According to Macrumors we may just start seeing iPhone dedicated activation areas as well as designated iPhone staff in our local Apple retail stores starting today.

These new staff members, rumored to be called “iPhone Experts”, will obviously be there to help streamline the sales of iPhones along with providing a dedicated “expert” that can accommodate all of your iPhone needs. The whole concept behind this new layout sounds ideal for those of you who are first time Apple shoppers.

So if you happen to pass by your local Apple store within the next few days, stop in and say hello to your very own “iPhone Expert”.

Apple Retail Stores to Get Full Time iPhone Experts & Activation Areas is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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TiPb just received a tip from inside one of Apple’s carrier partners on the memo reproduced below. We can’t verify it but are running it just in case anyone notices any problems and comes looking for potential causes.

Our tipster thought Apple might be using the downtime to prep for some iPhone 3.0 and next-generation iPhone hardware goodness. We have no way of verifying that either, of course, but with under 10 days to WWDC 2009, nothing — fact or fiction — surprises us anymore…

On Sunday evening May 31 / Monday June 1, in some time zones Apple will perform maintenance on the servers responsible for all iPhone activations.

This is a planned maintenance that begins at 8:00 p.m. and ends at 11:00 p.m., United States Pacific time.

During the scheduled downtime, attempts to activate a new iPhone will result in iTunes displaying a message that says activations are currently unavailable.

If a customer reports this as a problem please explain that:

Nothing is wrong with iTunes or the customer’s iPhone.

This is a scheduled downtime for system maintenance.

The iTunes Store, App Store, MobieMe, and www.apple.com are not affected.

Per the message in iTunes, the customer should try connecting again after the maintenance period has ended.”

Apple iPhone Activation Offline on Sunday, May 31? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Above, visual proof that I’ve managed to get my iPhone 3G activated, syncing, and restoring. How’d I do it? I followed the advice of our genius commenters, of course. Here’s the deal:

Short version: Nice people wait, mean people spam the refresh but get it done.

Long version: Hook your iPhone up to iTunes, watch iTunes try and fail to get to the iTunes Store for activation. At this point, you have a decision. The Yin in you will tell you that the reason that so many people are having problems is that so many people are doing exactly what you’re doing. So relax, go grab a coffee, and try later. The Yang in you will tell you that, screw those other people, you just need to keep trying until you get through. The fastest way to do that is not to unplug the iPhone but simply to just click OK on the error message, click on another section of iTunes (like a playlist) and then click on the iPhone in the sidebar again.

Or do a mix of the above, the Yin and the Yang, the spam refresh and the sit it out, with little dots of the other mixed into each. So Taoist of you, Steve Jobs would be proud.

Good luck everybody, let us know how it’s working for you in the comments! Namaste

How To: Activate your Busted up iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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As we just noted earlier today, iTunes is feeling the hurt of all the traffic today. Case in point: Activation is confirmed to be down all across Canada. We’re also getting reports that some people who did manage to buy an iPhone 3G are stuck in emergency call mode and can’t activate. It seems that activation is so tough right now some AT&T stores are letting customers leave without activating their iPhones. Our advice: do not leave the store without getting it activated, at least for today.

Meanwhile, there’s even worse news: people who applied the 2.0 update to their first-generation iPhones are reporting in the comments that since iTunes is hurting so much, they can’t connect to activate their phone.

In other words, hold off on that update for a bit, otherwise the only person you may be able to call today is going to be 911, and as unhappy as you may be about the entire situation, the police really don’t want to hear about it.

Quick Update: If you’re looking at a non-functional iPhone 3G that can’t be activated but your old phone had its SIM de-activated, pop the new sim out and slap it in your old phone so you can at least make some calls and suchlike.

Don’t Apply the 2.0 Update Yet, You May Go without a Phone for Awhile is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Although Apple forces you to get your iPhone activated in-store before you walk out the door, that may not mean that people are going to have a trouble-free syncing experience today. To wit: the error message above is the best I can get when I plug my iPhone 3G into my Mac. Apparently iTunes wants to double-check that my iPhone really is what it’s supposed to be. With the presumably massive number of people getting iPhone 3Gs today, iTunes is not handling the load so well.

The store itself is up, but I find it aggravating in the extreme that I can’t sync over any of my apps or media without this initial call-in to the Apple mothership. Thank god Mobile Me is working for me, otherwise I wouldn’t even have contacts on my iPhone.

Update: Rene just called in to say that all of Rogers in Canada is basically down an unable to activate iPhones, so he’s just sitting pretty in the store until things clear up. Let us know — any delays at AT&T or Apple stores when trying to activate?

…Speaking of downtime: yeah, we know, TiPb is not performing up to spec lately. We’re upgrading servers over the weekend (we hope) to bring it back up to acceptable levels. Pardon our 503s.

iTunes is Grinding: The Syncing Is Down. UPDATE: Activation too? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Given how kick-in-the-crotch fake the last supposed leaked memo from Rogers (the Canadian GSM monopoly and exclusive iPhone 3G carrier) was, I’m taking this with a Rockies-sized grain of salt. If even remotely accurate, however, it looks like:

In order to unbrick the iPhone in store (which is a requirement of the iPhone Sales Process), you must have iTunes version 7.6.3b4. Installed on your computer. This version has a special ‘Activation Only Mode’ that must be enabled and used in store.

For complete details, including the unbelievable but very Rogers-like ban on all forms of publicity, posters, and promotion (no advertising until 13 weeks post-launch?!), and more telco-related acronyms and contractions than you can shake your head at, check out the read link.

