Yeah, most of you east coasters activated fine. But that's because the majority of iPhones shipped were to the west coast (at least that's what an Apple Store employee told me). After reading a lot of users with activation problems, most of them who are still waiting (like me) began the activation progress after 9pm PST last night. Obviously AT&T didn't do enough stress testing on their network to account for the load, but that's just poor product testing, since they knew how many iPhones were being shipped.

It is unacceptable that any Apple customers should be forced to wait for two days to use their purchase.

Yet another bit of wholly and profoundly negative McSpin from MacNN which leads yet again to the unanswered question of who really owns and runs MacNN? It is possible (and desirable) to report the facts without placing a slant on an article. Theoretically, that's what defines proper journalism. From this we can conclude that MacNN are NOT journalists and are not therefore protected by the first amendment, much as debate has circulated about the status of other supposed online journalists.

I actually went to a restaurant 1 block away from the Apple Soho store roughly at 6:20pm...took me at most 8 minutes to activate my phone. For my mom however, she waited until she got home, didin't het hers activated until a few hours ago...took 14 hours all together for her.

From the time I unboxed my iPhone until I made the first call, maybe a total of 10 minutes, if even that. It was the easiest set up I ever had. Sure beats the heck out of two hours watching the bored clerk at the Cingular/AT&T store set up a new phone - something that I have expereinced almost every time I have bought a new phone in the last 8 years.

how MacNN [and others] choose to report the negative aspects of this_

In ATL, Ga - bought the iPhone from the Apple Store in the mall - 3 hours later opened it up plugged it in called a buddy on my "old" phone w/a Verizon account_ 10 minutes later - had it activated number transferred - called same buddy back and no problems_ Audio soumded better than my RAZR that I nought 6 months ago_ The 2mp Camera built in is way better than anything else I've seen comparitivly_

MacNN - why don't yuou bother reporting both sides of the fence ??

There are alot of us out there that are not having any problems what-so-ever_

Since you are having such a bad experience - perhaps i can help to soften it. I will give you $299 for your iPhone, sight unseen. You can recoup part of your loss, and not have to go through this obviously life-changing stress-inducing anyone-who-isnt-a wussy-could-deal-with-it experience.

And after you sell it to me, maybe you can go hang out with Paris Hilton and share your stories.

I'm having trouble. And if you read news beyond just here, and think beyond just anecdotal "oh mine works great", you'd see it IS indeed a HUGE PROBLEM.

I was just told 24 hours by at&t on the phone. 24 hours.

So the smartass comments about buying my phone don't help. People are understandably mad because they were told something differently.

You whiners make me sick. You bought on the FIRST DAY OF AVAILABILITY. Name me a product that has launched on a MASSIVE scale like this that didn't have some teething issues.

Most of you sound like spoiled rich kids. Yes, it's annoying. So is traffic. Go play in it, ya pansies!

Since when is online activation an industry first by Apple and ATT? Virigin Mobile has been doing it for at least 6 years, and I presume longer.

I'd call this a minor bump in the road, and possibly understandable with the onslaught of new customers. Something that will be long forgotten. I already forgot my tortuos 45 minutes of waiting for activation, its overshadowed by how awesome the phone is...

But for the media, its a sensational story so run with it!

something got slaughtered on AT&T's end.

Gee, I wonder if it was the thrust of a million people trying to activate new service all at once.

In New York, NY -- walked into the flagship 5th Ave Apple Store at 10:45 and walked out at 10:55 with two iPhones. Hundreds of people in the store, but Apple had at least 40 people on registers and mobile terminals ringing up purchases. No lines at all.

Got home and started to activate via iTunes. Got the dreaded "your activation requires additional time to complete" on both phones. One was a transfer of an existing AT&T account, the other was a port from T-Mobile. Done on separate computer, separate iTunes libraries, etc. Waiting 22 hours and counting. Received a "we have a problem" email that asked me to call AT&T. Got through on the special iPhone Activation line in under 4 minutes. Took about 10 minutes with the agent, who said he saw the problem and resolved it and that I should be activated in less than an hour. That was 8 hours ago. Now when I call the iPhone Activation line, there is just a recording that says, "due to high call volume, we cannot answer your call at this time."

