Robert - Thanks so much for sharing the entire experience. It was a blast watching along the way! I appreciate the live stream you had up and really enjoyed watching.
shannonclark
· 2 years ago
any troubles with activation? Apparently some people are reporting problems (I'm assuming that when I get mine since I think I can just transfer the sim card this shouldn't be too hard, but it does give me pause).
congrats on the media and great line entertainment (tuned in for some of it).
Shannon
Michael Gannotti
· 2 years ago
"But when you open your box you’ll realize that Apple has changed the way we all will look at mobile phones forever." I hope so. Like I said earlier the mobile industry needs a good swift kick in the pants to get things jumpstarted and moving forward at a brisker speed with an eye towards convergance and delivering a quality experience.
sisirkoppaka
· 2 years ago
Apple is the Microsoft Microsoft could never be. I don't think that there is any company out there in the market, either in the desktop and laptops market or the music player market or even the mobile phones market,that can stand up to Apple. Once Apple spreads it's wings and begins to globalize particularly in Asia, I think it's going to be Life in 21st Century 2.0
Dave Fourputt
· 2 years ago
Robert,
You've come a long way since getting your Cingular 2125 and proclaiming it to be ever so nice.
Congratulations on your new iPhone! ;-)
Chris Kelly
· 2 years ago
You ain't kidding. This thing is rocking so hard. I have never been so excited about a device in my life. Congrats to you and your son on being first in the door!
Javier Sanchez
· 2 years ago
Its amazing to see Apple able to get the store staff across the country to do this so well. A brilliant crescendo and flawlessly executed climax to a product launch. Only a Steve Jobs could orchestrate such a masterpiece.
Looking forward to hearing your take on the iPhone, 30 days from now. Also, how long it can survive daily iPod/phone usage before a gravity induced incident occurs, and how the product will fair after a sudden change in acceleration.
Scott
· 2 years ago
I hope it lives up to the hype. There is so much hype everywhere. I can't hit a favorite web entity without seeing iphone. What incredible marketing, and I wonder if it's only us techies that are gaga or if it is non-techies too.
With news that Europe may have multiple carriers, I wonder how easy it will be to take one of those Europe iphones and use on the US side of the pond for us who want something other than AT&T.
Thanks for the update.
LayZ
· 2 years ago
"Being the first customer into the store was an experience I’ll never forget" "It was surreal."
You're kidding, right? An experience you'll never forget? Surreal? Seriously? Do you know the definition of the word? Please tell me you're kidding. If walking into a store to buy a cell phone conjured up "fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtaposition of subject matter." then sleep deprivation got the best of you. Otherwise, seek psychological help immediately!
rajuv
· 2 years ago
iPhone is locked at the SIM level (and not just carrier). There is way to make iPhone work with SIMs that belong to corporate plans. More details here.
LayZ, I don't know why you bother with your consistent snarks.
I love the passion Robert displays. I think the hype is a form of patriotism, really. Maybe not for the country, per se, but at least for our culture.
I don't have an iPod, because I'm not all that into music, but I'm looking forward to getting an iPhone.
Gregg
· 2 years ago
I don't care how nifty the UI is. I could never buy a product from a company that treats it's customers like shit... non-replaceable battery, non-expandable memory, locked to carrier... and for $600 it has a crappy camera and doesn't even shoot video. I'll take my $75 after rebate Blackjack over this Crapple product any day.
MikeJones
· 2 years ago
"You’re kidding, right? An experience you’ll never forget? Surreal? Seriously? Do you know the definition of the word? Please tell me you’re kidding. If walking into a store to buy a cell phone conjured up “fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtaposition of subject matter.” then sleep deprivation got the best of you. Otherwise, seek psychological help immediately!"
Well he got to see Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson and Ward Cunningham. That would be a surreal, once in a lifetime experience for me too.
Eric
· 2 years ago
> OK, I’ll be honest, we’ve barely turned it on.
And it lives up to the hype ? Short of a strange conclusion wouldnt you agree ?
terry chay
· 2 years ago
Wow. That was fun reading all the haters here. Even though I was having my minions get me an extra iPhone in SF, it was fun seeing you all having a blast in the line in Palo Alto.
