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Today at 6:30pm, about 24 hours after I purchased my iPhone, I finally was able to finish activation with my number being ported from T-Mobile…

So last night as far as I got was waiting for activation, after having tried it once already. The first time I just figured maybe AT&T got overloaded with the volume of number-transfer requests, so I didn’t change anything the second time around… it was only afterwards that I did the research into number portability over at the FCC’s website, and learned that if you’re moving your number and you are changing the metropolitan area your phone is registered in, the FCC doesn’t allow the transfer. Now, I never really got the chance to test this using iTunes, because here’s what happened the next morning…

I had expected to get an email back from AT&T letting me know something - either that the transfer had succeeded, or that it had failed - but I had no email… I waited till about noon to call an AT&T rep, and after about 10 minutes of explaining where I was in the activation process, the rep had no other advice than to just wait it out, and said that when I was able to, that I should restart the activation process, and instead of trying to port my number over I should just get a new number, and then call AT&T’s number-transfer department (888-898-7685) and handle it in that fashion. So, at about 4:30pm I got the email from AT&T letting me know that the number could not be ported over… bummer, but it was what I’d expected. I restarted the activation process, this time choosing to get a new number… about 10 minutes later, my iPhone was unlocked and I was up and running on AT&T.

After syncing and playing around with the iPhone for a bit, I called AT&T’s number-transfer department… it’s an automated system, and it asks you to type in the number (I assumed it wanted the number I wanted ported over). After typing it in twice (and it telling me something about not having that number in its records), it transfered me to a human. The rep asked me a few security questions to make sure I was who I said I was, and then asked for the number I wanted transferred, the T-Mobile account number that the number was on, and then a couple security questions to verify I had access to that account… 2 minutes later, the rep told me it was done, and that in exactly 6 minutes, I should power-cycle my iPhone and turn off my T-Mobile phone, and that when I powered up my iPhone the number should be switched, and good for making and receiving calls - instantly… no waiting for it to transfer the receiving calls part. 8 minutes later (for good measure), I power-cycled my iPhone, and BINGO! It was an instant and total switch, in the space of 6 minutes, where as I had waited 5 hours and then about 16 hours on my previous attempts through iTunes.

So… if you’re trying to transfer your number and are having similar difficulties, I’d recommend this method of getting a new number and then calling to have your number transferred… in fact, both of the reps I spoke to seemed to bemoan the fact that AT&T was using that iTunes-based method, hinting that it was causing more problems than it was solving and that it was much easier to just call in and do it manually. I for one agree with the reps - calling in was definitely easier and quicker.

More on my opinions of the iPhone itself later.

Today, I stood in line for my first product release. People I know have stood in lines for game consoles, opening movie releases and the like… but I never have - until today.

Yes, I waited in line for 3 and a half hours for an iPhone, and I had a great time. I met 2 ACU students, a guy in the Air Force, and another guy that used to be (we never got around to what he does now)… but we all had something in common - a love for Macs. Turns out the Air Force guy was a collector of sorts, and has one of almost every generation of Mac since the Apple II… even a 20th Anniversary Mac (extremely rare). One of the ACU students was a CompSci major, and the other a PT major considering the PT doctorate program at HSU… and we all had an interest in Macs, so we all had a lot we could talk about. In short, I had a great time.

The iPhone is a marvel of engineering. It’s construction is impeccable, and it looks fantastic. Unfortunately, I can’t really speak for it’s functionality aside from the few minutes I spent playing with one in the AT&T store (which was awesome), because I haven’t been able to “activate” mine yet. I’m trying to move my number from T-Mobile, but my first attempt to do so came back with my number being “not eligible to be transferred.” So I’m trying again. Worst case, I’ll have to get a new number, and just deal with the multitude of problems caused by that. To AT&T’s credit, as far as I can tell it’s nothing AT&T has any control over - it’s T-Mobile’s prerogative to decide if my number can be transferred… which sucks… I’ll be pretty upset if I have to change my number.

So much I could’ve written about in the last few weeks…

EDIT: I think I might have figured out the number portability thing, though it will take several hours to test. After reading through a few FCC documents about wireless number portability (since it is federally mandated), I came across this statement:

“Wireless LNP (local number portability) allows consumers to switch from one wireless carrier to another within the same general metropolitan area. It does not allow consumers to keep the same phone number when moving to a new town or city.”