This is just great customer service. I don't blame Apple for going with AT&T, but they've got to hold them accountable to actually deliver.

Being a customer of AT&T is like being in an abusive marriage with a wife beater.

Drew

I ended up calling ATT and the rep pushed it through for me... I had to wait an hour on the phone though to talk to a rep and I left the phone call without the phone activating.. but 5 minutes after I hung up the phone it magically started working.. the rep had me pop out the sim card and shut/start the phone but the results were not immediate... phone works great on wifi..

I converted to a family plan, and added the iPhone. Had to call the rep, but it was done in less than 5 minutes.

I know 2 other people that had a similar experience.

All joy and happiness here.

I transfered from sprint and it took a few minutes to enter the info, and about 30 minutes to receive the activation text message from AT&T - but I was able to call out (an use all the other features) immediately. I am really pleased with the iPhone after day 1.

Life's tough. Got my 8GB iPhone last night in Boulder at 6:15p, immediately got the "dreaded e-mail message", talked to cust svc, got the e-mail that I was activated at 8:30p, everything worked, so I played with my new "iPod" today but no phone svc till 9pm tonight. Spoke to Cust Svc at AT&T twice, they were excellent.

Try being nice to CS when they're buried and they really appreciate it and work harder for you. I am a happy customer with a cool new toy.

Z

For the love of God... So what if you have to wait a few hours to get it activated. That's because everyone and his brother ran to the store to be the first one to have the cool new toy and a multitude of activations bogged down the system. Quit whining and be happy...you are driving my stock values down by complaining. I didn't buy 250 shares for nothing! Sit down, relax, do something else for a while...stop "launching attacks on the death star"...go out on a date or something...get a life...step away from the iPhone.

I didn't buy an iPhone to keep your portfolio happy. I really don't care if anyone's stock price dives because they failed to plan on a million people activating their phones.

This stinks, and the problem is customer service, lack of information, and a huge mismanagement of customer expectations.

I don't care to be lectured about having a life or not when I just dropped $680 on something that was advertised as incredibly easy, right down the software saying "this may take 3 minutes!". I have an expectation that was advertised by Apple and they did not live up to it.

Anyone who's stuck in this has a reason to be irritated, without being judged, esp. by someone who has a financial interest in pretending the world is perfect.

I'm not losing my c*** over this, it's just annoying, and could have been avoided by Apple simply allowing the device to function as an ipod and other tools to work while the phone side gets worked on/activated.

But no, it's crippled, and we have a paperweight. Lame.

(FWIW, I doubt AAPL will be hugely affected by this, you have other things to worry about, so just go on a date, and of course make them pay for the junior biggy fries you're splurging on)

z|9600

Apple and ATT should have planned better, but as it is said--the best layed plans of mine and men, oft go awray... Wow, your sense of self and your happiness is crushed when your expectations haven't been met? Sorry you spent a whole month's salary on the iPhone. Now, get out of your parent's spare bedroom...

Yes. I wanted to buy the iphone, but then I was thinking is it really worth it? I'm not talking about the iphone worth itself, because the iPhone is amazing. But I was talking about ATT (Cingular Service), which doesn't have a great wireless service from past experience and compare to other wireless providers. But I decided to give ATT another chance, I bought my iPhone on 6/29 at the Apple SOHO store and bought it home and try to activate the iPhone at 1:20AM 6/30. Today is 7/1 3:21AM and still my iPhone is not working. I hope this is not a sign of what coming from ATT. My biggest fear was the ATT service before I decided to buy the iPhone. ATT should have known and tested their wireless network and prepare for what was coming when 6/29 came around. But I guess the people at ATT, didn't do their homework.

