A Day in the Line: Queuing Up for the iPhone 3G Launch (Shared Web Hosting by Inftek Hosting)
July 17, 2008 – 1:00 amA Day in the Line: Queuing Up for the iPhone 3G Launch 
: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
SAN FRANCISCO, California — It’s finally here. After months of waiting, salivating and prognosticating, the iPhone 3G finally became available worldwide today.
Lining up in front of the San Francisco Apple store during the wee hours on Friday morning, Wired.com correspondents talked to a litany of fascinating iPhone fans, geeky tech-heads and even some cynics. Here’s a smattering of some interesting faces we encountered from that crowd, plus a few glimpses of other queues from around the world.
Left: The line outside the downtown San Francisco Apple store stretched around the block by 7 a.m. While Apple claimed its mandatory in-store activation would only take 15 minutes, technical problems caused the morning’s early setups to drag on for 45 minutes or more.
: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Many patrons who got in line early for the iPhone 3G came prepared with hammocks, sleeping bags and tents. Here, an unidentified member of the queue grabs a few winks before the phone went on sale at 8 a.m.
: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
JT, a web designer from San Francisco and his dog, Chaya, literally cheese for the camera, simultaneously showing off their love for Apple communication devices and partially hydrogenated cheddar-flavored products spewed from pressurized cans.
: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Lane, an Alameda, California, resident and iPhone line holder exercises some capitalist muscle, offering his spot near the front of the queue for $100. Lane had no takers at the time this photo was taken at 7:30 a.m.
: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com
In the space of an hour, the line outside the AT&T Wireless store in downtown San Francisco nearly tripled before doors opened at 8 am.
: Photo: Ed Ou/Associated Press
A customer, right, purchases a new Apple iPhone 3G in New York’s Apple Store. IPhone buyers had waited in lines around a city block and happily counted down the final 30 seconds before launch.
: Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press
Future iPhone owners wait in the line outside Japanese mobile carrier Softbank’s flagship store in Tokyo’s Omotesando shopping district late Thursday, July 10, 2008, before the first sales of Apple’s iPhone in Japan Friday.
: Photo: Sang Tan/Associated Press
Customers queue inside the Apple retail store on Regent Street, London, for the phone’s launch.
: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com
Angelique Guillermo, left, assistant manager of the downtown-S.F. AT&T store, explains to Mark Hogenson, right, and Ellen Davis, center, that after a long morning of waiting in line, they may not get an iPhone due to dwindling supplies. “It’s probably not looking too good,” Davis commented on her chances of getting a new phone today. “I really have to pee, so I’m debating what’s more important at this point.”
: Photo: Kin Cheung/Associated Press
Models hold the new iPhones today in Hong Kong. Dealers and buyers said it’s only a matter of time — maybe as little as a few days — before the popular device hits the region’s thriving underground marketplace.
: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Technology “evangelist” Robert Scoble (center, wearing pistachio-colored shirt) showed up at San Francisco’s iPhone 3G launch, documenting the event digitally, of course.
: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Dominic Sagolla, organizer of iPhoneDevCamp, literally takes a whiff of his new iPhone 3G. Sagolla was the first customer to emerge from the Apple store in San Francisco with the new device in hand.
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Photo Contest: First Day With iPhone 3G
The excitement over the new iPhone this Friday is global, but we want you to act locally and show us your photos of this highly coveted gadget. We want to see outrageous shots from the line, disappointed faces after the phones sell out and most of all, the star of the show itself. We’ll award the best photo a subscription to Wired magazine and display the top 10 photos in a gallery on Wired.com.
Use the Reddit widget below to submit your iPhone 3G photo and vote for your favorite among the other submissions. Some of the submissions will later appear in a gallery on the Wired.com homepage.
The photo must be your own, and by submitting it you are giving us permission to use it on Wired.com and in Wired magazine. Please submit images that are relatively large, the ideal size being 800 to 1200 pixels or larger on the longest side. Please include a description of your photo, which may include exposure information, equipment used, etc.
We don’t host the photos, so you’ll have to upload it somewhere else and submit a link to it. If you’re using Flickr, Picasa or another photo-sharing site to host your image, please provide a link to the image directly and not just to the photo page where it’s displayed. If your photo doesn’t show up, it’s because the URL you have entered is incorrect. Check it and make sure it ends with the image file name (XXXXXX.jpg).
Vote on iPhone 3G photos submitted by other readers.
Show entries that are: hot | new | top-rated. Submit your iPhone 3G photo.
Submit your iPhone 3G photo.
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