I think those of you who have been following Scoble's twitters know that he's done a little more than "barely turned it on" which will be a lot more balanced in a later post.
This one is about the event. It was vintage Apple—only more so. I kept having flashbacks to the day that same store opened. In SF, I was told by friends, just before the opening all the employees ran out and psyched up the crowd.
Yeah, it's crazy sh*t, but sometimes you just have to let yourself be swept up in the event. Being connected to my sister-in-law in D.C. via vell phone and Zooomr’s uStream, my friends in SF via the blogs, and listen to New Yorkers call their friends in Palo Alto on their new iPhones hours before Apple Store reopened… And oh yes, his Jobness whisked into the store with such lightning speed that I barely caught a glimpse of his bald pate and black shirt (Thank God, he’s tall.)
The line in PA had greatly subsided by the time I drove home and in SF you could pick up an 8GB still around 10:30ish. But it's not about that, is it?
Stephen Collins
· 2 years ago
It will be interesting to see launches in non-US localities. The Australian mobile market model is considerably different to the US, especially when it comes to data pricing.
As an example, here's how I pay for my mobile connectivity each month:
Looking forward to your review, hopefully a video as well?
Jonathan Sutherland
· 2 years ago
Thanks for sharing your experience. I followed some of it from here (Germany). Lives up to its hype - c'mon Robert - since when has Apple (or Microsoft or any other) sold a product that lives up to the hype before lauch? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed your sleep.
nik cubrilovic
· 2 years ago
our whole web world watched along scoble. this was web 2.0's moon landing :)
Joe
· 2 years ago
Apple is the Microsoft Microsoft could never be. I don’t think that there is any company out there in the market, either in the desktop and laptops market or the music player market or even the mobile phones market,that can stand up to Apple. Once Apple spreads it’s wings and begins to globalize particularly in Asia, I think it’s going to be Life in 21st Century 2.0
Comment by sisirkoppaka — June 29, 2007 @ 8:56 pm
What ever your smoking, I wan't some.
Noah
· 2 years ago
Hmmmm... What do you think about the internet connection when not connected to a WiFi network? The main reason I haven't bought one yet is that I've heard about just how slow the EDGE network is.
Anyway, congrats!
Chris
· 2 years ago
"OK, I’ll be honest, we’ve barely turned it on. But when you open your box you’ll realize that Apple has changed the way we all will look at mobile phones forever."
This statement is why you would make an awful programmer. I think I heard the same thing when somebody opened up a box containing a LG Prada ...LAST YEAR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_PRADA_(KE850)
Anthony Baker
· 2 years ago
This quote Robert posted from PhilMusic is the money shot for me: "I know there's things the N95 does better. The camera is much better. GPS, etc. It doesn't matter. Normal stuff is so much better."
This is something A LOT of companies just don't seem to get. There are all sorts of things Apple products don't do, but they get the basic things spectacularly well. A friend of mine at MSFT just got a MacBook for his daughter. He's never used a Mac before in his life. The experience he had opening the box and getting it running shocked him -- how easy, how thoughtful it was. How it just worked.
This is the kind of thing they focus on. Also, with the iPod, they've been smart enough to let the demands of the rest of us go to the accessory makers. And they've profited from it. It's their hardware API, frankly, that damn little port. And they'll no doubt make a fortune for these folks with the iPhone.
Steven Johnson also mentioned how easy it was to multi-task on the device. Be listening to music, surfing the web in the back of a cab, and easily take a call when it came in and get back to the music/websurfing afterwards. Simple, clean. This is the type of crap you're going to do day-to-day. That most folks will do day-to-day.
Sure, the phone may cost a ton at this point, but the first iPod was an expensive brick. Hell, I can't bear to look at the iPod Mini now, it's so enormous and clunky compared to my Nano. But damned if Apple won't refine this sucker, make it a bit cheaper (or not), and cause it to be more compelling than whatever else is out there.
