Los Angeles (CA) – Apple’s much anticipated 3G iPhone launch turned into a massive disaster after the company’s iTunes authentication server went down from the high volume of traffic.  People who had waited hours, even days, in line were told to go home to activate their phones after in-store activations began taking 30 to 45 minutes.  In many cases, Apple employees just gave up.

Since you can’t really use the iPhone until you activate it, customers are left with a very expensive brick.  Sure they can make emergency calls, but that’s about it.  You would think Apple would have learned some lessons from the previous iPhone launch, but right now thousands, maybe millions of people are having problems getting their phones to work.

Apple officials are reporting “overwhelming demand” on their servers which are being hit with a double whammy today.  New iPhone purchasers must activate their phone and AT&T service by connecting to iTunes.  In addition, older iPhone users are trying to upgrade their firmware to the 2.0 version in order to all the new goodies – mainly the Apple Apps store.    The combination of traffic is taking down the servers in a self-inflicted denial of service attack.  To add insult to injury, many phones are now unusable or “bricked”.

A quick call to the local store showed the magnitude of the problem.  The employee told us to not even bother coming in because there were no more phones and that there were “severe” problems with the servers.

Videographer Max Wilson told us that he finally upgraded his older iPhone to the new firmware – after approximately 20 tries and two hours.  Unlike other firmware upgrades, the older iPhone requires both a software install AND a reauthentication to iTunes.  Some people report their phones are going into a continuous restore/reboot mode and that the phone keeps trying to hit the Apple servers.  This is a similar problem to unreachable web sites where people keep hitting F5 to refresh the broken page – basically very bad news.

Apple stock is taking a slight hit on the news and is currently down $2.15 as of 12:50 PM Pacific time.

bad timing.

Jul 11, 2008 15:07     

should have not release the 2.0 software to the rest of the people until a later date... now you are getting ibrick...just like the last ibrick you buy from a year ago.
wow report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +7

I don't believe it

Jul 11, 2008 15:26     

Not Apple. Everything is supposed to run smooth and perfect at the good ol Apple Nation. Dictator Jobs is supposed to have everything under control. All the i’s have been dotted and all the t’s crossed. I thought Apple was impervious to any problem/issues. Not Apple. This must surely be a false story manufactured by all the Apple haters out there in an attempt to ruin the new aayyphones launch. /end sarcasm

09 F9 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +21

Site

Jul 11, 2008 15:32     

Maybe we can ask to have the site name changed from TGDaily to IPHONEDaily. This is ridiculous. There's got to be more interesting tech news than a cell phone firmware update.
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Superbrain

Jul 11, 2008 15:52     

TFF! We all knew this was going to happen... why didn't Apple take this into consideration. It would have made sense to release the firmware update a week or two ago so that they could work out any bugs with the current customer base... and then move onto the new customer base today. But no, Apple wants to sell as many 3G phones as possible so they hold back on the update to keep the current customer base guessing on whether or not they should upgrade on the launch date. Now they are fielding massive complaints from both old and new subscribers... on top of the newbie questions all over again.

Louie report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

Thats what you get.

Jul 11, 2008 15:58     

Maybe they should have put a few 'real' servers in the mix to do the work. Oh well, time for me to go make a movie or whatever steve jobs thinks it is I do with my spare time.
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Where is Christian Zibreg?

Jul 11, 2008 16:07     

Or can she only say good things about Apple?
Ricko report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

WHAT??

Jul 11, 2008 16:13     

Apple isnt perfect?? Oh my! They are plagued by the same issues as other tech companies are?? POSSIBLY EVEN WORSE?? This is sure to rock the defining slogan of the iCulture iFanatics: "We are just better than everyone". WRONG. Welcome to reality, iSuckers! :-p !!!!
bahahaha report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +16

poor souls....

Jul 11, 2008 16:23     

...all victims of the humongous brainwashing scam Apple calls "Advertising"
:-( report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +14

Ha

Jul 11, 2008 16:35     

I had an apple for breakfast.
Isaac report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +12

Isaac made me lol

Jul 11, 2008 16:58     

lol
meow report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

I got my iPhone at about 2pm Central time. Authenti...

