Today being June 11th, I decided to get out of bed at 5:45 AM and head down to the friendly neighborhood AT&T store to try and procure an iPhone. I got there right at 6 and the line was already pretty long:

I put my name on the list, set up my lawnchair and chilled out as a large swarm of people filed in behind me. I guess 6:00 was the magic time, not 6:05. Phew. Turns out I was #34 in a line where there were 40 iPhones to give out. Now, some people left early because they had to get to work, and some people left because they wanted the black 16GB iPhones which sold out first, but I work for myself and I wanted the cheaper 8GB phone, so I wasn’t too upset. I liked my chances of getting a phone, but not as much as the guy who had been sitting outside the AT&T store since 6:30 PM the night before. Yes, Virginia, that was a 13.5 hour wait for a cell phone. I think I’m a little crazy for getting there at 6, but not that crazy.

Right at 8 the door opened and the first few went inside:

The line trudged forward for the next hour or so, a tired mass of geeks making small talk about geeky shit. Good times!

Now, we’re right up near the front. I can see inside from here, and see all the people trying to get their new iPhones:

Feeling good about it, but still cautious, I look back at the rest of the line. Many of these people did not get iPhone:

Finally, I was able to get inside and get one. It was around 9:30, so a total wait time of 3.5 hours. Not too shabby for the prize:

Of course, it wasn’t completely simple. The iTunes servers were completely swamped and activation failed, so I had to go back up there at lunch and force the AT&T store people to manually activate it, but once I did that, we’re all good.

I love toys.