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The first iPhone we never forget

Sit down there comes history

In June 2007 I was in San Francisco at the first WWDC (the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple’s developer conference) that iPhone It was presented. Steve Jobs on stage. Me in the audience, after waiting in line since five in the morning.

In fact, Jobs introduced the iPhone to the public in January at the defunct Macworld Expo. But it was just a prototype. It was in June that the smartphone was actually released to the developer community.

At the time it was not possible to program for the iPhone. It came with native applications, closed architecture. I wrote (and sold) a stupid Mac app on Objective-C for golfers. I thought it would be great if my "clients" had an iPhone app to use on the golf course. But there was no way to program, since there was not even an SDK, programming language, parameters, etc. Worse! There was no way to get into the iPhone to see what its software was made of (what later became known as Jailbreak).

When we left the presentation, the subject among that bunch of developers was how to “unlock” the phone. First to break the software, then to be able to use the phone with any operator, not only Cingular AT&T but Apple did not seem to understand the potential of the new hardware.

A group of developers was formed, led by a 17-year-old boy whose code name was Geohot. Another Brazilian and I participated in all the work of Geohot and other hackers. Not actively, because we didn't have the minimum technical knowledge necessary, but running after the information they needed in endless IRC chats. PDF processor manuals, other cell phone schematics, etc. We also helped to raise money via donations so that the Geohot could buy iPhones and test the group’s ideas.

In August 2007, Geohot managed to get in and unlock the first iPhone. Mine was the ninth in the world to be unlocked. At the time, the state made a story with the Brazilian hacker who participated in this initiative (spoonet). Much pleasure.

As ridiculous as it all sounds for you, for us, who were obsessed with it, it was an incredible achievement. This group, renamed iPhone Dev-Team, developed an SDK for the development of independent apps. They still exist today.

Geohot was hired by several companies. I never spoke to him again.

Watching the video of the last WWDC, in which Apple recognizes that it did not expect the success that the iPhone had with the developer community, I cannot help but feel a twinge of pride for having helped in a crooked and distant way to write 0.0000000000000001 billion of this story.

That iPhone is still here, stored, crumpled like those memories. But still working.