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iPhone

apple store

iPhone day 7: Store getting remodeled, but lines still long

A tipster snapped this late-night shot of Apple's Union Square store being overhauled. You — yes, you waiting in line with your old iPhone — send us photos of the results when the store opens at 10, willya? Separately, we've been told that Apple Store employees at the San Francisco flagship cut off would-be buyers who arrived after 5:30 p.m. Shoppers timed the morning line at 2.5 hours yesterday. That's even more time than I spend watching my BlackBerry reboot.

journalist math

Apple's weekend profits for the iPhone 3G: $330 million

Apple profited some $330 million from 3G iPhone sales over its first weekend, Fortune's Philip Elmer-DeWitt estimates that . His back-of-the-envelope formula factored in iSuppli's estimate of the manufacturing costs of each iPhone 3G, Apple's numbers on how many iPhones it sold over the weekend, analyst estimates on how much AT&T and other carriers subsidize each phone, and what a survey says about the sales split between the iPhone's $199 and $299 iPhones models. All that, a little bit slower now, in Elmer-DeWitt's bullet points below. More »

smartphones

iPhone 3G vs. Blackberry -- if you switch, are you screwed?

"BlackBerry is the only way to go ... the rest are for kids," says one of the 400 comments to Web Worker Daily's thorough comparison of iPhone 3G's pros and cons versus a BlackBerry for use on the job. iPhone crazies are everywhere, so in response I've summarized Web Worker's pro-BlackBerry argument for those of us who pay the mortgage with a road-battered 8703e. More »

apple

iPhone, day 6: line down to 2.5 hours

The grayhaired man in a suit and the young lady in a sweatshirt agreed: They'd queued up outside Apple's San Francisco flagship store at 10:30 this morning — 30 minutes after the store opened. At 1 p.m. they'd finally gotten to the front of the line, which still crawls because of the time it takes to activate each phone at the counter. The line today is nothing like Friday's opening-day cast. No camera hogs, no activists, no TV crews or I'm-subverting-the-MSM bloggers. Just a bunch of footsore consumers patiently proving that the force is still with Steve Jobs after all. The few people I approached didn't really want to talk — they were just there to buy a phone and waiting longer than they'd expected. Did His Steveness manufacture the shortage of phones and the long wait lines to build buzz? Here's a hint: No, that'd be stupid.

nerdfight

Loopt makes sure its users never make friends again

Letting your friends know where you are is supposed to be the point of Loopt. The location-based app for the iPhone (and for some other mobile phones no one ever talks about) would work great, too, if you still have friends after you install the thing. After people who never signed up started getting "creepy" text messages inviting them to join, actual consenting users complained back that the app had sent unsolicited texts to their entire contact lists — and ohmigod, fanboy-favorite videoblonder iJustine was one of them! So what now, blog gang? How do you make Loopt's dirty poly-polo-shirted CEO pay? More »

hubris

Sprint says Google is too optimistic about Android

Jake Orion, the guy in charge of Android development at Sprint, says that while "Google’s confidence, vision and self assurance are refreshing and innovative," Google needs to " to appreciate and address industry fundamentals more pragmatically." Specifically, Orion told AndroidGuys.com Google needs "a more proactive and direct linkage to the carrier’s network and service requirement" — which we think means Google hasn't yet made Android friendly to how Sprint runs its network. Details, details! Who needs to worry about that when you're busy being self-assured and confident? More »

m4w4iPhone

Man seeks woman who seeks iPhone on Craigslist

Why wait in line for a 3G iPhone when a "5'10 Italian, clean no drugs no std's" "m4w" will give you one in exchange for a little creative action in bed? Interested parties need only check out the Craigslist ad for more details. We'll echo the words of this m4w: "Good luck ladies."

the chart

Which iPhone apps make the most money?

Tracking the number of reviews written for each iPhone application sold in the iTunes App store won't tell you how many times that application has been purchased and downloaded. It won't reveal that apps' volume writes Medialet's David Hill. But Hill contends tracking the number of reviews users give apps will give you a sense of each app's "relative volume" — the app's approximate share of of the App stores' overall volume. Multiply the number of an app's review against the app's price and Hill says you get an approximation of its revenue, or at least its "relative revenue," which is good enough for making comparisons. Doing this math, Hill worked up the chart above. What's Hill's chart reveal? That there's riches in niches. Check out ForeFlight mobile, an app for airline pilots that costs 70 bucks a pop, earning more more revenue than any other app but one.

Tim the IT Guy

What Apple can learn from McDonald's

[Editor's note: Tim Woolery, aka Tim the IT Guy, works hands-on in IT in the Bay Area. With nearly 15 years' experience at everything from CAT 5-cabled steel furnaces to intercontinental remote-controlled radio stations, Tim's able to spot and plug holes in the coverage of important tech news. Rather than bone up on change management best practices ourselves, we decided to let Tim post for himself once a week.] More »

great moments in journalism

TV reporter vs. iPhone fans -- guess who wins?

