Behold . . .

Even Nero can't help being stricken by the splendor and genius of my new 3G iPhone. Like the rest of us, he could hardly keep his paws off it.

Following several aborted attempts to purchase the world's most-wanted gadget, I put together a simple strategy. I arrived at the Apple Store in Fashion Valley Mall around 8:15 a.m. Friday, early enough to wait out the crowd for at least a couple of hours before having to be at work.

My heart soared as I approached a line of only six people stretching from the store's locked front doors. I took my position, and within 15 minutes at least 15 more people were lined up behind me.

I was inside by 9:30 a.m. and walking out as the newest member of The Cult half an hour later.

I did have a bit of a scare yesterday. Out of the blue the phone started displaying a startling "No SIM" error message in the upper left corner of the screen where normally the AT&T network-strength bars appear. Nothing on the phone would work. I tried turning it on and off several times and the problem persisted.

Then Rex took over. After he turned off and on a few settings like WiFi and airplane mode, the error message disappeared and the phone returned to normal mode. Our buddy Stan, who works as an Apple Store lead genius, said the card probably got jiggled out of place and that it probably wasn't anything to worry about.

Several forum posters at MacRumors.com reported the same problem. Some got their phones working again by doing a hard reset, while another was given a replacement SIM card when he took his malfunctioning unit to an AT&T store.

Hopefully, the problem won't surface again for me so that Nero's worship of the glorious device can continue uninterrupted.