Outside the Deer Park Apple Store today, there were about 150 people in line already when I got there at 7:45am. Right behind me was a family from Israel…I didn’t really talk to them, so I’m not sure if they lived here too, were just visiting, etc. But they were obviously pretty excited about getting their iPhone 3Gs today. That is, until, after waiting in line for three hours, the nice Apple Store employee informed them they couldn’t buy the phones un-activated and take them home to Israel. Right after she informed all of us that the Apple Store’s retail system had crashed and nothing was moving.

Yes, today was the big day, but for one Israeli family, it was nothing more than a day of big doodoo as their iPhone 3G dreams were smashed to bits by a seemingly heartless Apple Store employee. Actually the girl seemed very nice, was super-apologetic, and even offered them some employee-only pizza. (??)

For the rest of us, the wait was long, hot, wet at times, but offered up some funny conversation and even allowed some of us to make new friends. Meanwhile a couple of reporters from the Daily Herald went back and forth between Apple Store employees and those of us foolish enough or out-of-work enough to wait in line for hours. For a phone.

The Herald dude with the video camera would pretend to not notice the cute girls in line, but would invariably end up interviewing them on the second pass, much to the delight of the young ladies behind the Israeli family. Until they found out that it was only going to be on the Daily Herald website and not on TV, at which point they seemed kinda pissed.

But not as pissed as the (only) dozen or so people who left when we were told that nothing was happening inside the store (still with about 60 people in front of us that we could see).

As it turns out, the deluge of iPhone users both new and old…new ones trying to activate their phones and old ones trying to update them to iPhone 2.0 software…killed iTunes for most of the day between about 8am and 3pm (Central). Perhaps even worse is that it seems that some AT&T stores didn’t even HAVE the iPhone 3G when they opened, like the AT&T store across the street that had a line of people wrapped all the way around it. I’m surprised they didn’t lynch the employees when they found out there were no phones to be had.

Most of us persevered. My Line Buddies™ Craig and Kristen each left to go pee a couple of times. Somebody else nearby obviously didn’t…I’m not sure who it was, but someone near me smelled like urine, blech. People went back and forth to their cars to get / stash their umbrellas. And one of the pissed-that-she-wasn’t-going-to-be-on-TV chicks asked the Apple Store girl over and over and over if they were SURE they’d have enough phones for all of us.

A few silly folk blatantly disregarded every single announcement about The iPhone 3G Rules, particularly the “primary account holder must be present” rule and the “must have a credit card” rule and the “no phones leave without being activated” rule. And then there were those a-holes who tried to wander into the Apple Store nonchalantly, feigning complete bewilderment when told there was a line of 150 PEOPLE outside that they’d have to get to the end of.

Contrary to some reports, the phone were in fact activated on the AT&T network prior to leaving the store, but the last step, sync’ing the phone with iTunes to activated it with Apple, was what didn’t happen for a lot of people, including me.

In the end, though, I did get my 16GB black iPhone and a few accessories, including a pretty horrible clear plastic case called iSee made by Countour Design. It fits, but once you switch the ringer off, it’s next to impossible to switch back on because the cutout isn’t big enough. And the rubbery inserts over the volume and sleep buttons have no pressers underneath them, so you have to mash them bigtime to make those buttons work. Yucko.

All in all, a pretty fun day and one that I won’t repeat in form any time soon. If I replace this iPhone with a new one sometime, it won’t be until at least day two.

Meanwhile, out in Blogsville, once-starry-eyed Apple fans are fuming, pointing fingers and worried about their mighty (mousey?) empire crumbling. This, I offer, is yet another reason to not buy into the b.s. machine that would have you believe that Apple can do no wrong. They’re a technology company. Technology companies make mistakes. Sometimes they’re big mistakes that look bad and smell worse. I’m sure it’ll all come around to blaming AT&T and Microsoft (since Apple Stores use Symbol handhelds powered by Windows Mobile) but you and I know the truth: Sometimes smoke blows away and mirrors break. And then the funhouse ain’t so fun no more.

Now if I can just figure out why Super MonkeyBall won’t install on my new toy…