“In Paris, 24-year-old shoe salesman Julien Remy went to buy one during his lunch break, only to learn the store had run out of the higher-capacity model he wanted. ‘Either I’ll look elsewhere or come back later,’ he said. Long lines formed from early morning across the city at Apple stores and retail outlets across Tokyo,” Eddy reports. “At the Apple store in the city’s swanky Ginza shopping district, staff handed out bottled water and loaned black umbrellas with the company logo. A man dressed as a giant iPhone danced and waived his arms as he made it to the front of the line.”
“In Apple’s newly opened store in the Georgetown section of Washington, employees handed out free pastries to people in line,” Eddy reports. “Beth Henriksen, 30, of Washington, was the first person in the pre-order pickup line at the Georgetown store. She got in line at 2:15 a.m. Henriksen, a sign language interpreter, said she is upgrading her old iPhone to the new model because of the Facetime application allowing face-to-face video calls. ‘This is revolutionary in the U.S. for deaf people to have a mobile device they can use to communicate in their native language.'”
Read more in the full article here.
Look out mama there’s a big ship sailing down the river…
From Palo Alto Apple Store. Looks like no white for me. 🙁
I was going to be one of those in line – my preorder wasn’t scheduled to ship for 2 weeks. and then…. today… email from the Apple store. My 32GB iPhone is en route. Whohoo!
Got up at 4:15.
Was in line by 5:00
Doors opened at 6:50 (10 mins early)
Out the front door with my new shiny iPhone 4 at 7:10.
I did preregister. The other line for people who didn’t preregister was around the building.
@deepdish
sounds like your Apple Store folks had their Sh*% together and well organized. My local store here in Dallas just threw everyone in the same line. I got there at 6 and quickly realized if I stayed I would be there for at least 3-4 hours. I’ll go back tonight… late… to pick up my reserved phone. No product is worth waiting in line that long.
Here is something you won’t see on MDN.
You might want to hold off on that purchase….
http://gizmodo.com/5571171/iphone-4-loses-reception-when-you-hold-it-by-the-antenna-band?skyline=true&s=i
The real comparison between the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4
i read that article, and i’m sure mdn will have it on as soon as they try and reproduce the issue on their devices. Macrumors posted it initially, and the majority of the forum has not been reporting the issue, in fact they have been reporting the opposite.
I tried it and couldn’t do it on my new phone which arrived this morning. On the other hand, i could replicate this issue on my 3GS and 3G both running iOS4. all i did was grap the lower right hand corner, bury it in my palm and then cover the rear antenna with my finger and viola! dropped bars immediately, i think this could be in the OS, as this never happened with previous builds of the beta of iOS4. I do remember this happening on version 2.0 in 2008 when the 3G came out, but it wasn’t reported for some reason.
I think this is a software recognition problem, but if it’s hardware then there is no way in hell that every phone is doing it. You will just only hear from the less than 1% it is happening to, and those who have an axe to grind by blowing it out of proportion.
I was “up and at ’em” at 04.30; at my local o2 store in St. Albans (UK) at 5am and only 7th in the cue (nos. 1 & 2 got there at 03.30!).
The shop staff were rather nice and came around with free juice drinks, danish pastries and newspapers for everyone at about 07.40., which when you consider by opening time (08.02) there was a couple of hundred people cued behind me was a nice gesture. Funnily, numbers 3 and 5 in the cue I recognized from the 3G launch two years ago!)
Now I have 32Gb of iPhone 4 loveliness
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@Dallasm
Mossberg commented in a review of the iPhone that he too had lost bars while holding the iPhone 4. He noted that it was troubling and warranted keeping an eye on the issue.
Another launch day issue from AllthingsD:
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100624/yellow-blotch-display-complaints-mar-iphone-4-launch-day/
Yellow blotches on lower portion of screen, most noticeable on white backgrounds.
Would be interesting to see how many people on MDN will be owning up to these defects and if MDN itself will report it. Of course as usual it will be marginalized and explained away as the end user’s fault.
All in all, I do hope this is not a wide spread issue!
