Worried about
long lines for the iPhone 3G come this holiday season? Already breaking into cold sweats at the thought of standing knee-deep in snow for three hours so that your loved ones won't be filled with contempt for you? Take heart, consumers -- Apple has you covered. The company has just launched an online tool to take you through the process of purchasing an iPhone 3G, allowing you to just pop into your local Apple Store for retrieval and activation. Sure, this still doesn't let you just order a phone for delivery like a normal person, and it's a day late and a dollar short for the people who've already wasted precious time
waiting for this thing, but it's nice to know it's there if you need it.
posted Sep 24th 2008 2:33PM
Wow, only 170 days too late.
hahahahhahaha laughable : still you cannot buy online but now you cannot just come in to store you have to make appointment first !
sorry but this had to be at the top...
so apple has "invented" preordering online... i was sure i could do the same with loads of stores but apparently this deserves a mention on engadget. any other phone could be ordered online and be sent to your door
Hey morons (happy to be low-ranked in this dumb socialist commune): Can you home-activate with the piece of Android crap intro-ed today? :-P
Philip...
Really?
So, by letting people know that Apple is offering a delivery service for their 3G now, and they hadn't before, this is Apple bias?
Come on. No need to grab your torches and pitchforks when the word Apple is at the front of an article. Calm down.
Your comment definitely did NOT need to be at the top. And now your oh-so-important post will be gray. =]
so wait.....it's an online tool to purchase an iphone in the store?.....
Yup, that's what it is...
So, you still have to go to the store?
Online Tool a.k.a. a "webpage"
it's another feather-tickle to the asses of the loyal hundreds who must have some sort of progressive, forward-thinking sounding news every few days. and of course it's a ridiculous idea any company without their cores up the asses would see worth bridging by SHIPPING YOUR ONLINE ORDER TO YOUR HOME.
Why would you want to make the same mistake twice??? Of course apple is not going to sell online. ATT and Apple dont want people buy the iphone massively, unlock massively, then ebay massively. That defeats the purpose of monopoly. -_-
except that you would have to get the contract online too...
In agile development, we would refer to this as a "cake slice." Others might refer to it as "half-assed."
more like 1/4-assed. halfassed would be an overstatement.
@MadMike
Can you leave one comment that doesn't insult someone?
Isaac, can you put the crytowel away and realize he's insulting Apple, and rightly so. take a look around, you see many happy words surrounding this abysmal news?
what's being insulted here...*puts on shades* is _our intelligence_. *YEEEEEAAAAHHHHH!!!*
Not only is this kind of yesterday's news, you might want to indicate in the article that this id for the USA only. I just went racing to my online Apple store only to find that it isn't available, most likely because I am not in the USA.
It really is getting a bit much, considering that the iPhone is available around the world, in almost every country where that thing called the "Internet" is also available, that this site consistently acts like it's speaking to an exclusively US audience.
Almost every big Mac site has a large amount of views from places like the UK, Germany, Canada, etc. and I would be amazed if you don't also. Every time you do this kind of thing it's like a big F-you to everyone who isn't a "Yank."
i think by default things are for the USA, and if they relate elsewhere they say
UNNNNless you are fortunate enough to have your own version of Engadget, then you should be checking out your news there!
Since when are things automatically for the USA, on a globally read blog? Living in Britain, I certainly don't automatically think USA when I read something.
Though it was kinda obvious as the web page says AT&T, which we don't even have as a provider.
Well if you were looking at http://www.engadget.co.uk or co.nz or co.ph and the site by default assumed US readers it would be kinda silly but since it is .com which IS by default a US TLD (but not exclusive to the US) it's not such a stretch. Perhaps Engadget should see about getting a new .APL domain.
"I just went racing to my online Apple store ..."
Dude, relax, chill, count to 100. Life will go on even without this mobile phone.
@Chad
You mean the same www.engadget.co.uk that does in fact exist but simply redirects to www.engadget.com? Yeah, good thinking, Batman.
You went racing to your online Apple store? What, did you burn a lot of calories in the process and want to be remunerated?
We don't care what number you are. Honestly, so you hit F5, Command-R or Ctrl-R every 5 seconds on Engadget because you have no life.
In other words, In-Store Pickup. This allows you to place your order online and avoid lines just like, say, Best Buy, and pick it up at Customer Service. Just like Best Buy, you will have to wait in line if multiple people are picking up their orders and you also have to have it activated on the spot, but really, how is this so bad? Sure, you can't buy it online and have it shipped to you, but a trip to the Apple store is always fun. Of course if you don't have one locally this wouldn't be as hot of an idea. Gotta love Apple's forward thinking though... Always looking to improve things (NDA/App Store aside of course!)
hmmm it won't let me change my user name from engadget!
Edit: nevermind, nothing to see here :P I guess it only updates your username on future posts, not past. Sorry everyone!
HTC TOUCH HD.