Jul 11, 2008 17:45     

I got my iPhone at about 2pm Central time. Authentication was a bit slow, but not too bad. I just left my phone with them while I went to the food court and got a pretzel. When I got back, my phone was working. I think the problem is probably over by now.
Ralf The Dog report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -13

Complete foolishness

Jul 11, 2008 17:55     

Anyone who would stand in line for hours and deal with such frustrations just for the sake of being the first geek around to have a new phone is a complete moron who needs to get a life. Even a geek should have more of a life than this.
Pete report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +11

i love these people with this Get a life crap

Jul 12, 2008 00:45     

What is a life? So if one does not spend there time on wastefull application like yourself Pete then it is not considered a life? So what people should do ? Do what you do have no free will? Waiting for a phone in line is ones choice. Just like it is my choice to goto work and make money instead of waiting for a phone. I refuse to let go $145 to wait for any product. But those who do take off work and wait have a right to. And if one is happy with the tasks one does in there own life. And is happy with the outcome indeed has a life. Crap stupid. No matter where on the net people shout out this life crap for everything. If you play games get a life,if you fish get a life, if you hunt get a life,if you vlog get a life,if you wait for a device get a life.... List goes on and on. Work for your money and buy what you will. Leave other people alone with what they wish to do with there time.I perfer to make money with over awaiting a phone at 8am. When i got off of work at 5:30 pm central time There was 1 16 gig iphone left. I bought it created a family talk plan with my old 8gig gave the 8 gig to my Wife.Then went fishing. I guess i have no life either? Because i dont live like you.

pyrosity report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -5

Pete's comment made me think... Probably the guy, "...

Jul 12, 2008 01:45     

Pete's comment made me think... Probably the guy, "apple's most dedicated fan" was paid by MS or something (a couple of days of work) just to be the geek with no life, living example of Pete's comment "Even a geek should have more of a life than this".
Virtualban report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

RE: Complete foolishness

Jul 12, 2008 01:51     

Let's see... According to you, Anand Lal Shimpi of Anandtech is a moron and should get a life. A guy named Mark from Epic games who convinced Anand to join him is even worst moron, you can tell it just by looking at Unreal Tournament III. And people from Ars Technica, iFix it and other numerous tech sites who were dying to be the first in line to make fast report are morons as well. But looking at you, Pete, I know that not everything is lost for humanity. For every geek with its moronic geekness out there there will be some Pete, who have a life and who truly knows what is better for everyone else in the world. Thank you for being around, Pete.

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Apple ATT Disaster - Invites World's 1st Crowd Sourced Class Action Lawsuit

Jul 13, 2008 02:18     

Rumors now include outright FRAUD - concerning the Activiation disaster of both the Apple Iphone G3's Plus the failure of Apple Iphone G2's during their respective 2.0 upgrade attempts. Reports of Data Loss are rampant! Have your attorneys and victims post emails at www.appleattiphoneclassactionlawsuit.com
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Re: Complete foolishness

Jul 13, 2008 16:34     

I don't usually comment on stories, but seeing how Pete made a completely valid point which most people actually agree with I just had to reply. Early adopters always amuse me, they moan when something goes wrong with the release and then they moan when something better comes along a few months later which is cheaper than the original lol. The fact is your sad if you're that desperate to get hold of a....phone, but to then try and justify it with all that drivel is even worse. I'm a geek, I like my computers and I play games, however I don't deny it and then get all defensive when someone points out the fact I'm a geek. Thankfully I'm not quite sad enough to care there's a new iPhone and stand around for hours to get it. It's sad no matter how many big "names" have got one, the difference is they got a member of their staff to get it for them or Apple probably sent it them days before you got yours, where as you stood around for hours to be the new cool geek. Yeah....nice one!

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Seriously?

Jul 14, 2008 14:22     

I always wonder why people keep repeating this behavior and expect a different result. I never, ever buy anything tech related in the first 6 months or so of it being released. Why? Because I don't get paid to be a beta tester, that's why. I also like to not waste my money just to have bragging rights. Example: I recently bought video cards that display the highest demand PC games about 2-4 frames per second less than the highest of the high-end cards. Those 4 lost frames cost an extra $1000. They're not worth that much to me.

zooterboy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Standing in line not that big of a deal.

Jul 15, 2008 09:07     

I moved my lab to my house, so I rarely meet people I do not know. Honestly, most people in Oklahoma are a bit boring. I did run into quite a few interesting people waiting in line. I also used three or for hours of the time to work on my stand up comedy. I only stopped when that nice lady who could not stop crying collected money from everyone to get me to "Just shut up for a bit." I got a new phone, had the chance to try out a few thousand new jokes and left with more money than I started with. What could be better?

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Collect Violation Information regarding Apple and Att

Jul 16, 2008 06:25     

www.appleattiphoneclassactionlawsuit.com we are looking for representation and also stories and specifics of those that were violated. David Larry
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