ATT should have known 6/29 was going to be a very big day. ATT should have the customer service people and tech support people working the whole weekend. But instead you get a message saying sorry ATT is closed and the hrs are Sat 9AM-6PM and Sunday we're closed. What happen to those 2000 new employees ATT recently hired??? Couldn't ATT extend their working hrs for the big iPhone launch? I could wait for the activation to be turn on even if it's over 26 hrs already.

this (media) disaster could've easily been avoided had AT&T not been so set on s******* their own customers/preventing people from buying the iphone without a contract, It is an absolute given that the registration process is not going to work 100% of the time. Therefor, they should've had at least a 3 days grace period, where people can use and set up their phones before requiring activation. It's a really big slap in the face to ontroduce a system where you make people pay $5-600 for a product without 100% instant gratification guarantee of some sort. Something as simple as a grace period would've avoided all the (deserved) bad press AT&T and Apple are bound to get over this.

this (media) disaster could've easily been avoided had AT&T not been so set on s******* their own customers/preventing people from buying the iphone without a contract, It is an absolute given that the registration process is not going to work 100% of the time. Therefor, they should've had at least a 3 days grace period, where people can use and set up their phones before requiring activation. It's a really big slap in the face to ontroduce a system where you make people pay $5-600 for a product without 100% instant gratification guarantee of some sort. Something as simple as a grace period would've avoided all the (deserved) bad press AT&T and Apple are bound to get over this.

trying to activate using the online activation on iTunes to add the iPhone to an existing AT&T/Cingular account plan. Everything goes normal till the step of address verification. Correct address is sent to AT&T system and it comes back with a bad ZIP code. It is the same ZIP code in the bill and the also verified at the start of the activation process. Seems like AT&T system is looking for 9 digit zip and the activation screen only accepts 5 digit ZIP. Calls to AT&T customer support line and wait for 60 minutes and talk for another 30 minutes to support person. Support person keeps going back to Supervisor who asks to try the same things tried many times over. Was told that a call back will occur in 2 hours. That was 12+ hours ago. As other postings indicate the activation process is nothing but disaster.

OOOOOOO my feelings are hurt!!!

STFU and call AT&T Customer Service. Then try to be nice and see what happens.

Drama queens, quit double posting. pfffffffft

while you wait, may I suggest you go out and buy a pacifier to suck on.

wah wah, I spent $680, wah wah, I want it to work right now, wah wah, give me give me give me, wah wah.

Since 99% of people didnt have this problem, one has to assume it happened to all these whining doofuses for a reason. Perhaps the higher powers are trying to teach them something about patience, greed, selfishness, etc.

Activation went smoothly without a hitch in 3 minutes. I was up and running at 7 PM on Friday. However ATT assign the wrong area code, meaning I had two make a long distance call from home to reach my iPhone next to me. Called ATT the next day (Saturday morning) and they changed the area code while I was on the phone. I was able to make calls from the iPhone right away but the ability to receive calls took three or four hours. Now everything works flawlessly.

Gary

P.S. Major iPhone flaw: no clipboard/cut & paste.

It took my literally 7 minutes for the entire switch. Not the sign up, but from start until I was receiving calls on the iPhone.

All of the problems you all are experiencing with AT&T are the exact reason why I am a Sprint customer (and hence, someone who will not be buying an iPhone). My first cellphone company was AT&T Wireless, back in 1998. When I moved from Austin, TX to Portland, OR, in 1999, I transferred my account up here. When they changed my phone number, I didn't like the first number they gave me, so I had them give me a different phone number (I wanted one that would spell something). But the nightmare was only beginning: for the next six months, every month they billed me for TWO phone lines. Every month I would call, wait on hold forever, then ask them to kindly remove the second phone line that I was not using and never ordered! They would assure me it was being taken care of, and credit me for the difference. But then it would show up again on the next bill. After three months, they said they could no longer reimburse me for the second line since "you have already had too many credits on your account recently." So after a couple of more months of this, I finally cancelled my account and refused to pay the early termination fee (so they are still trying to bill me for that, which I have disputed to all the credit bureaus based on their terrible customer service). Then shortly afterwards they changed their name to Cingular, since AT&T Wireless had acquired such a horrible reputation for customer service. When I heard Apple was going with AT&T, I cringed, because I knew what it was like to be an AT&T customer and I never wanted to experience it again (even if it meant waiting for 5 years to get an iPhone). Looks like they have not changed a bit!!!

