Posts by Seamus Byrne
Phones
10:37AM Seamus Byrne | That’s it from Lara and I. Thanks for having me back for one night of passionate embrace with the gathered Sydney iPhone masses. From here out it’ll be a lot easier to get your iPhone 3G, get your apps, and enjoy the love. Or avoid the heck out of it.
‘Til next,Shay
[Ed - Thanks Shay! Awesome job, as usual.]
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iPhone, iPhone, iPhone! Aaaand, I’m spent…
10:37AM Seamus Byrne | That’s it from Lara and I. Thanks for having me back for one night of passionate embrace with the gathered Sydney iPhone masses. From here out it’ll be a lot easier to get your iPhone 3G, get your apps, and enjoy the love. Or avoid the heck out of it.
‘Til next,Shay
[Ed - Thanks Shay! Awesome job, as usual.]
More » 
Phones
10:26AM Seamus Byrne | Lara Bingle, Bianca Dye, and Lote Tuqiri walked into a bar. They learned to use iPhones. They swanned about, looked the goods, and made it feel like a party. Vodafone may have been last out of the gates, with a crowd of something similar to Telstra (around 100 at doors open), but it offered a little more panache than the rest.
As token as celebrity appearances can be, these guys actually did seem to give some time to people in the queue, showing off the iPhones they had in hand.
Here Lara, Bianca (mid stroke), and Lote flank the first Vodafone iPhone owner, Dominic. All Brett Howell got was Fuzzy. Best caption wins a ROFLOL.
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Vodafone wins the iPhone celebrity appearance game
10:26AM Seamus Byrne | Lara Bingle, Bianca Dye, and Lote Tuqiri walked into a bar. They learned to use iPhones. They swanned about, looked the goods, and made it feel like a party. Vodafone may have been last out of the gates, with a crowd of something similar to Telstra (around 100 at doors open), but it offered a little more panache than the rest.
As token as celebrity appearances can be, these guys actually did seem to give some time to people in the queue, showing off the iPhones they had in hand.
Here Lara, Bianca (mid stroke), and Lote flank the first Vodafone iPhone owner, Dominic. All Brett Howell got was Fuzzy. Best caption wins a ROFLOL.
More »
Phones
10:08AM Seamus Byrne | Telstra was a sedate affair, but kudos to them for making it pure
business. They had plenty of staff in T[life], some queue space inside
the warm premises (it was frosty frosty out on George St with a nasty
ice wind to boot), plus flyers with the official plan details so you
could make up your mind in the 10 seconds before purchase. Actually,
they were taking the time to talk people through their current usage
patterns and which way they should lean… but couldn’t tell how many
people were being told “20MB outta be enough for anyone” (remember that isn’t even the LOWEST data plan).
However, there was no love given to the gathered queue, which by time of opening was around 80-100 strong. Given the icy conditions, it was a bit too “pure business” to show them absolutely no love — doesn’t compare well to the competition who were all treating queue members to warm drinks and tasty treats. There’s a “leaving people out in the cold” allusion here I can’t quite put my finger on…
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Telstra plays it simple, all business
10:08AM Seamus Byrne | Telstra was a sedate affair, but kudos to them for making it pure
business. They had plenty of staff in T[life], some queue space inside
the warm premises (it was frosty frosty out on George St with a nasty
ice wind to boot), plus flyers with the official plan details so you
could make up your mind in the 10 seconds before purchase. Actually,
they were taking the time to talk people through their current usage
patterns and which way they should lean… but couldn’t tell how many
people were being told “20MB outta be enough for anyone” (remember that isn’t even the LOWEST data plan).
However, there was no love given to the gathered queue, which by time of opening was around 80-100 strong. Given the icy conditions, it was a bit too “pure business” to show them absolutely no love — doesn’t compare well to the competition who were all treating queue members to warm drinks and tasty treats. There’s a “leaving people out in the cold” allusion here I can’t quite put my finger on…
More »
Phones
9:43AM Seamus Byrne | While our earlier predictions proved true that everyone queued up at Apple Store would be for Optus, they are selling phones on plans for all carriers — and if you head in there for Vodafone or Telstra plans you can expect to jump a very large section of the queue.
In my quasi-lucid state of all night bleariness I failed to confirm Apple Store status on contract versus pre-paid sales, and as most sales across all stores right now are focused on contract and not pre-paid the chances are pretty slim you could loophole that one there.
But queue jumping? Yeah, should work nicely for many T and V folks. More »
Apple Store selling phones / plans for all carriers
9:43AM Seamus Byrne | While our earlier predictions proved true that everyone queued up at Apple Store would be for Optus, they are selling phones on plans for all carriers — and if you head in there for Vodafone or Telstra plans you can expect to jump a very large section of the queue.
