apple iphone carnival - June 30, 2007

Welcome to the June 30, 2007 edition of apple iphone carnival.

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Ruby presents 7 Things About Success That You Can Learn From Steve Jobs posted at Advice and Rants.

apple iphone

Craig Huggart presents The iPhone Prophesy posted at Tech Rest, saying, "My quick thoughts about the future of the iPhone."

Meredith Mathews presents Link Karma: Apple iPhone Commercials, Demos & More! posted at Lemonade Stand.

Ant presents Apple iPhone - Extra Product Review posted at The Beef Jerky Blog.

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iPhone: What the Critics Say

Boston Globe
Hiawatha Bray writes that he couldn't trash the iPhone if he wanted to. The Globe sees the iPhone as unprecedented and says it leads the way for the newest cell phone technology: "For it's not just cool; this phone is important, in the same way that Apple's first Macintosh computer was important. The Mac showed us a better way to interact with computers, and forced the entire industry to follow its lead." In the end he called it: "an elegant marvel that even a hype-weary journalist has to love."


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CBS News
Larry Magid writes "My overall thought is that the iPhone's software represents a truly remarkable accomplishment... Regardless of how well this device ultimately does, it will always be remembered as the phone that broke the mold from which all others were fabricated." He says the biggest difference in this cell phone compared to others is the lack of a physical keyboard which he said, "While my very first experiences with the touch screen were frustrating and — five hours later — I still find myself making some mistakes, I can certainly understand the advantage to being able to dynamically re-define the keyboard depending on the task at hand." He also gave the phone a mixed review when it came to the Web. "The good news is that the phone's version of Apple's Safari browser is by far the best browser I've ever used on a hand held device," but he said it's hard to read the text since the screen is so small.

CNET
Kent German and Donald Bell give the iPhone an 8 out of 10 rating, which is equivalent to excellent and say the bottom line is: "Despite some important missing features, a slow data network, and call quality that doesn't always deliver, the Apple iPhone sets a new benchmark for an integrated cell phone and MP3 player." The positives are that "its Safari browser makes for a superb Web surfing experience, and it offers easy to use apps. As an iPod, it shines." But it also has variable call quality and lacks stereo Bluetooth support and 3G compatibility. It also has "stingy" integrated memory for an iPod.

Engadget
The website's review of the iPhone highlights a comparison chart between the phone and Helio's Ocean handset. They say, "Quite frankly, the chart does make a few good points, most notably around the iPhone's lack of GPS, strangely omitted MMS ability, and the obligatory removable battery; of course, we personally aren't offended nor joyous about "MySpace integration," but we suppose it could sway some folks tweens one way or another." Other posts point out more iPhone deficiencies — it isn't supported by 64-bit Windows XP or Vista and doesn't work with most third-party headphones. However, another post points out a positive — the iPhone is "pottymouth friendly" and allows users to write curse words.

New York Post
Glenn Fleishman tells readers not to buy the iPhone at all. While he calls it "a technological marvel," he says Internet and email are sub-par and the small screen makes it hard to read Web pages. He also criticizes the network saying "Modern cell networks use third-generation (3G) standards that are five to 20 times faster than the iPhone" and says the phone scrimps on storage. He urges consumers to wait until the 2.0 version saying "You can bet that iPhone 2.0, probably available withing the next year, will be faster and have more storage — probably for the same price.

New York Times:
David Pogue writes that much of the hype and some of the criticisms are justified — "it does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phone." He says the biggest achievements are the software, because the phone is "fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate," and the Web browser because "you get full Web layouts, fonts and all, shrunk to fit the screen." The downfalls are the AT&T network — call quality is average and they use an ancient EDGE network to connect to Web — and missing features like a memory-card slot, chat program and voice dialing. You also can't install new programs from anyone but Apple and the browser doesn't support Java or Flash.

San Francisco Chronicle
Ryan Kim writes that the iPhone deserves all the attention it's getting and says, despite the flaws, "this is a device that will be defined by what it brings to the table, not what it leaves behind." He says the simple design is inviting — "the lure of the iPhone is that it makes you want to use it. It's actually fun." He also says when he uses it "I keep coming back to the word 'fluid' because each action seems to flow into the next. Nothing is abrupt."

