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Well, the big news outlets haven’t picked up on it yet but new (and existing) phone activations are completely and totally hosed up.  Every store in every country and every user at home is getting the same experience: no go on activation.  Apple maybe should have consulted with the guys who put on the Victoria’s Secret Superbowl half time runway show about how to handle massive spikes in traffic.  Too late…gonna be a lot of unhappy people.

MobileMe is up but very, very slow.

Last night I tried to get the update for my Apple TV.  It failed to complete the download, despite getting to about 95%.  I guess a lot of people really wanted to try out the new Remote app.

The iPhone 3G has launched!!!  There are lines of people everywhere waiting to buy their new iPhone.  Unfortunately, this time around things are going more slowly.  Activation of the phone must occur in the store before leaving so it is taking 10 minutes on the low end and 30 minutes on the high end to get a new phone.

That’s bad news in Chicago where humidity is over 60% now and temperatures are expected to top 93 degrees yielding a heat index of almost 105 degrees by this afternoon.

Meanwhile, I downloaded and installed the new iPhone 2.0 OS on my existing iPhone this morning and immediately proceeded to lost all phone capabilities due to the iTunes Store being swamped with activations.  I have now been out of service for almost 2 hours.  And we’re still a little over an hour away from launch in California!

More as the day goes on.

• JVC NX-PN7 Dual iPod Docking Station wakes you up with two charged-up iPods or iPhones
  Santa could bring this for me for Christmas in July.

The problem with trying to child-proof the world, is that it makes people neglect the far more important task of world-proofing the child.

• General Motors Gives Green Light to Volt
  GM finally got around to sending their electric car - Volt - to the production line. The first models are due in showrooms in 2010.

I have been resisting the urge to spend any time using Twitter.  However, I have recently conceived of a few areas of my life where it might be interesting to do some real-time micro-posting.  So I’ll be testing out the service over the next couple of weeks.  In particular, I am aiming to do some real-time posting from the WWDC next week.  I’ll be arriving in San Fran on Sunday, leaving on Friday.  With all of the recent performance and scalability issues Twitter has been having lately, it will be telling whether or not they can handle what I expect to be significant load during the Jobs keynote on the 9th.  Anyway, more details inbound…

AT&T Purportedly Nixes Retail Employee Vacations Between June 15 and July 12: ”

Leaked memo states they wish to ensure sufficient staffing for ‘an exciting Summer Promotional Launch.’ They did the same thing last year for the original iPhone debut.

So, question: Will there be tens of thousands of people across the country lined up all day waiting to buy the new iPhones, just like last year? I say yes.

”

(Via Daring Fireball.)

Vodafone to Offer Apple’s iPhone in Ten Markets: ”

On the newswire today:

Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.

Best press release I’ve seen in years. 56 words, short and to the point. No mention of exclusivity, so there’s speculation that other carriers will have the iPhone in these markets, too.

”

(Via Daring Fireball.)

I posted an article on CharlesSieg.com about my wife’s new Mac Pro.

Currently enjoying the 2005 J. Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon.

Loving the new WordPress blogging platform.