iWaited on iDay

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the dawn of a new technology revolution. Okay, so maybe that is a bit extreme, but it was Friday 6/29/2007, launch day for the Apple iPhone.

My plan was simple. Since I live near an Apple store and an AT&T store, I had the luxury of choice but actually choosing which place to stand in line was not easy. On one hand, the AT&T store is in a local shopping center and off the beaten path. On the other hand, I was sure that the Apple store would have more iPhone’s in stock than the AT&T store. There was also the factor of the per-person purchase limit. Again, I was sure that the Apple store would have a larger quota.

As I drove into work, I decided to swing by the Apple store for a look-see. It was about 7:30am and there were already about 25 people in line. Resuming my commute to work, I decided to see what the line looked like at the AT&T store; not even 7:45am and there were about 6 people in line. Uh-oh, this was not a good sign. If in-store quantities and per-person purchase were in short supply, there were already too many people between my Apple iPhone and me. By the time I got to the office, my mind was made up – time to take a personal day and get in line.

By the time I got to the Apple store, it was 9:30am and I was the 54th person in line. Whew! As long as there was a reasonable per-person purchase limit, I was certain to come away with at least one iPhone. As it happened, the limit was two iPhone’s per person, so I bought two 8GB models and sold one on eBay that weekend for two times the current retail price.

I will spare you the blow-by-blow details of the 8 hours I spent waiting in line. Suffice it to say that it was actually a cool experience (despite the hot Texas sun.) Throughout the day, Apple employees were handing out free bottled water and energy drinks and allowing people to use the Apple store restroom. The camaraderie and length of line grew as the day progressed and local merchants like Starbucks and Snuffers were handing out free stuff and taking to-go orders. Thankfully, I had a very large umbrella and a decent chair, so the day passed relatively painlessly and I eventually found myself back at home, iPhone’s in hand.

It was in line at the Apple store, that the idea of an iPhone focused blog came to me. Not just content focused on the Apple iPhone but content actually written on an Apple iPhone. Since going on sale, plenty of web sites have sprung up that are devoted to the Apple iPhone, but none of them are actually using an Apple iPhone to create the majority of their content (some of my favorite sites are link to via RSS on the right side of this page.)

Enter the iPhoneWriter.com blog, with regularly updated content about the Apple iPhone, originated from an Apple iPhone. Basically, iPhoneWriter.com is a mashup application providing content that is focused on the Apple iPhone. Through the glory of technology, the right column of this site will link to current items on popular Apple iPhone focused web sites, while the iPhoneWriter.com blog will feature entries made on the go using my Apple iPhone.