Geek Fest!

So it's only the first week and I'm already skipping blogging days. :( 

But if you're one of the over 1 million estimated happy new owners of the iphone4 (like me), I do believe you'll forgive me. Frankly, most of yesterday was spent "dealing with" iPhone in many steps.

1. Purchase iPhone4: As I was unable to pre-order the phone on the first day due to characteristically BAD planning on the part of AT&T wireless (and YES I'm blaming them), pre-order for pickup on day 1 was out of the question. Sadly, so was pre-order for home delivery, as they will only ship to your billing address. Naturally, my billing address is still up in the woods o' Maine (thanks M&D for supporting my technology habit, I promise to pay you back for the service), which pretty much negated the whole point. So, after some inter-office "strategery", careful blog reading, and a couple of phone calls I decided to try my luck at... wait for it......... The Shack! That's right ladies and gents your local RadioShack will be selling Iphone4. To make a long story short I am the proud owner of 1 of only 5 iPhone4's delivered to my local Shack, and the only one that was NOT purchased on pre-order. Seriously, I expect to be struck by lightening as I'm sure I have now used up a lifetime of luck. 
2. Attempt to authorize iPhone4 on home PC. --> FAIL! turns out I have to update iTunes
3. Spend approximately 1 hour "off the grid" downloading and installing iTunes 9.2, as my old 3G had already been de-activated by signing the paperwork at said Shack. 
4. Restore old settings to the new phone: Actually went quite smoothly. 
5. Add music: slow but mostly a function of the computer, not the phone. another hour essentially "off the grid" while synching
6. Time to PLAY!!! I first tried the camera, one of the enhanced features I was most excited about. Worked great until I tried to use the flash. When using the Manual flash "on" pictures starting becoming terrible and totally washed out. Perplexed, I decided to look at some other things for awhile. Eventually my little brain managed to figure out that "doh!" the flash wasn't working properly due to the protective coating I left on the back. The LED was reflecting into the plastic causing a huge amount of glare. Needless to say, camera functionality looks beautiful now. Excited to get the iMovie app and really start playing around.
7. FaceTime: Luckily, another early adopter decided to stop by for a beer on the deck, and after finagling with the wifi password we were able to trial the FaceTime feature. Yes world, in words of Beyonce and Gaga, "you can watch me on my video phone"!!! Picture quality was a little grainy, but this could be due to the poor lighting on the back deck. I'm excited to see how users end up utilizing this tool in the future. I expect that until wifi is not a requirement the full effects wont begin to materialize. Again, I blame this on AT&T and the service issues. 

Alrighty gang, i'll pick this up with more overall impressions soon!