Newton Poetry

Arrived just before 8 a.m. this morning. Walked into the mall (it opens at 5 a.m. for walkers, I found out) to the sound of clapping and cheering. The festivities had begun.

The Apple employees were outside the store, pumping up the crowd, and handing out coffee and water to anxious waiters. I followed the line past Rogers & Hollands and down to JC Penny, where the familiar sculpture stood, and took my place at the end of the line next to a guy in a Joker/”Dark Knight” shirt.

“I hope they don’t run out,” he said. “I drove past the AT&T store and they had, like, five people in line.”

One lady walking the mall, her iPod mini in hand, asked us why we were all waiting in line.

“You know they’re going to have some tomorrow, right?” she said. One guy told her to go away; she was ruining our fun.

Later a security guard on a Segway rolled past, and an Apple staffer came out and asked if anyone had any questions. They have coffee and water stations set up at strategic points along the waiting line – a nice touch, I thought.

Applause echoed through Briarwood as the first customer in line got in the store. A second round of clapping followed after the transaction took place. All together, it took about 10 or 15 minutes, which is what we expected.

“I’m leaving for vacation next week,” the lady behind me said. “I have to get one before I take off. I hope they don’t run out.”

This fit the general feel of the crowd. One guy didn’t expect this kind of line, but I told him it could be worse: last year, when this Briarwood store opened, the line snaked across the entire mall. All that for just a t-shirt.

Incredibly, Briarwood charges for a wifi connection. There were several WEP connections in the area, and the one free wifi connection wasn’t loading. And I’m not about to pay for wifi – not at some mall. Finally some linksys connection opened up. Hence this post.

One thing I forgot to do was transfer money into my account to actually make this purchase. What a fool I was. Luckily I’m on the grid now, so a quick trip to online banking and I’ll be good to go.

What kind of iPhone will I be getting. Despite all the controversy, I like the white one. I matches my iBook and my iPod 30 GB video, and there’s something about the white look that says “Apple.”

This is report number one from the front lines. Hopefully I’ll post again as I get closer (maybe even in the Apple store, on some super-powered Mac Pro).

Over and out from Ann Arbor.

[UPDATE: read my total coverage here.]

Today’s the big day, and this morning I’m heading to Ann Arbor to scope out the scene, hopefully do some live blogging, and grab an iPhone 3G while I’m there.

You can help but wonder what other phone companies think when they see lines like the ones that form for Apple. I imagine some nervous, nail-biting CEO stands up in his meeting and screams, “Why do I pay you people? Why isn’t our demand like that? What are those…those…hippies doing that we can’t do?” It’s easy to feel sorry for them. What else besides rock concerts (before Ticketmaster started taking their brick-and-mortar outlets away) and Black Friday inspires people to get up at the crack of dawn for a phone?

My preparations actually began last night, when I made a list of items needed in case of a long line:

• camera, with USB connector
• iBook and power adapter
• notepad, for documentation
• My current wireless cellphone bill (I’m not an AT&T customer)
• A full iPod
• A book to read
• Snacks and a drink

No Newton, however. One less thing to lug.

The tricky part was wondering whether there would even be a line this morning. Our Ann Arbor Apple Store at Briarwood Mall opened after the iPhone came out, so us Michiganders had to drive to Grand Rapids or Novi to see the spectacle.

The MacRumors forum had a few bees buzzing about being in line, but my search yielded no firm clues. It was a sure-fire risk, and I had to come prepared.

To get a firm date on the time the phone would be available, I called the Briarwood Apple Store, who lists the opening hour as 10 a.m. (probably when the mall itself opens). My call, however, yielded no concrete answers. The message lady said the store was opening at 8 a.m. So would the mall open early? Would just the Apple Store open early? Or would us schmoes have to wait until 10 a.m., at which point our bladders would explode from all the coffee.

Who’s in charge here?

Either way, I planned on leaving my place at about 6:30 or 7 a.m. and drive the 40 minutes to Ann Arbor and see what happens. What could I lose? A spot in line? The human body can only endure so much.

