My friend Lan Bui, one of the producers of the wonderful podcast NoodleScar, just twittered that he got his $200 back from Apple for buying the (now $399) 8GB iPhone. Yes, I know that they’re giving a 10-day price guarantee, but Lan purchased his phone on July 2nd — more than two months ago.

Lan told me that he spent an hour on the phone with his local Apple store, and they told him that apparently as of tomorrow there will be a company wide policy put in place regarding refunds, and that he should come down immediately if he wanted his $200. I don’t know how many returns they’ll let people get away with for the rest of the day, but it can’t hurt trying!

UPDATE:
For the record, I’m happy with the $600 I paid- I’ve had the phone for 2 months, and I love it. As many have said, that’s the price of being an early adopter, and you have to understand that sometimes things are going to change (sometimes faster than you’d expect) after you purchase a device early. So no, I’m not trying to get any money back, but I was sharing the story of someone who felt it wasn’t fair (or hell, someone who thought they might as well try and get some dough back from Apple, which isn’t a terrible thing either!).

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Many people had trouble activating their iPhones, but for the most part those issues were resolved fairly quickly (including my own). However, I received an email yesterday from someone who has a problem, and I’m not entirely sure where the fault lies or how it can be resolved. I’m reposting parts of the email with the writer’s permission:

Having a trip planned to the states within the week, I called AT&T multiple times, from multiple numbers, using multiple accents, and asked whether or not I’d be able to use an iPhone in Puerto Rico. The FOUR different AT&T people I spoke to assured me that it would work just fine.

I went to NYC, and purchased my 8GIG, from the Glass Bastion of Evil known as the Apple Store on 5th Ave. Then, I went to an AT&T Corporate store and purchased a brand new account, in the states, suited for the iPhone. The sales rep, convinced my mom to purchase a cheap backup phone, in case I visit a location where an expensive iPhone would not be ideal (this is something I do often). So we did, and he told me to wait three days before activating the iPhone. He knew we were the day after the purchase.

So, I waited three days (Saturday -> Today) and went to activate my iPhone and I recieved this message “We’re sorry, AT&T has determined that your current account cannot be used with the iPhone.”
W
T
F
I specifically purchased the iPhone plan, how could it not be used with the iPhone? I called them up, and the smarmy AT&T man informed me that the iPhone will not work in Puerto Rico.

THATS RIGHT! I was lied to, to my face, by four different AT&T reps and two people in the Apple Store. So, now I’m left with a really expensive paper weight, and a burning anger that’s telling me to do something.

My mind flashes through many possibilities, from account relocation (using an address of one of my family members in the states), to a lawsuit (though I don’t know anything about the law besides what I watch on Law and Order). I suppose I could keep my crappy phone and just upgrade it with some money that I’ll find from who knows where. But now I get to the crux of the email, what should I do?

A quick Google search for iPhone in Puerto Rico brings back some results showing that the iPhone doesn’t work there, which I expected anyway. So then why was he told by so many people that it would work? Were they misinformed? Was there a miscommunication? On top of that, I find it vaguely suspicious that the AT&T employee had him purchase a cheaper phone as well, as though he had a feeling it wouldn’t work.

Maybe a better question would be: How can he hack it to make it work?

UPDATE: The author emailed me this morning from his iPhone! He had it activated by using his uncle’s address in the States. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions!

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One of the most vexing and annoying problems with the iPhone is the recessed headphone jack. My Ultimate Ears don’t fit, my old Sony headphones don’t either, so the only option for me right now are the included iPhone earbuds. And well, doubly annoying is the fact that those particular earbuds hurt like hell.

There’s the V-Moda set that you can buy at the Apple store (UPDATE: they do not have the answering features, only a mic! LAME which also have the call answering function–I expect that a ton of other brands will jump on this, such as the upcoming pair from Shure) which look nice, but they’re $100. Then there’s the Belkin iPhone headphone adapter, the “peripheral no one wants, but many will need.” Essentially, ugly and not very flexible.

Yet today on my Flickr stream, I saw another innovative solution discovered by Tristan Tom (maybe he wasn’t the first, but the first I’ve heard of!). He cleverly remembered that the iPod Shuffle Sport Case comes with an adapter, that also happens to work perfectly for the iPhone. Another upshot is that it at least it looks Apple-like, and has some flexibility to it. The downside is that you have to buy the Shuffle Sport Case (eBay has them), which seems pretty dumb if you don’t have a Shuffle. Or if you don’t exercise.

If only Apple would sell this accessory separately! I’ve actually considered going through the process of either stripping some of the plastic covering from around the plug of my Ultimate Ears, or possibly re-wiring the iPhone cable with some new earbuds. This Shuffle adapter would be a much less painful way of using my favorite headphones again.

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Yesterday I went over to the Apple Store at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, to cover the line over there for CNET TV and to secure another test unit iPhone for our labs. I was there for about 4 hours, and by the time 6PM rolled around, the line was pretty damn long. I wasn’t intending on buying an iPhone that day, but when I got up to the counter and the smiling Apple clerk asked me what he could get for me, I blurted out “Two eight-gigers, please!” I caved under the non-pressure.

So now I have an iPhone of my very own. The one you see above isn’t mine, but Ryan’s. The reason why you don’t see mine is because I realized that I still have ’til the 10th of July before my T-Mobile contract is up. I’ve already spent $600–I’m sure as hell not going to spend another $200 just so I can use it now. Oh, but is it ever hard not to activate that sucker. You can’t do anything without activating it! Luckily, I’ll be surrounded by them both at home and at work, so I won’t feel like I’m missing out too much.

I have to tell you, I didn’t want to get sucked in like this, but it’s cool… really cool. Yes, the keyboard can be a little flaky. And yes, the EDGE kind of sucks. But my initial feeling is that it’s a very fun and easy to use phone. I guess I’ll have to wait until the week of the 10th to give my full impressions!

In the meantime, the real phone/MP3 player pros at CNET have taken their First Look, so go check that out.

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