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1 million new iPhone 3GS sold in 3 days

June 22nd, 2009, 6:54 am by

iPhone 3GS goes on sale in Orange CountySo, the lines weren’t as long as the first two Apple iPhones. But apparently a lot of fans did as iGirl did and ordered them online because Apple just reported that it sold “over 1 million iPhone’s sold” in the first three days. In addition, 6 million people downloaded the latest iPhone 3.0 software during the five days it’s been available.

Obviously a popular device, the iPhone even inspired company CEO Steve Jobs, who’s been on sick leave since December, to make an appearance in today’s press release:

“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.”

The phones sold out at most of the Orange County Apple stores on Friday, but other stores like Best Buy, Wal-Mart and AT&T stores also offered the phones. Most popular, based on first to sell out, were the 16 GB white, also one of the cheapest at $199 for new customers.

More around the web:

Recent iPhone 3GS stories:

Posted in: Apple mania • iPhone • • • • | 2 Comments »

O.C. iFans rewarded with early Apple store opening for iPhone 3GS (UPDATED)

June 19th, 2009, 7:23 am by

iPhone 3GS goes on sale in Orange CountyUPDATE: Slideshow posted so you too can see what it was like to be in line for an iPhone 3GS way before the rest of the county was awake. Also more updates posted on lines at other Orange County Apple stores.

* See latest line updates, as of 4:20 p.m., below…

* Best Buy stores, Wal-Marts and AT&T stores are also selling the new iPhone 3GS today.

* Just got a call from AT&T at 10:07 a.m. that AT&T stores have relatively short lines compared to Apple stores. Of course, you can order an iPhone online and get it mailed to you within 7 to 14 days. But that’s no fun!

LINE UPDATES:

iphone3gs-mark6

*As of 4:37 p.m., the Apple store at the Irvine Spectrum has a 10-15 minute line wait. All colors and sizes of 3GS phones are still available.

*As of 4:30  p.m., the Apple store at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa is sold out of iPhone 3GS,  unless you reserved one ahead of time.

* As of 4:25 p.m., the Apple store in Mission Viejo has a very short line and there are limited quantities of all the phones.

*As of 4:22 p.m., the Apple store at Fashion Island in Newport Beach is sold out.

*As of 4:20 p.m., the Apple store in Brea still has a line. The store only has 32 GB iPhone 3GS left in both white and black.

* As of 11:21 a.m., the Mission Viejo Apple store says the line is about 10-15 people and the store is almost sold out of every iPhone 3GS in stock.

* As of 11:14 a.m., the Irvine Spectrum Apple store reports a 2-hour wait in line. All phones are still in stock.

* As of 11:11 a.m., the Fashion Island Apple store says the line is about 2-hours long. The 16-GB white iPhone 3GS is sold out.

* As of 11:08 a.m., the Brea Apple store still has a line and is expected to be there most of the day.

* As of 9:49 a.m., the Apple store at South Coast Plaza HAS NO LINE. There are still plenty in stock, according to the store.

* As of 9:25 a.m., the Apple store at The Shops in Mission Viejo has about a 1-hour long line for folks who didn’t reserve a phone ahead of time. They’ve run out 16 GB white iPhone 3GS and is in short supply of other models. However, the online reservation system opens back up tomorrow so the store expects to recieve more units tomorrow. 

* As of 9:22 a.m., the Apple Store at Brea Mall has a “pretty long line.”

* As of 9:20 a.m., the Apple Store at Fashion Island has a 1.5-hour wait in line. The store is also sold out of the 16-GB iPhone 3GS in white. 

* As of 9:17 a.m. the Apple Store at the Irvine Spectrum says the line is 3-hours long, but it hopes to have phones available all day.

* At Orange County AT&T stores, which also opened at 7 a.m., AT&T reports there were lines at every store. For the greater Los Angeles area, there were, on average, 40-60 people in line as the stores opened, according to an AT&T spokesman. 

Lines were all over Orange County and by 7 a.m. phones were moving out of the Apple stores. Over at South Coast Plaza, doors opened 45 minutes early for the nearly 100 200 people in line.

Follow me on Twitter @gadgetressPeople continue to Twitter about waiting in line, including the first in line at South Coast Plaza (pictured on right), who our South Coast Plaza reporter Candice Shih interviewed below. Elsewhere in the county, Twitter user neilgreene said he was picking up an iPhone at the Mission Viejo store by 7 a.m. While carolynhimes said she was the 25th in line at the Apple store in Fashion Island just after 7 a.m.

Candice Shih, who blogs for the Register’s South Coast Plaza blog , arrived at the Apple Store at the Costa Mesa mall by 6:15 a.m., just in time to catch the first people in line before they headed inside the store. Here’s her report (or see her special SCP take “Apple store sees steady stream of iFans for launch of new iPhone“), which includes a couple of photos from Register photographer Mark Rightmire (the Gadgetress appreciates the hard and early-morning work!):

All Apple stores in Orange County were supposed to open at 7 a.m. to sell the new iPhone 3GS. But the store in South Coast Plaza opened at 6:15 a.m. I don’t know why they opened the store early but good thing I got there at 6:15 — just in time to talk to the first guy in line.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Apple mania • iPhone • • • • • • • • | 45 Comments »

iPhone 3GS lines start; Here’s where you can get one in O.C.

