8 ms·

14 years ago today, iPhone changed the world

32 points by retskrad 5y ago

theshadowknows 5y ago
I'll be honest. I was in college when the iPhone dropped. I think I was my freshman year. I saw a few people with them and I was like this thing will never catch on. I had a Blackberry 8830 and I thought it was so amazing. And I never thought touch keyboards would take off in such a big way. Obviously I was mistaken and I've had multiple iPhones now. That said for all their advancement I still, once in a while, look at the BlackBerry Passport and consider buying one...just because it's a square :)
- halotrope 5y ago
  IKR, with the first iPhone people still tended to hold it in one hand and operate with the fingers of the other hand. In public it seemed slightly out of place and pretentious. Funny how rather quickly time passes.
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  > I still, once in a while, look at the BlackBerry Passport and consider buying one...just because it's a square :) Isn't the OS on it complete abandonware?
  - theshadowknows 5y ago
    Yeah...but come on...it's a square!
wirrbel 5y ago
I have just migrated my Photo collection from private NAS and and other storage mediums into iCloud. And by that I realised how my photo collection library's metadata, frequency of photos has so much increased after the smartphones became popular (and then, SLRs getting GPS sensors, etc.). Nothing of that is surprising to me in retrospect, but browsing through that photo collection its still astonishing. Side note: I remember back then, I had an iPod touch and a plain Nokia phone and I really failed to see the value of the iPhone as compared to this iPod touch. I got wifi almost everywhere. I also remember when the first people my age (typically broke college students) got their smart phones, HTC was big, I wouldn't have a smartphone for 2 more years. Then going for a Samsung Bada, then various Androids (Motorola Moto G, the initial One Plus, Huaweis) and finally in 2020 I settled on an iPhone.
- brtkdotse 5y ago
  > I have just migrated my Photo collection from private NAS and and other storage mediums into iCloud. Any thoughts on doing the reverse?
  - wirrbel 5y ago
    well, I'd just point out that you should have a proper backup in place and occasionally cycle hardware.
nasalgoat 5y ago
The first iPhone was quite the sensation, but I don't blame the CEO of RIM (ne Blackberry) for being a bit incredulous. The wireless networks of the time really weren't up to the task and Apple had to make deals with specific providers to have the visual voicemail thing. It really did change the landscape and forced wireless development in a new direction.
cblconfederate 5y ago
It turned the internet to TV. That's what young generations do now, they spend all day zapping channels, but we think it's cool because it's "on the internetz" and not on a bad unhealthy CRT. Society is sleepwalking to a generation of uninformed media junkies whose technical illiteracy is masked only by their ability to infinite scroll. I hope the end of this era comes soon and the focus stops being how to dumb down everything to a prepackaged and preprocessed feed. As lovely as the screens are, the media ecosystem around them is worse than what we had with good old color tv+radio.
- voisin 5y ago
  > As lovely as the screens are, the media ecosystem around them is worse than what we had with good old color tv+radio. You realize this is completely subjective right? Perhaps if your interests were completely aligned with the mainstream then that past was preferable, but today anyone can “zap channels” about any niche they are interested in.
  - psychedelican 5y ago
    Which for many who were teenagers with internet like myself, lead to hardcore pornography addiction, lasting mental turmoil, and problems processing intimacy correctly. Media isn't just shows and news, kids have access to an ever-expanding pool of pornographic garbage, more damaging than even the most hardcore magazines / dvds of the 80s and 90s.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - alisonkisk 5y ago
      People who can't process intimacy with porn can't process intimacy without it either. We also play GTA but somehow manage to drive cars without running over prostitutes.
      - psychedelican 5y ago
helsinkiandrew 5y ago
It was awhile before I got one - I think I waited for the 3g version - and it was the last piece of technology I've owned that felt truly like holding the future - it was so much better - contacts, calender, photos and phone that worked, visual voicemail, weather app (is this the only iphone app that hasn't changed since inception?). I still thought a Blackberry was better for (corporate) email and messaging - keyboard and wide screen but carried two devices around until my company no longer provided a Blackberry.
- millerm 5y ago
  Weather app has changed multiple times. It didn't have animations to match your location's current weather conditions back in the day. Rain fall over time, and other things. Plus, iOS 15 does have huge changes: https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/11/ios-15-weather-app-hands-on/ https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/11/ios-15-weather-app-hands-on/
  - mustacheemperor 5y ago
    And I think a lot of the changes in iOS 15 are arriving via Apple's acquisition of DarkSky, which is going to be sunset at the end of 2022 once the features are (theoretically) folded into iOS.[0] [0]https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/10/22527878/dark-sky-apple-ios-app-website-api-shut-down-end-of-2022 https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/10/22527878/dark-sky-apple-i...
Gunax 5y ago
"No keyboard. Less space than a BlackBerry. Lame." I don't know why it wasn't obvious at the time. It just seemed like a silly gimmick. Ive still never owned an iPhone, but it's clear their design won. What I learned is that it's not even obvious to me what I want. I try to be much more open about what could be popular now.
- salamandersauce 5y ago
  One thing it had better was the web browser. I was blown away by the web browser on my Dad's first gen iPod touch. Nothing else we had compared except PCs. Way better than my PSP or friends cell phones. Websites actually looked correct.
incanus77 5y ago
The things I remember thinking that had the biggest wow factor were the messaging app and maps. I thought that finally normal people would be able to text and do it at some length with relative ease. And the cohesiveness of searching for a restaurant, tapping the place icon, and calling the place to check hours or to make a reservation was just mind blowing.
taylodl 5y ago
I bought a 1st gen iPhone Touch for my wife who wanted a PDA (ha!, remember those?). I remember being really impressed by Mobile Safari - you could actually browse real web pages! And they rendered normally and you could interact with them normally! I had my doubts as to how much it would catch on, boy was I wrong! The first iPhone I got was a 16 Gb 4s. Two years later I got a 32 Gb 5s. Two years after that I got a 64 Gb SE. Four years after that and I got a 128 Gb 2020 SE. Notice a pattern with my storage?! :) On my first three iPhones I used an Otterbox Defender case. For this latest one I'm using a Mous. These phones have been dropped down concrete stairs in a parking garage, I've had them in my back pocket when I slipped on ice and fell directly on them - never a cracked screen or any hardware issue. I'm pretty impressed. Meanwhile my wife has an iPhone 7 that's 5 years old and looks like new and is running the latest iOS.
tcbawo 5y ago
I remember Apple's joint product venture with Motorola, the Motorola ROKR, which worked with iTunes but was severely crippled in terms of capacity and transfer speed. Motorola seemed to spend a fortune on advertising. Apple played Motorola hard, learned the mobile phone development process, then proceeded to eat most of the industry. Motorola executives were incredibly short sighted and lacking in vision. The CEO at the time kept referring to Samsung as "Same-sung".
mustacheemperor 5y ago
I was just a kid early in my career as a geek, but I remember being so excited to see the news on CNet.com's front page: Apple announced a phone! I knew it was going to be a big deal after two events, first: my dad, a lifelong Windows diehard, bought one. Second, we were at a friend's house and the need to travel somewhere else came up and he instantly pulled up a turn by turn nav to that location. I have a distinct memory of thinking "huh, that really is going to change a lot about life." Of course, you couldn't actually run turn by turn nav without the phone being plugged in to power - remember the days of toggling off GPS anytime you weren't driving to save juice? Also, remember how much importance was placed on physical keyboards? I remember seeing R&D projects brought to CES that could make 3D buttons emerge from a screen but ultimately everyone just got used to touch keyboards and swipe-style input became a thing.
- dt123 5y ago
  I still turn off GPS when I'm not using it
908B64B197 5y ago
The original iPhone was still a beta product. It's the iPhone 3G that was truly 2 years ahead of anything else. I recall a lot of skeptical techies and "industry experts" still betting on the legacy players (Especially BlackBerry). Then Apple announced the 3G and the App Store and a few weeks later BlackBerry announced the Storm. The Storm was at least 2 years behind. Laggy input, no app store (some buggy device specific SDK), couldn't even connect to Wifi. The 3G just worked. The rest is history.

