All you've got to do is enter "slmgr -rearm" into the command prompt at the end of every 30 day period, and you're set. You can do it three times, extending the whole deal to 120 days. The same trick worked on Vista, and it's nice to see Microsoft allowing the little trick to keep working on 7. You know, for those of us who hate entering activation codes. [Telegraph via Engadget]

The message above is the one iTunes spits out if you're one of the unlucky ones—like our own Andi—that can't complete the upgrade. The phone itself is locked and can only make emergency calls, which is what happens when you can't authenticate your phone with iTunes.

It seems like it's just the activation server is acting up, which means you should just hold on until it comes back online. [Thanks tipsters! (You poor bastards.)]

Update: Reader Phil has a tip that fixed the update for him:

In any event, I found a fix online and I thought you'd like to know that there's an issue with iTunes and IE (go figure, huh?). Not much on Google right now, but the error I received after the upgrade was completed was -9808 when contacting the iTunes store. The fix is to go into Internet Explorer, go to advanced options, scroll down to security and UNCHECK "Check for server certificate revocation". Restart iTunes and close IE and you should be fine. My iPhone was stuck on the connect to iTunes screen for forever. After changing that option, I was able to finish the installation and the iPhone rebooted itself and displayed the activation pop-up or whatever you want to call it.

Give that a shot if yours doesn't work. [Thanks Phil!]

Update 2: Looks like Andi's phone is back in business. All she had to do was to connect her phone a couple more times and eventually her device got authenticated. So keep trying that if you're still having trouble.

Instead, just wait. Leave your phone be and don't close iTunes.

We've successfully activated five different iPhone 3Gs with error screens just by letting them sit plugged in for anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. Hopefully that might work for you, too.

A "teal shirt" Apple representative came out to let us know they are having difficulty accessing accounts on the iTunes system. The line has been amazingly slow, but at least we are inside! In the last maybe 30 minutes only 5 people got into the store. Time to get comfy.

UPDATE: Here's the official word from AT&T:

We have had reports that customers attempting to download new iTunes 7.7 software to their new iPhone may get an error message saying "page not found." We have reported this issue to Apple. While Apple works to resolve this issue, we are asking customers to sync their newly activated phone later at home.

This does not look good. Apparently people at home can't even upgrade to firmware 2.0 and the problem is afflicting iTunes on an international scale. Here are a running tally of notifications we've received from the US:

"I was in the first group of 30 to get an iPhone 3G at the biggest AT&T Experience store in Houston, Texas. The staff couldn't get anyone's phones to activate, so they let us take them home.....where I still can't get it to activate - iTunes keeps timing out for activation, but not the iTunes store or anything else."

"Not sure if you have heard this, but I'm in an AT&T store in NJ and they can't activate the phones because iTunes is so slow. I've been waiting for 30 mins with the new iPhone attached to iTunes in the store and there is no end in sight... Have you heard about others having problems activating the phones? Sounded like other stores are having the same problem..."

"I bought an iPhone 3G and the AT&T activation isn't working. They are using iTunes to do it and there are network problems. Went home, and iTunes still won't activate. Seems to be an iTunes network issue."

"Apparently Apple completely underestimated the load on their servers for activation and ALL COMPUTERS in the Boston Apple store are stuck in the iPhone activation screen. No iTunes are able to connect to the central server, so no iPhones can be activated. "

Even the iTunes link on Apple is gone.

"I was at the AT&T store in Dublin, OH, this morning, 7th in line. They were letting people in four at a time and it took them about 30-40 minutes to get the first person done because of the servers crashing. I eventually got in and got my new iPhone, but not until almost 9:00."

"Jordan Creek in west Des Moines is down as is the Apple store. A teal shirt said that they're contemplating going with the old activate at home method. Told everyone in the line to get comfy. No one entered either store for 30 minutes"

"Atlanta update: nothing. People who went inside an hour ago are either still in there or escaped through a trap door. Three words about why waiting this year is better than last year— 'super monkey ball'"

"Apple store in Skokie< Il (north suburb of Chicago) is down. It's been an hour and 15 minutes and only four people have left. I'm still waiting for mine!"

"iPhone 3G San Antonio: I waited about 15 minutes for activation, and nobody else's was working either so I just took my phone and left. They kept telling me that wasn't allowed, but I had already paid for the phone so there was nothing they could do to stop me."

From our own Benny Goldman in NY: "We spoke with several people who walked out of the store without a working iPhone, as the iTunes/iPhone server appears to be overloaded since around 9:45. Two people said they waited for 15 minutes without any luck, and another two were advised to try activation tomorrow. In my own experience, I left the store without activating because I thought I would do it on my laptop, but I wasn't able to. I went back inside the Apple store and didn't fare any better. We were just told by an Apple employee that they are slowing down the number of people they are letting into the store and working on the servers in order to fix the problem."

"I work for a Rogers dealer up in Canada and I just read this post and wanted to say that we’re having the same problem up here as well. Yay."

So How Did This Happen:
The source of the iTunes crash/slowdown seems not be those buying iPhone 3Gs from Apple/AT&T stores at all but the millions of people updating to the new firmware at home. Firmware 2.0 isn't like other firmwares in that it needs to update the phone and reauthenticate the service. And in turn, when the servers are slammed and the phone reaches for reauthentication, the server isn't always there to reactivate the service. This is how some of those newly bricked iPhones are occurring, and a source tells us that even first gen iPhones are susceptible.

Also, a special thanks to commenter brianhatch for the headline.

And here's our gigantic FAQ about the iPhone 3G.

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AT&T: iPhone Activation Woes Improving [Washington Post]

The haxx0ring? Change a registry key (SkipRearm) hex value. That's it, but check the article for a full rundown—newer shipped copies of Home seem to have plugged the loophole, so it may only work in other versions shipped after March. Guess they really do want you to pirate Windows. – Matt Buchanan

Microsoft allows bypass of Vista activation [Windows Secrets via /.]

We won't reprint the steps here—and "we don't support piracy"—but in case you're interested you can read the full steps on keznews. It involves installing a Windows service (process), so if you're not entirely trusting of these guys not to steal all your CC info as you type it into Vista, you may want to skip this. – Jason Chen

[kez news via Digg]