After standing in line for a few hours, we got our iPhone. We hurried back to the Mac|Life offices so we can show you our iPhone experience in pictures.

 

Note: This setup involved an existing AT&T account. Several hours later, we were able to activate the phone. We were able to activate a new account on an iPhone without delays.

 

Unboxing the iPhone. We have two iPhones, one from an AT&T store, and the other from an Apple Store.

 

You get a cool iPhone bag if you shop at the Apple Store.

 

You get a frumpy AT&T bag that's sealed shut before you leave the store.

 

Next: the iPhone box.

 

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Front of the iPhone Box. The box measures 3.5-by-5.75-by-2.75 inches.

 

Side of box.

 

Back of box.

 

Next: Inside the box.

 

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We have iPhone!

 

All tucked away neatly underneath the iPhone.

 

Inside the box: iPhone, earbuds, power adapter, dock, power cable, microfiber cloth, and documentation.

 

Next: iTunes account setup.

 

 

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After you plug in the iPhone and fire up iTunes, you need to activate your AT&T account.

 

iTunes takes you step-by-step through the account activation process. In our example, we're replacing a phone on an existing AT&T account with the iPhone.

 

If you have an AT&T account, enter your info.

 

Since we already have a voice plan, we added a data plan for $20.

 

We then entered our iTunes account info, agreed to the iTunes terms and the AT&T service agreement. We reviewed our account information, and then iTunes said it would take a few minutes to activate our account. Then this screen popped up.

 

Uh-oh. That doesn't look good.

 

It's been two hours since we tried to activate the phone, and we haven't heard anything from AT&T. When we called AT&T tech support, we were told that there is a 24-hour activation turnaround. The tech support person asked if I had any error messages. We didn't. She sounded relieved to hear that response. Hopefully, in the morning, the account will be active. UPDATE: The several hours later, the account was activated.

 

From reports online, it seems that there are quite a few activation problems. Fortunately, the other iPhone we bought activated quickly. Here's our early impressions of the iPhone.