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Lovin' Apple!

Uh-oh. Apple's rollout of its highly-anticipated 3G iPhone is hitting some snags this morning. Looks like the "unknown error" message came out of its slumber in the seventh circle of hell and decided to wreak havoc on iPhone and iPod Touch owners. Here's the wording that they see when trying to sync the device in iTunes:

"We could not complete your iTunes store request. An unknown error occurred (-9838)."

I hate those number codes in error messages, because I know they mean something but have no idea what it is. Apple shares are down 2% to $172.66 this morning.


The general consensus is that Apple's activation servers have crashed -- a likely scenario (I think it happened last year?) and one that Apple should have been better prepared for. At News.com, Matt Asay bemoans the fact that he now has "a brick with no ability to call, no contacts, nothing."

IPod Touch owners are fuming trying to update their devices to the newest software. PCWorld details the problem.

The server issue is adding to frustration in lines at Apple and AT&T stores today. Darren Herman has pictures from a store in Soho, N.Y.

Gizmodo calls it the "iPocalypse," and says that AT&T is asking people to sync their new phones later at home. Shares of AT&T are down less than 1% today to $32.61. Reports of activation problems are coming in from Houston, New Jersey, Boston, Atlanta and even Canada.

Bloggers are understandably irate. "I find it astonishing that you have created an upgrade procedure that can fail in a way that leaves the phone useless," one writes to Apple on his blog. "You had 6+ months to prepare for this, so error messages like this are just inexcusable."

I'll update this post as I find out more details. Meanwhile, tell us your experiences with the iPhone and iPod Touch today. What are the lines like in stores? Are error messages driving you crazy?

Update: Several hours later, the activations seem to be up and running. Will everyone forget about this debacle by tomorrow, or has the drama cost Apple in the long term? Apple shares closed at $172.58, down about 2% from yesterday's close. By the way, the stumbles today didn't do anything for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, whose shares declined more than 6% to $109.79.
 
I've had a 30 gig video for about a year now, and I love it.

My only complaint is that sometimes when I turn it on, the screen is discolored. I keep it in my purse and it's in a leather case, so I don't really know what's causing it, but it goes away after a while. It's perfect for trips, I run it through my car stereo and turn the volume to max.
 
I'm kind of interested in how the Psystar case is going to turn out. I kind of like the idea of an actually usable BSD-based OS, but I don't want to pay a $500 premium for that.
 
You camped out in front of your favorite Apple store the night before the iPhone 3G went on sale. You waited in the store as your patience was tested because of a global problem with iTunes that prevented phones from being fully activated. In the end, your endurance was rewarded with a shiny new iPhone. After your new toy joy subsided, perhaps you noticed a glitch or hiccup with your iPhone, well, apparently Apple is already aware of bugs in the iPhones v2.0 firmware and may be currently testing v2.0.1. In fact, version 2.0.1 may have been in development before the current 3G even went on sale.

Web traffic analyzed from server logs by The Boy Genius Report, shows references to iPhones running firmware titled v2.0.1 from the San Francisco and Atlanta areas. Apple HQ is near San Francisco and AT&T is located in Atlanta.

Today's bugs could be replaced by tomorrow's new features.
 
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