When talking about in-store activation of a certain mobile phone, there isn't much to be said, but what about the iPhone 3G? Well, there's not much to be said about the "in-store" part, but the "out-store" issues are interesting. Why? Look at the image below and you'll figure it out by yourselves!

Obviously, to start having problems with the iPhone 3G, you need to buy it and activate it, first of all. As you can see, there was a huge line of people near AT&T's store on the Chicago State Street, because as soon as the doors opened early in the morning, and the iPhone 3G hungry flock could go in and start buying the smartphones, AT&T's system crashed, making in-store activations impossible! No activations possible - no iPhone 3G sales possible - complete halt of all in-store activities, at least those related to the iPhone 3G, of course!

The funny part is that some stores, including a part of those located in the US, simply told their customers to get the iPhone 3G, go home, and activate it through iTunes! So, Apple says there is no chance for activating the iPhone 3G outside the stores, and some of the stores decide that this is possible, and sell iPhone 3Gs WITHOUT ACTIVATION? Interesting...
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Anyway, the funny part is that, at least yesterday, most of those that got home glad they have the iPhone 3G at hand, and were ready to activate it, found out that the iTunes Store also went down!

In the end, I should also add that some AT&T stores simply sent people home without any iPhone 3G, and where the system was still working, the clients were also served extremely slow.

I guess nothing's perfect, after all...so, I must repeat my question I asked yesterday: did you have any experience with the iPhone 3G yet? Don't be shy!

So, it has come true. The dream of entire legions of techno-geeks and Apple lovers, the nightmare for some players in the smartphone market, especially when talking about the US, the long-awaited iPhone 3G is here! ...or is it not? Before, we heard some rumors about possible iPhone 3G shortages soon during its early days on the market, and now it seems those rumors are turning into reality, unfortunately. Oh, well, I guess nobody will die because they upgraded the iPhone 3G a few days, maybe even weeks, later, don't you think? After all, it's just a phone!...smartphone, whatever.

Leaving aside the shortages, think about the nightmare of having to wait for those in front of you to choose their rate plans and phone options! Of course, this could be easily done in 2 minutes, as long as you know exactly what you want when entering the store, but what if you're nicely standing in line, and 3 out of those 10 guys in front of you spend over 30 minutes each to see what's better for them? Of course, this doesn't have anything to do with Apple, but with the decision of in-store activation...

As some probably expected, there were some problems with the order processing system for a short period, but nothing that bad. After all, could you imagine that O2 reported 13,000 iPhone 3G orders PER SECOND?!? The funny part comes right in - there are a lot of orders, but not that many iPhones!

Regarding the iPhone 3G not being available, O2 said "We have been working continuously with them(Apple) to get as much stock for the UK as possible. Unfortunately, they have only been able to supply a small proportion of the number of phones we asked for, because they are launching simultaneously in 22 countries. We are confident that over time we will start to get sufficient volume to meet demand, but it is likely that stock will be in very short supply for some weeks to come."
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At last, let's get back to those 13,000 orders per second - the website being hammered that bad was the O2 site offering early upgrade options: "We had invested heavily to add a huge amount of additional capacity, 250 times its normal rate, and back-up systems. We tested this carefully in advance. The massive simultaneous crush exceeded even our worst case assumptions. Demand was at 13,000 orders per second. Frankly, we have to admit we just weren't prepared for this unprecedented level of demand. No website is."

Could it be that the iPhone 3G is more than even Apple expected it to be? Well, that remains to be seen, but if you got one already and want to share your experience with the rest of us, most not being that lucky, just drop your comment below, you lucky bastard!(no offense intended, of course) ;)

Did you get one of those Apple TV boxes yet? For me, these devices were somehow in another world, until lately. Why? Obviously, I am not one of those TV addicts, and - to be honest - I spend as much time watching TV as you spend on Earth's orbit. Yes, that's right, I am not watching TV at all. After all, the future of media is online, and I fully embrace that statement. Now, back to the Apple TV hacks... what did I just said? "Hacks?" Excuse me, it should have been "Apple TV updates!"

If the Apple TV wasn't much of a deal in its early days, now it has turned into a fully featured digital media receiver, able to connect to your home network and retrieve media files from virtually anything around it, and it gets better with each software update, as we're going to see right away...

The last patch for the Apple TV is labelled 2.1, and it must be installed right from the device, but its main purpose is to help supporting "alien" technologies, such as the MobileMe online service, probably to get photo sharing support, since most of the remaining content there has no use for Apple TV owners. Even more, the Apple TV 2.1 update enables Apple Remote software compatibility, allowing its users to turn any iPhone or iPod Touch into a remote for controlling their digital media receiver.

