Despite what the user’s guide says, you can use any of the iPhone’s features until it’s activated with AT&T. That means no music till AT&T does its thing.
It should take 20 minutes, maybe an hour or two to activate. But that’s not the case. As reported by Computerworld:
…activation problems began lighting up message forums shortly after the iPhone went on sale at 6 p.m. “Your activation requires additional time to complete,” was the error message frustrated users saw after attempting to activate. While they waited, users were unable to access any non-emergency feature of the iPhone; they quickly re-dubbed it the “iBrick.”
Just as iPhone users are locked into a two-year AT&T contract, Apple is locked into a five-year agreement with AT&T. I won’t be the first to say that the iPhone’s biggest drawback might be that AT&T requirement.
Or, as an AT&T customer might say, “I am ot appy wi h y ser ic !”
The Fray
Tech Geek says:
Anyone who just bought a “ginnie pig iPhone” is foolish (it should still be considered BETA). I’m gonna learn from everyone elses mistakes. Eventually Apple should create a 2nd gen fixing most of the bugs found . After the product has saturated the market enough, within 6 months to a year it will probably be lower than the origional price. Not to mention at&t servers almost crashed on the evening of Jun 29th due to nationwide overload.
So why pay $500/600 now for a fluke 1st gen, than wait it out a few months and get a near flawless 2gen for less, when both the phone itself and network compatibility has improved. Hopefully it may be open to other more reliable cell carriers down the road too.
It’s like the iPod trend. First you paid more for less GB and lower res. Now you pay less for a substantially better quality product. By this time next year I should get a better newer iPhone for less, and won’t have to camp out for it.
Leland says:
Gizmodo is reporting that some AT&T stores are forcing iPhone customers to purchase accessory packages to get the phones. It sounds like an unofficial (word of mouth via district and regional managers) to push accessory sales.
Here’s the link: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ripoff/breaking-several-att-stores-forced-customers-to-buy-accessories-with-iphone-273992.php