Some interesting side notes:

• Steve Wozniac, Apple’s co-founder, was enjoying the excitement at the Los Gatos, California store last night. He “didn’t want to miss” this great event, even though we all know that he probably has two of the new phones hanging out in his Prius. As an aside, it’s nice to see that he’s taken the high-road and isn’t be accused of “cutting the line” like previous releases.
• The Pleasanton, California Apple store had about 250 people in line with some suggesting that the store had “1000′s of phones” of unknown configuration for unknown carriers. With the ever increasing number of SKUs that Apple has to manage for this release, it’s easy to see how 1000′s could quickly turn into “you’re not getting the phone you want.”
• Local news in the San Francisco Bay Area has caught the fever and are reporting regularly about all the people waiting for their new phone and how successful the launch is. In typical Apple fashion; yes, the launch is successful, woo hoo!

Share your stories, what are people seeing in the queue waiting for their Apple phone?

geek

An informal poll of peers using BlackBerry phones tells me that this information is mostly true, although some users are still reporting issues. Most of these problems will likely resolve themselves over the next few hours, but this certainly appears to be a big hit to RIM’s claim for reliability and uptime.

How did your BlackBerry fare through this outage?

geek

It would seem to me that anyone that had been an early enough adopter to jump on AT&T’s $30 unlimited bandwidth wagon would be an early adopter in the iPad 2 race, so imagine my surprise at seeing and hearing so many different solutions to the “how to move my service” from the old iPad to the new. Hopefully those of you that do manage to find this will save a step and the frustration of trying to do this yourself.

First:

• DO NOT create a new account on your iPad 2.  You will be moving your existing account to your new iPad.
• DO NOT change the AT&T SIM from your old iPad to your new iPad.

The process is much easier and does not require any technical knowledge:

1. On your old iPad, find your Cellular Data Number.  (Click on Settings > General > About)
2. Write down that number; you will need it when talking with AT&T.
3. Turn off your old iPad.
4. Call AT&T at 800-331-0500.
5. The AT&T automated attendant did not recognize my iPad number; I would recommend doing the following.
6. Press 1 for more options.
7. Press 0 to speak with an attendant.
8. Tell the service representative that you want to be transferred to the iPad department to move your iPad service from an older iPad to a newer iPad (or however you want to word this.)
9. While waiting on hold (took me less than a minute) make sure that your new iPad 2 is powered on and that you have opened the About settings on the new iPad 2.  (Click on Settings > General > About)
10. The AT&T representative will ask you for the ICCID followed by the IMEI.
11. Restart your iPad.
12. Wait about three minutes – AT&T waited on the line with me, and your new iPad 2 should be active with your old account.

At this point your new iPad 2 will be working with your unlimited data account and your old iPad will not have an associated data plan.  You can go through the activation process on your old iPad if you are planning on using it for other purposes, but you will not be eligible for a second unlimited data plan.  Note that in order to complete the registration on AT&T for a second time, you will need an alternate email address.  Make sure that you are prepared and aware that you cannot use the same email address to register multiple iPads of any type.

Hope that perhaps saves you a small amount of time in this easy process.

geek

UPDATE

Special thanks to MITLab for another way to complete the upgrade process (and avoid a call to AT&T in the process.)

1. Connect to http://www.att.com/ipadlanding.  I suspect that you could complete this process on a wireless connection with your iPad, but I would personally recommend using an alternate internet connection.
2. Login with the email address and password you used when setting up your iPad.
3. Click on the Edit Payment Information Link
4. Change the IMEI and ICCID numbers to match the new iPad that you are moving service to.
5. Save your changes.

There is no need to swap the SIM cards and like the phone call the service is transferred over instantly.  This changed does not change the plan type, billing, user info, or days remaining for that month of service.

Thanks again MITLab for another great way to do this!

Of the products that were there, many seemed to be “coming soon,” and far less than ever before was really available to buy at the show. Overall, I walked away most of the cash that I came with, a couple of stickers, and a feeling of disappointment. I told my wife via text message that MacWorld was a lot like going to Fry’s, same size as the store, a lot of stuff that you would never buy, and shelf space showing stickers for stuff that you really wish you could buy.

So, what did I buy? Two items:

The “glif.” <link>  The Glif is a simple iPhone 4 accessory with two primary functions: mounting your iPhone onto a tripod and propping up your iPhone at various angles.  One of my favorite blogs had praised their design and after seeing it in person and realizing that it really is small and really useful.  The only downside is that it doesn’t work with any case, but the added functionality more than made up for any downside.  On the plus side, it is reported to be recyclable, made in the USA, and the packaging was minimal and some of the best that I have seen in a long time.  At the show price of $18, this seemed like a good deal.