I've bought a plethora of cellphones over the years, and for all of them, I've never done anything but sit in a showroom while some cornhole activates and sells me the phone I am getting. It sucks, but why is anyone expecting anything different?
I wish i could have in-store activated my gen1 iphone......I bought it when I was about 2000 miles from home on a business trip. My laptop has a weird roaming profile thing for work which meant i couldn't install itunes. It made for a very colorful afternoon involving a lot of cussing, some throwing stuff around the hotel room, slamming my fists onto the table, and after about 3 hours of jumping through hoops I finally got itunes working long enough to activate my phone. :-/ Now I've dropped it so many times I pretty much have to get a 3g.....and a rubber case for it :D
"Jefe, what is a plethora?"
They've had online ordering for business customers for at least 2 months. I get a discount through my employer, and that let me pre-order my wife's phone through the site (I already had one)...
Wow you mean people out there still want this piece of junk? Man..talk about lame.
People who want the best phone on the planet want it. Those who want mediocrity are buying the G1.
i love the way that image mocks itself by having the second iphone kinda look like a slideout keyboard(which will never happen).
Fed, it's OK if you can't afford a decent phone.
What I would like to know is "there when I need it" is the 32GB version of the phone. Hopefully soon!
pointless...
What the... Apple must have some kind of backup to be this confident about a product.
Can you take this to an AT&T store or Best Buy or does it have to be the almighty Apple Store?
holy shit does this mean i can buy an iphone?
"Worried about long lines for the iPhone 3G come this holiday season? Already breaking into cold sweats at the thought of standing knee-deep in snow for three hours so that your loved ones won't be filled with contempt for you? Take heart, consumers -- Apple has you covered."
Yes, because I come to Engadget to hear the latest in fear tactics to get me out there to buy more "stuff". Or are you getting kickbacks from Apple these days?
You know... This may be slightly off subject but I thought the software update 2.1 was supposed to improve the dropped call business... I've always been an Apple fan but I had to get rid of this phone. Maybe they just want people to pay for it BEFORE they see it live. I know I wouldn't purchase this version of the phone again. Maybe next round...
@ chad
*.com is far from USA only and engadget.ca (my country of choice), is some kind of widget manufacturer.
I wonder what engadget will do if the iPhone is ever made available in China? Overnight there could be more Chinese viewers than North American ones and this kind of parochial reporting will be even less relevant.
Anyway apologies if I seemed like a nut, but it is the 21st century and all and the world is a big varied place that the USA is only a small part of.
http://chinese.engadget.com/
It's genius I tell you.
http://cn.engadget.com/
smart ass
Who cares?
obviously not windows-logo guy
it'd be funny if "lowest ranked" was still technically possible.. at like 500 minuses... causing the faded text to just disappear
That would rule!!! 5 low ranks and you're message just disappears!!!! LOL
Internet Shopping - now less convenient.
i like our avatars. we should be friends.
What I'm really aghast by, is that even knowing that this is probably a totally useless piece of news for something that nobody asked for or would really want, Engadget still talks about it as if it's something really convenient and cool! :-P
Wake up, Engadget... it's just a buy-online-pick-up-in-store function... the same as with Bestbuy, Circuit City and what not! :-P Don't make it any more than it is.......
iPhone 3G will be in awesome demand. I know where I will be about to get mine; but I am not telling!!
ebay?
Umm...the site is asking for a social security number on (according to Firefox's standards) a not completely secure page. Should I be worried? I mean, it is Apple, but still....
I don't get this. If not getting them anything fills them up with contempt, then getting them a 3G iPhone with a "now I'm here, now I'm not" 3G signal is surely going to piss your dear ones off.
Why can't I just unlock, I mean order it online like a normal item?
Arrrgh! This will NOT work in Canada. US ONLY. We are left out again. The AppleStore does NOT work with Rogers (our carrier) with the iphone here.
FAIL, c'mon Apple get with it, offer online, in store etc. whatever the CONSUMER wants!!! seriously!!!
Remember Apple **STILL HAS THE REFERB iPHONE PAGE UP**. Why would it still be up other than to sell referbs online @ some point.
Now the question is will you have to run a credit check for the referb 3G when it becomes available. I say no, there is going to be so many
referbs that they are going to have to forgo all the crap and just sell you the damn thing!
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/9104000/wa/PSLID?sf=wHF2F2PHCCCX72KDY&nclm=EE08B570&wosid=Ue7hZVtzLQ8F30i6qJk1VaXdkwg
sweet hopefully ill be able to get a 16GB, i wonder if they are going to release a 32GB model
Nice, I think it's useful for me. Found some free iPhone games, share it here.
Haha, this just seems really pointless. Why? It's like, why not just go into the store and buy the thing straight away.
Someone at Apple didn't think this all the way through lol.
the online "tool" quotes me a voice rate plan $5 higher than my current iPhone 2.5G rate plan. anyone else seen this?
Wait... can't you just go there (in the apple store) and pick an iphone, and then go to your home and register...?