Other questions that plagued me: should I bring a chair? What would happen if some line-stander got sick? Would he or she give up his or her place in line? Would there be wifi available? How about power outlets in case my iBook gets a case of hypoglycemia? What about my own hypoglycemia?

Enough’s enough, I told myself. Watch me just walk up to the mall, open the door, and walk right into the Apple Store at 8 a.m., complete my transaction, and walk out – all within 20 minutes.

If I had done this last year, my mind would have known what to expect. Planning would have been easier. But I chose to wait.

But the wait is over. A quick breakfast, get cleaned up, and off I go. The weather looks decent. It’s going to be a great day.

Check back for updates as the morning goes on!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBu3N8_U4WE]

I have a feeling I’ll have this song in my head all day tomorrow.

It’ll be so worth it. I’m taking the iBook, just in case I can get a connection, and will post updates if there’s a super-big line. If you’ll be in line, let me know – we can iChat with News from the Front Lines.

If you were one of the few people browsing Fox’s fledgling business channel web site yesterday, you may have stumbled on their article, “Apple’s Newton Lives, on the Internet.” It came across the Newtontalk list, and I might have noticed it sooner had the author, Dunstan Prial, provided a link to ‘Newton Poetry’ when he mentioned this site (last paragraph of the article).

While any coverage of the MessagePad is welcome, I took issue with Prial’s johnny-come-lately wording. Here’s Prial making fun of Newton fans in full passive-aggressive mode:

There are Newton blogs, Newton Web sites (organized by something called the United Network of Newton Archives), Newton social networking sites, an annual Worldwide Newton Conference, and seemingly more chatrooms dedicated to the handheld devices than just about any other gadget ever made.

“Personally, I can’t live without Five Speed’s Dashboard, but it really depends on what you’re looking to do with your Newton,” one enthusiast wrote recently on a popular social networking site.

The post reflects the common mix of die-hard exuberance and cutting edge technological savvy typical among current Newton users, who speak their own language.

Prial goes on to note how “some” call Newton fans “fanatics.” Typical Fox News “research.”

The post is one in a series of (wait for it) “Worst Gadgets Ever” articles Foxbusiness.com is running.

Thankfully Prial doesn’t try his hand at any Photoshop work.

When Merlin Mann, GTD guru and author of the 43 Folders blog, invented the Hipster PDA, he probably knew the adaptability of a plain index card idea holder would be infinite.

Us Newton MessagePad users, however, might scoff at the idea. Index cards? Color coding? Binder clips? It all seems so…Office Max.

But maybe Mann is on to something. Why can’t we Newton fans adapt the idea of the Hipster PDA into something more, I don’t know, Apple?

That’s why I’m introducing the pNewton, a Hipster-style MessagePad that takes the best ideas of the Hipster PDA and makes them even better.

More… »

Portland Apple Store

Made it to Portland, Oregon for a weekend trip. Happy birthday, America!

Of course I had to stop by the Apple store at Pioneer Square. About to shop for iMacs, old-school iPhones (if I can find them), and enjoy the friendly atmosphere.

What would we do without eBay? Found two 256 MB RAM sticks on eBay for less than $20 (with shipping), and couldn’t pass up on the deal to boost the PowerMac G4’s RAM from 320 MB to…well, strangely, only 704 MB…

But before we get to the goofy math, let’s explore how we got this far.

More… »

It’s official. I took the day off work. I have a friend who might be joining me.

I’ll be there.

Come July 11, I’ll be one of the fools in line at the Ann Arbor Apple Store waiting for an iPhone.

The news I’ve been reading says things may be crazy. The scripts are ready. The lines are forming. And the hour is pretty well known.

Who’s with me?

by e.e. cummings

seela of truth

follow no path
all paths lead where

fruth is here

[Read the original. Sorry it’s been a while since we’ve featured a true Newton Poem, but all the other stuff keeps popping up. This time it’s a short one. Find out why this poem is misspelled.]

Many thanks and kudos to the Wikipedia editor who added Newton Poetry to the list of external links (above) regarding the online encyclopedia’s Newton MessagePad listing.

First we made MacSurfer a few times, and now this. For those of us who practically live on the internet, it’s a pretty big deal.