not get the 3G phone right now—especially today. And as I suspected,—the real magic is the 2.0 software and apps store—not necessarily the new phone.
I broke down and got rid of my Nokia "cordless pay phone"...it didn't even have a camera.
Had problems getting the phone activated -- but it finally worked. I have had MAJOR issues with AIM for the iPhone...keeps locking up and breaking down ... OH Well!
Posted by: MikeyMike | July 16, 2008 at 08:01 PM