Dead iPhone for now

I was trying to upgrade my first generation iPhone to the new 2.0 software version so I could try out some of the new applications and ran into a snag. It seems that the Apple iTunes Store is down or at least overloaded such that I can't activate my phone now. The error message I'm getting is: "We could not complete your iTunes Store request. An unknown error occurred (-9838). There was an error in the iTunes Store. Please try again later."

I'm very disappointed right now that Apple has dropped the ball and that my phone is currently dead. I really wonder how long my phone will be off.

When it's back up I would like to try out some of the new applications. I've put in my queue:

• AIM
• eBay Mobile
• NYTimes
• PayPal
• Remote
• WeatherBug

I'm considering getting a couple of the paid apps, here is the short list:

• Super Monkey Ball
• Enigmo
• SplashID

I'm really looking forward to using SplashID again on my portable device. I used it for a very long time on my Palm devices syncing back to my Mac. I still use the desktop version to keep track of all my passwords.