To all you who are posting on here, complaining about those people who are complaining: you are even worse! There is NO excuse for AT&T's CONSISTENTLY horrible customer service that they have been reaming customers with for like, the past 10 years. I COMPLETELY understand how these people feel, especially since I know that this is only the BEGINNING of all their woes. Just wait until they have problems #2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 with AT&T and then want to leave to a different carrier but can't because they are tethered by a crappy contract and a $600 phone!! You should all be ashamed of yourselves for posting on here, mean-spiritedly making fun of all these people having legitimate issues. Grow up!

Have you ever tried to get a Nuclear Power plant authorised? Years, possibly decades!

The people complaining are a pack of losers. From what I've heard they are only a minority and should be ignored.

Do you know what it costs for an MRT scanner? They've paid a lousy $599 for the coolest technology on the planet. Girls might actually want to talk to them for the first time in their lives.

Do you think the owners of Jumbo jets change their own batteries, or get them free? Sheez!

I got my phone at the Apple Soho store late morning on saturday. Got home a while later and started the activation process around 3pm. I took less than a minute to get my new number and set up my account. Seriously how could anyone wait more than 15 mins to get this thing going. I would have cancelled out and tried again before waiting hours. Besides that the iPhone is FANTASTIC!

I got my iPhone at 6:45 P.M. Friday night. I bought two and setup a new account with AT&T along with a transfer from my T-Mobile account. Neither phone is active. I have spent the better part of Saturday and now today on the phone with AT&T. I cannot believe Apple and AT&T thought it was a good idea to prevent the phone from being used while you are waiting for activation.

1. Ok, this probably isn't a minority problem ... sounds reasonably wide-spread.

2. If you buy a brand new product and a brand new service, in the first 24 hrs it's available, well, sorry, you have to be prepared to accept problems.

3. Other companies (hardware and service providers) will make a meal of this, but frankly, they would love to have exactly this problem. Too many people buying their hardware, and signing up for $1500 service contracts.

So yeah, put it in perspective: the "issues" were to be expected, the product is a hit, I'm happy to be in Europe where we'll be forced to wait for the 3G version, and fewer glitches.

As much as I like Apple, you people paid $500+ dollars + a service plan for a freakin' phone! Unbelievable. So what if you can put music on it and take pictures and watch movies. It's a PHONE that costs as much as a COMPUTER!!!

What a waste of money. And you can't even use those other features until it's activated.

be careful not to drop it!

Hello all. I'm in my 18th hour of waiting. For me, it appears that the problem is not on AT&T's end at all. It appears my current carrier, T-Mobile, is simply sitting on releasing my number. (24 hours + is "well within their right" according to their phone support.) So far as I have read, most people who chose to get a new number have had minimal problems. If I were a competing cellular carrier watching a fairly large percentage of my clients jump ship-- I guess I'd do everything in my power to generate an anti-iPhone buzz. Since no other carrier currently has a phone even close to competing with the iPhone, I guess causing delays is their only defense.

I bought my iPhone at 6pm on Friday, and it is now 3pm on Sunday and still no activation! Darn that AT&T! Course, I haven't yet removed the iPhone from its box, so I take partial responsibility. I find it ridiculous though, to call people whining who wanted the phone to work. That's a huge tease, not to be able to use the phone at all, when they waited six months to buy it. Just admit AT&T screwed up...no excuse for this. The phone should work for everything except cell phone calls, until it is fully activated. No reason to block iPod music playback, even wi-fi internet. None at all. s**** you apple, you control freaks.

I am over 42 hours of waiting for my activation. I am an existing AT&T customer. All I needed was to have my data plan switch to the AT&T plan. Still waiting. 42 hours with a device that will do nothing. Called AT&T and they blame Apple. Can't get in touch with Apple.(This does not include the time waiting to buy the $600 paper weight.) What a disaster. I will be returning this iBrick Monday morning as soon as the AT&T store opens. I encourage others to do so. This is OUTRAGEOUS!

of the people with problems are porting numbers. I don't know anyone who created a new account who had the same problems.

