Jules Says

iPhone: I'm officially pissed off

I've had the iPhone for nearly 4 hours now, and can't do anything with it. I went to iTunes to activate it (had to do some updating, no big deal, but took a while) and everything seemed to be going fine. After the final activation OK I got a message saying it may take a while to activate - they'd be in touch.

What? Wasn't AT&T anticipating this?

I got an email an hour later saying:

Phone service is scheduled to be disconnected on your current phone at or after 8:29 PM EDT on June 30. Please check your email and be prepared to reconnect and activate your iPhone before that time. Please call 877-800-3701 if you'd like to make other arrangements.

I called, got a very nice woman who tried to be very helpful. She got my SSN, my driver's license number, all the usual personal info. Could she do anything? No. She did give me a new number to call, though. I called it, and was told to enter the number I'm trying to transfer to AT&T. It wasn't recognized. I tried again. Nada. So I had to call the original number again. Went through the same thing, gave all the info again, only to hear "yep, it's going to be 6-24 hours before you can activate."

I don't care about the number. Can I use the iPod? No. The Calendar? Datebook? Anything? No. No. No.

So here I sit. I got wrapped up in the hype, which was totally fun. I paid $200 to get a spot at the front of the line. And now I can't do a damn thing until sometime tomorrow. Maybe even tomorrow evening.

I am not happy. I've been forced to marry AT&T, and I already want out.

See followups:
iPhone: still crippled, but getting there
Update: Latest post is iPhone: iCal glitch and why it took me 22 hours to set up my iPhone

See also
Number 15 in line for the iPhone in Austin
I found my iPhone line-waiter :)

Anyone need an iPhone?

Apparently I can buy two iPhones. If you want one, let me know before 6pm. Looks like I'll be in the first group in the store :)

I surreptitiously shot some video of the line in Austin before the guards stopped me. I couldn't get much without causing another fuss about the "no pictures" law. I wonder what exactly they think they're "protecting" with this "law". They wouldn't even let the news in this morning. Wouldn't you think all of Apple's neighbor stores would be happy to have their storefronts plastered all over TV and the blogosphere?

I was able to convert the raw video from my Flip Video Camcorder to Quicktime just fine. Unfortunately, I don't know how to embed Quicktime movies into Typepad, so I thought I'd upload the video to YouTube, then grab the embed code from there. No luck uploading to YouTube, though, and I don't know if it's me or them, but the whole site seems to be crawling along. This is the first time I'm uploading a video there, though, and I'm not entirely sure what to expect.

See also:
I found my iPhone line-waiter :)
Number 15 in line for the iPhone in Austin

Number 15 in line for the iPhone in Austin

Wow, I so found the right person to wait in line :) Patrick is great - he scoped things out last night, talked to security guards, talked to Apple folks, got as much info as he could, and kept in contact with me all along. I found a line-waiter with a great work ethic! Ultimately Barton Creek Mall didn't allow any camping, so he got in line early this morning. Here we are, number 15 in line, doing part one of our business transaction.

I'm trying to get a picture, but there are security guards around saying there's a mall law that disallows pictures, and he's being a real asshole about it. I've got some video, and I've got my iSight camera, so I'll manage, but I've asked for proof of the "law". That seems to have done the trick - we got "special permission" to take a picture. Sheesh!

OK, this picture serves as proof that I owe Patrick another $100.

I found my iPhone line-waiter :)

I vacillated. First I figured I'd pay someone to stand in the iPhone line for me. Then I had this brilliant idea for a headline: "I'll buy you an iPhone. Really." I thought I'd get some serious traffic with a headline like that. I had it all figured out, though. This would be the post:

I'll buy you an iPhone. Really.
All you have to do is wait in line for me at either store in Austin, TX, with an end result of me getting the beefiest iPhone available.