Los Angeles TV reporter Eric Spillman ignores his anchorwoman's warnings Noooooo and sets up to ask iPhone line-standers if they've ever seen a woman naked. The crowd turns on Spillman and his pathetic BlackBerry.

steve jobs

Apple sold 1 million iPhones over the weekend

Apple sold its one millionth 3G iPhone on Sunday, reports the company. That's up from about 300,000 sold over the first three days of the first iPhone launch. “iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Apple chief flack Katie Cotton, in a statement attributed to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. We're surprised Cotton didn't also have Jobs say that the weekend was "extraordinary," "incredible," "tremendous," and "unprecedented." Jobs also "said" it took 74 days for Apple to sell as many of the first generation iPhones last year. More »

great moments in pr

Boston Apple Store so empty they ejected the reporters

Phil Schiller, Apple's head of worldwide product marketing, attended this morning's iPhone 3G launch in person at the company's Boston flagship store on Boylston Street. Former Valleywag reporter Jordan Golson, reporting for the Industry Standard, told us Schiller was all cheer and cooperation. "It's the first day we've been doing this," Schilller said. "We'll get better at it as the day goes on." Schiller's eagerness to talk didn't stop a blue-shirt store staffer from ejecting Golson with a great canned speech: "The press folks who have been inside for a long while need to leave so we can let more people in." Sounds fair, until you see Golson's photos of the wide-open spaces around Schiller and his son, plus the obligatory First Guy in Line being interviewed on video. More »

overheard

Apple employee: iPhone 3G launch failure is "shitty"

NEW YORK — Apple's iTunes store, required for activating the new iPhone 3G is failing, causing massive chaos from coast to coast. Even Apple employees are — when they don't realize a reporter is in earshot — acknowledging this. "I can't believe there's just so much stuff going wrong," says one employee at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store as he takes his lunch break sitting next to me. "It's not very Apple-like. It's shitty. It just shouldn't happen." His friend agrees: "I called my dad and his phone still doesn't work."

spy video

A firsthand view of Apple's iPhone chaos

NEW YORK — Apple Store employees are a little tense today. They got nine hours of training preparing for today's iPhone 3G launch. Then there was all the press and hoopla when the day finally began. (I overheard two of them complaining about it: "I felt like I was going to vomit," one said. The other: "I felt like was as going to vomit too!") Then there was the crowd control. Then the iTunes Store, required to activate phones and thereby complete sales, went down. I snuck a hidden camera into the Fifth Avenue Apple Store and surveyed the chaos. Roll the clip. Meanwhile, here's a reader's account of an experience at an Apple Store in Walnut Creek, California: More »

apple

How long is the iPhone line? This long

NEW YORK — To get to the front of the line for the 3G iPhone here at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store takes about two hours of waiting from back to front. All for a device that probably won't work until tomorrow, thanks to a crash of Apple's activation system. It's much quicker — about two minutes — to just walk from the front to the back. Play the clip to ogle the desperate iPhone-seeking horde.

geek love

First guy in New York iPhone 3G line scores a date with hot Apple employee

NEW YORK — I'm sitting outside the Fifth Avenue Apple Store here in New York, writing up a post about the long line for the iPhone, when a pretty girl wearing aviator sunglasses and a white blouse sits next to the guy sitting next to me. She says to her friend: "So I've got a date with Dan." "Who?" the guy asks. "The guy who was first in line — the guy who bought the first iPhone today. He's doing the documentary thing, his name is Dan." More »

iphone 3g

With iPhone 3G lines weak, is the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field fading?

As Apple started to ring up sales of its new iPhone 3G, the scene at the flagship Apple Store in San Francisco was much quieter than last year. By 8 p.m. last night only 12 people were in line, and by 4 a.m. only 40. By 7:45 a.m. this morning, the line had grown past 325, nearly to the length it was at last year's launch, with Apple Store employees dispensing coffee and water to the waiting crowd. One man, who had taken the 20th spot in line, was trying to sell it (unsuccessfully) for $100. How did Robert Scoble get into the first 20 allowed into the store? He had his friend wait 36 hours in line, sleeping in a tent. (At San Francisco's minimum wage, you and your friends owe the guy $351, Scoble.) How was the turnout in Palo Alto? Lame. New York? Lame. Vancouver? Lame. Meanwhile, the news about the coincidental Apple TV update went by nearly unnoticed, and Apple bungled the release of MobileMe. So while there was a crowd, even here in the heart of Apple country, the pictures after the jump show the religious fervor is considerably less intense than before. More »

apple

10 iPhone apps that will drive you into Steve Jobs's clutches

Apple's new, faster 3G iPhones go on sale in the U.S. tomorrow, but a new store where Apple will sell third-party iPhone applications opened for business today. (Something to do with when the iPhone 3G went on sale in New Zealand. Those international date lines are so confusing!) The apps mostly range from free to costing $10, and you buy them on iTunes like you would an album or a TV show. Here are ten that will crush your last remaining resistance to Apple CEO Steve Jobs's demands. More »