This is the line where AT&T folks actually know how to activate iPhones and diagnose those that won’t activate.

It worked for me and apparently Thomas Hawk as well.

The iPhone was worth the wait. It’s incredible. More later…

It lives.

Start time: 6/29/2007, 9:59 PM EDT

Finish time: 7/1/2007, 3:54 PM EDT

Elapsed time: 41 hours, 56 minutes

What it took: A woman named Dina in activations support who crossed the line into customer care to get someone to set my account correctly. Dina is a modern day hero. (Apparently the multitude of other folks who confirmed my account was set up correctly were wrong.)

I’m a four-year AT&T customer. My reward for loyalty is a 40-hour-and-counting wait to have my iPhone activated.

I had a faint fear that attempting to migrate my current AT&T account to my iPhone would cause problems. I decided I wanted to keep my phone number and chose to play optimist.

At this point I’m white-hot-angry and am pretty sure the reason I’ve waited this long is an account problem. On my last call to AT&T I was told they “need additional information,” and the gentleman who helped me indicated there was some sort of billing stop. Sure enough my recent bill was not yet paid. This was because I’m an auto pay customer and the payment date had not yet hit. He assured me paying my bill would get my iPhone activated.

So, to recap: my four years of loyalty, flawless payment history, and willingness to let AT&T deduct my funds automatically each month seems to have placed me at the bottom of their list of supported activation scenarios.

I paid my bill and am on hold again.

It’s been about 16 hours since my Nokia 6822 went dead. I’m phoneless while I wait for my beautiful doorstop to activate.

I started the process at about 8:00 last night. At about 10:00 I was informed “iPhone activation requires additional information.” The problem was my “old AT&T” rate plan was “not compatible with the iPhone.” (It would have been nice of the AT&T provisioning system had determined this before it allowed the activation to proceed.) I called AT&T and was quickly moved to an iPhone plan. (The nice woman answered the phone on the second ring–that’s right, no wait.) There was then some stressful confusion wherein I was instructed to remove the SIM card so I could determine its number, which we later learned was unnecessary given the number is printed on the box. I read her the number and my Nokia died almost immediately, dropping our call.

I don’t have a home phone, so I scrambled and was finally creative enough to remember I had some unused Skype time. I called back on my PowerBook and was assured my activation was in queue. I was told I could take my iPhone with me (unplugged from the cradle) and it would come to life whenever the activation took.

16 hours and two calls later the iPhone is back in the cradle and nothing has happened. AT&T is quoting up to a 48-hour wait for the activation to complete. I told my family I’m unreachable via phone.

So, I waited in line for four hours to pay $600 for a cell phone that has taken 16 hours and counting to activate. I’m not alone in this:

There are plenty more stories on TechMeme and Google News.

It’s funny, as I was preparing to pick up my iPhone I started to feel pretty good about AT&T. They built Visual Voicemail, they’re allowing activation via iTunes (no annoying store wait!), and I have to admit the rate plans seem completely reasonable. How did they miss on this? Were they the only folks in the country who didn’t know how popular this device was going to be? I expected more.

So, I’ll continue to wait and I’ll demand a refund of at least one days’ worth of service. Such is the curse of the early adopter.

Note to Apple: If AT&T can’t activate these things in a timely fashion, at least allow the core functionality to work for a few days before activation is required. It will make life a lot less stressful on everyone, including AT&T.

It’s still not activated. Story to follow, maybe.

Here are pics from yesterday.

I hopped in line at (near) the Fifth Avenue Apple Store a little after 2:00. The line wrapped from the south side of the store to Madison and about halfway around the other side of the building onto 59th Street. I was about the 300th person in line.

I met some cool folks–Matt, Michael, and Jowannu–and later, their friend Kit. They were nice enough to hold my place in line when I went on an extended, fruitless search for a Starbucks. (I just needed a bathroom–I gave up and used Bloomingdales.) I’ve never been so many blocks in New York City without seeing a Starbucks.

As we started to do the math it seemed pretty clear everyone in line would get one and that the wait wouldn’t be long once the store opened at 6:00. I was right about the wait and based on the stacks of iPhones I saw I’m pretty sure I was right about availability, too.
Still, somehow I’ll probably always have happy memories of having waited in line for one of the first iPhones. I know it’s just a consumer electronics product, but it grabs me. Given the lines everywhere I wasn’t the only one affected by its charms.

