ex-executives and journalists talk about the backstage of creating the device

10 years of iPhone: ex-executives and journalists talk about the backstage of creating the device

Here in Brazil, those who look around see several Android phones, with different sizes and prices (mainly), and can see that even those with super low income already have a smartphone – it’s almost become a question of survival. Look at ads for services, small businesses or even – believe me, I saw – on bus service: everywhere, we see a cell phone number designated as “WhatsApp” or “Zap” and even “ZapZap” (here, it’s our Brazilianism speaking louder). I mean, to have this application installed, the cell phone needs a certain specification (even if very basic).

This is one of several cases that show that phones with touch screens have crossed – and by far – the niche barrier. A market that used to interest geeks and tech aficionados are now in the hands of anyone, from children to the elderly. If you ask about the origin of smartphones with touch screen, many may not even know that everything started to become popular with the iPhone and its “big” (yes, at the time 3.5 ″ were considered a lot on a cell phone) capacitive screen; but it is not a loss for those who do not know, it is part. In fact, it is even more incredible that this phenomenon happens, as it only demonstrates how important it was to the world, since all the other phone manufacturers took advantage of this and made this technology the standard we saw today.

iPhone 10 years videos

With the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, several vehicles are “renting” former executives and employees who worked at Apple at that time in order to report their experiences with the product that came to truly revolutionize the world.

A short 10-minute documentary, published by The Wall Street Journal, counted on the participation of ex-Apple Scott Forstall, Tony Fadell and Greg Christie to briefly tell some stories about the creation and development of the iPhone.

iPhone 10 years videos

Fadell, considered “the Father of the iPod”, told that story that Steve Jobs wanted a smartphone and, at first, considered something similar to the company’s music device (since phones were the most threatening to the existence of iPods) . But, like a cell phone with a Click Wheel it would make it look like those old phones with rotary keys, they dismissed the idea.

To try to solve this, Jobs would have taken him to a room with something very special:

Steve said, «Come here, I need to show you something.» So he took me to a room that basically had a demo the size of a ping-pong table with a projector that designed a Mac interface. And you could use your whole hand, you could touch different things on it, like a big Mac.

And he said, «I think that will solve our problem.»

Already (the trendy) Forstall, former iOS boss, told about the great pressure of Jobs to have a good user interface – basically, if they couldn’t create something in two weeks, the CEO would give the project to another team.

He also cited the keyboard, which was quite bad even after everything was on track, a year before the cell phone was launched. At first, they had even thought of a QWERTY keyboard, but it didn’t work so well. So Forstall “paused” all the activities of the system engineers so that everyone focused only on creating a functional keyboard.

iPhone 10 years videos

Among several ideas (and crazy things like difficult gestures to learn), an engineer brought the same idea of ​​a QWERTY keyboard that they had before, but this time it was fully functional. The engineer explained that he used artificial intelligence technologies to «predict» what the user would type next; if the person typed the «T», it would be quite predictable that afterwards the letter «H» would come, then the «typing area» around that letter would increase, making everything faster and more practical.

Christie, Apple’s former vice president of human interfaces, in turn, recalled Jobs’s reaction to seeing the final idea presented after the team’s two weeks of hard work in 2005.

The first time he saw it, he was completely silent, he said nothing. He said nothing, made no gesture, asked no question. Then he leaned back and said, «Show it to me again.» And then, we went through the whole process again and Steve was very impressed throughout the demonstration. It was a great job.

Our reward for doing a great job on that demo was, you know, killing us in the next two and a half years.

Check out the full video, in English, below:

· • ·

After Jobs announced such an amazing phone, only four people were chosen to test the iPhone first hand: Steven Levy, gives Newsweek; Ed Baig, of USA TODAY; Walt Mossberg, who was from Wall Street Journal in season; and David Pogue, who was from New York Times.

To celebrate the device’s anniversary, Pogue – now on Yahoo Finance – interviewed the other three figures, who addressed topics such as the impact of the iPhone today and, like Jobs himself, explained how no one predicted it would be the success it continues to be. They also talked about iPhones sales falling and how people don’t talk anymore «Gadgets», but from “fields” like artificial intelligence, machine learning and more.

Check out the interview in the video below:

THE CBS News also paid tribute to the iPhone, with an article showing reports from the time the device was launched and also some other images from Pogue’s interview with the three journalists. In addition to them, Pogue talked to one of the engineers behind some iOS animations:

Part of what made the iPhone a success was that the objects in this touchscreen world had their own physics. You can thank Bas Ording by some of them, like the way the lists get boosted when you pull them, or how they jump a little when they reach the end.

«And now, a billion people are using your idea,» said Pogue.

«One billion? This is too much!» Ording laughed.

«Did anyone at the time on this team have any idea how big that would be?»

“Ah, no, not at all. I certainly didn’t.

Check out the article below:

Next Thursday, June 29, the iPhone will complete 10 years of its arrival on the market. Therefore, we will certainly see several other stories arising related to the device that revolutionized the world. ??

via MacStories, MacRumors