iPhone Round-Up: The Wait Continues; MobileMe Hits Snags; Activation Problems Persist
This story was written by Tricia Duryee.
Here's a round-up of our iPhone coverage at mocoNews. Stay tuned for more news as the device begins to sell out, activation issues persist, MobileMe continues to be unpredictable and even old 2G iPhone users are impacted.
The Wait Continues: Everyone thought that the wait for the iPhone 3G was finally over today when it went up for sale in 21 countries around the world, but instead the people who absolutely insisted on buying one today, are finding themselves standing in line and having to wait a bit longer. Our own Matt Kapko cruised round the Long Beach, Calif. area today, trying to pick up one of the hot new iPhone 3G phones. He visited about five AT&T (NYSE: T) stores, which were all sold out, and then headed to an Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) store, where the hundreds-deep line led him to head home and try again later. More here.
MobileMe Also Crashes: MobileMe, which allows people to sync their contacts, calendar, email and other data between their iPhone and computers, is also experiencing activation problems today. The service, which they explain as "exchange for the rest of us," has great potentialand ultimately could even prove more valuable to Apple than the App storebut a poor start today could leave a sour taste in iPhone owner's mouths. AP reported late yesterday that some users were denied access to their accounts, which cost $99 a year. Om Malik at GigaOm also reported problems. Glenn Fleishman at Wifinetnews.com is posting on Twitter that MobileMe screwed up syncing his contacts and now he has duplicates. "The usual Apple crap," he writes. More here
Activation problems persist: As posted earlier on PaidContent and mocoNews, there's a long list of activation problems that started as early as the launch in London and then spread counterclockwise around the globe with many people still unsatisfied with brokenor so-called brickediPhones. The new update is that not only are iPhone 3G users disappointed, but there's still a pretty good old iPhones may be experiencing problems, too, if they tried tried to update to the 2.0 software this morning, reports VentureBeat. This is the big iFail of 2008. More here.
By Tricia Duryee