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I’ve tried three different times and have been told either 5 a.m. Pacific or 6 a.m. Pacific.
Well, Apple told people in New Zealand that pre-orders would start on May 1. May 1, 12:01 in New Zealand would be 5am Pacific. Additionally they're telling people in Australia preorders are on April 30. The only time where it could be May 1 in New Zealand and April 30 in Australia would be between 5am and 7am Pacific time. Apparently HomePods Gen 1 went on sale at 5:30am Pacific. So it's going to be sometime between 5am and 7am Pacific. But now, with all these British retailers saying 1pm BST, that would make it 5am Pacific.

My money is on 5am Pacific, 8am Eastern.
 
Well, Apple told people in New Zealand that pre-orders would start on May 1. May 1, 12:01 in New Zealand would be 5am Pacific. Additionally they're telling people in Australia preorders are on April 30. The only time where it could be May 1 in New Zealand and April 30 in Australia would be between 5am and 7am Pacific time. Apparently HomePods Gen 1 went on sale at 5:30am Pacific. So it's going to be sometime between 5am and 7am Pacific. But now, with all these British retailers saying 1pm BST, that would make it 5am Pacific.

My money is on 5am Pacific, 8am Eastern.
Good sleuthing! It is strange to me that Apple just doesn’t put the time on their website.
 
Well, the agent I’m now talking to says the store will go down at 12 a.m. Pacific and re-open at 5 a.m. Pacific.
It still amazes me that in this age of On-Line commerce, Apple still needs to take the store down for hours to add products? Imagine if Amazon or Costco needed to do this?
 
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I was just on the chat and the person did not know but was guessing midnight PDT.

This is too weird, I think I am going to get up at my regular time and try ordering if I can’t, I can’t.

There is always BB.
 
They need to announce it so we can be ready I have 2 iPads to order plus 2 to trade in and then 4 news Apple TV I really don’t want to wait all night for this last time I got it a month late
 
I'm wondering if will will get guidance of stock levels at launch. I don't want to get into the slipped-a-week or two slot.
I always see the delay in shipping times as a way to discover if the hype is real with reviews and such. Rarely do i cancel something as I like to get a feel of things for myself however its nice to see everyones excitement and either build on that or cancel the order.
 
It still amazes me that in this age of On-Line commerce, Apple still needs to take the store down for hours to add products? Imagine if Amazon or Costco needed to do this?
Creates hype. That's all really.

It is midnight pst or 5am pst
No one knows for sure. Most likely it's going to be 5am PDT. Remember, California is observing Daylight Savings Time right now, so it's GMT-7.
 
New account so take it with grain of salt, a chain in Nordics called Giganten announced they will open preorders in Finland on 14:00 GMT +2/ 15:00 GMT +3 via their product pages and email newsletter. Time may vary between countries.
 
New account so take it with grain of salt, a chain in Nordics called Giganten announced they will open preorders in Finland on 14:00 GMT +2/ 15:00 GMT +3 via their product pages and email newsletter. Time may vary between countries.
That would make sense. That would be 05:00 in California (GMT -7).
 
Creates hype. That's all really.
More than that. Apple is one of the only merchants capable of doing these huge launches without their systems going down, payment processing getting overloaded, etc. My guess is they take the store down to temporarily move it to new servers, and then of course test the heck out if it.
 
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It still amazes me that in this age of On-Line commerce, Apple still needs to take the store down for hours to add products? Imagine if Amazon or Costco needed to do this?

It does seem weird. The product page is already active, just need to activate the add to bag functionality.

EDIT: Looks like midnight is a no-go. Catch y’all later this AM.
 
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honestly wish apple kept the same late night timeframe like before. i am in no way a morning person. would rather stay up until 2:00am to pre-order like before and call it a night.
 
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