So I asked the AT&T guy what was the deal with activations this year. As I will be picking up my wife's phone (and she'll be at work with her V1), I want to take it home and activate it. He seemed to think it was going to be in-store activations this time. He said I could take her phone home, but I'd have to bring it back to activate it.
Frankly, I don't trust a word he said, because I had to show him the Apple Insider link before he knew about the early queue for preorders. He said "they'll probably tell us that tomorrow"