I have an iPhone 3G – but it doesn’t work quite yet


Well, last night around midnight I and two buddies headed out to the AT&T store in our local area to get ourselves some iPhone 3Gs. I didn’t expect the same kind of turn out as last year, and I didn’t expect the same kinds of problems as last year.

I got both.

The line stretched 50 or more people long at this store, and the other one down the block. We waited the night out with very little eventful happening. I twittered a bit, and we talked with a few of the people in line, but we mostly kept to ourselves.

Around 6:30 a.m. the AT&T reps began to make their way into the line and being to try and sell us stuff like accessories and Dish Network. 8:00 a.m. rolled around and everything was running smoothly. They let the first twelve of us in and we each went to a representative.

The problem was, so did everyone else at every AT&T and Apple store across the country. So – of course – nothing really happened. We eventually got our iPhones, but as I type this, they are still useless because of the fact that we couldn’t connect to iTunes in the store.

After waiting for around 10 minutes they told us to just take the iPhones home and connect them through our own copies of iTunes so we could unbrick them. After having changed everything out, however, my original iPhone would no longer connect to the Internet, although I can still receive phone calls. Wi-Fi works too.

So – right now I’m staring a shiny new iPhone. Hopefully, I’ll get to use it soon.

Last year, Apple suffered from the same kind of problems for quite a while – right now we have no idea how long that’s going to last. Feel free to leave comments below if you have any luck getting yours up and running.


Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a stalwart in the tech journalism community, has been chronicling the ever-evolving world of Apple products and innovations for over a decade. As a Senior Author at Apple Gazette, Kokou combines a deep passion for technology with an innate ability to translate complex tech jargon into relatable insights for everyday users.

14 Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. I am having the same problem with my non-3G iphone. I ran the update to 2.0 and it will not connect to the store. My phone is useless and I cannot call customer support. I can’t get an appointment until Saturday at 2pm.

    Basically, they better fix the error problem.

  2. still can’t sync my 3g either, network connection when trying to access itunes store for some reason…any ideas yet?

  3. So now that we know that it is possible for customers to activate their iPhone 3Gs at home maybe they will start allowing people to take activate at home after a month or so. And, maybe (to make sure you actually activate it) charge your credit card the full $599 price if you don’t activate it within 30 days. I probably would have purchase the iPhone 3G but the fact that I have to wait forever to get it activated and bring all this crap with me to get it activated is just ridiculous.

  4. I just tried the 2.0 update on my non-G3 phone. Update ran but I can’t activate the phone! iTunes keep giving an error. I didn’t do the backup option as I just wanted to wipe the phone and start from scratch.

  5. My iPhone 3G won’t even sync, it just keeps on getting stuck when it tries to connect to the iTunes music store. What’s up?

  6. I had the complete opposite experience this morning. I slept in until 5:30am – left the house shortly after waking up. Drove by the local AT&T Store – counted 12 people in line, kept driving to the Apple Store. Got to the Mall, there were 17 people in line in front of me at 5:50am.

    Around 6am the Apple Store employees started rolling in. They came out and talked to us, took some photos, etc. at 6:30am there were about 50 people in line behind me and the Apple Store employees came out with bottled water for everyone in line. NICE!

    At 7:00am they opened the Mall and ushered us all inside to wait in line. Around 7:30am, the Apple Store employees rolled out a cart with Coffee and bottled water for everyone. At 7:50 – the guy in front of me took a walk to see how long the line was – it was stretching out the door of the mall, he estimated about 200 people in line. At 8:00am the store opened and they let about 30 people in. I was the 18th person in the store, and the first person to get my iPhone 3G (16Gb White) activated at the store.

    The geniuses asked if they could “personalize” it for me, because they had not played with an actual model yet. So I let them set up the email, verify the activation, sync my Mobile Me stuff – VERY COOL – and at 8:23am I walked out of the store with a full functional iPhone 3G! VERY COOL Experience, glad I did it, and it has made me even more impressed with Apple (if that was even possible)!

  7. My boyfriend and little brother staked out the AT&T store at 1am and I joined them later on in the morning. We were 7 and 8 in line. The majority of people started rolling in at around 6am. We got in at 8am and had no problems activating at all. I got a white, my boyfriend, a black. Later on, I was fiddling with my phone in the car and realized that the edges of my phone where the metal bezel and plastic case meet were a little rough. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the edges weren’t flush with each other . . . in fact, only one corner was properly approximated. Around three edges were minute cracks, like little stress fractures that used to appear in old vinyl dashboards and steering wheels of cars. I checked my boyfriend’s phone to see what his was like, and sure enough, flush and polished. I hauled tail back to the store . . . it was 11am by this time. They were all out of phones and couldn’t exchange it for me. They had 10-black 16s, 10-white 16s, and 20-8s. They suggested I try back on Monday, when their stock should be replenished, or take it to the Apple store for warranty. We went to the Apple store later on to check out the accessories and while I was there, I decided to take a survey of the phones on the floor to see if any others had the same problem. I was worried that my situation wasn’t just limited to me . . . that it just might be the white line in general. Sure enough, it seemed that the majority of the white phones had the rough-edged lining-up issue, where the black ones were more likely not so. So I’m a little sad that I don’t have an iPhone for keepsies yet and i’m a little sad that I might have to go with the black phone. I don’t know if I have the nerve to ask the AT&T store to open up another white phone, just for me not to be happy with it.

  8. hey. i just got the apple iphone 3g, and it sendstexts and makes calls but the 3g network won’t work and neither will wifi. does anyone know what to do?

  9. well i have a regular iphone n the 3g iphone… but the 3g doesnt work.. i put the sim card in it n doesnt do n e thing… it just shows the i tunes loggo n the cable… thatz bout it… can someone tell meh wut to do pliz?

  10. me 2 well i have a regular iphone n the 3g iphone… but the 3g doesnt work.. i put the sim card in it n doesnt do n e thing… it just shows the i tunes loggo n the cable… thatz bout it… can someone tell meh wut to do pliz?