Game company’s big mistake? Telling iPhone line-waiters, solve this puzzle, get a free iPhone

“The hot topic at the front of NYC’s biggest iPhone-waiting location right now: whether or not the early ‘iLiners’ will even have to pay for their phones. As I reported earlier, the game company Imagination Games has a bit of a publicity stunt going in the 5th Avenue Apple Store ‘iLine.’ Someone claiming to be a company rep handed out ‘Tetris Cubes’ (think Rubiks cube, but Tetris) to the first dozen or so people in line, along with a press release that said anyone who could solve it would get his or her iPhone for free, along with a service package,” Caroline McCarthy blogs for CNET.

“It sounds way too good to be true, right? That was the same thought that the line-waiters had when about a half dozen of them managed to solve it,” McCarthy reports.

“Two of the early “iLiners,” Vincent Nguyen (#8, who blogs at Slashgear.com and myitablet.com) and Benjamin Sherman, called up Imagination Games to investigate. This morning they were on the phone with the CEO, asking if the deal was legitimate. Apparently, it is. The problem: Imagination Games didn’t actually think anyone would solve the puzzle. The company seemed to underestimate the fact that people waiting in the line for a $600 Apple phone might tend to be smart, nerdy, and good at figuring stuff out,” McCarthy reports.

Full article, with photo, here.
Imagination Games, if you guys didn’t want anyone to solve your puzzle, you should have gone to Microsoft’s Zune or Vista launches… oh, right, no lines.

13 Comments

  1. lmao, they didnt think anyone would figure out the puzzle? idiots.

    and whats that? “The company seemed to underestimate the fact that people waiting in the line for a $600 Apple phone might tend to be smart, nerdy, and good at figuring stuff out,” McCarthy reports.” id wait for an iPhone, in not fcking nerdy.

  2. at least I’m not a nerd, sitting here 16 hours every day surrounded by 3 Mac’s and 2 PC’s. Hey, but today I went out to attend the Radio Music Awards 2006 show, some work is actually paying off.

    Waiting in line? I need to investigate how I could do that without leaving my computers.

  3. “And his middle name is obviously Fudge.”…

    Didn’t roflao – that’s derogatory for someone with a different view on sexuality in Blighty. Anyway come on – perhaps an amateur queuer would consider our addiction for Mac news slightly bizzare too.

  4. that’s funny as hell. I wish someone was in Virginia beach giving away free iPhones, I could have saved $600 bucks.

    And iPhones are not hard to type on, you just have to use the force. This thing rocks!!!

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