TG Daily
Wolfgang Gruener writes "After spending a day or so with the phone, it is clear to us that Apple has created a special product that extends far beyond the definition of a cellphone." They says it's not just a phone, "it is a mobile communications device that will also entertain you." However, they say, expect this phone to be a beta product and expect breakage to occur and that it shouldn't be used as a communications device for your business.

USA Today
Ed Baig says "Yet with a few exceptions, this expensive, glitzy wunderkind is indeed worth lusting after... Apple has delivered a prodigy — a slender fashion phone, a slick iPod and an Internet experience unlike any before it on a mobile handset." But he says that it may not be "the most ideal smartphone for every user. It's pricey. It lacks certain features found on some rival devices. AT&T's coverage was spotty in some areas I tested over the past two weeks. Your employer may prevent you from receiving corporate e-mail on the device." The most remarkable thing missing is the physical dialing keyboard and instead, "finger-tapping takes getting used to." But one of the best features is visual voicemail, which lets you prioritize the messages you hear first, instead of listening to them in the order they arrived.

Wall Street Journal
Walter Mossberg and Katherine Boehret write that "despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer." The iPhone's best qualities include the software, which "sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry," and its clever finger-touch interface, along with its ability to roll intelligent voice calling, a full-blown iPod, the best Web browser seen on a smart phone and robust email software that synchronizes easily with Windows and Macintosh computers using iTunes into one phone. They say it "makes other smart phones look primitive." The major drawback is the cellphone network — it isn't able to use AT&T's fastest cellular data network to sign online. Instead, it uses a "pokey network" called EDGE, which is "far slower than the fastest networks from Verizon or Spring that power many other smart phones."

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Iphone Review - Apple's simple, versatile iPhone changes the game

Apple's simple, versatile iPhone changes the game


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Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, June 30, 2007

So ... is it all that?

After all the ink that's been spilled describing, previewing and hyping the Apple iPhone, does it deserve the attention? I'd have to say yes.

It has its flaws and omissions, but this is a device that will be defined by what it brings to the table, not what it leaves behind.

Will you want to buy it? Well, that's a personal question that has to do with your take on the value of technology. I would have loved it to be $100 cheaper. But let's be clear: This Internet, music and cellular device is a game-changer.

The lure of the iPhone is that it makes you want to use it. It's actually fun. Do we say that about any phones? Hardly. It's not really the physical design, which is a marvel of simplicity. It's what happens when you pick it up and use it. There is nothing intimidating about it. Rather, it's inviting.

Here is a quick look at some of the key features:

-- Touch screen: It starts with the 31/2-inch touch screen, which the iPhone uses to great effect. On other phones with a traditional directional pad, you can measure people's attention fading away by each click of the button.

But with the touch screen, even mundane tasks seem interesting. You're actually able to move things about, sliding your finger here and there, conjuring up fluid screens that slide and zoom into place. Unlocking the phone involves a sweep of the finger. Gliding through your music library requires a similar movement. You can "pinch" pictures and Web pages with two fingers to make them larger or smaller.

I keep coming back to the word "fluid" because each action seems to flow into the next. Nothing is abrupt.

For those who remember the first time the mouse was introduced, it's a similar sensation. This is something quite new, utterly engaging and smile-inducing.

-- Keyboard: The biggest question about the iPhone has been how the virtual keyboard works. It only pops up when you need it, but because it has no physical keys, there is no tactile feedback. Instead, you have to watch your typing and then rely on the iPhone's intelligence, which constantly works to correct your spelling and also predicts what letters you're trying to press.

I found that it performed better than I thought, though it was still difficult early on to get the hang of it. It will take awhile to get up to speed, especially if you've got thick fingers.

There are some problem words you will need to look out for. Mine was the word "but," which came out "bit" or "not." The virtual keyboard won't replace the BlackBerry's keypad yet, but it'll get the job done if you give it some time.

