1. RConcheiro's Avatar
    I'm not sure if this has been posted already, but I laughed when I saw this...

    Apple servers were overwhelmed Friday by requests to activate the new iPhone 3G or update older models with the latest 2.0 firmware.

    Apple's servers on Friday reached their breaking point as people in the United States and 21 other countries rushed to stores to buy and activate their new iPhones or tried to update older models with the latest firmware.

    People waiting in line at stores reported very slow progress in getting their hands on Apple's media player-smartphone hybrid. Others trying to update older models with the latest 2.0 firmware, the same operating system powering the new gadgets, fared even worse, since incomplete downloads of the software left their iPhones unusable.

    Apple was not immediately available for comment Friday, but it appeared that the company's servers were overwhelmed. People trying to upgrade their iPhones through Apple's iTunes online store reported receiving a message that read: "We could not complete your iTunes Store request. The iTunes Store is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

    InformationWeek blogger Eric Zeman reported making little progress in buying a 3G iPhone after waiting in line in the New York area for more than 3 1/2 hours. "The line I am in hasn't moved in over an hour, and we were told that the activation servers are down," Zeman said in blogging from the scene. "Apple and AT&T (NYSE: T), you should have seen this coming."

    People trying to upgrade older iPhones also reported being told that Apple servers were unable to handle the load. "I just got off the phone (it's now 9:19 a.m.) with an Apple tech support rep because my last update to 2.0 would not complete," a post on the Apple support forum said. "The tech said that Apple's server has shut down because of the huge surge of people who are updating their phones. They are now working on it, he said."

    The current snafu left some people scratching their heads, given that Apple and AT&T, the exclusive wireless carrier of the iPhone in the United States, have had months to prepare for what will likely be Apple's biggest product launch this year.

    "What a bunch of nuggets !!!!!" one person from the United Kingdom said on the support forum. "Global rollouts just do not work !!!!"

    "All that brainpower at Apple and not a bit of common sense," another person said.

    Some customers were less diplomatic in expressing their frustration. "Unbelievable incompetence! My phone is a brick because they were too dumb to allocate bandwidth???"

    Nathan C., who apparently is an Apple support person on the forum, played down the problems. "The server is not shutdown," he said. "It is a bit busy, and it should eventually complete the process. Hope this helps."

    The comment apparently didn't help, and was met with skepticism. "I don't think it's going to complete the process just from waiting, when you get a connection error and it stops looking for a connection," a post immediately following Nathan C.'s said.

    Apple's new iPhone adds a number of enhancements to the product line. Among the most important is the ability to connect to carriers' faster 3G, or third generation, data networks. In addition, the gadget has a new operating system that can run third-party applications.

    Apple on Thursday opened its App Store, making more than 500 applications available for the iPhone. Software includes games, educational programs, mobile commerce, and business productivity tools. About a quarter of the software is free, and a third are games.

    Sources: Apple Servers Fail To Handle iPhone Frenzy -- iPhone 3G -- InformationWeek

    By: Antone Gonsalves
    At: InformationWeek
    07-11-08 03:15 PM
  2. miss_michelle's Avatar
    "What a bunch of nuggets !!!!!"
    Now THAT'S hilarious!!! Who talks like that????
    07-11-08 03:17 PM
  3. RConcheiro's Avatar
    Now THAT'S hilarious!!! Who talks like that????
    haha yea it was funny. The other part I laughed at was this part...

    "Unbelievable incompetence! My phone is a brick because they were too dumb to allocate bandwidth???"
    07-11-08 03:22 PM
  4. Duvi's Avatar
    Yeah, it was pretty crazy, but I got mine activated
    07-11-08 03:32 PM
  5. bmcclure937's Avatar
    How is it going Jayden? I bet is is a slick device!!

    I am looking forward to hearing back... and congrats!
    07-11-08 03:33 PM
  6. arcin220's Avatar
    This is hilariouus! I am really laughing at this, after all...what in the history of the world would lead a company to believe they could pull that off. Haven't enough of the companies in the world tried to do that and ended up with the exact same thing? When will they ever learn?
    07-11-08 03:45 PM
  7. RConcheiro's Avatar
    This is hilariouus! I am really laughing at this, after all...what in the history of the world would lead a company to believe they could pull that off. Haven't enough of the companies in the world tried to do that and ended up with the exact same thing? When will they ever learn?
    I actually posted a comment on that website, laughing lol
    07-11-08 05:20 PM
  8. benzworm's Avatar
    i swear this is the same thing that happened last time
    07-11-08 05:40 PM
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