Yes. I got one. Spent total of six and a half hours. Worth it? Yes. Weather was nice, a little hot but not too much. Apple staff were very nice. Especially Alex -- She worked the line. Gave out (free) water, candy, went to get sunblock and more candy, even picked up a pizza for someone, then popsicles, and more water. They try very hard to make the waiting bearable. Why did I do it? I live very close to the Boston downtown Apple store. Drove by the night before, no more than 20 people where in line. Figure I will walk over at 7:30 to see the situation. There were about 400 people there. Decided to wait for one hour to see what happens. They said they have 40-50 reps in the store doing iPhone setup. It was true. The entire store was setup for the launch. After getting into the store, you line up around the central circular staircase, and they have individual reps meeting the head of the line, taking you up stairs to start the purchasing experience. The rep that I had, Ryan, was super patience when we hit some sort of AT&T error and had to call two different AT&T rep over the phone to get one that "helped". They have subtle touches like keep giving me a store phone to play with during the process, to complete the experience.

I stayed because during the first hour, the line moved so quickly, more than 100 people I think were in. Looking good? Until the ITMS crashed, halting the activation processing. Then they said AT&T was having problem as well. So the next two hours were mostly waiting and chatting with the neighbors. By noon time things were moving again and I was out by 2:30 with about 20 minutes spent with the AT&T problem. ITMS was still slow, so I did not get the phone itself activated until I got back into the office. The account was activated and number transfered (from Verizon) very quickly. In fact there was an hour or two I was without a working phone because the Verizon account was closed and the new iPhone was not working yet.

This is my first iPhone. Switching from Palm OS is a big switch. I am still learning it. But it is worth it, so far. More functional review next post.