Holy cow, it worked! After reading my colleagues’ tales of woe —especially Jim Dalrymple’s, as I’ve done the same corporate to personal conversion as he did—I had grave fears about activating my new iPhone. And unlike Jim, I hadn’t planned this in advance, so I only transferred my account today. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
As I mentioned earlier, I was in line on a work assignment today, and I thought I’d be simply buying one phone, and mailing it down to San Francisco. Well, about halfway through the six-hour wait, I was given the news that I was to buy two phones, keeping one for myself—it appears that I’m to have some hands-on time with the iPhone to see if it overcomes my sight-unseen objections. So that’s why I hadn’t yet transferred my existing AT&T corporate plan to a personal plan. I stepped out of line for 15 minutes, and AT&T talked me through the changeover and assured me that it all looked like it worked.
I was in the third batch of people that were let into the Apple Store, and was in and out with the phones by 6:20 p.m. or so. They were amazingly efficient. After a quick stop at FedEx to send one phone on its way, I continued home with the other, still somewhat surprised I had one in my possession.
After the requisite box opening pictures— Dan Moren has already provided his —I connected the iPhone, fearing the worst. Amazingly, though, everything worked perfectly. My existing phone number was moved over, I was told of the added $20 fee for the iPhone plan, and after a very short wait of two minutes or so, my iPhone reported back that it was activated! Hooray!
Initial impressions are minimal, mainly because the iPhone is still synching songs, movies, and photos. However, two things stand out immediately. First, it’s really thin. I thought my Treo was pretty thin, but the iPhone makes it look like a sumo wrestler by comparison. Second, the screen is simply stunning. The videos on Apple’s site really don’t do it justice. With a high dots per inch count, and vibrant colors, the images on the screen are truly gorgeous.
More later once I have some real hands-on usage time with the phone. But for now, we’re now two-for-four on getting iPhones that Macworld bought up and running.