What I expect:

1. You’ll get there 24 hours in advance with a friend, and camp.
2. You’ll bring all your own gear and food.
3. You’ll be a nice person (as will your friend) – when I show up an hour or so before the store opens, I expect you to have made a few friends, and I expect no dirty looks when I join you.

What I’ll provide:

1. I’ll be there when you start, and stick around for a bit. I’ll take our picture and post it to my blog, as proof of my intention to make good on the deal.
2. I’ll show up shortly after you call me, take the place of your friend, and take care of the actual purchase.
3. I’ll buy you the 4Gig iPhone (or the 8Gig if you want to contribute the difference).

So leave a comment, and tell me why you should be the one to do my bidding :)

Needless to say, I didn't post this. As it turns out, I'm not willing to spend $500 extra for an iPhone on day 1, and traffic for the sake of traffic isn't particularly appealing either. I started thinking again about standing in line myself. I have my flip video, a camera, a laptop with broadband wireless... I could liveblog while in line.

Then, of course, I thought about being in line in the sun. Or the rain. Yeah, not my style. So I hopped on Craigslist and found Patrick, who's willing to stand in line overnight for $200. I'll be meeting him at the south store this evening.

It's pouring out. I sure hope he's got a tent.

Update: as of 6pm Thursday, 24 hrs before the launch, there's no line at the south store in Austin. Patrick is already scoping things out. There is question as to whether camping is allowed. Regardless, looks like I'll have a sweet spot in line. Thanks Patrick!

Wiffiti: your phone and my computer can make beautiful text

In my recent post about Reactee, I mentioned that I enjoy playing with new applications of technology that may seem silly or even useless at first. Wiffiti is another one of those.

With Wiffiti, you have a screen. You can show that screen on the Wiffiti site, full screen on your computer, or embedded in any web page. You have a name - people text @name to your SMS address (a five-digit number) and their message gets broadcast to the screen. Several messages show at a time, floating around the screen, getting smaller as they age.

Try it here - send an SMS message to 25622. Start the message with @jules, then type your message. It'll show up right here :) This screen is live. [update: odd... publishing this post cut off a whole chunk of text after the embedded screen. More of the review & a bunch of screenshots showing usability problems are after the jump.][update 2: if you're looking at this post in a feed reader, you may not see the screen - click through to the actual blog to see it.]

Map My Name: Earth as social network

The Map My Name project aims to find out how many people are using the web, one person at a time. I freaked at first after I mapped my name and looked at the closeup map view - I thought the little dart was pointing directly to my address. But no, it's just the Austin dart.

How long do you think it will be before they're acquired by Google? I say 4 months.

Do we really need these signs?

A sign telling us to read the signs? I see these all over Texas. Are they elsewhere, too? Is this another example of some department needing to use up their annual budget or what?

SXSW programming

Khoi Vinh has an excellent discussion going on the quality of the programming and the growing pains being experienced by SXSW. He starts of with a sentiment I've heard from many attendees now (at least about the interactive portion of the conference):

I’ve never been to a business conference of any kind that’s as usefully friendly as the South by Southwest Interactive Festival.

That said, he points out that SXSW may be getting to big to maintain the quality. It's true that most of the programming rooms were fairly bursting at the seams. The extra rooms provided by a recent addition to the convention center (rooms 8/9/10, which I came to call the dungeon) were too difficult to get to. The choice was standing in line for one of two very slow elevators that held 12 people each (and mislabeled the floors!) or walking to the far corner of the building, taking an escalator, than coming all the way back to the original corner. Neither option made for a cheerful audience for the programming in these rooms.

Khoi Vinh, and several of the commenters, agreed that many of the panelists weren't prepared enough, and that the lectures overall tended to be better. My sense is that the panel is misused at times. In the 25-minute sessions, for example, the panel simply doesn't work. There's not enough time for several people to say anything meaningful. Moderators of these short sessions didn't adapt to the format, either - one started with 10 minutes of telling us what he was going to tell us. Again, that just doesn't work in the "power sessions".

