The first time I waited in line for an iPhone, it was sort of fun. Kind of. This my fourth go-round–fifth if you count the iPad–and it’s turned into mundane work. So I’ve been tweeting occasional updates but haven’t felt the urge to record the whole experience for posterity here. (In case you were wondering: It’s cold out here, and I’m typing this standing up.)
The good news is that I’m maybe thirty people from the front of the iLine. And quite an iLine it is–by 6am it wrapped around the Stonestown Galleria here in San Francisco…I assume it’s reached at least Marie Callender’s by now, if not Pet Food Express.
I’ll file further reports if events warrant. But I hope you won’t hear from me again until I’m basking in the warmth of my living room, iPhone 4 in hand.
It must be Apple Product Release Week–the first reviews of the iPhone 4 are out, shortly before the first consumers get their mitts on the thing. As usual, these reviews are from a handful of writers for big-name traditional media outlets and blogs–the ones that Apple provided with pre-release access to the product. And as usual, the iPhone 4 has already been discussed so widely, in such detail–sometimes by people who got a bit of hands on time with one at Apple’s launch event–that the likelihood of any astonishing revelations in these reviews was always low.
Compared to most cell-phone software upgrades, Apple’s updates to its iOS (née iPhone OS) are low on suspense and uncertainty. You don’t need to sit around wondering if your device will run iOS 4, and when your carrier might make it available–if you’ve got any iPhone or iPod Touch except the first-generation models, you can do the upgrade yourself. 