I’m able to reproduce the reception problem EXACTY the way it’s on the video- Apple has an issue here. The “solution” is simple- buy the bumpers. The bumpers act as some type of insulation between human skin and the antenna system of the phone. In the meantime- don’t let your hand touch / cover the gaps on the edge of the phone. It’s real folks- unfortunately- it’s very real. I don’t know HOW this got by quality control- damn Gizmodo… slackers.
Wow just tried the signal thing on my iPhone 4. Signal drops from 5 bars to 1 in about 30 secs. When I let go – goes back to 5. This is a major problem. Luckily I’m right-handed and I ordered a bumper.
There goes apple’s innovative industrial design. It sucks that you have to pay $30 extra just to hold the phone.
Got to the Apple Store 5:30AM. Store scheduled to open at 7:00. I never got through on pre-order day and did not want to wait ’til July.
It wasn’t so much a line, as a vast snaking crowd, 4 to 6 people wide with occasional larger knots. It ran along the side of the store for about 50 yards then curved off along the drive, disappearing far away into the pre dawn gloom. I didn’t bother see the full extent of it. Easily over a thousand in front of me to transact, even if they have enough phones. Came back home and made some coffee and wondered when I might ever get a new phone.
Disappointing, yet, as a stockholder, I can deal with it.
Think of how many people will get the iPhone 4 just to use Facetime so they can speak / sign to the hearing impaired people in their family. If Apple was really up on this, they could have let the hearing impaired people have first shot at getting the iPhone 4.
Great PR and service too. I assume that there will be an iChat for the Windows PCs too. Apple will have this market too.
Our Apple store was well organized and really peppy.
The windows were covered in some kind of black paper to hide the insides. Saw maybe four employees going in and out while waiting in line.
Then around 6:45 back around the building at the end of the long “didn’t pre-register” line was a loud roar. I turned around and saw at least 20 apple employees coming down, cheering, clapping, high-fiving everybody.
They went into the store, took down the black paper, and then opened the store 10 mins early to start processing the pre-registered people. That ling was long enough, the other line was huge.
When I went in, I was greeted by two employees. Shook hands, introduced ourselves and they stayed with me for the whole exchange. They set me up and I am very impressed with how organized and smoothly everything went. I think one of my two was new, but I couldn’t tell. I really don’t know why I had two helping me.
All of you who have reproduced this problem: has the phone dropped a call / failed to receive data when this happens? Or is it just a cosmetic thing – that is, the signal meter goes wonky, but there are no other noticeable effects?
According to what I’ve read about the reception bar issue is that it is a software deal and the reception is not altered, just the display bars. I read that Apple is working on the fix.
This is a real issue, but may be something corrected with a software patch in a day or two. Keep in mind that Gizmodo is currently adding a heavy dose of hysteria in it’s very anti-Apple reporting.
@FutureMedia
The only person/video I have seen with a white iPhone is Walt Mossburg.
We will just have to wait until the end of July.
I’ve used a bandwidth testing tool to verify that the service disruption is real. When covering the bottom left gap on my iPhone 4, I see a dramatic reduction in data transfer rate.
It’s not just an issue with the number of bars displayed.
Then don’t cover the bottom left gap.
I pulled into the line at the Boca Raton, FL Apple Store at the Town Center Mall at 5:45am. I was given a ticket with my number on… Number 690! The entire parking lot on that side of the building was a line waiting. At approximately 10:30, we were finally told that all iphones – pre-order and first come – would be sold out about 35 people in front of me…. That’s 1,650 iPhones. 20 minutes later, a “hard count” was done and confirmed they’d be out. I’m a business customer in great standing with everyone in the store… I know almost all of their names and ask about their families…. I was put on a reserve list that’s similar to iPad list for “select” customer… I’ve already received an email that I’ll be notified as soon as my reserve (which is not the same as the pre-order reserves that are today only) comes in. Even lists the phone on there.
“There’s no chance the iPhone will gain any significant market share. No chance.” – Ballmer
Regarding the brown spots, there are unconfirmed reports circulating that the spots are the bonding agent used to glue the screen into place. Specifically the spots are areas which haven’t completely dried. Some people are claiming the spots went away with time (as the bonding agent dried).
Don’t know if this is really true or if anyone else has seen these various reports but though I’d mention it. For those who have the new iPhone – enjoy!
Cheers!