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Steve Jobs Announced the iPhone and Apple TV 18 Years Ago Today
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Every day I drive by the AT&T store (used to be Cingular) where I waited in line on the grass with a couple hundred others for my first iPhone in the Summer of 2007
Fond fond memories
Fond fond memories
Didn't really know anyone that carried or used smartphones before the iPhone. A handful of people had blackberries, and my upper-bosses, before the iPhone, carried company-issued Treos. I didn't pay much attention to them and they didn't care about tech. I know Blackberry was king smartphone at the time, but I wonder what industries it was popular in? In medicine where I work, we were carrying pagers, and still are!
I had some sort of Samsung slider feature phone before the iPhone.
As you recall, the big player during that era was Blackberry. A time when the keyboard with buttons ruled.
I remember how we wondered how typing on glass would be.
Well, here we are 18 years later fully acclimated, one handed typing and swiping.
In some ways I miss the physicality and tactile feedback of buttons (although haptics have helped).
I remember how we wondered how typing on glass would be.
Well, here we are 18 years later fully acclimated, one handed typing and swiping.
In some ways I miss the physicality and tactile feedback of buttons (although haptics have helped).
The technology has advanced significantly since the iPhone’s inception. Battery life, video capabilities, and screen size have all improved dramatically. Looking back, the iPhone was quite limited in its capabilities. My first iPhone was the 3GS.
I feel like Apple brought it into the mainstream and brought the product category into the general public. In an alternative universe, Blackberry and other smart phones would have remained in the world of the business executive and/or tech enthusiast.
The thread on the article about the announcement of the first iPod back in October 2001 had the same kind of reactions. I'm old enough to remember when many called the original iPad just a big and expensive iPod touch. The negativity has always been very visible on the forums.
It reminds me a lot of the repulsion that a foldable phone causes by now, but in the other hand, this gives me a clue of how all MR people will finally accept a foldable device once it had been introduced by Apple.
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Oh my! Already 18 years! My most favorite iPhone of all time. I was rocking my OG iPhone since lunch for 4 years, then bought 4s. I had to use sim hack - sim sandwich, to make my iPhone think it is using ATT network 
. But worked in EU no problem. Still have my scrached up 2g somewhere on the shelf, as well as brand new mint iPhone 2g next to it.
I would love to have something same size again. Heck, I even would pay Pro price for it.
. But worked in EU no problem. Still have my scrached up 2g somewhere on the shelf, as well as brand new mint iPhone 2g next to it.I would love to have something same size again. Heck, I even would pay Pro price for it.
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The iPhone was the device that really set off the smartphone revolution. Palm and Windows Mobile almost got it right, but the need for little pointing stylus made both of them less desirable to end users. And it forced Google to completely rethink Android so it became a touch-based phone operating system.
I'll never forget the years leading up to that launch. I was living in NYC when the iPod was released. We had just gone through the events of September 11th as firsthand witnesses. To that point I had been a lifelong fan of Macs and had worked in Academia so I had mostly avoiding having to use Windows PCs for work.
Apple seemed almost dead to the point that Jobs came back and had success with the first iMac. But Apple's position still seemed tenuous in the following years. The iPod was a gorgeous, exciting piece of hardware; an elegant product that overcame with dullness and weirdness of the constellation of random MP3 players that had come before it. Many in the press were saying that the iPod could be the start of something, the gateway drug driving people to the Apple ecosystem. But there were many detractors in the press who said it would never happen. Still, the iPod only got better. Portable CD players and albums of CDs slowly dissolved in my reality like sugar in hot tea.
In those days the cell phones were getting ever smaller. But they were still pretty crappy and good for little else than calls. I found configuring them for e-mails or web was akin to deciphering an instruction manual in a foreign language. For years there were rumors that Apple might do a phone. But multiple times Jobs was quoted as saying he had no interest. Then a fellow Apple fan in my office forwarded me a link to a concept video about multi-touch, shot at some university. It was incredibly exciting. At once futuristic and intuitive. Stunning.
