iPod/iPhone Launch Day/Update, Final Summary

Well, my iPod Touch 2.0 update finally came through, and all my applications are installing, along with the rest of my media.  I took some screenshots of the update process, and you can find them right here:

I also found out that Ed did eventually get his contract worked out for the subsidized iPhone, which is good, but since AT&T was out, they’re shipping him one, so success on that front.

Overall, despite Apple and AT&T’s lack of foresight in knowing that there’d be many many people trying to activate and update phones today, things finally went through, people got their phones, at least, and I imagine most of those who’s phones were bricked are finally getting back to regular service-I and probably few other people would recommend upgrading on the only phone you’ll be able to use for work on the day the update is released, but things worked out eventually.

In the end, I know two people who successfully made off with iPhones, two who finally made successful upgrades, only one of which managed to get a bricked phone first, and a third whose iPhone was finally ordered despite a whole bunch of other junk, and then me, whose iPod Touch is now syncing back with iTunes.

All in all, it’s been very interesting, covering it live from the Apple Store: Keystone Mall, from both my iPod and my MacBook (not that it was official coverage or anything, but live blogging is still fun!  It’s a rush, right?)  The launch could have gone better in terms of when Apple rolled out various functions, for instance, offering early upgrades to previous iPhone users, or later upgrades, and once the iPod Touch upgrade link stopped working, it’d've been nice if they’d put up a “working on it” sign, but alas, they did not, and to those of us who really cared, we followed through with checking it at 1:30 in the morning anyway.

Thanks to Ars and TUAW for a long day of coverage and thanks to all the macnn’ers who were helpful with their own updates on the forums, and I hope everyone enjoys their new toys!

As for me, I have an iPod to be finishing syncing and some long awaited sleep to be getting back to.

iPod Touch Update: Success! Or almost.

For kicks, I just tried to access the Touch Update again, after a 4 hour hiatus or so.  iTunes finally recognizes my iPod as needing the update, and prompts me to purchase the upgrade.  The first time I tried it, it sent me through two ToS screens

before I entered my password and got the following message:

Doh!  That’s unhelpful.  Well, I was wary about being charged twice, so quit iTunes and ran it again, this time, success!  My update is downloading and Apple has $10 more of my money.

At first the download seemed slow, but now it’s booking right along.  At the time of this writing it’s at about 50% with a predicted 12 minutes remaining.  iTunes tells me that I’m eligible for the software update!

And that it’s downloading.  Here’s hoping it all works out: at least I can’t brick my iPod Touch, just temporarily erase it.

Apple’s big time pushing the sync EVERYTHING initiative.  This firmware update will erase all of your contacts, email, etc, but will be updated with the firmware as it’s stored temporarily in your iTunes area.  However, all media will have to be REPLACED, as iTunes warned me so kindly.  So it looks like I will lose that Daft Punk overall, hah!  I have not the CD any longer, at least on this computer, and the reverse ripping for the Touch is murky water at best.  Ah, well, at least now everything will be synced to my computer and I can not worry about it again.  I’d been concerned before about syncing just because of the number of times my library’s been wiped on old Windows machines, but my Mac is much more stable.  I’m pretty sure I’ll manually manage it still, but the contacts can go ahead and sync, etc.