Okay, after many calls (and still no service) it appears that I've got a bunch of finger pointing going on between my existing carrier (t-Mobile) and AT&T. Somehow, when AT&T makes the port request to transfer an existing number, there is a date-to-port associated with the request. Mine appears to be 7/2 at 11:40 am ET-- a full 36 hours after doing the initial setup in iTunes. According AT&T the date is determined by t-Mobile, and according t-Mobile the date is determined by AT&T. AT&T, however, can see this number in their system. Is it reasonable to believe that T-Mobile would share this date, if they are indeed the ones issuing the date, with AT&T? To the point where it would pop-up on their internal tracking system? Anyone?

I'm from California and a existing AT&T customer. I had no issues with my activation. Got home about 7pm and downloaded itunes 7.3. Followed the instructions and about 3 minutes later, my iPhone was activated. Maybe I beat the rush when everybody was trying to activate there iPhone at the same time and bogged down there servers.

Still no activation. 21 hours. Spent at least 3 hours on phone support today-- waiting or getting no answers. Pressing AT&T to find out who, exactly, determines the date-to-port associated with the port request. No one at AT&T seems to know. (Update: yes, a rep at AT&T confirms that it is indeed set by AT&T.) Moments after ending a somwhat heated call with an activation support manager, iTunes notified me that the activation was unsuccessful, and that I need to call support and start over. Coincidenenc? I think not.

I walked out of an AT&T store in Texarkana, TX at approximately 10:20 a.m. yesterday morning with my 8 gig iPhone, went straight home, and breezed through the activation process in a matter of minutes.

I just wanted to add my comment that my activation process could not have been smoother. I bought the phone at 11 PM on Friday night, and activated it about 45 minutes later. My iPhone was fully activated within seconds of finishing the process on iTunes.

I noticed all these stories are dated back to Saturday morning. I'm wondering why the news media is not updating the story to let people know if there is or is not a problem now, some 48 hours after the initial surge began.

Please tell me I still have some company out there with others of you that still don't have access. Just got off the phone with AT&T–AGAIN. This guy tried to take some initiative to figure out all the angles. Turns out, I still had a discount on my account from when I worked for Apple and that was hindering things, even though I paid an extra visit to the AT&T store yesterday to resolve such isues. So if you're still having trouble, check that angle. Good luck. Supposed to be HOURS again before the next activation 'completion'...

Tyrade, I can actually make you feel better (if misery really does love company). I'm at 48 hours right about now and I'm still waiting on a supervisor to call me back (within the next 2 hours according to the latest rep). I've literally been on the phone for probably 8 hours with ATT over the course of the last two days. I bought two iPhones and one has still never been activated. To make matters worse, the one iPhone that activated right away has now STOPPED WORKING. Oh, and did I mention that I had to go to the AT&T store to get a new SIM card for one iPhone AND that after about 4 calls, my SSN number in AT&T's system all of a sudden stopped matching.

ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!

...from the time i plugged it in, until activated and synched. what a breeze. best out of box experience i've ever had, bar none.

QualleyIV, I had to do the same thing, and each subsequent operator has been surprised when I told them that. (don't they put that stuff in the call log??)

I just can't believe that AT&T hadn't looked into the possible scenarios to be ready for whatever happened. Clearly they didn't though. As one poster mentioned early on, and I love this, "it reeks of unpreparedness."

Of course that doesn't help us. I think they ought to at least offer us iTunes gift cards, especially since some of us have been without phone service for over a day now...

I'll be sure to post again when they finally activate the thing. Is your other one working yet?

People should have waited to activate. If you've ever used iTunes you know that it can get clogged. I have a feeling though, that this issue is firmly the fault of att. There were reports of problems as early as friday night. Oh well. If you have an iPhone wait a few days to activate it. In this era of "get it now" a few hours seems like forever. Relax.

www.techswot.com wrote warning about AT&T's service problems last week, and about the consequences of running willy nilly to buy these phones without thinking of the consequences. It was a good article. Too bad people ignored it.

warnings or not, I've been a 'faithful' customer for at least three years or more with no trouble at all. Porting customers over from another service seems like trouble in the making, but keeping an existing customer shouldn't be the monumental task that it apparently is. The frustrating part is that they've had six months at least to prepare for this.

You guys are a bunch of whiners. First, this is a brand new highly popular product where to work properly requires two large and very different companies, that have never really worked with one another before, to mesh two complex systems together.