-- The Internet: The Internet experience is beyond what I've seen on other phones. Surfing the Web on your cell phone or smart phone can be grim work. Even on phones that allow you to call up regular Web pages, not watered-down mobile versions of regular Web sites, the text and pictures are reordered to fit the small screen. No wonder only 11 percent of people surf the Web on their phones.

But with iPhone's 31/2-inch screen, you're able to call up the actual Web site and see it in full as it would appear on your computer. With a double tap on the screen, you zoom into the page. A quick double tap and you're back out. If you want to move around, you just drag your finger and "pull" the page in one direction or the other. The screen is sensitive enough to discern when you're trying to pull the page in one direction and when you're trying to connect a link on the page.

It's not a perfect port of the computer experience. You can't watch Flash-based videos, and the browser won't support Java. And when you're out and about, you have to rely on AT&T's Edge data network, which, while a few times faster than dial-up, is not as fast as the state-of-the-art 3G data network, which approximates DSL speeds. But when you're in Wi-Fi range, the iPhone is really able to make good on Steve Jobs' promise of delivering the Internet in your pocket.

-- Music: The iPhone is a sweet music player, too. Gone is the iPod click-wheel, which will probably never make another appearance on a full-size iPod. Here you just scroll through your library by sweeping your finger. Turn the phone sideways and you can view your album covers through Cover Flow, allowing you move through your collection visually with, again, a sweep of your finger. When a call comes in the song pauses and then resumes when the call ends.

-- Video: Watching videos on the iPhone is where you can really take advantage of the large screen in landscape view. Tapping on the screen brings up onscreen controls. Tapping twice moves you between full-screen and widescreen views. The screen is brilliant, and the experience of watching TV is full. I've stopped watching videos on my iPod, partly because of battery concerns but also because the screen seems too small. This gets it right.

-- Phone: Lest we forget, this iPhone makes phone calls. Because it has no keyboard, you're just pressing virtual buttons on the screen. But the act of making calls, moving through your contacts and setting up conference calls is a breeze. Every task is organized right on the phone screen, and it's just one-touch to get started. Visual voice mail is a bit of a treat, especially if you're someone who lets voice mails pile up. Here you can just view the voice mails as if they're e-mails, allowing you to jump to the messages that seem the most important. The phone quality was OK, though a friend experienced an echo when I put him on speakerphone.

-- E-mail: It's not a BlackBerry. But it sets up e-mail nicely with programs like Yahoo, Google and AOL. I wasn't able to set up on our corporate exchange server through the IMAP protocol. My company, like many others, won't allow you to access e-mail because of potential security risks. But when you get the e-mail running, it's actually very fun to use with clean messages that support full HTML, so your picture attachments come through. Word, Excel and PDF files are also viewable, though you can't edit them.

-- Pictures: Pictures are fine, too. You do the pinching maneuver to resize your photos and sweep your finger to move through your library. For pictures in landscape mode, you just turn the phone horizontally and it reforms the picture to fill the screen.

-- Applications: Google Maps is nice, though it would have been great to have GPS. Without it, you have to enter your location to find nearby stuff or get navigation help. It allows you to do turn-by-turn navigation, but you have to update the process after each turn. You do get live traffic updates on a map, showing you where trouble spots are. YouTube support was a late addition and a nice one at that, allowing you to kill time checking out videos.

Again, this is not the perfect phone. You can't voice-dial, and there is no word on downloadable ring tones or the ability to make your own ring tones. And without the fastest data network, it's not always as fast as it can be when surfing the Web. GPS installed would have been nice, too.

But for a first effort, this still blows away so many other phones because it takes us to a new level of interaction with our mobile devices. This makes the promise of a "mobile computing" future seem possible because it's now something we want to do.

The cell phone, the most personal of technology devices, has just gotten a whole lot more personal.
Apple iPhone

Combination cell phone, media player and Internet device.

$499 for a 4GB unit, $599 for an 8GB unit.

Sold through Apple and AT&T stores and online at www.apple.com.

This article appeared on page A - 11 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Iphone Debuts - New York

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By JEREMY W. PETERS
Published: June 30, 2007

Apple wanted a spectacle when the iPhone went on sale, and it got just that.

