iPhone 4 Ordering: Please wait while we process your request over & over again...

Around 130am PST the Apple Store shifted from the "we'll be right back" to being alive again but only this time with the ability to order the iPhone 4.  Yes, only black is available in 16 and 32 GB ($199 and $299 respectively) with the white forthcoming.

AT&T and Apple's systems must be overwhelmed or ill-equipped.  First, I had a $0.41 balance that I cleared out on AT&T.  AT&T's site did NOT have the ability to buy the iPhone 4 yet.  With that done, I kept getting (and am still getting) the dreaded "timed out" message and the "please wait" messages.  Only time will tell, let's hope this works.

Incidentally, Apple's site will ask your number, your billing zipcode and then the last 4 of your social security number.  Then, the prompt will inform you that the phone is ready and that my monthly plan will now be $139 per line per phone.  But this is as far as I've got so far as I wait yet again (this time for 5+ minutes) hoping not to have made some mistake barring me from getting an iPhone 4 as soon as I possibly can!

UPDATE: 30 mins later - GOT IT!  7am Apple Store June 24, here I come!

Sweet Jesus It's About Time! iPhone 4!

The waiting for my next new iPhone is almost over and the spy photos were right.  Also, the features appear to be great, with a great price point.   My current 3G is so very slow with a slugging battery that holds a charge for just a few hours now, very sluggish touch screen response, slow texting, slow everything.   So to me, today's WWDC proved even more exciting for me as the 3GS proved to be a lackluster model upgrade before something really new and good came out.  Worth the wait, I think.

Now, that the form factor is different, how will iPhone case makers evolve? Will there be insurance widely available from AT&T or do we keep using mainstream personal effects policies like those from State Farm? Time will tell.

Big thanks to Gdgt and MacRumors for giving this fan boy a real-time view of it all.  June 15 (and/or 24) here I come....

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

June 2010 can't come soon enough.  Most agree that the WWDC will also coincide with the 4G iPhone.  None too soon.  My 3G can't even hold a charge for more than 4 hours and doing any kind of game playing, texting or (heaven forbid) calling for more than 20 minutes will summon up the dreaded 20 percent warning.  That and whichever OS we're at is piss-poor.  Crashes either come from the OS or the device simply getting old: I mean look at what happens when I try to update!  

Confessions of an iPhone iPad-less Early Adopter

Today is the day everyone and their sister flew to Europe to get one early, waited in line for hours or worked some magic to get an iPad.  Mind you the Wi-Fi version only.  The version I'd get, the 3G, comes out later this month.  But the long lines and the giddyness remind me of how I was so excited when the first iPhone came out.  Don't you remember that too? But because I have a new Macbook Pro 15, a (gasping-for-air/on-its-last-leg) 3G iPhone and a Kindle I have chosen to wait.  I keep telling myself, tethering, tethering...

And, depsite my earlier "what is this thing" attitude, hats off to Apple's marketing to changing my mind (and those of millions of others too, right)

There's a Case for That...

The most common theme at MacWorld this year was the burgeoning (if not flourishing) cottage industry of iPhone cases. But unlike the typical run-of-the mill Incase selection at your local Apple Store (how did they get that contract anyway?) there is actually a huge variety of cases out there. The best cases I found were more individualized and higher-quality, and they're from Trexta - a Turkish company.  Note:  most are not yet available at stores.  Question:  Why did it take so long to have nice cases?

Trexta's high quality cases...

and a customizable version for those who want more.

Waiting is the Hardest Part!

Like many others, I chose to bypass the 3GS in the hopes that the new, new iPhone would be out by summer.  The typical cycle may have been thrown off by iMaxi, ermmm, the iPad, but as my 3G putters along its battery-life is almost non-existent, it crashes even the most basic applications like text and email – not to mention actual swear-to-god phone calls and is slower than molasses.   It can only be a matter of time, right?    Patience young jedi….

MacWorld's Cause Celebre! (i.e., Apple) How We Missed Ya!

Last week's Macworld fete in San Francisco was a departure from times past.  Just like times past are waiting for something new from Apple (the iPhone, the Macbook Air, etc.).  But for the first time unlike Apple itself was itself departed.  And, from what I could tell, excitement for the next "something new" - the iPad - was muted apart from the accessory makers salivating of course. 

Instead of a keynote from Applerati we got the sine qua non of Apple fanboys: David Pogue.   Funny, prepared and entertaining he pushed his book on Twitter, hosted the Gregory Brothers of YouTube fame and even had LeVar Burton from Star Trek TNG on.   Pogus' finale featured another rendition of his "I want an iPhone" song, which rang a bit hollow this year.  The iPhone is passe, right?  With millions sold how could it not be?  The anachronism turned into downright irony if you changed "I Want an iPhone" to "I Want an iPad."  Just as he screeched and reached beyond his vocal range, it seemed like we are reaching as well to like the iPad so that it becomes something we need rather than something we want.  

Even if Geordi La Forge (Levar Burton) doesn't want one right away and would rather focus on the next iteration of an online Reading Rainbow in late 2010 maybe we'll find our enthusiasm by then or else Apple's books will suffer. 

What does Macworld Mean Sans Apple?

I've been inundated with press releases, interview requests and random calls from non-415 telephone numbers all vying for attention for coverage.   I should be so lucky, right? 

But what separates the real, next iPhone phenomenon from the pet rock that gets delegrated to the purgatory known as TJ Max or Ross Dress for Less?  Time will tell.  But so far I've been looking forward to:

(1) exclusive licensing of pop culture icons from the likes of Cartoon Network;

(2) mass customization of personal accessories that are not of the ink jet-based kind; and,

(3)  something completely different, surprising and unknown.
 

Welcome Back

Picking up from CNET. Previous readers from CNET saw this blog on CNET.Com here.

But with 2010, it's time to dust-off the keyboard (real and virtual) just in time for Macworld 2010.

So, here we go!