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Creation of Original iPhone Browser Detailed by Former Apple Engineer

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,506
30,781



tolmasky.png
Countless details on the development of the original iPhone have been shared by various Apple employees in several different publications, but a new story on the creation of the phone's first web browser has surfaced courtesy of Francisco Tolmasky, an early iPhone engineer who interviewed with The New York Times.

Tolmasky joined Apple when he was just 20 years old, working under Steve Jobs to create a mobile web browser for the original iPhone. Jobs regularly gave him feedback on his project, often sending Tolmasky back to the drawing board because his creation wasn't "magical" enough.
"Steve was really adamant, where he said, 'This needs to be like magic. Go back, this isn't magical enough!'" Mr. Tolmasky said about his experience developing the mobile Safari app. "I remember being very frustrated. This was, like, an impossible task."
Click to expand...
Countless hours of work resulted in Safari for iPhone, which used WebKit to load web pages on a small screen and allowed users to interact with sites via pinches, swipes, and taps.

As with other accounts of the iPhone's creation, Tolmasky details the intense security behind the project, explaining how the software team was split into sections focusing on web and apps. "Each one of these things is basically one person," explained Tolmasky, speaking of the original iPhone apps.

In one anecdote, Tolmasky divulges the origin of the iPhone's keyboard, which reportedly came about during a week-long hackathon where Jobs instructed the software team to work only on keyboard prototypes. The engineer who won the hackathon was assigned to the keyboard permanently.

According to Tolmasky, Apple's original iPhone Maps app was a last minute addition to the device, as Jobs decided the app should be added just a few weeks before the smartphone was first introduced at the Macworld Expo in January of 2007. It only took his teammate, Chris Blumenberg, a week to have a workable prototype.
"Within a week he had something that was working, and in two weeks he had something to show at Macworld that we were showing," Mr. Tolmasky said. "That was the kind of effect Steve could have on you: This is important, this needs to happen, and you do it."
Click to expand...
Tolmasky left Apple shortly after the original iPhone was released as the company no longer felt like a startup, and now he works as a mobile game designer. His most recent creation, Bonsai Slice [Direct Link], was released today. Tolmasky's full interview and additional details on his game can be found in the original NYT piece.

Article Link: Creation of Original iPhone Browser Detailed by Former Apple Engineer
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/24/original-iphone-browser-engineer/
FakeWozniak

FakeWozniak

macrumors 6502
Nov 8, 2007
428
26
Very smart, share a little bit about early Apple development process, quote Steve Jobs, and advertise your new product in the process. This guy just made a million bucks from the NYT story.
 
Chrjy

Chrjy

macrumors 65816
May 19, 2010
1,095
2,098
UK
FakeWozniak said:
Very smart, share a little bit about early Apple development process, quote Steve Jobs, and advertise your new product in the process. This guy just made a million bucks from the NYT story.
Click to expand...

Absolutely but who can blame him!

Although the comment about Apple no longer felt like a 'Start-Up' is slightly weird to say the least....not sure what he was smoking!
 
taptic

taptic

macrumors 65816
Dec 5, 2012
1,341
437
California
This is probably the worst idea I have ever seen for a game!

"Yeah, I broke my iPad playing Bonsai Slice... sweaty hands and all..."

or

"Now you can invite friends to look like idiots with you! Challenge each other to see who can achieve take-off first!"
 
slffl

slffl

macrumors 65816
Mar 5, 2003
1,303
4
Seattle, WA
It's amazing what the talent at Apple accomplish with a fraction of the time and people it takes Google to do the same thing.
 
S

Since

macrumors newbie
Oct 31, 2012
4
0
When these engineers' names are exposed like this... other companies will hunt for them. :)
 
U

Urban Joe

Suspended
Mar 19, 2012
506
534
FWIW I think the current keyboard really has lots of room for improvement.

Just look at some of the 3rd party keyboards that are really kicking ass now days. I think Apple should either

1) Acquire one of these companies.

2) Allow 3rd party keyboards on iOS

3) Offer some LSD and see if they can't stir up a little creativity within their own ranks (joking)
 
oneMadRssn

oneMadRssn

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
5,977
13,990
MacRumors said:
Tolmasky left Apple shortly after the original iPhone was released as the company no longer felt like a startup
Click to expand...

From my experience, start-up means low pay, poor benefits or no benefits, long hours, questionable future, very very hard work, uncomfortable working space. It also means freedom to be creative, has a better-than-the-lottery chance of cashing in on the equity at some point, and to some extent being in control of one's own future.

I think people often incorrectly think start-up means soho-style loft offices, napping pods, bringing your dog to work, no dress code, and brand new macbook's every year for all employees.
 
larrylaffer

larrylaffer

macrumors 6502a
Aug 1, 2009
693
1,304
Los Angeles
oneMadRssn said:
From my experience, start-up means low pay, poor benefits or no benefits, long hours, questionable future, very very hard work, uncomfortable working space. It also means freedom to be creative, has a better-than-the-lottery chance of cashing in on the equity at some point, and to some extent being in control of one's own future.

