From Robby Stanley

Just a quick news release. We just completed an extensive Verizon iPhone 4 Teardown and Screen Replacement Video on Youtube. This will show people the step by step directions it will take in order to replace their screen if they choose this route and want to save some money. It also details some of the difference between the GSM and Verizon version along with the required tools it take in order to take the Verizon iPhone 4 apart..

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvGyw6O14Ck

I picked up my co-founder, Evan Kirchhoff, in San Francisco mid-morning and we drove up to the Marin Best Buy. He had good experiences with short lines there in the past during Apple product launches and it was also a chance for us to test the newest build of Mobimileage. He was a little worried since all the Best Buys opened at 7 am that morning in anticipation of a rush on the Verizon iPhone.

We got there around 11, there were about 9 people in the mobile portion of the store- 5 of them were employees, and 2 couples. An employee walked up to us immediately and asked what we were looking for and we asked, somewhat apprehensively, “Do you have Verizon iPhones left?”, thinking the lack of lines was because they had sold out hours ago.

He said, “Sure, no problem.” and started the process of getting us set up.

An hour later, after transferring all of my information off the HTC EVO on to the new iPhone, we were on our way back to San Francisco.

Two days later I also visited the Verizon Store and the Apple Store on University (here’s the backstory) and asked if launch day on February 10 was crazy- both said there was a little crowd of a few dozen people in the morning when they first opened followed by a steady trickle of 1-2  every few minutes. No one had sold out of the phones.

On the whole, it seems the Verizon iPhone launch has been successful but not the frenzy that some people were expecting. It could be that most people who wanted the phone on the first day ordered the Verizon iPhone online. My AT&T friends whose contracts are not up don’t seem to be in a rush to pay $500+ to switch.  There is still a healthy demand for the Verizon iphone on ebay and craigslist, but not the insane prices we saw when the 3G and 4 first came out.  However, most informal reports from the field seem to indicate that Verizon and Apple guessed almost spot on what the demand would be.  Although I have not heard of a store selling out, I have heard often that they are low on stocks.

So far, I’m enjoying the call quality and in a side-by-side comparison with my co-founder’s AT&T iPhone, the signal strength does not show significant difference.

Follow me on Twitter @chiah.

Keep in mind that there was a whole slew of phones already ordered last week, and there are many people waiting for their AT&T plans to expire so perhaps we should not be that surprised. Still, there were people waiting at downtown SF Verizon office and a second line at lunch.  A third rush is expected after work hours. The store feels pretty confident that at the current rate on phones they are selling; they will have enough for everyone today.

Here is a tip though…  check to see what the taxes are BEFORE you buy the phone. In California I have to pay taxes on the value of the phone, not the cost.  So I paid over $60 in taxes for this thing.  Order out of state if your state has this rule.

There has been a jailbreak for 4.2.1 using RedSn0w, but its kind of a pain; so the untethered jailbreak is great.  However, the BIG win here is that once I get my Verizon phone (AFTER THE 10TH!! because the verizon iphone sold out! ) I feeling pretty good that it will be jailnbroken.. Of course this does not mean everything on a jailbroken verizon iphone will work. Because we are talking a cdma radio, it possible that PDANet and other jailbreak apps may not work or Verizon will be able to block them.  This could really play havoc with my top 10 jailbreak apps list.  Well see. As for an unlock on CDMA iphones, that will most likely not happen; but hey, you never know.

Until the site come back up, here is a list of steps (and a longer post) for unlocking from readwriteweb

1. Backup your device and restore it to iOS version 4.2.1, setting it up as a new device within iTunes.
2. Plug in your device to your computer and turn the device off.
3. Download and run greenpois0n on your computer. The onscreen instructions will guide you as to how to get into DFU mode on the device, which involves a series of button presses (press and hold sleep, press home, release sleep, continue holding home).
4. When your phone or other device enters into DFU mode, the jailbreaking process will begin.
5. When the process completes, you’ll have a new “Loader” icon on your homescreen. (Apple TV jailbreakers, of course, will not. They will need to use Terminal and SSH instead).
6. Tap the icon to install Cydia, the jailbreak app store.

Once I get a chance to look at this stuff myself and read comments after this has been live in the wild, I’ll update.

Regardless, that is the story.  Here is the screen grab..

I do not know if they are truly out-of-stock as the URL indicates:

http://cache.vzw.com/OutofStock/sorry.html

or if they’re servers were crushed and they are talking them offline for a bit.  Time will tell.

So I talked with the guys at the Verizon store and they are even surprised by how fast and how hard the servers were hit.  They are going to huddle up tomorrow and review the plan of action for existing vs. new customers, so I would not say existing customers are screwed just yet.  Keep posted to this channel, I will update once they get back to me.

I guess that is to be expected.  Can’t wait to see how many orders they had in 1 day.

Update:  Its still down.  #FAIL

But wait, I’m NOT a Verizon customer…  I have to wait a WHOLE 7 DAYS before I can order?  Really?  You have that little patience.  Well I really hope you remember reading my post on how to get the Verizon iPhone 4 early by buying a pre paid plan.  If not, go back and read it.

Else, just wait til the 10th like everyone else.  Heck; you can go to Best Buy.  They will be stocking them. Not sure how many though.

As for me, I’m going to preoder right at Midnight West Coast time. Why??  Eh, why not.  Will be fun to see what my order number will be.  ^_^

Instead you have to PAY $20 a month for tethering (hotspot) and if you go over 2G, you pay ANOTHER $20.  Sigh.  This is BS since I only need to tether once a month at best and then for just a few hours. So this begs the question that I brought up in my previous post.  Can we expect that a jailbroken Verizon iphone 4 will support PDANet just as well as the AT&T version will?  I may still pull the trigger on the 3rd and order the phone, but this little bit of news dampens my excitement a bit.  Perhaps I’ll ask this on Quora.

Its a shame really; phone users like me in San Francisco, or New York or other places where there is suppose to be good coverage and 3G would feel the pain a bit less if we could make sure one or key place (like at work or home) was reliable for coverage, I think we could have lived with dropped calls going from place to place.  But that does seem to be happening anytime soon.

Update: I got a tweet for a friend saying they have this and they are STILL dropping calls.  I’ll write that over the weekend.

In general Verizon is considered to have the best coverage of all the networks and when I last had Verizon in 2006; that seemed to be the case here in the Bay Area. The main reason I’m leaving AT&T is because of dropped calls; but what if I get a Verizon phone only to discover that the coverage is no better then what I had with AT&T?  So I bought a cheap clam phone for $30 and I’m been taking it to the places where I normally lose connection on my iphone. So far so good, but there are more places I still need to check.  But the win here (might be) that since I’m an Verizon customer, I should be able to preorder my iphone 4 a week early.  A week is not a big deal, and in fact, I normally like to let other people buy the first units and test it out for me; so I may not preorder after all; but YOU might.

Now what do I do with this phone once I get the iphone 4?  Well you can keep it as a spare or try to sell it for $15 or so.  Either way its a cheap way to test out the next work and get in line early to order the iphone 4.  Who knows?  They could run out!