In my quasi-lucid state of all night bleariness I failed to confirm Apple Store status on contract versus pre-paid sales, and as most sales across all stores right now are focused on contract and not pre-paid the chances are pretty slim you could loophole that one there.
But queue jumping? Yeah, should work nicely for many T and V folks. More »
Phones
6:27AM Seamus Byrne | We’ve got the official booklet of iPhone 3G plans in our hands, and they have been built to let you mix and match the data and voice levels to suit your needs. However, the prices on data are severe, clearly pointing to Telstra pushing customers toward using their Wi-Fi access points as much as possible.
In the all important data terms, $5 gets you 5MB with overuse charged at $1/MB. Then…$10 / 20MB / $1/MB$29 / 80MB / $1/MB$59 / 200MB / $0.25/MB$89 / 1GB / $0.25/MB$119 / 3GB / $0.25/MB
Or you can just Pay As You Go for data at… $2/MB!!!
Jump for voice details and the plan pricing for an iPhone 3G. More »
OFFICIAL Telstra iPhone 3G plans – mix and match, but still poor value
6:27AM Seamus Byrne | We’ve got the official booklet of iPhone 3G plans in our hands, and they have been built to let you mix and match the data and voice levels to suit your needs. However, the prices on data are severe, clearly pointing to Telstra pushing customers toward using their Wi-Fi access points as much as possible.
In the all important data terms, $5 gets you 5MB with overuse charged at $1/MB. Then…$10 / 20MB / $1/MB$29 / 80MB / $1/MB$59 / 200MB / $0.25/MB$89 / 1GB / $0.25/MB$119 / 3GB / $0.25/MB
Or you can just Pay As You Go for data at… $2/MB!!!
Jump for voice details and the plan pricing for an iPhone 3G. More »
Phones
5:06AM Seamus Byrne | It’s 5.00am and here’s your iPhone 3G traffic report from Sydney. Things are still backed up at Optus Hunter St, though if you give it another 45 minutes (and you like white) you could get a clear run. Further up George St things are starting to pick up around T[life], with more than 20 now waiting on approach and a steady trickle joining them in anticipation of 6.00am opening. Vodafone is looking like very clear sailing at all locations, while Apple Store has more than 30 awaiting their 8.00am curtain raiser. This has been the iPhone 3G traffic report for Gizmodo AU. More »
iPhone 3G Sydney queues status update (5am)
5:06AM Seamus Byrne | It’s 5.00am and here’s your iPhone 3G traffic report from Sydney. Things are still backed up at Optus Hunter St, though if you give it another 45 minutes (and you like white) you could get a clear run. Further up George St things are starting to pick up around T[life], with more than 20 now waiting on approach and a steady trickle joining them in anticipation of 6.00am opening. Vodafone is looking like very clear sailing at all locations, while Apple Store has more than 30 awaiting their 8.00am curtain raiser. This has been the iPhone 3G traffic report for Gizmodo AU. More »
Phones
4:57AM Seamus Byrne | UPDATE: The trend continues, with Vodafone revealing to Gizmodo
that the (reportedly very fast) sales through their online orders have
had an 80:20 preference toward the black over the white. It seems black
is, as ever, the REAL new black!
It seems Apple’s white iPhone 3G is more white elephant than white hot. At the Optus queue, where at 5.00am the store is closing in on its 300th customer (if not there already), some in the queue have been warned by the time they get to the counter there may only be white left in 16GB.
Given the store had 500 units to begin with, and close to 200 up its sleeve, there is a very clear preference for black over white. Even at a roughly even distribution of 8GB and each of the two 16GB varieties it is sounding like the white is turning out to be very unpopular.
So if you make a play for Hunter St before you head to work, we really hope you like white… and if this trend continues, we could be seeing shortages based more on people’s rejection of the white, and others feeling like they’ve had to settle for second best. More »
Any iPhone 3G you like, so long as it’s white
4:57AM Seamus Byrne | UPDATE: The trend continues, with Vodafone revealing to Gizmodo
that the (reportedly very fast) sales through their online orders have
had an 80:20 preference toward the black over the white. It seems black
is, as ever, the REAL new black!
It seems Apple’s white iPhone 3G is more white elephant than white hot. At the Optus queue, where at 5.00am the store is closing in on its 300th customer (if not there already), some in the queue have been warned by the time they get to the counter there may only be white left in 16GB.