Read

In Store iPhone 3G Activation to Use Special iTunes Mode? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Engadget has put together a veritable jolly roger of an update to iPhone firmware 1.1.4 jailbreaking and SIM unlocking.

These methods include the usual scurvy gang of iNdependence 1.4 beta 5 for OS X, Zibri’s cross-platform Ziphone 2.5, and a new, and potentially mega-infringing stow-away: iTunes (looks to be purely proof-of-concept at the moment).

As always, jailbreaking and unlocking are not for the faint of heart, so explore at your own risk, lest your precious iPhone end up on the receiving end of a one way trip to Davey Jones’ locker…

Avast! 1.1.4 Jailbreak and Unlock Update is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Upsides:

• Safari: The web browser is great. I haven’t missed flash yet, and the fact that YouTube is built-in more or less means that I’m not too broken-hearted about Flash. Maybe we’ll see it in an update, maybe we won’t. If we don’t, I hope they give me the ability to turn it off.

Downsides

• Web Applications and built-in apps in general: Most applications that Apple has included are great: Text, Calendar (mostly, see below), Photos, Camera, YouTube, Maps, Weather, Clock. I found Notes and Stocks to be underwhelming (and as of this writing, undeserving of the front screen), plus there’s an entire empty row sitting there waiting eagerly to have application buttons stuffed in. You can’t replace this kind of immediacy with web services — I don’t want to open Safari, create a new window, or find it with a bunch of button presses in my bookmarks. I want it there, on the main screen.
• To Do: Implement To Do: The sync doesn’t bring over to-dos from iCal, which is going to be a big hullaballoo. On the flip side of events, it doesn’t sync notes from the notes app back to the computer, so there’s no way to back them up either. I’m guessing something will happen here once Leopard comes out, or that we’ll see some updates here, but this aspect is very disappointing; the omission of this is actually downright weird. Any fans of GTD will have to use a web app for To-Dos as of this writing.
• Activation: When I first installed the iPhone to my computer, it took a while to activate. The system failed on me. I was nervous of a double-billing situation, but I resubmitted my information anyway. The activation system found my info and to my relief I had already been accepted. Other folks in our organization were not so lucky; Chris Kingree at our warehouse had to wait 60 hours (!) for his activation to go through.
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR: So what? there are *no* supported profiles for interfacing with a computer. None! That includes DUN, AVRCP, OBEX, the whole shebang. This means you can’t use the unlimited internet on your computer; nor can you sync your iPhone via Bluetooth. A2DP seems to be unimplemented as well. This one is downright weird to me; if I was assigning a score to this review, they’d lose some serious points here.
• Preferences: They don’t allow you to set too many preferences. Granted, this keeps things simple to support and you’re never in a situation where you’re not sure where the preferences are (they’re right there in the Settings app). But if you don’t like the default SMS message alert, tough! You can’t change it. You can disable it, but not change it.
• Ringtones: Apple has included ringtones on the iPhone, and some of them are pretty good. Thank you for the effort, Apple, but I would prefer to be able to use my own. I’d love to be able to blare video game sounds from Galaga or the theremin-like intro from Dr. Who whenever someone calls me, but that functionality is not with us. I’m guessing they just haven’t finished it yet, or don’t have legal agreements with labels yet in place.
• AT&T / EDGE: If you’re a technophile, you expected this here, and I am not willing to disappoint. EDGE brings me back to dialup days. AT&T’s coverage in my area is adequate, but it’s nothing to praise. I dropped two calls on the first day of use. AT&T’s commercials about dropped calls are like salt to my wounds now.
• Filesystem and Mass Storage: The iPhone doesn’t show up as a mass storage device when you plug it in to a computer, nor is its filesystem browseable. I can’t peer around on the inside, much with things, see how it works, and the like. It’s essentially a black box, which is annoying. This doesn’t bother me too much, but nor does it make a lot of sense. I didn’t think I’d still have a use for memory cards once the iPhone came out. This one doesn’t bother me too much.

All in all, what Apple has completed is mighty. That’s not to say that there aren’t missing pieces; there are serious missing pieces from the iPhone. Still, for an entry to the smartphone market, or mobile phone market in general, it’s a very impressive device. I’m glad I bought it; I’d recommend it to anyone while making note of the above caveats, it’s the most fun I’ve had with a phone in a long time, and I haven’t even installed any games on it yet. Oh wait, that’s still a sore spot.

iPhone: My Impressions is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple has posted a new training video to the site. The trainer is the same as the previous video, and he instructs in the activation of a previously purchased iPhone — you can apparently purchase the iPhone and activate it (as well as select your plans) via iTunes, which hopefully means that the lines will move quickly on Friday.

Apple has also posted information on the rate plans. It looks like they are indeed the new version of the old AT&T Unity plans (see here), as they all include unlimited internet and 200 text messages.

Here are the plan details for new customers:

$59.99      $79.99      $99.99
450 mins    900 mins    1350 mins
200 SMS     200 SMS     200 SMS

$80.00      $100.00     $120.00
700 mins    1400 mins   2100 mins

All family plans include unlimited data, 200 SMS messages, visual voicemail, Rollover minutes, unlimited night and weekend minutes, and unlimited mobile to mobile minutes. Additional lines are $29.99 each.

Existing customers can add a data plan to their existing voice plan:

$20.00      $30.00      $40.00
200 SMS     1500 SMS    Unlimited SMS

iPhone Activation Video and Plans is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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