Considering the good company, the general excitement, the regular doses of interviews and creative marketing, and the watering and feeding (Apple folks brought us water, a very nice touch), the four-hour-plus wait flew by pretty quickly.

Apple must have enlisted store employee they had. They clapped for us outside, and they clapped for us as we came down the stairs. My modest inner cynic thought myself above enjoying it, but truth of fact I did. It’s nice to celebrate something special to you in the presence of a bunch of folks who also excited by it, even if that thing is ultimately just a consumer product. “Happiness is…owning the iPhone” says an Engadget article today. It was a good afternoon.

I’m looking at Engadget’s nice summary of the lines across the country today as I impatiently wait for my iPhone to activate. The friendly, competent AT&T rep (I’m serious on both counts) told me the the queue is quite clogged, so I don’t know when the activation will complete. I won’t sleep till it does.

I’m on vacation today in Chicago. It’s beautiful outside, but instead I’m setting indoors in front of my PowerBook watching live blogs of the WWDC Keynote (MacRumors, Engadget).

Since I’m on vacation I can also jot down my initial impressions now, right after the speech. I’ll probably post a follow-up post once I’ve had a chance to shake off the trance and get some other perspectives.

In the brief intro Jobs gave Intel a nice thank-you and welcomed some visitors to talk about activity on the games front. (I don’t care about games, so I won’t cover the material.)

Once the presentation got moving the content about 80% Leopard, 10% “Huh?” (Safari on Windows), and 10% iPhone.

Leopard

Jobs says there are over 300 new features. 10 were shown in the keynote.

Here’s my take on each, in the order they were presented:

New Desktop

I’m dying to see the screen shots and some demonstrative videos. Hey, maybe I should check the Web site…

(Five minutes later…)

Apple provides and overview (including videos) of the new desktop. Typical Apple refinements (the new Dock look, the semi-transparent menu bar) and a typical Apple “righting” of an existing feature (the Windows task bar). Nice.

New Finder

It actually does seem pretty new this time around (see the overview). It’s nice to see the UI learnings cross-pollinating. The Finder’s taken several cues from iTunes, which is a good thing. CoverFlow gets some cool points, though I’m not sure how often I’ll use it. It does seem pretty useful when it’s the result browser for a Spotlight search.

The sidebar is intuitive; again, it works like the iTunes sidebar.

Spotlight across computers is a nice addition.

If Back to My Mac is implemented anywhere near as elegantly as it’s been shown this feature alone will get my .Mac subscription dollars. This is a great example of Apple taking a technology that’s been available for a long time and making it work the way it should.

Quick Look

Once again, a standing ovation (in my mind, anyway), just for implementing an old feature the right way. The demo is worth a view.

Core Animation

Developer stuff. I’m too lazy to research it right now, so I don’t know how relevant it is. It’s safe to assume the result will be cooler apps. If cooler apps do actually result from Core Animation, I will point back to this column and say “See, I called it an hour after the 2007 WWDC keynote.”

Boot Camp

It’s out of beta. Not surprisingly, dual-booting is still required. There was a nice nod to Parallels and VMWare. Was there any hidden meaning when it was said Boot Camp was a “complement” to Parallels and VMWare?

Spaces

Today’s Spaces coverage was the 2007 recap of Apple’s 2006 announcement that Leopard will contain a refined version of technology originally created in 1989.

Dashboard

Dashboard now allows us to turn Web pages into widgets. This seems similar to the Active Desktop feature Microsoft added to IE 4.0 in 1996 and then discontinued (or maybe just forgot) by the time IE 5.0 was released.

I’m sure this feature implemented nicely. I doubt anyone will throw a party about it.

Oh, and there’s a movie widget. It looks kinda cool. I didn’t see the speech, so I’m curious to know how much applause a movie widget got.

iChat

Neat/cute. Once I get a MacBook Pro (note to Apple: slimmer, or at least lighter 17-inch version in October, please) I will use iChat to conference with my parents. (Side note: I talked my Mom into buying a MacBook). I may even try to con my sister into getting a MacBook so we can do a full-on conference.

Time Machine

If Time Machine works half as well as it demoes then I think we have a winner. How is it that backup software has existed since the dawn of time, yet no one has ever bothered to make it usable? My new goal is to have my mother doing unassisted backups using an Airport Extreme with a connected disc. It’s been every son’s dream, and now it’s a reality.

