I would hope your ordeal is the exception and not the rule. When I purchased and activated my Cingular 8125, I had one phone conversation to verify the data plan I should sign up for. Everything else happened pretty smoothly. I ordered the phone online. It came with a new SIM chip. I was able to migrate the numbers from my old SIM chip (using a utility pre-installed on the phone). With the new SIM chip in place, the phone came on, the data plan connected and everything just worked.

The hardest thing I've had to do on my phone is set up the modem link software to use the phone as a cell modem for my laptop.

But then I guess that won't be a problem you have to deal with using the iPhone.

Mike Hodge

Counting the time to download the 56.1MB iTunes update, install it and reboot, mine was up and running in just under 30 minutes. Sorry yours wasn't so easy but this thing is the neatest tool-toy I have ever used. Hope the rest of your experience is better.

I bought one for my wife. Its cool. The hype is bigger than it needs to be, though. I actually like my Razr and my Palm better. I can talk on the phone AND check email at the same time. I can read email or messages to someone on I am talking to EASILY.

Being a gadget guy, I thought I would have to have one too, but I don't.....

Bob

Congratulations !!!
It is 48 hours and counting. NOthing happened. No help from AT&T either

What does the iPhone do?

Why is it different from any other cell phone?

Edward Denaut, Denaut International
ejdenaut@yahoo.com
http://continue.to/lasvegas

For folks that went out all fired up to make the switch ASAP I am sure the other 500,000 people all trying to do the same thing at the same time got in there way whether they could see them or not.

I am not saying it should have happened that way but those who experienced the issue shouldn't have been very surprised. Being on the bleeding edge can be painful.

I picked up my own iPhone at around 2pm on Saturday from an Apple store in Burlington, MA. There was no line. The next thirty three hours I wrestled with myself mentally about whether I really wanted to replace my Pocket PC (Cingular 8125) with the iPhone.

At 11pm Sunday night I broke the seal on my box and drank the iPhone kool aid so to speak. Figuring out just how AT+T was going to extract their pound of flesh took about thirty minutes on the phone but once I decided what I wanted to do activation only took 5 minutes.

I have had a lot of PDAs including TREOs, Pocket PCs et cetera. This phone is actually smart. It seems to recognize what I am trying to do and help me intuitivately rather than forcing me to bang a combination of forty odd buttons in meaningfull combinations.

I am enjoying my phone thoroughly and don't miss my stylus or keyboard yet.

i bought mine on saturday evening. was activated middle of the night sunday transfering my number from one phone to another. people are far too uptight about the process. just wait as they clear their backend computers from the initial crush of orders. you dont have to call or get a new sim card in any situation only if you are so impatient you cant wait.

Sounds all too familiar. Just less than a month ago my account provided under a national corporate agreement with Cingular/AT&T/SBC or whaterver the name may be next year was upgraded from a Motorola Razor R3 to a new PDA (HTC 8525)with unlimited data access. Due to the new device and the data capability being added to my exisiting account I had to have a new SIM card as well. After exactly following each step outlined in the documentation provided by my organiation I ordered the upgrade to my existing account and device while keeping my existing number thorough a portal on AT&Ts website created for my organization. So this should have been real simple...receive the new device, install SIM card, and activate the service....WRONG! Due to AT&T's incompetance, the SIM card that came with the device was programmed with a new number. In order to get another SIM card programmed for my service and device upgrade with the correct phone number took three calls to AT&Ts customer. On each of these three calls I was transferred approximately six times to individuals who displayed inconsistent if any skills or more importantly the ability to resolve my issue. It may sound surprising, but getting supported as a corporate customer with AT&T is even a bigger circus! I have been a Cingular/AT&T coporate user for more than two years in which have include more than five cell phone devices due to poor service, hardware failure, etc. In these two years Cingular/AT&T have consistenltly proved to have the absolute worst customer service and support of any organization that I have ever patronized. I hope you enjoy your iPhone. I am sure that the vendor hardware and operating software are well designed and have excellent user capabilities. Many of which AT&Ts system cannont even beging to utilize.

There's no doubt that people will have problems with phone activation .. is there any phone company that has not?
But some of us have had zero issue too. My activation took less than 10 minutes and was entirely painless.
So the real question is: am I the anomaly, or are you?

Ultimately it matters not who is, when you're having a problem it feels like the world is against you. Though it's hardly surprising that AT&T store people know little about a product that shipped on Friday .. let alone know what they are allowed to do for a problem situation. I mean, have you met most of the sales folks? Tech Support they are not. I'm invariably lucky if they know the feature set. But that's not just unique to phones! Though every once in a while you come across someone who knows the product inside out ... I live for those meetings.

Meanwhile, enjoy the iPhone.

This is typical of AT&T/Cingular. They have the worst customer service of any company I've ever dealt with. I cringe at the thought of calling them as I worry they will cause another problem trying to fix the current one, never fails. On the conservative side I bet I've spent a full week and a half over the past two years dealing with screw-ups on their part.

And for all that hassel, you paid them $500. Proves that the American Public has not changed since the time of PT Barnum"s "There's A sucker borne every minute"

The hell with AT & T

All this to play with a toy, any resonable person would have returned the product and told them to shove it.

