The iPhone works again. Calm returns to earth.

UPDATE: 4:50.

The iPhone 3G launched Friday around the world -. and promptly ran into problems. But the technical issues appear to have been corrected. Old iPhones work again. New iPhones are being activated.

The blogosphere, as you might expect, covered the collective howling as if it were the Olympics. "Y2K wasn't this much fun," said Good Morning Silicon Valley. iPocalypse Now, is how they described it at All Things Digital. Six million iBricks, noted Engadget.   

Meanwhile, AT&T reports that most of its stores have sold out of the iPhone and people are still waiting with hope outside Apple stores in New York City, with security guards offering suggestions of how long the wait might be. Engadget does a run down of supply and demand around the world. Tampa still has the iPhone...at least at the time of this update.

UPDATED. 10:30.

Many people with old iPhones who tried to download the new software have run into serious problems. The download is taking a long time. Once downloaded, some say the phone then freezes, allowing just emergency calls. This comes on the heels of complaints that the phone's new e-mail service MobileMe wasn't working after Apple took down its old service .Mac.

Inside the stores selling new iPhones - people are being told to activate them at home, a reversal of what Apple said would happen in the store. An AT&T spokeswoman attributed the change to problems accessing Apple's iTunes store to get the new software. "Apple is working on it feverishly," she said.

In the meantime, people who have made their iPhones the center of their universe are facing their existential crisis with a total freak out on Apple's blog. Some bloggers advise people not to update or to look for a back door way to update the software.

The iPhone began selling around the world today, with crowds lining up outside Apple stores and cellular company stores. They greeted the opening of store doors with cheers.

The iPhone 3G is the second version of Apple's gadget, which first went on sale in June 2007. Apple says that more than 6 million phones had been sold by early June and it hopes to sell 10 million by the end of this year. The new one runs on a faster network and, in the United States, costs $200 less, although the price drop is made up in higher monthly service charges to Apple's exclusive U.S. partner, AT&T.

The phone is going on sale in 21 countries, many for the first time. Its launch comes as Apple opens up an online store for games and programs for the iPhone.

Getting people through the stores will be today's challenge. Already, there have been glitches. A spokesman for AT&T told the Associated Press that a problem with Apple's iTunes software impeded activating the phone inside stores, as had been expected.

In San Francisco, a cheer erupted when the doors opened at the Apple store on Union Square, where people had spent the night in tents and handed out doughnuts to police officers. A shorter line of people waited outside the AT&T store a few blocks away.

Nicholas Panzer, 26, a waiter, knocked off work at 1:30 a.m. and arrived at the Apple store at 6 a.m. to be the 151st person in line. The reason to come out early: "I'm guaranteed to get one today." Already an iPhone owner, he said he had to buy the new one.

Standing next to him was Scot Peterson, a designer, who held up a smashed iPhone. "Time to get a new one," he said.

Spencer Duclos, 16, a tourist from Reno, said he just had to have the phone. Standing in line with his father, he showed his Samsung phone and then put it away. The iPhone is "the end all and be all of all phones. You don't need anything else."

-- Michelle Quinn

Photo of iPhone buyers waiting in Santa Monica. Credit: Jerome Adamstein / Los Angeles Times

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Comments

[Nik Kannan]

I waited in line for about 30 minutes to get this phone, but left because I needed to get back to work. I thought it was going to be much easier to acquire the phone. I was dead wrong. I guess nobody works anymore and has nothing better to do with their time than wait in line for a phone.

[Christopher Mandzok]

Headline should have read: World has bunches of idiots dumb enough to stand in line to purchase a phone.

[frank]

I think you failed to mention all the issues customers are having with getting the new phone to work....

[jiminy crickett]

Wow, a bunch of dorks who can't wait for another device. Got to check them emails!

[Jrskeurto]

Hahahaha! Don't be bitter because they got there before you. And it was stupid to think getting one was going to be sooo easy.

[Jon]

How come I am apparently the only one who has found out that if you already have an AT&T phone and are NOT eligible for an upgrade the IPhone will cost you $399 and $599. What a complete ripoff. So they'd rather have non-AT&T customers than someone who has been loyal to them since they were LA Celluar. Until that policy changes--No thanks.

[Skip Howland]

I just updated both iTunes and my older 16Gb iPhone- WHAT A MESS!!!
i just got off Apple's support phone (Phillippines) after having waited for 45minutes to get a person on the phone.
GET THIS-- THE ACTIVATION PROCESS REQUIRES THAT YOUR PC/MAC LOG INTO THE ITUNES STORE SERVER. THEY WERE NOT PREPARED. Now, i have a totally non-operating cell phone (iPhone) until they get this fixed. I was told that the
APPLE SERVERS went DOWN>...
Do NOT upgrade today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Skip H.

[Valerie]

I waited in line for over 3 hours, entered the store and then waited an hour to get my iphone due to technical errors. You would think that after the debut of the first one...all problems would have back up plans. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I received my phone and had to bring it home unlocked. Hooray for a phone I can't use and the debt that I have accumulated all just to have an apple phone.

[YouAreMing]

I thought the same thing as Nik, the Apple store was slow to process people and I guess I will have to try again later. "I wish I had four hands so I could give those girls four thumbs down for selling their spaces in the middle of the line for $40" What a joke.