Dozens of photographers hovered outside Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue near East 59th Street, waiting to snap pictures of the elated, often sunburned faces of the first iPhone owners. Some Apple faithful had waited in line for days.

At 6 p.m., their patience paid off.

“I guess I didn’t need to get in line because they have thousands of them in there,” said Norbert Pauli, 52, who had waited since Wednesday morning outside the Fifth Avenue store. The sweaty tangle of people who lined up there included a customer service representative for a trucking company who took a vacation day to make her first Apple purchase; a jazz musician who declared, “I don’t stand in line for anything”; and a tourist from Argentina who said he was not even sure the phone would work once he got it home.

At Apple stores across the country yesterday, there were the so-called iCultists, the Internet entrepreneurs and technology consultants who would have surprised you if they said they didn’t wait in line all night.

“If Apple made sliced bread, yeah, I’d buy it.” said Andrew Kaputsa, who waited outside the Michigan Avenue Apple store in Chicago. “It’s just good stuff. Everything they touch.”

But then there were the iConverts, the not-so-savvy customers who did not know much about the iPhone other than that they had to have it.

“Have I drank the Kool-Aid?” said Marc Falato, 42, a Broadway producer who got in line at the Fifth Avenue store around 8 a.m. yesterday. “I think maybe to a certain extent. After all, you can order it online tonight and get it delivered in three to five business days. So I guess I bought into the hype.”

Tracy Carroll, a 42-year-old Internet consultant who waited in line just a few steps ahead of Mr. Falato, said, “I’m buying it sight unseen, and that’s kind of rare for me.” Later, as he was walking away from the cash register with two iPhones in hand, he said, “Oh man, it was so worth it.”

The iPhone, which sells for $499 or $599, depending on memory size, is a huge step for Apple. But it is also critical to AT&T’s growth. The telephone company has an exclusive contract with Apple in the United States to sell the phone and provide wireless phone service, and is betting on an influx of new customers. Of course, that would mean that people who already have cellphone service with other carriers must be willing to pay the hefty fees to break their contracts.

Indeed, there were several T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless customers in line yesterday in Manhattan. “That’s not even an issue. I want the phone,” said Cassie Tran, a 25-year-old who does public relations for a high-end fashion designer in New York. Ms. Tran has a contract with Verizon that she said she would “pay whatever” to break.

Some had clearly been following everything about the iPhone for so long, that they spoke as if they were reading from Apple’s talking points. “What Steve Jobs cited in his keynote in January was that everybody was looking for a device that brought it all together,” said Gene Lewis, 34, the owner of a Web site development company.

Mr. Lewis, who got in line outside the Fifth Avenue store around 7 p.m. on Thursday and slept all night in a folding chair, used words like “elegant” and “beautiful” to describe the phone, which at that point he had seen only in pictures.

Josh Topolski, 29, a blogger for the technology blog Engadget.com who waited all day outside the Fifth Avenue store, said Apple’s ability to generate such intense interest was remarkable. “Apple, they’re masters of hype and keeping people waiting. This line is proof of that.”

But the mania surrounding the iPhone’s debut has created somewhat of a backlash among bloggers and comedians, who have reveled in mocking all the hoopla.

“It’s going to do for phones what the iPod did for pods,” Rob Riggle, the “senior technology correspondent” of “The Daily Show,” said in a sketch on Thursday night. Mr. Riggle then asked to see the hands of an unwitting blogger who tested the iPhone and he then sniffed them. “Man, it’s still warm,” he cooed.

Gizmodo.com wrote under the headline “Nerd Party,” “Do you wish you were hanging out in line at the 5th Ave Apple Store, but are stuck with a pesky job that won’t let you bum around with a bunch of nerds on a weekday?”

So exactly what type of people can take all day, and in some cases several days, to wait in line for a cellphone? Well, the mayor of Philadelphia, for starters. John F. Street waited much of the day yesterday to buy an iPhone. A spokesman explained that Mr. Street was conducting city business by cellphone and BlackBerry while he waited.