I am sure that Apple and ATT thought they had most of the kinks worked out. I am sure Apple thought ATT's network wouldn't conk out. I am sure if people suggest changing things around, like letting the iPod part of the phone work before registration, Apple will consider changing this. I am sure both Apple and ATT desired that their respective customer service reps would be nice to customers, even the unreasonable ones.

When you buy a complex device like this on the first day, and on a Fourth of July weekend no less, you have to know you are pretty much the brave beta testers. If you're the impatient type, you should have waited a week until some of the kinks have been worked out. Jeez I didn't complain when the day after Christmas I couldn't sign onto iTunes to spend my iTunes gift cards. I understood a million other people were trying to do the same thing.

Moreover, ATT states in writing that some aspects of activating service, such as transferring a number, can take up to 24 hours.

Macnn, the title really sucks because you have no idea how many people bought phones, and how many had trouble.

Picked it up at the Nashville Apple store at 9:30 Saturday morning...got back in the car, started up my MacBook Pro...logged into the internet via my Verizon wireless account ...connected the iPhone, completed the activation (using an existing ATT number) and within just a couple of minutes was syncing with with iTunes and had this critter online downloading my email and running Google Maps of the Nashville area...

Absolutely no hickups what so ever...apparently for those with existing ATT numbers the process goes much smoother...

The iPhone has run perfectly...already have it completely full...wish it was bigger than 8GB...

Tyrade:

I can see a few of these people being upset, but by your own admission, you have unique circumstances, and although I can understand you being disappointed, you should certainly see how your situation might cause an issue. As you say, your discount somehow messed up the system. When two companies are working together, things like that can get overlooked because both companies do not know all the details of the other companies system. It certainly isn't intentional. You act as if you were just a regular Joe.

Again, there is no excuse for poor customer service, but some of you people seem to expect ATT and Apple to be able to fix problems immediately when often both companies are relying on a third party for activation to be complete (e.g. to transfer a number), and both companies are using customer service people who are seeing some issues for the very first time.

I have noticed that often people seem to think their situations are normal and thus they shouldn't be experiencing any problems, when often their situations are not normal.

Ohhhh .. Im so ashamed of making fun of people.

Geesh.

Here's the point: 1,000,000,000 people will go to bed hungry tonight. And the toughest thing in your life is your new $500 toy wont work until monday.

The people whining on here, I seriously hope you never have to actually deal with any real issues in your life. You know, like running out of hot water after a 40 minute shower, waiting too long for your car to come out of the car wash, a wrinkle in your shirt from sitting too long at Starbucks, your mom not waking you on time for your tennis lesson.

My offer still stands: I'll give you $299 for you iPhone, sight unseen, and relieve you of all the stress.

The only people worse are people who stand up for whiners.

Doofuses.

Thanks for the supportive remarks here and there. Finally got through t some AT&T employees that seemed to know more than their other counterparts.

As for the chastising comments. no thanks really. I don't need attitude.

When customer service is terrible, you should (a) complain to the business, and (b) warn others about your experience. Whether or not you are in "the minority" or not shouldn't even factor into the equation. This is just plain common sense for any consumer.

So, are all these people attacking the "whiners", Apple and AT&T employees? That would make them dishonest scumbags, but at least their motives would make sense. Are they shareholders? If so, then telling buyers to "shut up and get over it" seems like a pretty idiotic way to boost some company's fortunes.

If none of the above, is all this corporate a**-kissing being done in the hope that AT&T will read these "brilliant" defenses and offer minimum wage jobs? Since when does AT&T, of all companies, even have fanboys?

The idea of camping in front of an Apple store to get an iPhone seemed pretty dumb to me. I'm getting one, but I can wait. And now I'll probably wait until I stop hearing about these activation woes. Minority or not, I don't have a burning need to find out which camp I'm going to end up in, and being blacked out of phone service for any amount of time would be unacceptable to me. So let there be at least one non-owner of the iPhone on this forum that says, thanks for all the reports.

the WSJ said that the activation problems affected about 2% of iPhone purchasers. While I feel bad for those people who are having problems, they are way in the minority. Nothing runs perfectly (I just bought a DIY GE security system -- same system the big boys install -- and the panel had a problem when the AC and battery were both hooked up -- I am bummed but have to deal with it, just like the minority of iPhone purchasers having problems with activation).

