Funny how things can change so quickly. As I'd mentioned in my previous posting, the local AT&T store was all out of iPhones and put me on a waiting list for new arrivals. Wouldn't you know it, but around 4 pm on Friday I get a call from the store. Seems some more phones have arrived, would I like to come and get it?

Silly question.

After assuring my boss I'd be home in time for final editing of late stories, I headed off. It was all so cloak and dagger. I had to ask for certain people in the stores. By telling the floor staffers I was looking for these certain people, they would know I was there for a wait-listed iPhone. I got the phone a minute after walking in, but walking out with it wouldn't be so easy.

After one interminable wait while the customer in front of me was activated, we started on mine. Wouldn't you know it, there was a snag. I had left Verizon earlier than planned due to their unwillingness to fix a serious problem. My phone kept losing audio. In mid-conversation, I suddenly could not hear the other person. They could hear me fine but I could not hear them. The call never terminated, and eventually audio came back.

Despite giving me two replacement phones, the problem persisted. When it finally started to affect business calls and my work, I demanded a new model phone because it was clear the problem was with the LG phone. Verizon refused. They were going to give me a fourth phone of the same model that had failed three times already. So I told them where to stick their defective phones and their termination fee and left for AT&T a little early. (Can you hear me now? Goodbye!)

This, as it turned out, proved problematic for AT&T. The iPhone price is contingent on being a new activation. But I was already an existing customer. As my 30-minute run to the store rounded the bend on 90 minutes, things started getting a little unsettling. I ended up needing a new phone number, but in the end, I owe a big thank you to the crew at the San Bruno AT&T store for my new gadget.

Overall it's a great phone but it has some shortcomings. The Wi-Fi is not very good. I sit 12 feet from the office access point and I'm getting e-mail retrieval errors. Even with 3G, the network quality isn't as good as Verizon's. The curved back of the phone means if you lie it flat and type, it wobbles back and forth. The first gen phone didn't do that because it was flat. Still, it's an amazing piece of equipment. Hat's off to Apple for one million units shipped and 10 million apps downloaded over the weekend.

So Scarlett, will it be The Cliff House or Castagnola's?