Apple keynotes were thrilling events with Jobs on stage. With all due respect to Cook, who had obviously added a ton of value to the company's fortunes, today the keynotes feel like they're conducted by dull accountants. Jobs was a tremendous showman. It was easy to drink the Kool Aid. Though I've seen that January 2007 keynote many times since my initial viewing on that day, I still feel the excitement even though I know what's coming. It truly was a historic day for tech. And the iPhone left the world indelibly changed in its wake (with both positive and negative outcomes). As a child of the 80's who was dazzled by the first Mac I used in 1984, I consider it a privilege to have been around during that time.
Apple seemed almost dead to the point that Jobs came back and had success with the first iMac. But Apple's position still seemed tenuous in the following years. The iPod was a gorgeous, exciting piece of hardware; an elegant product that overcame with dullness and weirdness of the constellation of random MP3 players that had come before it. Many in the press were saying that the iPod could be the start of something, the gateway drug driving people to the Apple ecosystem. But there were many detractors in the press who said it would never happen. Still, the iPod only got better. Portable CD players and albums of CDs slowly dissolved in my reality like sugar in hot tea.
In those days the cell phones were getting ever smaller. But they were still pretty crappy and good for little else than calls. I found configuring them for e-mails or web was akin to deciphering an instruction manual in a foreign language. For years there were rumors that Apple might do a phone. But multiple times Jobs was quoted as saying he had no interest. Then a fellow Apple fan in my office forwarded me a link to a concept video about multi-touch, shot at some university. It was incredibly exciting. At once futuristic and intuitive. Stunning.
Apple keynotes were thrilling events with Jobs on stage. With all due respect to Cook, who had obviously added a ton of value to the company's fortunes, today the keynotes feel like they're conducted by dull accountants. Jobs was a tremendous showman. It was easy to drink the Kool Aid. Though I've seen that January 2007 keynote many times since my initial viewing on that day, I still feel the excitement even though I know what's coming. It truly was a historic day for tech. And the iPhone left the world indelibly changed in its wake (with both positive and negative outcomes). As a child of the 80's who was dazzled by the first Mac I used in 1984, I consider it a privilege to have been around during that time.
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Products introduced/announced during Cook’s tenure include:
Apple Watch
Apple Pay
Apple Card
Apple silicon
Apple Intelligence
AirPod
HomePod
AirTag
TV+
Fitness+
News+
Arcade
Vision Pro
Some people (as you) like small phones. In the other hand, the fact is that a lot of people (common people, not necessarily tech related) is buying year to year even bigger phones. The only way Apple can satisfy the buyers who need a small form factor, as well as the ones who want a bigger screen (when unfolded), at the same time and even with the very same phone is precisely with a flip iPhone.
The current trend for which many people are looking for bigger screens year to year has a physical limit that will be reached when the large phones were not able to be easily pocketable any more. So unfolding a pocketable device means that it automatically double its size, this way if you have a 4 inches folded device, unfolded it will reach 8 inches. 4 inches is shorter than the Mini, while 8 inches is larger than the Plus or Max.
Obviously Apple has taken its time because we can be sure that they have been perfectioning the folding screens to not have an ugly and notorious crease.
Here we go. Stevie J dropped the price by 200 bucks 68 days after the original iPhone 4GB piece of junk launched. Stevie wasn't all godlike and shiny.
Apple Legend Woz Blasts iPhone Price Drop And Refund Policy | CRN
Steve Wozniak bought about 20 iPhones for himself and friends but says he has found the refund policy cumbersome.
www.crn.com
A flip-phone smartphone still leaves me with the same issue, not being able to fully utilize my phone completely one handed. I get it, but as for us minimalist phone users, we're left out in the dust. I don't watch video on my phone, play games, or browse social media, so... how is a big screen useful to me?
Here we go. Stevie J dropped the price by 200 bucks 68 days after the original iPhone 4GB piece of junk launched. Stevie wasn't all godlike and shiny.
Apple Legend Woz Blasts iPhone Price Drop And Refund Policy | CRN
Steve Wozniak bought about 20 iPhones for himself and friends but says he has found the refund policy cumbersome.
He wanted it to start lower, but Cingular wasn't willing to subsidize it at the very beginning. They were barely willing to let Apple offer it on their network.
My ex used that 4gb "piece of junk" until the iPhone 6 was released.
Apple Intelligence and Vision Pro are two things people love to hate on today that I can easily see being foundational to technology we can't live without in 10 years.
Happy birthday, iPhone. I miss the iPod-parts of the iPhone since Apple Music launched.