Given the store had 500 units to begin with, and close to 200 up its sleeve, there is a very clear preference for black over white. Even at a roughly even distribution of 8GB and each of the two 16GB varieties it is sounding like the white is turning out to be very unpopular.
So if you make a play for Hunter St before you head to work, we really hope you like white… and if this trend continues, we could be seeing shortages based more on people’s rejection of the white, and others feeling like they’ve had to settle for second best. More »
Phones
2:12AM Seamus Byrne | Here’s the quick round up of the state of play right now:
- Optus still has 100+ to get through the queue, and have probably moved through 150 or so. They had a slow start due to the media circus, but are getting it going now.- Optus is doing a good job of keeping the hordes happy. Plenty of coffee and hot chocolate, they’ve been doing cheeseburger runs, and even have 2-minute angels on hand giving out massages.- At last check, there were 5 in the T[life] queue, 25 in the Apple Store queue, and no one at Vodafone.- Our safe guess is that anyone at Apple Store is there for Optus plans, but don’t have pre-reg. If they wanted Telstra or Voda, they’d be queuing elsewhere — remember Apple Store is last to open.- Voda is the hardest to ‘count’, as they don’t have any one store going ahead of the rest.- Apple Store has raised black curtains on the ground level. One level one we can see the iPod sign has been replaced with an iPhone sign across the back wall.- We managed a quick peek through the curtains and the only thing we could see was the screensavers have been changed from iPod ads to iPhone 3G ads. More »
It’s 2.00am on iPhone Friday and all is…
2:12AM Seamus Byrne | Here’s the quick round up of the state of play right now:
- Optus still has 100+ to get through the queue, and have probably moved through 150 or so. They had a slow start due to the media circus, but are getting it going now.- Optus is doing a good job of keeping the hordes happy. Plenty of coffee and hot chocolate, they’ve been doing cheeseburger runs, and even have 2-minute angels on hand giving out massages.- At last check, there were 5 in the T[life] queue, 25 in the Apple Store queue, and no one at Vodafone.- Our safe guess is that anyone at Apple Store is there for Optus plans, but don’t have pre-reg. If they wanted Telstra or Voda, they’d be queuing elsewhere — remember Apple Store is last to open.- Voda is the hardest to ‘count’, as they don’t have any one store going ahead of the rest.- Apple Store has raised black curtains on the ground level. One level one we can see the iPod sign has been replaced with an iPhone sign across the back wall.- We managed a quick peek through the curtains and the only thing we could see was the screensavers have been changed from iPod ads to iPhone 3G ads. More »
Phones
12:16AM Seamus Byrne | A roving friend of Gizmodo AU brought us this shot of two souls waiting it out at T[life]. We’ll be keeping an eye on this queue, as well as Apple Store and Vodafone, through the bitter cold of this Sydney winter’s night.
And a shout out to Matthew, the first Giz reader to spot the white hoodie (while I’m sitting here tapping away at a keyboard while sitting on a bus bench). With the cold I had to add a big black coat over the hoodie, so I wasn’t as easy to spot as I first thought I would be.
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Meanwhile, outside Telstra…
12:16AM Seamus Byrne | A roving friend of Gizmodo AU brought us this shot of two souls waiting it out at T[life]. We’ll be keeping an eye on this queue, as well as Apple Store and Vodafone, through the bitter cold of this Sydney winter’s night.
And a shout out to Matthew, the first Giz reader to spot the white hoodie (while I’m sitting here tapping away at a keyboard while sitting on a bus bench). With the cold I had to add a big black coat over the hoodie, so I wasn’t as easy to spot as I first thought I would be.
More »
Phones
12:03AM Seamus Byrne | “I’m pumped!”
Immortal words from the man who queued up from, surprisingly, only about 1pm this afternoon. He got to cut the tape and everything.
UPDATE: It took 25 minutes for Brett to get through the transaction process. Let’s hope things speed up as the night wears on, but whatever happens I think some people in this queue will still be here for a few hours more.
In his exit interview, what did Brett say he was going to do right now?“I’m just going to go home and go to bed.”Words to live by… More »
Brett Howell, #1 iPhone 3G owner in Australia
12:03AM Seamus Byrne | “I’m pumped!”
Immortal words from the man who queued up from, surprisingly, only about 1pm this afternoon. He got to cut the tape and everything.
UPDATE: It took 25 minutes for Brett to get through the transaction process. Let’s hope things speed up as the night wears on, but whatever happens I think some people in this queue will still be here for a few hours more.
In his exit interview, what did Brett say he was going to do right now?“I’m just going to go home and go to bed.”Words to live by… More » 