I think people often incorrectly think start-up means soho-style loft offices, napping pods, bringing your dog to work, no dress code, and brand new macbook's every year for all employees.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure an engineer working for Apple in 2007 would have quite a bit of equity to cash in today.
 
G

gm713

macrumors newbie
Sep 19, 2012
19
0
FakeWozniak said:
Very smart, share a little bit about early Apple development process, quote Steve Jobs, and advertise your new product in the process. This guy just made a million bucks from the NYT story.
Click to expand...

Can you blame him? It's called marketing. After all he does have bragging rights. Where the game is concerned, does it sell iPad insurance as an in-app purchase?
 
groovyd

groovyd

Suspended
Jun 24, 2013
1,227
621
Atlanta
FakeWozniak said:
Very smart, share a little bit about early Apple development process, quote Steve Jobs, and advertise your new product in the process. This guy just made a million bucks from the NYT story.
Click to expand...

chump change for the guy who wrote the first iphone safari... he deserves it all.
 
K

KALLT

macrumors 603
Sep 23, 2008
5,361
3,378
I think it’s hilarious that Jobs actually insisted on a ‘magical’ browser. :D
 
M

MiesVanDerRobot

macrumors member
Aug 28, 2012
56
2
Chrjy said:
Although the comment about Apple no longer felt like a 'Start-Up' is slightly weird to say the least....not sure what he was smoking!
Click to expand...

musika said:
"No longer felt like a startup"?

That's a pretty immature way to look at things, but alright.
Click to expand...

Consider things from his perspective: during the development of the iPhone he was working on a tiny team and had complete ownership of an entire app. That is thoroughly start-up like.

In the original NYT article that is not even a direct quote from him, but the reporter's interpretation of what he said. Given that the article also indirectly reports him giving a "rare window into the company’s start-up-like product development," the "no longer felt like a start-up" paraphrase makes perfect sense in context:

"Mr. Tolmasky said he left Apple in late 2007 because by then, the iPhone had become such a success that the team had to grow and priorities changed. It no longer felt like a start-up, so he left to start his own."

Clearly, he's someone who likes to own a project, not share it with a team of 10 or 20. He prefers broad-stroke inventing to focused work in a narrower niche. That kind of self-knowledge as a developer is the exact opposite of immature and weird. It's mature and wonderful and all too rare.

I am sure he is ten times as happy and productive doing what he does now as he would have been as one cog in the machine at Apple. And there are plenty of developers who prefer to have highly-focused expertise and responsibilities. I am sure one of them is being far more effective in his old job than he would have been.

The whole workforce wins when people are smart enough to put themselves in situations that play to their strengths.
 
rdlink

rdlink

macrumors 68040
Nov 10, 2007
3,226
2,435
Out of the Reach of the FBI
DShap5 said:
This is probably the worst idea I have ever seen for a game!

"Yeah, I broke my iPad playing Bonsai Slice... sweaty hands and all..."

or

"Now you can invite friends to look like idiots with you! Challenge each other to see who can achieve take-off first!"
Click to expand...

Or, "My friend and I both broke our displays because we were standing too close to each other while playing Slice."
 
macduke

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,136
19,665
Well, when I was his age…wait a minute. I am his age. When we were our age, he was making Mobile Safari directly under Steve Jobs, and I was just dinking around in my dorm room—waiting for my Motorola Rokr E1 to take 45 minutes to sync 100 songs from iTunes. How pathetic.
 
Arndroid

Arndroid

macrumors 6502a
Oct 3, 2013
903
461
People may not remember how amazing the original iPhone browser was compared to aha existed. It truly was magical. As one of the few crazies who waited in long lines to have the original iPhone day one, the web browser was perhaps the most amazing part of the device.

Being able to render full web pages on a device so small was revolutionary. All previous attempts at mobile web browsing were an affront to god and nature.

People take the experience for granted now but it truly was amazing back then.
 
C

cyberdogl2

macrumors regular
Jan 6, 2003
226
31
sorry to blindly quote, but this is hilarious

Mr. Jobs was notorious for throwing his weight around however he could. One person on the iPhone design team was also named Steve, which caused some confusion in meetings. Mr. Jobs sought to change this.

“At some point Steve Jobs got really frustrated with this and said ‘Guess what, you’re Margaret from now on,’” Mr. Tolmasky said. From there on, members of the team would always address the designer Steve as Margaret.
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steve jobs so boss. sucks for Margaret
 
P

petsounds

macrumors 65816
Jun 30, 2007
1,493
519
"Steve was really adamant, where he said, 'This needs to be like magic. Go back, this isn't magical enough!'" Mr. Tolmasky said about his experience developing the mobile Safari app. "I remember being very frustrated. This was, like, an impossible task."
Click to expand...

No offense intended to this guy, but it doesn't sound like he really fit the Apple culture. Frustrated? He got to work directly with Steve Jobs when he was 20 on the most important product of the decade. A lot of people (me included) have worked insane hours at startups for products that no one's even heard of! I would've killed for the opportunity he had!
 
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