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Well that was June 29, 2007.
Along with a former cnet editor Donald Bell I was to pick up the iPhone at 6 pm from the Apple store in downtown San Francisco and then write the review that night.
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At the store, it was an absolute madhouse.
A huge crowd outside.
There's a keel of people that, you know, have been waiting for days to buy the phone and it's wrapped all the way around the corner.
And I was waiting there patiently.
And at one point, the crowd surged forward and I actually got flattened against the glass wall of the store.
I really just thought for a moment, like I'd never seen a crowd like this.
The doors open.
They started cheering.
I was ushered in the store really quickly along with Donald.
We went into a back hallway.
They gave us the phone.
They gave us press release and a little information.
And we were actually ushered out the back door, cuz they didn't want us to see us walking outside the front door.
We hadn't Waited in the queue.
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Walked back quickly, got in the office, had it immediately photographed.
Cuz we hadn't seen it yet.
The only thing we'd seen it was behind glass at MacWorld, which was six months before.
This was one of the most anticipated gadgets ever.
And we were holding it in our hands.
We're certainly one of the first, but I was the first a CNET to actually do it.
So that was a cool mode.
Donald and I did our first look video, and then we went back to our desks, we started looking at the phone, toying with it, and just started writing.
And ordered pizza.
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So what we did is a live review there.
We're publishing it in sections live on CNET as we were writing.
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And so I would write a few paragraphs.
I'd send it to my editor.
She was at home.
She'd send it back to me with tweaks or minor corrections or whatever and then would keep publishing.
It was kind of exciting because actually, people were following along and they were asking questions in the comments.
They were saying This is so cool like I feel like I always remember person's like.
I feel like I'm at the Superbowl right now.
But it was so supportive and really enthusiastic readership which you don't often get.
Cause usually you write something, and it published, and then it's done.
And then you see the comments.
But as you're writing.
To see the interaction from seeing the readers was very cool.
It's always something I'll remember.
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We started writing at about 8 and I think I left at maybe two or two thirty in the morning.
When I look back at the review now I see that had said.
Does it live up to the stratospheric hype?
Well, not so much.
And at the time it certainly was a great device.
It was amazing and has changed the world.
It's become one of the best ones ever.
But at the time there were a lot of things that we were very used to using on a phone like photo messaging, like stereo bluetooth and other things that it just didn't have.
And it was a great promise.
And so I don't regret that line at all, not so much.
But I knew they were on to something big and that certainly has been the case.
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