If it's one thing Jobs does really well is that, despite the detractors out there, he moves forward and CHANGES THE GAME. He proves it can be done, and it can make money. And the market follows.
I'm a huge fan of this company. Why? Because they get user-centered design and development. They get simplicity. They're the first computer company that knows how to make a stuff for actual human beings. And that's something wicked hard to do. Basic human beings want simple. They want a toaster that makes toast.
Nintendo got this with the Wii (and the GameBoy back in the day). And folks scratch their head and wonder why they're making so much money...
Hahahaha.
Erik Schwartz
· 2 years ago
Robert....
You didn't bring your video camera?????
Michael Markman
· 2 years ago
Here's a question for the TV-advertising-is-dead crowd: Did Apple waste the fortune they spent on TV? Beginning with the tease at the Academy Awards broadcast through the suite of mini product demos that ran everywhere in June, I'd estimate that, by far, the biggest chunk of the iPod marketing budget went into buying television time. (I have the impression that there was at least one iPhone spot on every single TV show I watched in the past three weeks.) Money pissed away? Or did it add to making 6:00 PM, June 29, 2007 a coast-to-coast event?
Ben Newton
· 2 years ago
Thanks Robert. It was fun to be a part of the experience. For those of us that were unable to get in line yesterday and have to wait, you helped us experience the fun.
Trevor
· 2 years ago
I must say, I'm a little disappointed in you Robert. No video camera!
Anthony Baker
· 2 years ago
One of the pics posted on Palo Alto Online of Robert and his son did show a lovely camera on a tripod -- looked like the one he uses for Podshow. That said, wasn't there an issue of battery power or something?
Howard Greenstein
· 2 years ago
3 out of 4 of my iphone buying friends had to return to a store. Only 1 of the 4 has a working iPhone at 11:30 am today after buying it last night.
Woke up and had an email that my transfer from Sprint was done and the phone was activated. The UI is so good that I started laughing. All of the skeptics are gonna have a hard time. Apple delivers a huge leap forward that will benefit every mobile user. Design = Innovation + Technology + Aesthetics and boy did Apple deliver.
Played a video of my daughter on the phone. Read about Barry Bonds 250th homer on espn.com. Checked the news on Yahoo and Drudge. Watched the skateboarding dog on YouTube. Zoomed up. Zoomed down. Adjusted my settings. Read eMail. I am going to stop receiving my Yahoo mail on my computer. eMail on this device will work much better.
Did I say the UI was so good I started laughing!!!
Chris
· 2 years ago
"(I have the impression that there was at least one iPhone spot on every single TV show I watched in the past three weeks.) Money pissed away?"
I saw the ads as well in Canada, which is really ironic seeing how Apple is not going to sell it here for at least a year. I think THOSE ads were a total waste. Why not advertise the iPhone in Antarctica at 5k per spot while you're at it.
Richard Drake
· 2 years ago
Oh to be in Palo Alto, now the iPhone's there.
I have to agree with Mike Jones (#19) that being able to meet Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson and Ward Cunningham - and just miss Steve Jobs walking in from home - is something more than normal to share with your son, even before the cheering started.
That's some history represented, not least the visit of Jobs and Atkinson to Xerox PARC just down the road in December 1999, when graphics user interfaces and a whole lot else first escaped from 'captivity'. The next year a large package from PARC arrived at the Tektronix reasearch lab in Oregon and was opened by a curious Ward Cunningham. That did for Ward and Kent Beck, as they discovered objects, GUIs, incremental compilation, pair programming and much else through the Smalltalk system seen by Jobs and Atkinson - which historic package was also sent to Apple, HP and DEC, and of course refused by IBM!
At least that's from memory. The iPhone does seem to carry forward some of the vision of those heady days, of a kinder, simpler computing world. But I suggest (as would many of the original Smalltalk team, not least Dan Ingalls at Sun) that there's a little bit of work still to be done on the software foundations.
Thanks to the coast-to-coast blogging and webcasting, it was possible to feel much of the excitement here in London, even if it meant something of a late night. I concur with Dawn Douglass that some of the excitement must have to do with patriotism, or at least celebrating culture one is proud of. That resonates with me. Here's hoping it won't be long until we can share some of that new culture, in high-speed 3G form.
