6/30/07 10 AM: Still no email from anyone on the activation issue, so, under the theory that only the East Coast would be awake and that wait times would be less, called AT&T Customer Service. Spoke with a very nice lady who informed me that, indeed, the old AT&T contract was the issue. After consulting her supervisor, she explained that the would need to convert my contract to a “new” standard AT&T contract, and then to an iPhone contract.

Hmmm…

The first step went smoothly, but she couldn’t get me switched to the iPhone contract. After more checking she gave me another number to call and tried to transfer me to that department. Two disconnects and 50 minutes later I finally got through. The lady who answered said she didn’t know what to do, and suggested I try to activate the iPhone again with iTunes. No joy. She put me on hold, where I was disconnected after another 10 minutes.

AT&T is not giving me a warm, fuzzy feeling. And judging from reports on the web, I’m not alone.

6/29/07 7 PM: Like everyone else who has been anticipating the iPhone, I was contemplating various strategies to be certain that night would fall on June 29 with *my* iPhone tucked safely in its cradle. Unfortunately, business and personal obligations prevented me from applying the brute force approach of getting in line from early morning…or earlier. Instead, I opted for a more calculated plan, targeting a relatively out-of-the-way AT&T Store.
The strategy paid off. I walked into a mall in Chambersburg PA at 5:03 PM, turned the corner and was greeted with a line of only seventeen people! You may laugh, but that many people in that particular location was something of a memorial to just how far the new cult of iPhone had spread. The remaining 57 minutes were spent chatting with fellow

The folks at the AT&T store handled the situation very efficiently. Only eleven buyers allowed in the store, each directed to a specific clerk to take their order. The iPhone boxes themselves were nowhere to be seen. There was one runner who, once you stated your order, would retreat to a back room and bring each one out individually.

After selecting an 8GB iPhone and a “Belkin iPhone Holster, I explained to the clerk that there might be a problem with completing my activation online: I’ve been sitting an *old* AT&T unlimited talk time plan like a mother hen, enjoying the ability to call anywhere, any time, 24/7/365 for one flat rate. From past encounters with then-Cingular Customer Service I knew this can make things problematic, since I’m not in their usual database. “No problem,” the clerk assured me (just like another clerk at another AT&T store had assured me at 11:30 AM that morning).

By 6:45 PM I was home, with new version of iTunes fired up and ready to go. With a slight chirp, the iPhone came alive. Gorgeous screen! The activation process seemed to go smoothly…and then the message I didn’t want to see: “Your Account requires additional time to complete.” An email would let me know when my iPhone was ready for action.

While not a total surprise, I was a bit annoyed at this, since I suspected the old AT%T plan to be the problem, and had asked twice, receiving assurances that it would not. Patience is a virtue.

Now that you’ve learned a little about how to select podcasts from the ocean of content out there, and how to evaluate what you decide to listen, we would like to (slowly) provide you with some recommendations on shows that are worth, as a Weapon of Mac Production, your time.

We’ll start with one of our favorites and the most prolific of our recommendations: IT Conversations, now part of the GigaVox Media Network.
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If you followed our advice in MacProductive Listening: How to Select Podcasts, you now have a healthy collection of podcasts that you are sampling…and you are probably wondering how you are ever going to catch up. Here are some tips on deciding what to keep, what to abandon, and how to decide if a given podcast is right for you.
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We all love our iPods. Whether you own a lowly first-generation shuffle or a (current) state-of-the iPod video-capable 80-gig model, you can take audio (and perhaps) video content with you to enjoy anywhere. It also means that you can ratchet up your Weapon of Mac Productivity rating a bit by foregoing movies and music at least part of the time to listen to the really good stuff: content that expands your knowledge and your skill set.
If you haven’t delved into the world of podcasts yet, you’ll soon develop two big questions:

a) How do I choose the best among the thousands of offerings out there

b) How do I keep up with them all?

We’ll start with how to find what you’re looking for.

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