People should have waited to activate. If you've ever used iTunes you know that it can get clogged. I have a feeling though, that this issue is firmly the fault of att. There were reports of problems as early as friday night. Oh well. If you have an iPhone wait a few days to activate it. In this era of "get it now" a few hours seems like forever. Relax.

So, people who bought their new iphone should have just stuck it into a drawer for a week before using it? Or they should've known that there'd be problems?

Who are you people? There are so many Apple a**-kissers posting here telling those people who stood in line to get this hot new product, only to be told "Sorry, we can't get it to work for you" and you're "Oh, stop complaining and be happy you got an iPhone!" (like, if its not activated, then you might as well not have it.

How many of you 'stop complaining' types would be saying the same thing if your iPhone that you spent all that time and money to buy didn't activate for 24 hours? And how many of you saying "its just a small minority, why do they need to post it!" folks wouldn't be crowing and berating if another company (like MS) released a ZunePhone and they had the exact same issues? (Sure, even if you do the math, and say they sold just 100 nationwide, and 2 had issues, that's still 2%, but it would still be a lot of MS bashing as just people complaining about activation).

Oh, and if you bought a computer, you would be fine if you were told it won't work until Monday? Or a new car (sorry, sir, you can take it home with you, but the engine won't start until you activate with OnStar...).

But I guess we now understand why they held off until Friday at 6pm to sell the thing, right before what's probably a high vacation week. They apparently knew there'd be issues and wanted to limit the public exposure.

Oh, and since everyone else is bringing up anecdotal evidence, of all the cell phones I've bought, I've never had one that didn't work before I left the store. Same with computers. But I guess the iPhone is special. You have one, that's all that is important. You don't need it to work. As someone says, it'll get you women (why, I don't know, apparently some posters here believe all women lust after everything apple like they do).

Some people are having issues with the iPhone, dare say anything about it, and the mac-fanboys are calling them a bunch of crybabies. I guess it must help get your iPhone activated if you're on your knees kissing Steve Jobs' a** at the same time.

That'll teach you whiners. Learn to kneel and pucker, and you too would have a working phone.

who runs MacNN? Yet another bit of wholly and profoundly negative McSpin from MacNN which leads yet again to the unanswered question of who really owns and runs MacNN? It is possible (and desirable) to report the facts without placing a slant on an article. Theoretically, that's what defines proper journalism. From this we can conclude that MacNN are NOT journalists and are not therefore protected by the first amendment, much as debate has circulated about the status of other supposed online journalists.

Right, how dare MacNN report there were problems! They're supposed to be objective, reporting all the good news, and little of the bad!

it's interesting...how MacNN [and others] choose to report the negative aspects of this_ ... MacNN - why don't yuou bother reporting both sides of the fence ??

There are alot of us out there that are not having any problems what-so-ever_

Oooh, no problems? Then what's there to report? Its like Bush saying "You only see the bombings in iraq. They never show you the people who don't get blown up."

BTW, don't you all understand that MacNN posts these stories as a public service? If it weren't for MacNN posting the article, people with problems can come here and find out, from all the helpful people telling them here, to stop whining and suck it up? If it weren't for MacNN, they'd be complaining right now. But luckily most now understand that they've bought an iPhone. They should be happy just holding it. Who needs it to actually work.

As usual, this doofus can;t get his/her facts right:

1. No one is waiting a week.

2. No one has been told "it wont work" - they simply have to wait

3. I dont know if my iPhone will have problems or not, because I have chosen to wait to get one, mainly because new products often have goofy problems like this.

4. Obviously, youve never bought a new car. There is always some, albeit small, problem.

5. You state they apparently knew there would be problems. SInce they anounced the rease daye weeks ago, they must have know then. If you can back this up I will buy you an iPhone.

6. All verbal evidence is anecdotal.

7. The iPhone IS special. Of course if we could prove it would help you get a date, Im sure you would buy one.

8. Doofus.

Screen went black will not charge or do anything, i went to restore. On broadband connection 6 hour download wait. Anybody else have Black Screen "dead problem"

Also before this happened on bottom of mail screen it said sending messege 1 of 1 eternally.

