Ok, so I arrived in line at 6:40 am, we talked to an Apple sales person at 10:19 and left at 11:49 with two non activated iPhone 3Gs. The largest holdup was the fact that the activation process took forever and failed. I had two iPhone 3Gs to activate, the first only took about 15 or 20 minutes while the second took nearly an hour due to AT&T activation server issues. Right now I’ve got them both hooked up to laptops waiting for them to activate. 

I’m not sure what my total time spent on the iPhone 3G is after you count the fact that I’m going to have to spend more time on it at home. I’m a little disconcerted that Apple and AT&T have not fixed the exact same issue the original iPhone launch had a year ago.

An hour and a half after the store opened I’m still waiting and have only seen a limited number of iPhone 3G owners leave the store (about 15 to 20 by my count). The holdup seems to be in the activation of the phone, it appears that the activation servers have problems with the heavy traffic. Much like the original iPhone launch a year ago when users reported problems with activation, only this time you’re having to wait at the store for the activation to complete.

There are a ton of demo units in the store and they have all been activated prior to the launch, a few demo games are installed and all free applications are downloadable.

In addition to the activation problems, customers with a “fan” added to their account (an employee discount) are not able to activate the new iPhone 3G at the Apple store. Apple store employees were telling those of us waiting in line with “fan accounts” to goto an AT&T store or to remove the fan status from our accounts.

When I get my iPhone 3G I’ll update the site with details on how long each step took.

I got here around 6:40a and found a longer than expected line. The line for the iPhone 3G was stretching behind a garbage compactor near to the entrance to International Plaza. See my photos below of the line and keep checking my site for updates.

I’ll be taking photos as I go in and when I’ve got an iPhone 3G. Apple store employees have been handing out water and coffee for people waiting in line.

I’ve just stopped by my local Apple store at International Plaza in Tampa Florida and there are already a handful of people waiting outside even with the launch about 12 hours away. In the morning I plan on waiting in line with the rest of the Apple fans to take photos and hopefully grab an iPhone 3G. Watch my personal site (you’re there) for updates from the line.

For those of you who have been following my Apple-related blog OS X 411, I was there at WWDC08 live blogging the Keynote where Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 3G as well as some other cool stuff (read my full synopsis of WWDC08 here).

The last of Apple’s 2008 WWDC sessions ended today at 3:15 today and the labs are closing at 6:15.

This was my first year attending Apple’s WWDC and it was great. I’ve meet some interesting mac and iPhone developers as well as some Apple engineers. I look forward to attending WWDC next year, and hopefully I will be able to attend WWDC09 as a student, as I did this year.

I’ve learned a lot here at WWDC and I plan on doing some more programming. On my other blog, OS X 411, I live blogged the WWDC keynote and have some more WWDC updates available there as well.

I’m preparing for Apple’s 2008 WWDC by getting a laptop (a MacBook Air). Its not my first mac laptop, before it I owned a 12″ PowerBook G4 (which happened to be my second mac), although I got rid of it when I got a 15″ MacBook Pro, which was my primary computer for some time. I got rid of the MacBook Pro when Leopard was released and picked up a Mac Pro. Since then I have been laptopless/without a laptop. The MacBook Air has from what I have seen so far, made a great second computer.

For those wondering, I picked up a 1.6Ghz with the 64Gb SSD, I’m hoping to get maximum battery life out of it. Also, check out either of my two other blogs, OS X 411 and MacBook 411 for stuff I post specific to the MacBook Air (or other macs).

As I’ve said earlier in another post about WWDC08, I will be going to this years WWDC under Apple’s Student Scholarship program. A friend of mine is also going, I should mention him because he made the graphic below. Thanks Jason.

It also appears that WWDC08 is now sold out, as Apple’s own WWDC site suggests. Hopefully Apple won’t sell the student tickets .

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to update my site to say I got accepted by Apple in the WWDC08 Student Scholarship Award. I got an email today, April 30th, 2008 at 9:38:14PM EDT with a code to activate the E-ticket. Good luck to those who applied and are on Apple’s waiting list. For those who were accepted: I look forward to meeting you.

Robert