June 18th, 2009, 5:27 pm by

Boxes of iPhone 3GS on their way to stores for June 19 launch.Another summer, another iPhone. The new iPhone 3GS goes on sale as early as 7 a.m. Friday (June 19) and if you’re smart, you would have pre-ordered the phone online or from a store. But if you didn’t, you can still get your hands on one if you’re willing to get to a store early and wait in line.

According to Irvine Spectrum mall officials, customers are already in line in front of the Apple store as the long night begins. (It’s even been Tweeted, with pics of course. See who’s Twittering about lines at the Irvine store  HERE.)

Sonya “iGirl” Smith, the OC Register’s resident iPhone expert, won’t be in line tonight, as she has been for the past two years. She ordered her 3GS the day it was announced and now eagerly awaits its arrival via snail mail. She has already shared her initial thoughts with readers, which I appreciate since I’m not an iPhone user.

Candice Shih, who pens the South Coast Plaza blog (yes, we have a reporter covering just South Coast Plaza!), will be checking in on lines at 7 a.m. Friday, and reporting her findings right here. I’ll also be posting updates throughout the day on sell-outs, lines, etc.

For those who plan to get a phone Friday, please know that people who pre-ordered will have priority at AT&T stores and most everywhere else. It does look like some Apple stores in Orange County will let people in line buy a phone as early as 7 a.m. See details below.

Apple Stores

Orange County’s Apple stores open at 7 a.m. (though some stores say 8 a.m. on their phone message). Expect two lines, one for pre-orders, one for everyone else. See more details about individual stores below:

  • Brea Mall, 1065 Brea Mall, Space #1024A, Brea, CA 92821, 714-255-5610. Store opens at 7 a.m.
  • Fashion Island, 367 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660, 949-729-4433, Store opens at 7 a.m. Mall officials plan to let people line up starting at 7 a.m. but you might try getting their earlier.
  • Irvine Spectrum, 85 Fortune Dr. #311, Irvine, CA 92618, 949-255-1500. Store opens at 7 a.m. Your best bet if you want to line up all night. People are in line right now (Thursday afternoon), according to the mall.
  • South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bear St., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, 714-424-6331. Store opens at 7 a.m. Mall officials plan to let people line up starting at 4 a.m.
  • The Shops at Mission Viejo, 936C The Shops at Mission Viejo, Mission Viejo, CA 92691, 949-365-0727. Store opens at 7 a.m.

Boxes of iPhone 3GS on their way to stores for June 19 launch.

AT&T Stores

For those heading to AT&T stores (you can search for O.C. locations HERE), the stores open at 7 a.m. but only to allow customers who pre-ordered and notified by e-mail to leave with a phone.

Doors open for everyone else at 8 a.m. If you pre-ordered and miss the 7 a.m. opening, AT&T will let you go to the front of the line until 9 a.m. However, if you pre-ordered a phone and got confirmation that the phone is available, then an iPhone 3GS with your name on it will be waiting at the store no matter what time. You just may not be able to cut in line though if you arrive after 9 a.m. Don’t forget: Bring your receipt!

If you pre-ordered online at AT&T, your phone should arrive beginning Friday. Others could come as late as 14 days from now.

Elsewhere Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Apple mania • Cell phones • iPhone • • • • • • • • • • | 2 Comments »

Is today new iPhone 3.0 day? Apple fans wait for news (UPDATE: It IS!)

June 8th, 2009, 9:22 am by

Apple's new iPhone 3GSUPDATES: (Most recent at top)

* Here’s the official Apple iPhone 3GS press release.
*New iPhone 3GS available on June 19.
*Old iPhone 3G: $99!! That’s the 8 GB version.
*Prices announced for new iPhone 3GS: $199 for 16 GB, $299 for 32 GB
  Here are the prices, according to AT&T:

  iPhone 3G S iPhone 3G
New and Qualifying Customers** $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB) $99 (8GB) and $149 (16GB*)
Early Upgrade Price $399 (16GB) and $499 (32GB) $299 (8GB) and $349 (16GB*)
No-Commitment $599 (16GB) and $699 (32GB) $499 (8GB) and $549 (16GB*)

 
* iPhone 3GS — with S for Speed — announced. Everything is faster — faster messaging, loading programs, viewing documents, loading NY Times. Supports 7.2 Mbps HSDPA technology. Includes improved battery life, new camera, hardware encryption, built-in digital compass (so map will orient in direction phone is facing), voice-activated calling, use voice commands on iTunes, edit videos on phone… 