Iphone dead and I have been downloading restore for 1 hour only 5 more to go. :}

First and foremost i need a phone that works.

As usual, this doofus can;t get his/her facts right:

1. No one is waiting a week.

They're waiting more then they should have to. And I was replying to post that you should just wait until the excitement calms down. Which is fine if you didn't buy one, but who's buying an iPhone and NOT going to activate it for several days???

2. No one has been told "it wont work" - they simply have to wait No, they're not telling you to wait, they're telling you it'll take 5 minutes to activate, then telling you to wait. Big difference.

4. Obviously, youve never bought a new car. There is always some, albeit small, problem.

I've bought several. And the day I give them my check, or sign the loan papers, I've left with the car. And i've actually driven it home. This isn't a small problem. You can't use it without activating it. Its like buying the car and then being told they can't find the keys.

5. You state they apparently knew there would be problems. SInce they anounced the rease daye weeks ago, they must have know then. If you can back this up I will buy you an iPhone.

So, because I can't produce documentation from Jobs to AT&T's head that says "We're probably going to have issues, let's do this on friday", then the claim must be false? Right.

6. All verbal evidence is anecdotal. And all verbal evidence of ease of activation is anecdotal as well. What's your point? Oh, right, you think everyone's making stuff up.

7. The iPhone IS special. Of course if we could prove it would help you get a date, Im sure you would buy one.

Damn straight. But since we all know it can't, its not an issue (and who wants to meet women who's only interest in you is that you've got some electronic gadget).

8. Doofus.

Nimrod

Those words don't have the same meaning in 2007 that they had in 2006. Jonathan Nimrod is running for the President Elections in 2008 and Carl Doofus is a talk show host.

After all the hype that was created by Apple and AT&T for the iPhone, just like thousands of our brethren, we got lured into buying one for ourselves. Though we wanted to experience the pleasures of urban camping by standing in the line to be one of the first few to hold iPhone in their hand, but my head pulled rank over my heart and we decided to wait for at least few of the initial issues be resolved before taking the plunge. After waiting for weeks, we found an occasion that we could use to bargain with our heads and convince ourselves to buy the first of the potential 4 iPhones in the family. It was my in-laws 37th wedding anniversary and we convinced my father-in-law to shell out more than 600 dollars to buy the phone for my mother-in-law (if I was going to experiment, it rather be on my father-in-laws dime!) (Note to my wife: Honey, I'm just kidding. None of this was planned) Anyhow, we all sat in the car and burned the gas to drive 18 miles to the nearest apple store and within minutes were proud owners of iPhone. Me being the tech-whiz of the family, everyone had their hopes on me to use my tech prowess to bring the device to life as soon as we reached home. All excited with the family watching, I proudly pulled the equipment out of the box, hooked up the cables and launched iTunes. I then connected the phone to my PC's USB port and to our excitement Voila! iTunes magically recognized that we now belonged to the privileged list of iPhone owners. The iTunes software asked us for all the personal information like the phone number we were trying to get activated etc. Then it displayed a message asking us to wait while AT&T activates the service. Our hearts pumping and blood rushing to our cheeks with excitement, our eyes kept moving from the computer screen to iPhone with anticipation. We were already debating who will make the first iPhone call and to whom..... Boom! All our dreams shattered, our hearts broken - we saw a message on the computer screen saying that AT&T needs additional time to activate the phone and we will be notified via email once the phone is activated. We kept refreshing our yahoo email account first on every 15 minutes interval, and slowly moving up to on-hour-every-hour cadence. No luck! Next day in the afternoon we received an email congratulating us that the iPhone has been activated and all we need to do is plug it back into iTunes to activate it. So here we go again. We plug the phone back in and go through the process. To our amusement the phone opens up and we can see those beautifully aligned pretty icons on the iPhone. We were even able to load all the pictures and music on the device. As soon as the synchrinization finished, we picked up the phone with fingers twitching to make the first iPhone call .... No go. There was no service on the phone! It was a nice 600 dollars iPod, but we couldn't make a phone call as AT&T had not activated the phone. I then called A