Buzz is a fickle thing. It can carry you away on waves of anticipation, promising the fulfillment of all your dreams. But buzz can turn on your just as easily. Nothing can be as good as pre-launch hysteria will make it out to be, and when that new device we’ve been waiting for with such yearning doesn’t turn out to be the cure for all the world’s ills, it can get ugly.

Apple is very familiar with the changeable nature of buzz. Anyone remember the Newton? I do. I wrote two books about it. (No really, two books.) I’m sure somewhere in Apple’s collective hind brain lurks that traumatic memory. Just as I’m sure more than a couple of Apple execs enjoyed some truly epic night terrors on the lead-up to the iPhone launch, probably involving iPhones morphing into Newtons on the store shelves and angry mobs of disappointed consumers hurling globs of egg freckles at Apple’s corporate headquarters. (more…)

It took three fruitless pilgrimages to our local Apple Store before The Geek Beat could achieve iPhoneness, and even then an insider tip was required (a tip which allowed us to bypass the lines altogether and didn’t even require we beat the sunrise – see below).

In the last 24 hours we’ve done little else but play around and take some photos (Exhibit A to your right). Our initial impressions? Wow! I mean, it’s not perfect – lack of an instant messaging client currently tops our list of complaints – but still, wow! (more…)