It just so happens that one of the fields in activation asks where (primarily) you will be using the iPhone… of course, I put Abilene - but my T-Mobile number is a registered Dallas/Ft. Worth area number… hmm… so in about 5 hours (or in the morning), when I get the email back from AT&T (that I expect will say) that the number isn’t portable, I’ll try yet again… this time not specifying Abilene as my location… we’ll see what happens and I’ll post the results. I realize most of the 4 or 5 of you that read my blog probably won’t find any of this information useful, but maybe it will help some other poor soul Googling the Internets with a similar problem.

So I got Copper a Nylabone Nutrident “dental chew”… supposed to help keep his breath smelling decent (for a dog) and help keep his teeth clean. It has these little nubbies on one end, and looks like a bone on the other end… anyways, the packaging states that it’s edible… but then goes on to say that it’s not intended for consumption… ? It also states: “Frequently inspect your Nylabone before giving it to your dog to make sure it’s whole and intact, with no missing pieces.”

Well, I gave it to Copper for about 5 minutes, and here’s what he did to the thing (click for larger).

Ouch.

In nerd news, Apple has released 4 television advertisements for the iPhone in the last couple days. What’s interesting to note is that originally the ads had fine-print at the end that said a 2-year contract would be required… but, sometime yesterday that fine-print mysteriously disappeared from all 4 ads. Here’s hoping we’ll learn more about the pricing structure for the iPhone and its service next Monday (WWDC keynote, 11am CST), but not being locked into a 2-year contract sure would be nice.

Yeah, it’s been awhile. My bad. It hasn’t been for lack of stuff to post though, it’s just been the reluctance to sit down and get the thoughts written out.

The end of the semester was really rough for me… probably the worst semester I’ve had school-wise - though not for lack of hard work; I just couldn’t keep up with it all.

I’m a senior now. It’s weird to think about that. My last 2 semesters of Cowboy Band, my last 2 semesters of classes… this will be my last fall semester of college… ever. Well, undergraduate college at least - I’m not sure if or when I’ll take on some graduate studies, but still… it’s an eerie feeling. So many people go into this last year of college knowing (or at least having a clue of) what they’ll be doing on the flip side (grad school, job, etc.)… but I don’t. Not a clue. Part of me likes that, part of me is scared $#!%-less… but I’m sure God’s got a handle on things.

There’s been a lot of good news lately… I’ve wanted to share some of it with you, but again I was too lazy to actually do it… so here’s some high points:

• The Wachowski brothers’ live-action Speed Racer film begins filming next week in Germany, and they’ve released an image of the Mach 5 that will be used in filming.
• Facebook introduced “Applications” a few days ago, and they’ve really hit the nail on the head with this one. The openness and the flexibility of the Facebook API is amazing, and the applications that have already shown up are great, though I think it may be a little bit before we see applications that truly harness the full potential of the API.
• Apple updated the options for the Apple TV to allow for including a 160GB hard-drive, and announced integration with YouTube coming in a software update this June, though only a few thousand videos will be available at launch, with the rest to come in the fall. Reportedly, the reason for the wait is that YouTube is in the process of converting its entire library of videos from flash to H.264…
• Google’s new application called Gears will enable online applications to function in an off-line mode, asynchronously updating when you reconnect to the internet. Example: A Gears-enabled Google Reader will be able to download news stories for you to read offline, and then when you reconnect it will mark the news stories you read offline as read, without you doing anything.
• Adobe’s Apollo platform is working closely with Google to make sure that Gears integration into Apollo applications is as easy as possible.
• Google also released 2 new additions to Google Maps. The first is Street-view; in some major US cities (with many more to come), you can click on a location on the map and be presented with a 360-degree panorama street-level image of wherever you clicked. Also new (though not really released to the public yet) is Google Mapplets - little applications to layer data onto a Google map. For instance, say you want to look up movie showtimes for a movie in your area, but want to actually see on a map where the theaters are and when the showtimes are, or maybe you want to see where cheap gas is with data provided by gasbuddy.com… Google Mapplets provides a way for developers to do just that.