No wonder, if you tried to change the SIM card yourself!
I bought my iPhone abut 8:00 p.m. Friday night. At 10:07p.m., after fifteen minutes travel time and a certain amount of admiration that slowed the package opening, I was in the Apple web site. Everything worked better than advertised. This is a phone that my 84 year old mother-in-law could handle. (I talked her into getting cellular coverage with Cingular and found that her Samsung had nothing in common with mine, therefore trouble shooting/instruction remotely was a non-starter.)
The interface is beyond unbelieveable. Google Earth is the best demo. It is really screwing up my MacBook Pro navigation- my fingers keep going to what I am reading rather than the touch pad. This after two days of informal use. Just imagine the next MBP-TRS-100 form factor with OS X/iPhone Interface! Sierra Hotel cubed!!!

Meet the new AT&T v2.0.1, post-revestiture. Same as the old AT&T v1.0, pre-divestiture.

Clueless and utterly arrogant. Maybe it's time for more telecom layoffs. Yeah, that's it. That will solve AT&T's iPhone and IPTV problems. Yeah!

Mr Jobs' alliance with AT&T is Apple's biggest mis-step since, gee, I can't think of one this bad.

AT&T is the only thing keeping me from the iPhone.

ATT bungled this launch. Had no problems activating, but after two visits to ATT stores, finally retreated to Apple Store, where everything was handled efficiently.

Welcome to the worst cell phone customer service I've ever seen!

This is just AT&T ---- Remember the disaster they had when tehy tried to merge their systems with Cingular's at the number portability deadline.

Ah! You've been introduced to Cingular tech support hell.

It took me an entire month to get a little LG replaced because of a defective display. Between hours and hours on the phone (or on hold), two trips to the company store, where I received the same reaction you did, and three trips to the post office to mail things back and forth, I finally got things resolved. And, amazingly, I wasn't double-billed (so there is hope for you!)

I'm surprised it took so little time for you, considering the iPhone hysteria.

Everyone realizes that that they are paying $600 to beta test the iPhone, right?

How many versions of the iPod did it take before the design and manufacturing glitches were worked out? Same with the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

I'll wait eight months to a year before I even get excited about getting one. By then prices will have come way down. Right now my Sony Walkman phone works great for calls, music and the internet.

Early adoption has a steep price tag.

Take the pill be prepared for the ride. It's the bleeding cutting edge of smart phones from a new player in this space plus the largest carrier around.

Expect slow service, hiccups and the associated bugs to be ironed out. Remember the Newton? it's the same effects from another era. While being slightly ahead of the rest of the market this can be flaky there's the proof it's wise to wait for these and other issues to be resolved first.

Thanks for being an early adopter!

Was it worth it?

Well, I've been waiting for over 50 hours so far...I've have been on the phone with AT&T than transfered to Apple & than transfered back to AT&T.
This has been so far very disappointing experience. Looks like I paid $500 plus for a nice looking "BRICK" ... So far they have me cycle power on the iphone as well as reset it & remove & reinsert the sim, to "Our systems are overwhelmed" and just to leave my iphone connected to the PC, as well as move the iphone to another computer, in which I have moved it to 4 different ones with the same results. Not to mention modifications to my existing cell phone plan. I even made the suggestion about getting a new sim and they jsut said huh? Ughh I can keep on venting....

I am not surprised at all the complaints I've been hearing about activation. As an IT professional for 16 years, I have NEVER had a good experience with anything AT&T. How the Commerce department continues to approve their re-merger mania is beyond comprehension. This company is the classic B-school example of corporate arrogance and consumer disdain. They have never let me down in my low expectations of their customer service. I wish them nothing but ill will, and I will not switch to Cingular even though their cell tower is 600 yards from my house and the next nearest carrier is...well, out of range unless I stand in the front yard.

Listen,
You're adopting new technology, there are always "issues" when doing this. Get over it and stop the whinning. You should have used the $600 in support of our troops.

Thw Phone exceeds my expectations, very easy to get up and running. Note that i didn't activate until Saturday. My biggest hassle was getting my address book on the mac updated before transferring data. And Apple gave me a warning to update the phone book, itune and photos for a select download. It's the innovation of 2007 for sure! I hope to learn and grow with the phone as more features come out.

Grades-
iPhone- A+, AT&T- C
As an IT guy, dealt with 4 of these today with mixed experiences- 3 were set up easily by users, including 1 teenage girl and one configured all the way to sync w/Exchange via IMAP. The 4th was a failed number port similar to many described in this and other forums.

AT&T gets a C in my book- big props for the 3 superb agents I dealt with (hampered by the limited and segmented access AT&T gives to its agents) but tempered by major points against for the two clueless and misinformed agents who gave me bad info.

In the end, 4 elated iPhone users, 3 set up Friday/Saturday, and one painful day wasted chasing around the correct solution to get the 4th up and running 3 days after he first initiated activation.

I don't understand all this AT&T bashing. I've not had problems with AT&T, just the Samsung D807 that I hate. Can't wait until my renewal rebates come up in October to consider purchasing an iPhone.