Then there are the people who were being paid to wait in line for others. Dan Zabar, a 23-year-old production assistant for a company that produces television commercials in New York, was making about $150 to wait all day in line for his boss. Others got in line early to try to sell their spots. Along 58th Street, where the line for the Fifth Avenue store had spilled over, one young man was offering his place for $160 in the early afternoon. By late afternoon, he had raised the price to $180.

There were also the so-called early adoptors, the technophiles who habitually rush out to buy first-generation electronics. “I’m everyone’s guinea pig,” said Christopher Kokinos, a former Apple employee who now works for a marketing communications firm in New York. He spent a total of six hours in line outside the Fifth Avenue store yesterday. “All my friends say, I’ll wait until you buy it so I know if it’s any good.”

But not everyone was so enthusiastic.

Near the Chicago store on Michigan Avenue, Sara Bafundo, a guest services agent at the Wyndham Hotel across the street from the Apple store, looked at the long line and said, “I just don’t get it. I just don’t get it. The hype just doesn’t make sense.”

Eric Taub contributed reporting from Los Angeles and Eric Ferkenhoff from Chicago.

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Iphone Debuts - Atlanta

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By SCOTT LEITH , LEON STAFFORD
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/30/07

Apple's siren song was answered.

The company that tempted customers with the iPhone saw them show up en masse for Friday night's retail launch of the device. From the city to the suburbs, eager buyers stationed themselves outside AT&T and Apple stores for a day or more, tolerating heat, humidity and even thunderstorms.

They plunked down a few hundred dollars and left with phones that — for a certain kind of person — have turned into nothing short of an obsession.

"My Nokia is old school ugly," said Demetrius Sharp, 33, of Atlanta. "I've been suffering. I deserve this."

The iPhone was unveiled in January with a flashy presentation by Apple honcho Steve Jobs. The device soon become the most-anticipated product the cellphone industry has ever seen.

Atlanta has played a solid supporting role in the maelstrom, given that AT&T's wireless unit is the exclusive provider of the iPhone. The Atlanta-based operation was in a frenzy during the launch, and many of its stores were thronged with buyers Friday.

"There are lines everywhere," AT&T spokeswoman Dawn Benton said. "In Savannah, we've got 50 or 60 people. Hilton Head, 30 or 40. It's just everywhere."

As the clock wound down for the 6 p.m. launch, cheers erupted among the crowds outside the Apple store at Lenox Square in Atlanta. The gathered group — much like those outside Times Square in New York during New Year's Eve — counted down the final minutes until the hot product was sold.

Then the buyers, several hundred of them, began slowly filing into the Apple store.

The iPhone has turned into both a pop culture phenomenon and a media obsession. But the early response to the debut shows many consumers are infatuated, too.

The line at the Apple in Lenox Square wrapped around the upper level of the mall, ending around Bloomingdale's. In it, iPhone fans were making friends with each other, describing the features they like most.

Stores and marketers inside the mall took advantage of those in line. Representatives of Red Bull handed out drinks, and the Nike store provided energy bars. Young entrepreneurs handed out CDs and flyers to clubs.

Some expected the iPhone to be most popular in places where iPods are ubiquitous — big cities like New York and San Francisco. Indeed, long lines formed early in those places.

But the iPhone's appeal seemed to stretch everywhere, despite being priced at $499 or $599, depending on memory.

In Boise, Idaho, a line at an AT&T store had 20 people by midafternoon. "It's almost like I have to buy one. God is telling me to buy it," 45-year-old computer consultant Ron Rabehl told the Spokesman newspaper.

In Ridgeland, Miss., a Jackson suburb, folks lined up more than 24 hours in advance. Jesse W. Mason, a 25-year-old graphic designer, hadn't planned to sleep outside an AT&T store but did so when he noticed a line had formed.

Atlantans flocked to stores, too.

At an AT&T store near Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, more than 60 people waited in line to get an iPhone — 60 very hot people.

The lines snaked along the side of the shopping center past a sushi restaurant and hair salon, their awnings providing some shade. People sat on the ground. Others brought camp chairs. A few listened to iPods to pass the last hour until 6 p.m.

A Gwinnett County police officer was stationed nearby, though the droopy-looking crowd seemed too heat-oppressed to be much of a concern.