The other “item” that I purchased was actually more of a kit, and that’s the Modulr <link> case for Apple’s iPad.  For $75 (show price), I purchased the modulr case and cover, slim mount, quick stand, shoulder strap, refrigerator mount (magnets) and hand strap.  Yes, that is about everything they offer at this point in time, but if I can get it all setup the way that I want it, I’m envisioning a lot of flexibility with how I use my iPad.  What I would say, like so many of the products out there today, the modulr case seems cheap to me.  Not in dollars, but in build quality.  It’s not terrible, but I consider the iPad an accessory and a piece of art.  I want whatever I am using with it to accentuate the product itself, even if I have to pay more for it.  That said, it fits well and does what it’s supposed to do.  We’ll see how well it holds up to use and if the practicality makes it outlive my beloved Apple case.

And that about sums up my experience at MacWorld 2011.  Too many cases.  Too much vaporware.  Not enough maturity in the market.  I sure hope for next year to be better, but I’d bet money that unless Apple decides to come back and pick up the show, it won’t be any more than another Fry’s store.

~geek

There, I said it, Gizmodo may have found the holy grail or created the best marketing stunt ever known, and it is likely that we, the consumers, will ever really know the truth. In the meantime, I recommend trotting over to Gizmodo.com and reviewing their review of what may well be the next iPhone available to the masses.

~geek

No keyboard: I’m not sure that I believe there is a better (currently available and feasible) input device than the traditional keyboard. That is absolutely personal opinion, but one that I’d be happy to reconsider the next time my flight encounters turbulence. And, yes, I know that an external keyboard will be possible, it just doesn’t seem practical to carry along.

No camera: it’s a digital world, Apple, and your products are supposed to be opening doors and windows – not closing them. This should be as powerful as something like the MacBook Air and that said users are going to expect to be able instant message with tools like iChat and Yahoo Messenger with cam. Not to mention photograph things. Just looking at this from a purely business perspective it sure would be nice to be able to take a picture of someone’s business card and have it dropped into contacts like I can do on the iPhone.

Weight. So depending on what you have to carry with you this could be good or bad, but generally speaking I don’t think that people are going to want to lug around a notebook sized tablet and power and the other crap that they need to make it through their day – they may as well be carrying a notebook computer.

Size and durability. So I get that it’s relatively small and thin and easy to hold and pretty on the eyes, but there are two immediately obvious flaws to me. First is the bezel – does it really have to be that thick? Okay, so assuming it does, isn’t this also something that looks like it will break on the first drop or the first time something like my keys are dropped on it?

CleanlinessMaybe I’m just a pudgy geek with sweaty palms, but keeping my iPhone as clean as I like it has been difficult enough. I can’t imagine how difficult this is going to be to keep clean. Looks to me like it could be more work than it’s worth.

So those are my rants – at least for now – and I am planning a follow-up to this with why I think that this is a game-changer, if only for what it might do for mobile computing and the iPhone platform. As always, your comments are welcome.

First – the love – the iPhone really is an easy to use and functional device. The real game-changer is the App Store, which seems significantly better than Blackberry’s recently released App World (I am still carrying my Verizon Storm, too) and more complete then what Android has to offer. On the iPhone, when you say “there’s an App for that” you’re generally not kidding. If only the Mac had such great development community. The iPhone is also a nice phone from a design perspective. For me it fits pretty well – not quite thick enough to put between my shoulder and ear, but generally comfortable to use. It also goes well in a pocket without looking like you’re carrying around a small paperback novel.

Next – the hate – and this one is easy, too. AT&T and by association the iPhone has the worst phone service that I could ever have imagined. I’ve had cell phones for a long time, and as a Verizon customer in recent years I’ve become accustomed to treating my cell phone the same way that I would treat a land-line. I just expect it to work. With AT&T… not so much. I have come once more to the point that I am frequently apologizing for being on my cell phone. It’s embarrassing. And it’s not like I live in an unpopulated area – I live in Silicon Valley – a few miles from Apple – something tells me that it must be much, much worse in other areas.

Just my thoughts, but important to know as the next article I have in mind will include which apps are on my iPhone and why.

geek

Yesterday, though, Apple sent their message to the Apple faithful and AT&T haters by asking if their network and phone would allow them to be on a call and simultaneously use the best features of their smartphone. For most, the answer would have to be no. Unfortunately, the part that Apple left out is the simple fact that on the AT&T network that is only possible when you have 3G access and AT&T’s network just isn’t that great when it comes to 3G network coverage. Small omission, but problem. Oh well, that’s not really the point, is it. The truth is nearly irrelevant – people are going to buy the iPhone regardless of whether or not it’s on AT&T or Verizon – even though they might actually prefer Verizon.

You can see Apple’s newest advertisement below – and of course this comes from YouTube where you can also find the other advertisement that delivers basically the exact same message.

~geek