Safari Web site incompatibility, now for Windows

The above was my first impression. The more I think about it the more I see some logic in doing this.

It’s sort of a secondary enticement to folks on Windows. The assumption would seem to be that folks using iTunes would also like an Apple-branded Web browser. I’m sure there are hooks between the two that make using them together compelling, and there will probably be some iPhone-specific hooks in Safari as well. I’m sure Safari will be distributed with iTunes, both on the Web and in iPhone and iPod packaging.

Having Safari on both Windows and the iPhone can only help in the site compatibility department. Site compatibility is so inconsistent I don’t even use Safari right now. (I also find it slow, though I’m using it on a three-year old G4 PowerBook, which admittedly is getting a little long in the tooth.)

Jobs mentioned the Windows Safari beta was available for download, but he didn’t mention (or I didn’t catch) that the Mac beta is also available. I’ll download it and give Safari yet another chance.

I still wonder if too much human effort is being spent developing functionally identical Web browsing functionality. Oh well.

iPhone: who needs a development kit?

Such is the general message Apple is communicating. The basic idea is: Web apps work in Safari, which runs on the iPhone, so just develop Web apps and they’ll run on the iPhone. According to the Apple press release, apps
“can seamlessly access iPhone’s services, including making a phone call, sending an email and displaying a location in Google Maps.”

Jobs definitely oversold the idea. (Engadget’s response when his pitch hit its climax: “Weeeeeaaaak.”) Most of what was “announced” was pretty much to be assumed anyway. That said, with some creativity I expect there will be plenty of good stuff.

Summary

There’s more Leopard detail on the Apple site, but given that some of the “top 10″ items were a bit of a stretch, most of the rest of the changes can be assumed to be incremental.

All in all Leopard seems to be shaping up into a compelling upgrade. I just wish it was ready now.

Today’s edition is being written at Panera Bread in Chicago. This place has more working professionals and students than a Starbucks. Given the free Wi-Fi it’s easy to see why.

I’m sweating to get this done before the WWDC keynote at 1:00 (12:00 CT). Since I’ve got the day off I’ll be tracking it. From oldest to newest:

Marc Andreesen is back on the Mac
I’d never heard he was a Mac user who left, but it’s a great endorsement. Read

iPhone developer kit at WWDC
Of all the rumors floating around, this one makes the most sense to me. Job’s already acknowledged it, and what better time to do it? Read

New MacBooks
They’re faster and I like the new display on the 15-inch. The hard disks are bigger. Tom Yager has a typically thoughtful piece on them.

Yet the case design never changes. The 17-inch is actually slightly larger than my three-year old 17-inch PowerBook. The 15-inch lost two-tenths of a pound, but the 17-inch is the same weight. The machines are still beautiful, but I want to see something new.

I was equally bummed (but not surprised) there’s no Robson caching, though at least one recent report questions the technology’s effectiveness. I’d expect if Apple’s going to implement it the technology will require Leopard.

If Leopard were already available I’d be seriously tempted to jump. My hope is redesigned MacBook Pro models will be released on conjunction with Leopard.

Parallels 3.0
There’s been of writing about the new version of Parallels; I liked Pogue’s article. I’m seriously psyched about this software. I can’t wait to retire my Dell Latitude and run Windows on a fast MacBook Pro. This made the MacBook Pro disappointments that much harder to swallow.

.Mac via Google
The rumor seems to have started with this posting, then a bunch of others followed (the Business Week blogger, ComputerWorld, etc.). This morning some site called MacScoop claims they’ve heard it from a (presumably reliable) source. A hot tip or a site hoping to gain credibility by claiming to have confirmation of a rumor they heard from someone else? We’ll see.

Somewhat off-topic but too brilliant not to mention
Floorplanner provides simple and effective tools for designing, uh, floor plans. It’s effective for my modest New York apartment planning needs, anyway.

Necessity is the mother of invention
A rule proven once again by a saint at MIT, who is working to develop the ability to wirelessly recharge batteries. I wish this existed now, because my battery is dead.

More later…

This was a busy week in tech. I’ve been trying to write this post for days and the list of stuff to include just keeps growing.

