IPhone 4 fever

More than 100 people were still in line at the Apple Stores at both the Fashion Show mall and Town Square late this afternoon. An Apple associate said the line swelled to more than 1,000 earlier in the day, with some customers waiting more than 12 hours to pick up their phone. Customers in line outside the Town Square store were given umbrellas to protect them from the sun and bottles of water.

The Apple representative said the store at the Forum Shops at Caesars had run out of the new phones earlier in the day, but those in line at the Fashion Show Mall should be able to leave the store with a new phone today. He said most of those in line were people who had reserved a phone during a single day of preorders last week, while others waited in the line for walk-up purchases.

He said those with reservations who did not pick up their phones today would lose their guarantee of getting a phone and the device would be moved into the general inventory. That means there's a chance that walk-up customers will be able to purchase the iPhone 4 early Friday. The store will open at 7 a.m.

There were no reports of customers returning phones with either of the two bugs cited by some users at various locations. The issues include losing reception when the phone is held in the left hand and yellow stains on the glass screen.

I did get to test out the workers' new phone, and found it to be very sleek. The Wi-Fi service in the mall was very weak, so I was unable to connect to the Internet. I still plan to wait for the dust to settle after today's rush, which saw record sales for an iPhone release. This year marks the fourth consecutive June with the release of a new iPhone.

The line snakes outside the Apple Store at the Fashion Show Mall late Thursday afternoon.