At Atlantic Station, Brian Norwood waited overnight in the rain outside AT&T's store.

Norwood said he arrived with "military precision," exactly 24 hours before the iPhone went on sale. He was armed with a comfy chair, toothpaste, magazines, a writing pad and plenty of snacks and beverages.

"I wrote a lot of letters overnight," he said, although Thursday night's downpour forced him to huddle under the store's small awning. "It was a wet night."

Karen Lewis of Stone Mountain stationed herself at AT&T's store near Northlake Mall Thursday morning, then sat through monsoon-like rain later that night to be ready for the launch.

"That phone is off the chain," said Lewis, a 45-year-old who works at a barber shop on Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta. She doesn't own a computer but considers herself a gadget freak.

Many early buyers are just this kind of buyer. Others are Apple loyalists.

"Apple products are innovative," said Andrew Hanhauser, 25, who lined up for an iPhone at Apple's store at Lenox Square. "When Dell comes out with a new product, nobody cares. Nobody waits in line," said Hanhauser, a consultant for IBM who took the day off to get his iPhone.

Though some have questioned whether the iPhone would live up to expectations, Jeremy Raymond, 22, said the purchase was a no-brainer. "Think about it. In this pocket, I carry my iPod. In this pocket I carry my phone. I carry my laptop in my bag," said Raymond, who lined up at Lenox. "I can put all those things together."

Time will tell if the iPhone becomes a durable success like the iPod. Early reviews from a few gadget experts were largely good, especially about the phone's design and groundbreaking Internet browser.

But many complained that the phone uses AT&T's relatively slow EDGE network to surf the Web. Apple chose EDGE because the network is widely available and saps less battery power than a device that uses AT&T's fastest system, known as 3G.

Just before Friday's launch, however, AT&T juiced up EDGE. The news was a topic online, as chatters noticed an increase in data speeds.

Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T, said the company spent $50 million to improve its network, just to get ready for iPhone. That included adding radios atop cell towers and redirecting some to improve EDGE coverage.

The launch of the device prompted AT&T to quickly retire the Cingular Wireless name. AT&T's cellphone operation was, until recently, known as Cingular.

Not all branding changes made it in time for the launch. At AT&T's Northlake Mall site, the old Cingular sign still decorated the facade. A truck-mounted crane arrived in the morning to attach temporary AT&T banners.

Staff writers Megha Rajagopalan, Duane Stanford, George Mathis and The Associated http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2007/06/29/0630biziphone.html

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Apple Iphone Line - Ohioans line up for Apple's iPhone

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Ohioans line up for Apple's iPhone
Friday, June 29, 2007 11:47 AM
By Tracy Turner
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
John Atkinson got in line at 4 a.m. today to buy his first cell phone.

The 47-year-old Gahanna resident said that he's simply never had a desire to own a mobile phone until he saw an ad for Apple's iPhone.

Call it love at first sight.

“When I saw it, I though, ‘Wow, they've finally created a cell phone that's impressed me enough to buy one,” Atkinson said, as he stood in a light rain outside the Hamilton Road AT&T store, the first person in line to buy iPhone.

Techies and newbies alike are vying to be among the first to get their hands on the new smart phone as the much-hyped iPhone goes on sale today at 6 p.m.

Lines formed before dawn at numerous central Ohio AT&T stores, spokesman Bob Beasley said.

While iPhone's price of $499 and $599 isn't a significant factor for those consumers who say they've waited six months to get one, the latest hot tech device is just too expensive for a lot of other people, a new survey says.

The iPhone could cost consumers more than $2,000 for the duration of the required two-year contract with AT&T, which is providing the wireless service for the phone. That price is for the basic service plan, a 4-gigabyte phone and activation, according to the company.

The survey of nearly 500 online cell-phone shoppers found that about 60 percent of respondents were interested in the iPhone but were unlikely to buy one now because of the price of the phone and the cost of switching service providers.

The survey, released this week by IDC, a market-research company based in Framingham, Mass., found that 10 percent of respondents would be willing to buy an iPhone at full price and switch to AT&T. Nearly 18 percent of the respondents said they'd buy the iPhone if it were priced under $299, the survey said.