From oldest to newest:

BackRow Developers’ Kit
Apple doesn’t provide one, so this guy does. Nice. Doesn’t sound like a kit “for the rest of us,” but it’s a start. Really this guy’s just trying to get a job. Nice.

Google Street View Maps (here) and Microsoft Live Search Maps (here)
The Google maps are pretty cool. I saw the front of my apartment building. Navigating them is kinda slow, and privacy concerns are already surfacing.

The Microsoft maps look interesting, but they don’t work on my Mac, and I haven’t taken the time to try them on a Windows machine. I’ll never stop being annoyed by Web services that aren’t fully cross-platform. I’m over the fact that not everything works (or works well) on Safari, but I expect everything to work on Firefox, regardless of the underlying platform. Shame.

Palm Foleo
A Linux-powered laptop-like device at 2.4 pounds is a neat idea. The fact it’s an add-on to a Treo (or other smartphone) is an interesting, if at times impractical twist.

I think the fact it’s Linux-powered is very cool, but I generally agree with Engadget’s impression of it. The TreoCentral guy is, not surprisingly, more open-minded about it. The general consensus seems to be in line with Engadget.

The fact it runs Linux and has built-in Wi-Fi (which apparently operates independently of a tethered smart phone) means it will probably be a popular hacker toy. A light, subnotebook-sized machine that will provide Web browsing for $400? It may create an unintended market.

Microsoft Surface
Cool stuff, but the initial applications are less than exciting to me.

Interesting Development Technologies
LINA, Google Gears, Google Mashup Editor. More on Google Gears and Mashup Editor later.

Real Networks. Yawn.
Real built some product that allows you to download Flash videos. Apparently the installer is less annoying.

Didn’t they build something a while back that was a “threat” to Apple? What was it called, again? Does it still exist?

AppleTV Developments
YouTube. Cool. I’m more excited by the 160 GB hard drive, though. I’ll stick with my Mac Mini for the moment.

If it gets IPTV, though, I will be really, really interested.

Jobs and Gates at D5
I’ve read the transcript and I’m halfway through the videos.

iPhone Lands June 29
It’s official, and the ads are already posted. I’m gone back and forth, but I’m now 90% sure I will be picking up an iPhone the minute I can get my hands on one. Will they be available at the Fifth Ave Apple Store at midnight June 29?

This will be daily notes on tech stuff I read or find.

Google Desktop for Mac

Google Desktop for Mac was announced yesterday.

I wasn’t really expecting it, though the announcement was probably no surprise to anyone who cared. For some reason I figured Google would somehow show “respect” for Spotlight by not releasing search on the Mac. I think I know better.

In my whopping 20 minutes of use I’m finding each has unique advantages. Google Desktop is a faster way to search Google, my Web history, and Gmail. Spotlight is still for app launching and finding local documents as well as assets managed via the iApps.

I knew better, but I hoped anyway Apple would license Google technology to do desktop search, or would at least integrate Google searching into Spotlight. Instead, as with Windows XP, I’m stuck with two incomplete desktop search tools. Vista’s desktop search sorta works, once you set the default search engine to Google, anyway. (I’ve only got Vista on my unloved personal Dell, so I haven’t spent a huge amount of time using it.)

Yes, I know there are Google Spotlight plugins. I haven’t tried one in a while; maybe I should try again.

Mossberg: New PCs “Ruined”

Walt Mossberg does a nice job summarizing the frustration that’s part of setting up a new Windows machine. I spent seven hours a couple Saturdays back setting up a Windows machine for my Mom. It was infuriating, and I know what I’m doing. The Mossberg article and this one by Ken Rockwell made me decide I should get my Mom a Mac. She uses her computer to browse the Web, write email, and manage her digital photos. Why should I keep putting either of us through phone calls to me about annoying Norton questions and vague errors?

I have to agree with Arrington on this one. I will take extra steps to use del.icio.us anyway, but this level of integration with Firefox is great.

Okay, I just installed it and have barely used it, but I’ve used it enough to be excited about it. It goes onto my XP machines tomorrow.

Old News: Apple TV

The Apple TV has been around for a few weeks now. I’m a lot less excited about it than I thought I would be. I haven’t even gone to the Apple Store to play with one. Having read up on it I’m feeling better about my Mac Mini media center arrangement.

Engadget’s review seems about right. Useful as a simple iTunes extender, but it’s got some growing to do. Still, I may check one out when I’m in Chicago this weekend.