iPhones ahoy

Went into the Optus store in the city the other day to ask a few questions about the iPhone 3GS and found out that they were planning on doing a midnight launch for the Friday the 26th release. Compelled by an unreasonable fear that the phones would be sold out (or that I would have trouble getting a white 32gig version at least), I begged and cajoled Alison into lining up in the cold on Thursday night.

We got to Queen Street at about half past ten but even then there were probably 20 people in the queue already, each of them sporting a complimentary Optus scarf and beanie to cope with the weather. This was just the start of a long wait, thankfully punctuated by free merchandise, hot food and distractions from the hired entertainers. The event was covered by B105 and a camera crew though we tactfully avoided being interviewed much to Alison's relief. Overall I'd certainly rate this launch over the Wii based on the amount of free loot that I loaded into my bag.



There was quite a bit of excitement when the doors finally opened at 12:00, though this faded quickly when we realised how slow the applications were being processed. The food continued to come out at least but by then we were sick of fried nibblies, our bags were incapable of holding any more free gear and the entertainment was about to clock off for the night. By 1:20am we were pretty relieved to find ourselves at the front of the queue.



Processing our application turned out to be a fairly simple process in the end, with only one minor slip up on their part regarding Alison's Internet plan. Not too shabby for a mobile phone company. The big controversy of the night was actually an oversight on my part. I'd dragged Alison along to this ordeal on the assumption that I'd need her to sign up for a contract in her name and provide proof of identification. Turns out since the billing account is solely in my name, I could have easily done this for her phone number without her. Can I just say how lucky I am to have a supportive wife that didn't rip my head off for costing her a night's sleep for no good reason. Love you lots baby. ^_^;

By a quarter to one we'd left the store with phones in hand. We got home at about 2:15am and I had just enough energy to play around with the new Compass app for a few seconds before plugging the phone in to sync and retire for the night/morning.

As an cherry on top, I failed to realise that my new iPhone would inherit all my alarms after synchronisation. This meant that I was forced to stumble out of bed at 5:30 to turn off both alarms on phones at opposite ends of the house. Joy, the price we pay for technology.