Richard Drake
· 2 years ago
Er,
"the visit of Jobs and Atkinson to Xerox PARC just down the road in December 1999"
... make that 1979!
LayZ
· 2 years ago
@29 "our whole web world watched along scoble. this was web 2.0’s moon landing :)
another person out of touch with reality. Maybe you and Scoble can get a group discount on therapy.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
As to not bringing a camera in. Some things are meant to be experienced. There was plenty of media there recording the experience.
sevencapitalsins
· 2 years ago
americans... :) you're terrible, you enjoy everything :D
sarah97
· 2 years ago
I don't understand what you just said so I just wanted to let you know.
(Thats probably why you only have 57 comments)
20weblogs.com/munity
· 2 years ago
Amazing, thanks.
Sofia
· 2 years ago
just a guestion from me, isn`the cyberspace the crazyest thing ever? Greetings sofia
All Comments
congrats on the media and great line entertainment (tuned in for some of it).
Shannon
I hope so. Like I said earlier the mobile industry needs a good swift kick in the pants to get things jumpstarted and moving forward at a brisker speed with an eye towards convergance and delivering a quality experience.
You've come a long way since getting your Cingular 2125 and proclaiming it to be ever so nice.
Congratulations on your new iPhone! ;-)
Looking forward to hearing your take on the iPhone, 30 days from now. Also, how long it can survive daily iPod/phone usage before a gravity induced incident occurs, and how the product will fair after a sudden change in acceleration.
With news that Europe may have multiple carriers, I wonder how easy it will be to take one of those Europe iphones and use on the US side of the pond for us who want something other than AT&T.
Thanks for the update.
You're kidding, right? An experience you'll never forget? Surreal? Seriously? Do you know the definition of the word? Please tell me you're kidding. If walking into a store to buy a cell phone conjured up "fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtaposition of subject matter." then sleep deprivation got the best of you. Otherwise, seek psychological help immediately!
http://rajuv.com/2007/06/29/iphone-is-locked-at...
http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=198
I love the passion Robert displays. I think the hype is a form of patriotism, really. Maybe not for the country, per se, but at least for our culture.
I don't have an iPod, because I'm not all that into music, but I'm looking forward to getting an iPhone.
Well he got to see Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson and Ward Cunningham. That would be a surreal, once in a lifetime experience for me too.
And it lives up to the hype ? Short of a strange conclusion wouldnt you agree ?
I think those of you who have been following Scoble's twitters know that he's done a little more than "barely turned it on" which will be a lot more balanced in a later post.
This one is about the event. It was vintage Apple—only more so. I kept having flashbacks to the day that same store opened. In SF, I was told by friends, just before the opening all the employees ran out and psyched up the crowd.
Yeah, it's crazy sh*t, but sometimes you just have to let yourself be swept up in the event. Being connected to my sister-in-law in D.C. via vell phone and Zooomr’s uStream, my friends in SF via the blogs, and listen to New Yorkers call their friends in Palo Alto on their new iPhones hours before Apple Store reopened… And oh yes, his Jobness whisked into the store with such lightning speed that I barely caught a glimpse of his bald pate and black shirt (Thank God, he’s tall.)
The line in PA had greatly subsided by the time I drove home and in SF you could pick up an 8GB still around 10:30ish. But it's not about that, is it?
As an example, here's how I pay for my mobile connectivity each month:
- Voice/SMS - Vodafone MyBusiness Cap = AU$79/month, plus
- Data - Data 300" = AU$49/month
So, a total of AU$130/month, provided I don't exceed 300Mb of data, after which I pay AU$0.30/Mb. I never exceed my cap on calls/SMS.
Comment by sisirkoppaka — June 29, 2007 @ 8:56 pm
What ever your smoking, I wan't some.
Anyway, congrats!
This statement is why you would make an awful programmer.