But sometimes, even when the panelists were interesting and prepared, it seemed to be the wrong format. The panelists ended up either talking "at" the audience, or turning to talk to another panelist, which sometimes had the effect of ignoring the audience. For the more conversational topics, I'd like to see the table removed and the participants placed in a half circle. Let them have a real conversation, and let us listen in. I love listening to a bunch of smart people talk.

Jeff Croft complains about presentations that aren't much more than a list of bullet points. I heartily agree with that - give me some examples! Show me what you're talking about.

Like most conferences, the SXSW programming was hit or miss for me, but I know I came home smarter and more enthusiastic about what I do. And I like to think I learned something from every session I attended, even if it was how not to give a presentation :)

Green My Apple!

I met the delightful Zeina Al-Hajj, of Greenpeace International at a SXSW awards show - she was up for an activist award for her work with the Green My Apple campaign.

Green My Apple seems like a no-brainer for Apple, but I learned a few surprising pieces of information from Zeina. Apparenly she had recently attended a MacWorld conference and didn't get a very warm reception. She was even told by conference coordinators that they didn't think Apple & Greenpeace were a good fit. Huh?! According to the Green My Apple site, just 2 years ago, Steve Jobs called environmentalists concern about Apples "bullshit."

The Greenpeace campaign focuses on the toxic chemicals used in making Macs and iPods which eventually end up as toxic waste. They set up a whole pseudo-apple site on which they invite you to create your own tshirts and video campaigns, write to Steve Jobs, and generally spread the word.

I was happy to learn that Zeina found SXSW and Austin to be much more receptive to the campaign than MacWorld was. She also mentioned that she saw tons more Macs in use at SXSW than at Macworld - I love that! (Love the Rebel Inside shirt too...)

And as I promised Zeina, I hereby swear that she paid for her own drinks, and that one of the two drinks she's holding was mine :)

To Twitter Or Not

There's plenty of chatter going on about whether or not Twitter has any real value. Twitter is sometimes called a microblog. It's basically group SMS with a web interface and social networking features. Sign up, and you have a 140 character limit per post. You can post as often as you want - in theory you post throughout the day: heading to work, at Foo's for lunch, blogging, going to bed. Then you add friends to your network, and you can keep up with who's doing what when. You can see updates via the web, or receive them via SMS or IM. I signed up for a SXSW Twitter group (flock? conflagration? murder?) just for fun. When I sent a Twitter to the group number, it was broadcast on several plasma screens sprinkled throughout the convention center. I assumed I'd also see twitters on my phone from the rest of the group, but I only saw those of the developers and others in my twitter network, which was only Tori. Not too useful. Did I need to know that Jack was in line at Magnolia Cafe at 3am? No. No I did not.

After SXSW, Tori was none too happy. She emailed me:

I’m really aggravated at Twitter. Not at the technology, but at the sheer gall of the Twitter guys who evidently think I want to be on the end of a one-sided conversation. I’m completely convinced that’s what has happened. You sign up, and you get grouped with them, and no one else (unless you go to the effort of adding friends, like we did). Did you ever, once, see one of them respond to anything you had typed?

No. Why?

Because they aren’t listening. I’d even venture to guess they had some flag set so that they see only messages to one another. Meanwhile, I have to listen to their banter, and am bound to a group where there’s no chance of me have any sort of interaction with anyone new, or even participating. Gee thanks, that’s awesome technology, guys.

Put that in your blog and smoke it.

That said, now that I know how to use it, I can see how it could be useful.

• In a workgroup - making that final multi-day push to launch, get the whole group keeping each other up on their project status
• At a conference - keep up with who's going to which panel, where they're meeting for lunch
• Travel of any kind with a group - again, who's where?

Feel free to check out my Twitter page, and sign up to follow or as a friend. You can see that it's not getting a whole lot of use right now, but it's still kind of fun to play around with it.