iPhone in the Boondocks
Posted Monday, July 16, 2007
Well, hello there! Sorry I haven't posted anything here for a while. I've been on the phone.
Actually, I've been traveling on business and pleasure, taking thousands of photographs, playing music, photoblogging on Flickr almost daily, and working on other miscellaneous projects.
But I bought an iPhone last week, and I thought I'd add my voice to the chorus.
You've already read the raves and reviews, so I won't waste bits by describing the iPhone's seductive design. I'll just talk about my own experiences, because I suspect they're different from those of most iPhone buyers.
I told myself I wasn't going to buy a version 1.0 iPhone. A couple of factors combined to change my mind. First, my existing phone was showing its age. It was a near-antique Samsung handset that was free with a Verizon service agreement that expired a few years ago. Its battery was dying, giving me about 15 minutes of talk time. Its charger didn't always make contact with the pins inside the phone. And it lacked a camera -- a big drawback for a photography addict.
Why did I put up with a rusty, crusty handset for so long? Simple: I live in a rural area that has very poor cell phone service -- at my house, there's no service at all. I used my old mobile only when I was mobile -- on my frequent jaunts to San Francisco, or even on grocery runs to the nearby town of Mendocino (population 1100), which does have cell service.
But let's face it: if everyone who didn't really need an iPhone didn't buy one, Apple would have sold about 16 phones so far. The second factor that pushed me into an Apple Store was the iPhone itself: after spending a few minutes playing with a colleague's phone (and before June 29, how often did the words play and phone get used in the same sentence?), I knew I had to have one.
Touch one and you will understand.
The Acquisition
I was seduced in Seattle, and by the time I returned to San Francisco, I was determined to buy. Apple's Web site makes it easy to find Apple Stores that have iPhones in stock. It wasn't hard -- nearly all stores in the San Francisco Bay Area had them.
I had errands to run in Berkeley, so in the interest of efficiency and free parking, I decided to patronize the Apple Store in Emeryville -- just across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco. I pecked the store's phone number into my car's Pioneer navigation system (something else I didn't really need) and was on my way.
The Activation
The iPhone, as you know, is tightly integrated with iTunes: to activate the phone and set up your AT&T service, you use iTunes. I don't know whether you also have to be in an area that has cell service, but I didn't want to risk getting home and not being able to activate the phone.
So I toted my PowerBook into the store, and explained that I'd like to activate the phone right there, using my PowerBook and Apple's WiFi. The salesman said I wouldn't be able to that "for security reasons" -- I'd have to enter my Social Security number and other personal information.
I was ready to develop a Plan B when a technician from the Genius Bar approached. "I couldn't help overhearing. Yes, you can use your own PowerBook to activate the phone here."
Delighted, I plunked down my plastic, got my iPhone, sidled up to the Genius Bar, ordered a gin and tonic, and began the activation process.
Actually, I began the updating process -- installing the latest iTunes, the Mac OS X 10.4.10 update, the latest QuickTime, and while was on the receiving end of a fat Internet pipe, a few other miscellaneous updates.
The Lie
Activation itself started smoothly. I picked my AT&T plan, entered my Social Security number and my billing address.
That's when things went sour. Upon learning that I live two miles south of a town of 398 people, iTunes reported that it could not activate the phone because AT&T didn't offer service where I lived.
As they say in Springfield, Vermont, "D'oh!"
I asked the genius bartender to pour me another and share any wisdom he might have. "Enter the store's zip code instead of your own," was his reply. That didn't work -- AT&T verifies your address, and it knew I was lying.
Then I saw a second option: on the iPhone activation screen, there's an option to "enter the primary address where this iPhone will be used" -- not the billing address, but the address where you plan to do most of your tapping, flicking, and pinching.
The genius bartender was hearing about someone else's troubles at this point, so I chugged my drink and forged on by myself. I entered the address of the Emeryville Apple Store.
Success! But with a catch: My new phone number (for complicated reasons, I wanted a new one) has a 510 area code. I live in 707 land, but my mobile phone says I live in the East Bay.
That's okay. It makes me seem more nomadic.
And that, my friends, is how a rural dweller activated his iPhone. I wonder if the Apple Store in Emeryville will start getting junk mail addressed to me.
Coming up later this week: more iPhone adventures! What I want Apple to add, deciding whether to obsess over a dead pixel, warwalking for WiFi hotspots, and why AT&T's Edge Network doesn't suck as much as people say it does.