I think I heard the same thing when somebody opened up a box containing a LG Prada ...LAST YEAR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_PRADA_(KE850)
This is something A LOT of companies just don't seem to get. There are all sorts of things Apple products don't do, but they get the basic things spectacularly well. A friend of mine at MSFT just got a MacBook for his daughter. He's never used a Mac before in his life. The experience he had opening the box and getting it running shocked him -- how easy, how thoughtful it was. How it just worked.
This is the kind of thing they focus on. Also, with the iPod, they've been smart enough to let the demands of the rest of us go to the accessory makers. And they've profited from it. It's their hardware API, frankly, that damn little port. And they'll no doubt make a fortune for these folks with the iPhone.
Steven Johnson also mentioned how easy it was to multi-task on the device. Be listening to music, surfing the web in the back of a cab, and easily take a call when it came in and get back to the music/websurfing afterwards. Simple, clean. This is the type of crap you're going to do day-to-day. That most folks will do day-to-day.
Sure, the phone may cost a ton at this point, but the first iPod was an expensive brick. Hell, I can't bear to look at the iPod Mini now, it's so enormous and clunky compared to my Nano. But damned if Apple won't refine this sucker, make it a bit cheaper (or not), and cause it to be more compelling than whatever else is out there.
If it's one thing Jobs does really well is that, despite the detractors out there, he moves forward and CHANGES THE GAME. He proves it can be done, and it can make money. And the market follows.
I'm a huge fan of this company. Why? Because they get user-centered design and development. They get simplicity. They're the first computer company that knows how to make a stuff for actual human beings. And that's something wicked hard to do. Basic human beings want simple. They want a toaster that makes toast.
Nintendo got this with the Wii (and the GameBoy back in the day). And folks scratch their head and wonder why they're making so much money...
Hahahaha.
You didn't bring your video camera?????
http://www.howardgreenstein.com/blog/archives/2...
Played a video of my daughter on the phone. Read about Barry Bonds 250th homer on espn.com. Checked the news on Yahoo and Drudge. Watched the skateboarding dog on YouTube. Zoomed up. Zoomed down. Adjusted my settings. Read eMail. I am going to stop receiving my Yahoo mail on my computer. eMail on this device will work much better.
Did I say the UI was so good I started laughing!!!
If it was really a waste, why is Google doing this?
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/tv_ads...
I saw the ads as well in Canada, which is really ironic seeing how Apple is not going to sell it here for at least a year. I think THOSE ads were a total waste. Why not advertise the iPhone in Antarctica at 5k per spot while you're at it.
I have to agree with Mike Jones (#19) that being able to meet Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson and Ward Cunningham - and just miss Steve Jobs walking in from home - is something more than normal to share with your son, even before the cheering started.
That's some history represented, not least the visit of Jobs and Atkinson to Xerox PARC just down the road in December 1999, when graphics user interfaces and a whole lot else first escaped from 'captivity'. The next year a large package from PARC arrived at the Tektronix reasearch lab in Oregon and was opened by a curious Ward Cunningham. That did for Ward and Kent Beck, as they discovered objects, GUIs, incremental compilation, pair programming and much else through the Smalltalk system seen by Jobs and Atkinson - which historic package was also sent to Apple, HP and DEC, and of course refused by IBM!
At least that's from memory. The iPhone does seem to carry forward some of the vision of those heady days, of a kinder, simpler computing world. But I suggest (as would many of the original Smalltalk team, not least Dan Ingalls at Sun) that there's a little bit of work still to be done on the software foundations.
Thanks to the coast-to-coast blogging and webcasting, it was possible to feel much of the excitement here in London, even if it meant something of a late night. I concur with Dawn Douglass that some of the excitement must have to do with patriotism, or at least celebrating culture one is proud of. That resonates with me. Here's hoping it won't be long until we can share some of that new culture, in high-speed 3G form.
"the visit of Jobs and Atkinson to Xerox PARC just down the road in December 1999"
... make that 1979!
another person out of touch with reality. Maybe you and Scoble can get a group discount on therapy.
(Thats probably why you only have 57 comments)
http://sofiawinterborn.wordpress.com/2007/06/24...