Finally, this feature is here, and your iPhone can be turned into a remote for the Apple TV, just as I was expecting, but wouldn't dare to hope! Why am I saying this? Well, some Apple patents we passed by in the last months were giving some hints on such a feature, but Apple was as quiet as usual about it, so seeing it finally arriving with this patch is like talking about a "surprise everyone expects to happen..."
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Before we go grab an iPhone 3G(if we can!), you should also be aware that Apple updated the iPhone Configuration Web Utility, for both Mac OS and Windows. Basically targeting corporate IT professionals, this software allows its users to generate, sign and distribute configuration profiles online, each of them containing security policies information, mail and Exchange accounts, and various networking settings. On the consumer side, this program delivers the certificates required for an iPhone or iPod to function on a corporate network.

This is it for now, but we'll meet again pretty soon, so if you don't want to miss a thing, be sure to subscribe to our news by email, if you forgot doing so until now. See ya...and stop thinking about Apple TV hacks, there's no such thing! ;)

"Where can I purchase an iPhone 3G?" Even more, "when will I be able to get my iPhone 3G" and "how to get most out of my iPhone 3G," I am sure these will be some extremely popular questions these days, especially in those areas where the iPhone 3G hasn't been announced officially yet, and to those people that will miss the "first wave." Just an advice - don't despair, nobody dies if you won't get it today! There's plenty to keep you occupied in the meantime, so if you can't get an iPhone 3G, and we are not able to offer you one, either, be sure we'll give you some of the hottest iPhone 3G news, right away!

If you are going to grab one of those white or black beauties from Apple, I am sure you are already up to the latest news regarding the service plans available for them, so let me give you some good news, especially if you have an old iPhone and you're not having an upgrade in your mind yet - the iPhone 2.0 firmware is finally here! Apart from the direct link I just gave you, you can also get it through iTunes 7.7. Here's the new stuff: access to the AppStore and native applications enabled, exactly what the world has been waiting for lately! A fresh installation takes about 20 minutes, so if you have the time and knowledge to do it yourself, you should go for it. Now, back to the...
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...iPhone 3G launch, expected to take place today! In the US, the "second coming" kicks off at 8AM, local time, and - according to the official Apple site, "more than 500 native applications will be available on the revolutionary new App Store — including more than 125 free applications." Pretty cool, that's a lot of freebies to play with, and that's exactly what I want to hear when I talk about "iPhone 3G news." Freedom is the power, especially since the device itself and the service plans come for a pretty big price, in some areas...

The rest of it? That's history already, and you can be sure we'll get back to the subject a lot of times in the next few weeks, months, years...after all, this is the second coming! ;)

Wondering about those new MacBook Pro cases everyone is waiting for? Even more, wondering about the next-gen MacBooks? Well, I have some good news for you - they are almost here! Since this falls right on spot, about at the same time with the release of the iPhone 3G, I think a little bit of history is never bad, so let's take a brief look into the past, first of all...

Almost a decade ago, back in May, 1999, Apple released the PowerBook G3, having a pretty common design, and made of plastic. Only two months after it, the "Clamshell" iBook hits the market, targeting a different group of consumers, but with a very interesting design. Both were retired in 2001, with the iBook being pulled back from the market about 8 months earlier than the PowerBook G3.

With the PowerBook G4, released in September, 2001, Apple started using metal in the notebooks, since this notebook was primarily built out of titanium alloy. The iBook line used plastics for the G3 and G4 generations, and the first MacBook, introduced in 2006, still used plastic, while the PowerBook G4 was refreshed in 2003, with a new aluminum case, and since then, we had the beautiful shiny metal look we all know.<-125x125 Button - right->

Now, moving into the present, some spy shots that look pretty bad to me, appeared on a Chinese blog on Saturday, and various people familiar with the ongoing MacBook development confirmed this is an authentic next-gen MacBook Pro case. To be honest, I don't think we're going to see a major design overhaul, but since the iPhone 3G had its look and feel slightly improved, leaving the innards aside, I guess that's what we should expect from the MacBook line, too.

There are plenty of rumors regarding the changes to the next-gen MacBooks, including the adoption of aircraft-grade aluminum and stainless stele, to make it all more eco-friendly, as well as the introduction of oversized trackpads and matte black portions of the keyboards.

I know this may not be much, but we'll surely get more details as soon as the iPhone 3G madness fades away. After all, what could be better for Apple then keeping us busy? First, the iPhone 3G, after a few weeks, the new MacBooks, then...who knows what else!