It should have been predictable, I guess, but the iPhone activation servers have failed and I ran afoul of it this morning.  Before heading in to work I thought I’d just download the stuff and see if there wasn’t some interesting new app worth installing.  You can download the new iTunes, download the firmware to the phone, resync the data to the phone, and then BAM!  The phone can’t contact the activation servers to complete the process.

This leaves you with the phone in “emergency” mode where all it can do is dial out a number you specify.  No other access seems to work and the phone says “no service”.  AT&T is actually sending customers home with their new iPhones and telling them to activate via iTunes (which was originally not supposed to have been an option).  BTW, I don’t have a 3G, just the original flavor.  I’m in activation purgatory because you can still upgrade an old iPhone so it can run apps.

You’d think this would’ve occurred to them to beef things up, but whether or not it did things aren’t beefed up enough. 

Doh!