It was worth it. What other phone lets you view the internet wirelessly and in real time? The other phones charge 59.00 for data plans that are not the internet but merely text messages that are all hyped up to look like the internet. Congratulations! As for me, I will wait until the price drops but I don't think it will as is the case with the ipod. Maybe i will join you and the millions of proud iphone owners soon!!!

Buy yourself a BLACKBERRY AND YOU WILL HAVE NO PROBLEMS.

When it was Cingular it had much better customer service. Since it merged w/AT&T the customer service has deteriorated. I was a Cingular customer for 4 years before the merger, and I was finally happy w/a cell phone company. After that period, when AT&T took over, they shut our 3 phones off 3 times. Why? Not for non-payment of bills, but because a piece of mail they sent me got returned from the post office. *HUH*?

I got the iPhone on Friday evening, and immediately started the activation process, with my mac book pro. BTW, no number porting, no issues, and then I get the dreaded letter about how AT&T needs additional time for my 'activation'.

48 hours later I was still waiting. I finally got steamed enough to get on the phone, get tech support, get no satisfaction, get the supervisor, get no satisfaction, get the manager, get no satisfaction, get the district manager, get no satisfaction, and FINALLY get the Division Manager, and guess what! Satisfaction because my iphone started miraculously working about 3 hours later.

I should mention, I was an AT&T employee for some 28 years before divestiture, so I know how to talk to the bell shaped heads.

'zulie

As for the "you're paying to beta-test a product... just like the MacBook" comment, sorry, no.

When my beloved iBook finally died, I got a MacBook and easily used the Migration Assistant to transfer everything of import. Oh -- how did I transfer if it had died? Because by cloning my internal drive to an external, before the death rattle sounded, I'd been running the machine -- doing live solo electronic music performances, no less -- with an external FW drive as my boot drive, thanks to the great Carbon Copy Cloner freeware.

Anyway, rec'd the MacBook and migrated (with no hitch, from the cloned drive) on a Thursday. Sunday morning, I realized that for the rehearsal starting in 15 minutes I needed new drivers for various MIDI and audio interfaces, so I got them. I was up and running for the rehearsal and no one even noticed that I had a new laptop. Other than the laptop's great performance, not even me.

And we're not talking word processing here. We're talking simultaneous stereo recording of multiple inputs (live sampling of the other musicians is part of what I do with that particular group) and simultaneous playback of other audio. At any time, I could have some ridiculous number of stereo voices playing back at the same time that I'm sampling multiple stereo channels of new audio into memory.

After the rehearsal I realized that a pre-Intel MIDI driver and a sampling package had been happily interacting with Universal Binary Firewire audio and secondary MIDI package. Flawlessly. No clicks, no glitches, and absolutely no crashes.

So I have to rebut the claim that anybody's paying to be a beta-tester, DamonP.

&TI don't own an iPhone yet, as I will be waiting for a second generation version with a larger carrier list. My friend Gina, a fellow Apple aficianado, bought one and she loves it. She waited eight hours in line for it and had it up and running in a half hour, sending me texts from the movie theatre she went to afterwards, where she promptly ignored the movie and played with the damn phone! What a goober.
She says it's an eye opener. Everything is working as advertised and then some and being as I trust her to be the first one to bitch if it didn't work exactly as Apple advertised, (She is a scourge to Apple customer reps, everywhere...) I remain interested in getting one. The Kool Aid must be delicious, this time around.
I have read many have had bad episodes, which is unfortunate.
A new device always has teething problems, but it sucks for customers if support isn't on the ball. AT must have paid through the nose to get an exclusive contract like that, but they aren't known for oustanding customer support. Too bad T-Mobile or someone else couldn't have out bid them. It certainly seems they are the weakest link. Apple ought to make them work a lot harder for thier exclusivety, or give the contract to someone who can handle the traffic.

there is nothing new about the iphone, it is just several old technologies put into one but just like the release of their web browser, apple will release 2nd rate products to people who are happy to throw money at them 'because they look pretty'

Well, I just can't figure out this whole freek show with the Apple iPhone. Really folks, just use your damn notebook PC, it's a whole lot easier than browsing on Apple's little net phone. Did you know that the battery is only expected to last about a year and then you have to get it serviced to replace it? Apple seems to have figured out an unethical way to keep the cash flowing with its product sales. As if the price wasn't high enough!

I long ago (1996; after buying a POS PowerPC Mac) resolved not to buy another Apple product due to the arrogant, everything proprietary design of their products.

Judging from the iPod and the iPhone, nothing has changed at Apple in terms of ripping off its customers. A music/video player that doesn't play WMA and WMV files? A GSM phone that only works with one carrier??!!

I am not actually interested in the iPhone for one good reason. As of this minute apple's plan for the battery replacement is the same as iPod battery replacement. Has anyone had the battery replaced on an iPod? How long did it take you to get your iPod back after sending it in? Sure they give you a brand new iPod, or iPhone in this case, but the question you have to ask yourself is can you be without your phone for a week?

As Andrew alluded to in his article, he couldn't be without his phone for a whole day never mind a week.