“While the allure of owning the next ‘cool' device will undoubtedly have early adopters … queuing up to get the iPhone regardless of the price, the associated costs of ownership will persuade many others into a ‘wait-and-see' position,” Shiv K. Bakhshi, director of mobility research at IDC, said in a statement.

Despite the costs, AT&T anticipates strong sales of the iPhone, particularly today. In fact, stores are staying open an hour later today and have added workers to meet the expected rush, Beasley said.

“We're expecting crowds similar to those we've had on peak holiday season and more,” he said. “ Some customers began lining up outside some Ohio stores” yesterday.

Beasley said the iPhone is priced competitively, considering its features.

“This device represents the future of hand-held wireless devices. Not only is it your wireless phone, it's the best iPod ever made and the best wireless hand-held Web browser made,” he said. “ People are interested in it because it truly lives up to the hype.”

Brennan Brumfield is among them. The 20-year-old Grove City resident got in line at 6 a.m. at the Hamilton Road AT&T store to buy the 8 megabyte iPhone.

“I spent like $250 for the cell phone I have now and all it really has is a camera,” Brumfield said. “Dude, what's a couple more hundred when you consider all the options iPhone has?”

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Apple Iphone Line

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NEW YORK: Tech-heads camped overnight outside Apple electronics stores in US cities aiming to be the first to own an iPhone, marketed as the coolest gadget on the planet, when they go on sale on Friday.

The breakthrough device, which puts a phone, web browser and music player in the palm of the hand, goes on sale at 6 pm (2200 GMT) Friday.

Late Thursday some 60 fans armed with umbrellas and rain gear - and a handful with pup tents and lawn chairs - braved the elements outside Apple's 5th Avenue store in New York city.

First in line was Greg Packer, 43, who arrived Monday at 5 am - a whole 109 hours before iPhones would be sold. He became an instant celebrity, and reporters from around the world flocked to interview the paunchy line sitter.

The iPhone "is the combination of everything: you get your iPod, you get your iPhone and you get your internet in one," gushed Packer.

"I want to be the first to get it, the first one to see what it's like," he said, vowing to buy "at least two" iPhones.

Third in line was David Clayman, 21, who arrived at 2 pm on Monday with the explicit goal of using the media attention to advertise the Taproot Foundation, a small NGO he works at.

"Here the press is approaching you to get a story," said Clayman. "The best thing that one can do, is try to redirect some attention to a non-profit that is doing good work in the city."

Clayman said he plans to auction off for charity one of the three iPhones he plans to buy.

Meanwhile at the Apple store in Soho, in southern Manhattan, members of the local charity organization "Keep A Child Alive" took turns holding the first spot in line. They arrived at 7 am Tuesday set on buying an iPhone and selling it at auction to help buy medicine for needy children in Africa.

"We're hoping to be the first in the world," said Johnny Vulkan, who rotates his spot in line with other group volunteers. "We had the idea over the weekend. We knew the media would come to cover it."

Some fans have already sold their place in the line for $500 to customers who will show up just before the store opens, Vulkan said.

Tech geeks also lined up outside Apple stores in places like San Francisco and Detroit.

The national iPhone mania is being tracked on gridskipper.com. "Check out the full map of iPhone line imagery so far, and weep for our nation," reads the intro at iPhone section of the site.

"Of course, there's no reason you can't become part of the problem," it continues, urging visitors to send in their own video and pictures standing outside Apple stores.

Although it brings together several portable technologies - mobile phone, camera, web browser, music and video player - the pocket-sized gizmo has no mechanical keyboard and allows almost all controls to be handled by touching a finger on the unit's screen.

All of the iPhone's features come at a premium price: the gadget costs about five times more than a conventional cell phone. The four-gigabyte model will sell at 499 dollars, while the eight-gigabyte model will sell for 599 dollars.

Buyers also will be obligated to sign up for a two-year phone contract with AT&T.

The iPhone is to debut in Europe in late 2007 and in Asia in 2008.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Cons_Products/Apples_iPhone_debuts_in_US/articleshow/2159417.cms

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