OK, since everyone is dieing to know, here was my experience:
I decided to go to a relatively new Verity (Sprint authorized retailer, but it's exactly like a Sprint corporate store, even down to the furniture) store, figuring maybe peoples' habits haven't gotten them used to doing there since it's new. I showed up at 5:45am and was third in line behind an interesting guy who's the brains behind www.facefile.com (interesting concept) and a bright young man who works for IBM in Boulder (but works out of his house). Yes, we had plenty of time to chat as we waited for #4 to show up, but it was a pleasant morning - clear and lower 60's by the time the place opened. I had time to go to Starbucks and get my morning sustenance while they held my place in "line". Eventually #4, and 5 and so on showed up. By the time the store opened there were about 20 people in a real line. Because such information is super secret, we weren't allowed to know how many units the store had, but they weren't turning anyone away, and by the time I got my Pre there were probably 25 people behind us in line. Sprint had clearly prepared for the morning and activation went off without a hitch. The data service took a few hours to come online, as it often does with Sprint. Interesting note, beyond the fact that *I GOT A PRE*, which was the highlight of my week, and the guy from FaceFile.com who was interesting (we chatted about his business model for a couple of hours), was that he, as a developer, had had to show up at 4:15am just like us common people to make sure he got a Pre on which to develop his application. Sprint/Palm did nothing - would do nothing - overt to support him in doing so. We discussed this and found it odd that Palm/Sprint didn't give developers, Sprint employees, Best Buy employees, etc. Pre's in advance, as this would fuel the "hey, I want one of those!!" fire, along with the size of the Apps app. Maybe they didn't need that fire. Maybe they have a plan. Anyway, some odd behaviors IMNSHO around this whole launch (like, I got the Sprint Premier announcement email of the thing at 1:36am on 6/6 - and I thought *I* did things last-minute! - but I'd say it went pretty well when you consider that the iPhone launch caused AT&T's activation systems to crash and left thousands of would-be iPhone Koolaid drinkers . . . I mean users . . . staring that that nice screen with no ability to use the device. I am still putting the Pre through its paces, and I will still lament the loss of Bluetooth tethering and removable media, but for $30/month in savings compared to the BB with BES, I think I can live without it. And hey, if I use this thing for just 6 months it'll have paid for itself, and if nobody implements tethering for it and I still think I need it, I can always look at the Storm II, next! Toys! Cheers, Don [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