[Nicole]

I waited in line for over three hours. At eight in the morning when the store opened, a rep came outside to inform all of us that there were only 60 iphones in stock, but that a shipment should be arriving in just a few hours- presumably by the time that I would be at the head of the queue. No big deal, because they numbered us off and I was what I thought was a safe number 65. Somehow, they ran out of phones around the 50th person in line. Come inside, the rep said, and order a direct fulfillment- we'll go ahead and charge you now, and when your phone arrives in three to five days, you're good to go. Fine, I thought- I've waited this long for the damn thing, what's a couple more days? No dice, when I went to place my order, however. Could not even order one. The icing on the cake was then being informed that there would be another paltry shipment of twenty more phones arriving Saturday morning, but that I would have to show up once again at the crack of dawn and wait in line, with no guarantee of actually getting the damn phone. What the hell was AT&T/Apple thinking, only shipping 70 iPhones to the store on the release day? I'm so pissed off now I don't if I even want to bother with it.

[Brian Hamilton]

Too bad the software 2.0 rollout has made my original iPhone useless while ALL the provisioning software is down. I didn't even buy the new iPhone yet and my existing phone is useless today.

The supersecret big bang roll-out didn't work for them this time. I have been hugely inconvenienced because I am user of their products. A shame.

[Paul]

here's my experience of purchasing the white 3G iphone this morning

**Business customers with corporate discounts BEWARE!
you will not be able to purchase the iphone at an Apple store. here's my recap

http://offtopics.com/off-topics/1219-houston-galleria-store-purchasing-3g-iphone.html

[Daniel]

I'm sorry, but there is an 80% chance that if you walk into the store tomorrow, you will be able to buy the phone without a line. In a week, that chance goes up to 99.9%

What kind of impatience-starved desperate crazies will stand in line at 6 am for hours for something they could have easily just a day later? The same ones who paid $600 for the first models, probably...

[Marcus Lewis]

iloser. ihave no life. iWish I was cool. These are thoughts of people standing in line to get an iPhone.

[Gizmo]

Carlin once said : give them a gizmo , they ll take a picture of cell phone , give them a cell phone they ll take picture of laptop. i have an iphone , but i ll never would wait in line . look at those males above in the pic . they are all insecure in themselfs.

[Anon]

Reading this board makes me feel much better. Given the "lower level of hype the release of the new iphone has received I thought I could get one fairly easily. Showed up around 7:30AM - Easton PA and there were 40 people already in line. Employees come out and tell us they only have 40 phones, some 8GB and some 16GB. I walked away right then and there. I will buy an iphone shortly, but no device is worth waiting in the kind of line. Apple did this on purpose btw. They did not provide enough phones so they could show the lines on the news again. Its a shame. The strangest part is that most of the folks that were waiting in line looked like they couldn't get a job in a fast food restaurant. I wonder how they can afford something like this.

[Elvis]

Let the early adopters wait in line and work out all the problems with purchasing and activation!!!!!

[Ganjah]

I ordered the 3G off my brother's AT&T business account. So I get the discount. I didn't qualify for the 199/299 upgrade although I am an existing AT&T customer. It will be FedEx and arrive on Monday, Tuesday at the latest. I am happy I don't have to wait in line and hopefully they get passed all the glitches by the time hey activate it.

[James Smith]

Why insult the people in line? That just makes it seem like you're a little jealous, in addition to being a little immature.
Like someone above suggested, if you want the thing, it's best to just wait a bit. Obviously there are some technical difficulties along with a shortage of supply, so if you wait a few weeks before grabbing your new phone, you win. Really, the majority of people in line don't matter to you. They aren't hurting or affecting you in any way. Why judge them?

If you've just got to judge, though, aim your insults at the guy who smashed his old iPhone to buy the new one. Like, what the hell! I can't believe he'd just smash something he paid at least $400 for not even a year ago. Completely crazy.
Even the people who are upgrading from the first one to the second one. I find that absolutely ridiculous. I guess some people just have the money...

On the subject of Apple, the supply may not have been in their control, but the technical issues are kind of upsetting. Sucks for all the iPhone users! Hopefully it gets sorted out soon.
Whatever, once everything's worked out, the iPhone2 will be a really cool phone & the original will be all patched up.
Doubt I'll ever buy it since I'm a poor college student & I just signed a 2-year contract with another AT&T phone, but maybe I'll get the iPhone5 in a few years when I've got a little more money.

[Apple fan]

Its a great product. What he hell is wrong with people... Dont you know there are people starving on the planet/shot by George W... and you guys are crying that your phone doesnt work WOW thats a bitch! maybe you should ask someone in Iraq or ethiopia how well their phones work!!!!

[njc]

I showed up at the AT&T store on Beverly and La Cienega around 7am and was roughly 50th in line. About 20 minutes after they opened at 8am, some guy comes out and says they only have a few 16gig phones left. What a drag.

[LaManzana]

WAAA WAAA WAAA! You Cry babies. I hope you drop your iphone
in the toilet next time you go. Wait until Monday to buy it and stop bitching
about Apple. You guys fell for there scheme.

[Sean]

I waited in line for over 5 hours to get inside to be told yet 1 more story from AT&T. Seems nothing they may have told you on the 800 # was true. They treated all the customers badly here in Fort Lauderdale! The store manager told me " If you don't like it, go to another carrier! " Typical AT&T BS and customer Service. THEN once I get the over priced China made plastic home, ITUNES was down all over the the USA and you just had one big heavy over price paperweight that you could not activate! When will they get these things right.?

[Existenz]

Don't upgrade today, the servers will be swamped and there might be bugs to be worked out.

That said, my girlfriend updated her original iPhone to 2.0 last night, and it works great! Lots of new features to play with. But she was taking a risk -- no one should upgrade until online sources tell you it is safe.

[isuckers]

suckers! I havent updated and waiting to later this weekend..suckers!!