11:24pm
I am coming to you live from the iPhone 4 line. I feel vastly under prepared compared to the folks I’m sitting by, with their portable fold out chairs, blankets and pillows. There’s even a group of guys that came together and are playing cards with a cooler as I type this post.
I have never done this before and have decided to give it a try as a type of social and cultural experience. I’ve read for years now about people that do this and it was easy to write them off as quacks with nothing better to do. Let’s see how far down the fanboy, rabbit whole goes.
Ahead of me are approximately 35 people eagerly waiting.
Ok. Stay tuned…
11:34pm
Check out out my new friends and their setup.
[Update - 5/25/2010]: This is Sean. He was awesome enough to allow me to plug in my iPhone. I am very grateful to him because I was able to continue blogging from my iPhone via the WordPress app.
11:57pm
Alright before I give it a rest for a while, here is what I brought with me: food, video camera/point-and-shoot, mini tripod and more food. Line’s growing by the way.
1:28am
Getting longer still. People are trickling in, although it has slowed down. But wait a few more hours and there will definitely be more people.
1:38am
So just minutes ago the lights in the parking garage just went out. It was either on a timer or the mall folks are trying to tell us something. lol
2:00am
As I’m sitting here waiting in the dark, in the line. I think that it has exceeded 100 people, as cars continuously stream in. Also I was reading online about a number of cases where people are losing bars of reception on their iPhone 4′s when the hand comes into contact with the outer metal ring. It appears that this may be a hardware issue. ….I’m not gonna say a word. These people in the line might not take too kindly to news like that. Read more about it on Mashable here.
By the way I am live blogging from my iPhone using the WordPress iPhone app. Been having to do re-attempts at publishing updates though, but they eventually go through.
2:32am
I just came across an interesting tweet that President Obama’s administration will be releasing a new iPhone/iPad app for his “Organizing for America” campaign. Read more…
Alright. I think I’m gonna try to catch a few Zzz’s. Gute nacht!
5:34am
We’ve all woken up, mainly because the lights in this hot parking garage jerked the line awake. Now this photo doesn’t do it justice but the line you’re seeing faintly in this photo extends to the end of the garage and wraps around, according to other folks in line that took a trip to the back.
I am convinced that Apple did not anticipate such a response this year!
6:26am
We’ve been assembled a sort of semi single-file line and are about to enter the mall hopefully in a civilized and orderly fashion. Hold that thought….
6:38am
We are inside the mall arranged Into two lines: reserved and a snowball’s chance, if you get my drift.
[Update 5/25/2010]: As the Fire Marshalls and the Apple employees opened the doors of the mall to allow us to enter, there were people that we kept our eyes on constantly during the long hours waiting over night. These people that were never in the line, mind you, hovered near the front of the line all night and morning. Just as we entered the mall one skipper shot straight for the “snowball’s chance in hell” iPhone 4 line and two for the reserved line. Almost immediately about 50 people combined from both lines started protesting and pointing them out –literally yelling at the three people that skipped. When the Apple Store manager and employees came out, these 50 or so people shouted them down to remove the skippers from the line. The skipper held their ground for about 10 minutes or less (I know this because they were behind me in the reserved line). The one skipper in the “not a chance…” line was told to leave too.
I know what some might think. That’s a bit much for people to band together and become visibly angry enough to get someone kicked out of line “over a phone”. However, I think that they were justified based on how stressful waiting in the line was and to have this person park near the mall entrance, blatantly walk up and claim a place in line like it’s the gold rush. They were wrong. It wasn’t fair and we all saw to it that the first to come were the first served. And seeing as how I was among the first 30 people in the reserved line, I think I was among the first 10 or less people to walk out with an iPhone 4. And amazingly those same protestors cheered as I left as one of the firsts. All we wanted was fairness. Is that too much to ask?
“But still it was all over a phone!” My answer to people who say this is, “Tell me there is nothing that you absolutely like or wanted so much that you wouldn’t wait in a long line for hours over–in spite of it’s level of frivolity. Better yet, have you already done something like that?” *CRICKETS!*
8:40am
Finally home. Sadly my HF10 internal storage filled up because I forgot to empty it while in the line. So the last thing I was able to record was me unboxing my iPhone 4 in the Apple Store. Good enough I think. Just as the Apple guy activated my phone I strangely lost functionality of my iPhone 3GS camera. Actually, I don’t think it was due to the activation, but rather that I ran out of storage space for more photos.
I did not sleep well so I am extremely tired and sleepy. If I do something today, I will post photos of my new iPhone unboxing in the very east.
MD
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