* Can it be? Nearly an hour into iPhone news and Apple is still just showing off new apps?  
* Remember iGirl? She’s tweeting about this too.  And here’s her post about buying the new iPhone.
* Embed Google Maps into any app, to allow features like turn-by-turn directions.  
*Adds “Find My iPhone,” to help owners track down missing iPhones. 
* New iPhone 3.0 (the software) adds multimedia messaging. But AT&T won’t be able to support it until the end of summer. A lot of groans from the live blogging audience. 
* Starts talking about the iPhone at 10:50 a.m.
* Apple Releases Safari 4.
* Apple unveils Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
* Macbooks updated with 40% longer battery life, cheaper price starting at $1,199. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Apple mania • • • • | 15 Comments »

Steve Jobs leaving Apple for 6 months

January 14th, 2009, 2:39 pm by

Since three people in the last minute have asked me whether I heard about Steve Jobs, I decided to post his letter (Yes, I had heard). Apple’s CEO and founder, who last week said he wasn’t attending MacWorld because of health problems, now says the situation is worse than he thought. The pancreatic cancer survivor said he will be taking a leave of absence until the end of June. 

Here is the letter, as I received it from Apple’s PR Team:  

    Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees:

     Team, 

    I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

    In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

    I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

    I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

     Steve

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A more Apple friendly CES?

January 12th, 2009, 7:19 pm by

The show ended Sunday. Here is the rest of what I saw at CES… To see more, visit Gadgetress@CES 2009

Apple may have pulled out of Macworld after last week but that annual tradeshow hasn’t officially ended. Rumors are already flying that the similarly timed Consumer Electronics Show will become the new home for Apple, but CES organizers won’t say.

“Yes, we have had discussions regarding Apple but that’s all I can tell you,” Jason Oxman, a senior vice president with the Consumer Electronics Association told me just a week before this year’s CES.  ”We already have a number of companies that exhibit at the show that make Apple products.”  

O.K., fine. For the thousands of companies, journalists and retailers who hate trekking to San Francisco (for MacWorld) only to turn around to get to Las Vegas in time for CES, a combined show would make many lives easier. Then again, Mac products were not absent from the CES floor. Here are a few I stumbled on:

A golden MacBook silicon keyboard cover to protect keys from spills, crumbs and dust.  Click images for larger view. The company that makes this one is from Oceanside, but I should mention that at least two Orange County companies also make silicon keyboard covers. Check out the dermaSHOT cover from Irvine’s Incipio and the Carapace cover from Irvine’s Sonnet Technologies.

 

Candy-coated iPhone cases - Speck Products, which makes all sorts of covers for Apple laptops, just introduced its line of CandyShell cases, so named because they have a rubberized interior but a thin, hard shell on the exterior. Four colors are available: Lemon Drop Liquorice (high-gloss black shell with bright yellow interior), Key Lime Jawbreaker (high-gloss dark grey shell with bright lime interior), Cranberry White Truffle (high-gloss white shell with cranberry red interior) and Watermelon Gumball (high-gloss light grey shell with pink salmon interior). The $34.95 cases are available at Apple Stores, www.apple.com and www.speckproducts.com.

 

Nano-matching USB car adapters. These 2-port USB adapters from Casco Products aren’t just for iPods. They work with any USB device. This obviously is to appeal to the nano lover who wants matching accessories. Seven colors available. The guy manning Casco’s booth told me that the USB car charger sells for $9.99 and a matching cable with an iPod nano tip is $5.99. But I think he was telling me about the wholesale price. On Casco’s web site, the USB car chargers are $19.99 and aren’t available in the nano chromatic colors.

For the list of Gadgetress reports from CES, visit the headline page at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/ces2009.

 

Posted in: Apple mania • iPhone • iPods • • • • • • | Comments Off

Macworld: Steve Jobs explains absence

January 5th, 2009, 7:59 am by

Every little bit of news from Apple these days leads to interpretation and wide debate over the health of Steve Jobs, Apple’s founder and CEO. When the computer company announced last month that it would pull out of the Macworld Expo after 2009 and Jobs would not be the keynote, some sites even declared Jobs on his deathbed.

Well, healthy or not, Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, released a statement this morning, just hours a day before the 2009 Macworld opens in San Francisco. No, he’s not on his deathbed. Losing weight, yes. That’s been a mystery to him and his doctors. Fixing that is his number one priority. So this year, he’s choosing to be with family instead of the show. If necessary, he’ll step down from his job. Here’s his letter: 

    Dear Apple Community, 

    For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

     Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Apple mania • news • • • • | Comments Off

Macworld, Schmack-world. Apple calling it quits

December 16th, 2008, 2:01 pm by

Just in from Apple: The computer company says this will be the last year it exhibits at Macworld Expo.

What’s Macworld without… Macs?

The explanation: It doesn’t need the show anymore. Says the press release:

Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Does this mean the end of Macworld? If so, the last one starts January 5 in the usual spot, the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, is the 9 a.m. keynote speaker.

I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Apple says it’s been scaling back already and no longer does Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo or the Apple Expo in Paris. More recently, as reported by AppleInsider, others are pulling out of the show too, including Adobe, Belkin and Seagate.

Update: People are broken up about this (thanks iGirl).

Recent Gadgetress posts:

Posted in: Apple mania • • | 1 Comment »

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