An iPhone 3G - better late than never
It's been 19 days since I tried and failed to get a new iPhone 3G, but today I became eligible for the discounted price, and at 7:50am I was in line at the Apple Store at the Westfield Valley Fair mall in San Jose.
As you can read in my previous post, I couldn't get the usual low price for my new iPhone because I had 19 days left on my current 2-year AT&T service contract. Apple was willing to sell me the phone for an extra $200, but I decided I'd rather wait until today.
I was the sixth person in line, and by 8:00am when the store opened, there were five more iPhone buyers in line behind me.
As we lined up, we received cards from an Apple employee reserving the particular model we wanted. I'd estimate the fellow had about 40 cards. I asked if the number of cards corresponded with the number of iPhones in stock, but he wouldn't say. Another Apple guy followed behind, checking our AT&T upgrade eligibility. I did this myself last night, so I was sure it would be okay this time, and indeed it was.
The doors opened right at 8:00am and by 8:13am I was walking out with my new iPhone 3G (the black 16GB model) on my hip in an Incase Leather Folio for iPhone 3G.
(Credit:
Peter N. Glaskowsky)
There's the new iPhone posed next to my old Newton (with handmade solid-titanium stylus) and the Palm Treo 650 the iPhone is replacing.
I'll have a lot more to say about the iPhone as I go through the process of getting it set up and adapting it to my needs.
But I'll mention something else--
I've been looking at the Blackberry Bold, and it's pretty nice. It can function as a tethered 3G data modem for a laptop, and it has some other useful features the iPhone is lacking.
I'm seriously thinking about getting one-- at least, once I get a job. I probably don't need one before then.
So if you're with RIM and you can help me get one of these for a review, drop me a note.
And if you have any job openings for a computer architect, also, please drop me a note. :-)
Peter N. Glaskowsky is a computer architect in Silicon Valley and a technology analyst for the Envisioneering Group. He has designed chip- and board-level products in the defense and computer industries, managed design teams, and served as editor in chief of the industry newsletter "Microprocessor Report." He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
JF
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