32 points by retskrad 5y ago

I'll be honest. I was in college when the iPhone dropped. I think I was my freshman year. I saw a few people with them and I was like this thing will never catch on. I had a Blackberry 8830 and I thought it was so amazing. And I never thought touch keyboards would take off in such a big way. Obviously I was mistaken and I've had multiple iPhones now. That said for all their advancement I still, once in a while, look at the BlackBerry Passport and consider buying one...just because it's a square :)

halotrope 5y ago
IKR, with the first iPhone people still tended to hold it in one hand and operate with the fingers of the other hand. In public it seemed slightly out of place and pretentious. Funny how rather quickly time passes.
908B64B197 5y ago
> I still, once in a while, look at the BlackBerry Passport and consider buying one...just because it's a square :) Isn't the OS on it complete abandonware?
- theshadowknows 5y ago
  Yeah...but come on...it's a square!

wirrbel 5y ago

I have just migrated my Photo collection from private NAS and and other storage mediums into iCloud. And by that I realised how my photo collection library's metadata, frequency of photos has so much increased after the smartphones became popular (and then, SLRs getting GPS sensors, etc.). Nothing of that is surprising to me in retrospect, but browsing through that photo collection its still astonishing. Side note: I remember back then, I had an iPod touch and a plain Nokia phone and I really failed to see the value of the iPhone as compared to this iPod touch. I got wifi almost everywhere. I also remember when the first people my age (typically broke college students) got their smart phones, HTC was big, I wouldn't have a smartphone for 2 more years. Then going for a Samsung Bada, then various Androids (Motorola Moto G, the initial One Plus, Huaweis) and finally in 2020 I settled on an iPhone.

brtkdotse 5y ago
> I have just migrated my Photo collection from private NAS and and other storage mediums into iCloud. Any thoughts on doing the reverse?
- wirrbel 5y ago
  well, I'd just point out that you should have a proper backup in place and occasionally cycle hardware.

nasalgoat 5y ago

The first iPhone was quite the sensation, but I don't blame the CEO of RIM (ne Blackberry) for being a bit incredulous. The wireless networks of the time really weren't up to the task and Apple had to make deals with specific providers to have the visual voicemail thing. It really did change the landscape and forced wireless development in a new direction.

cblconfederate 5y ago

It turned the internet to TV. That's what young generations do now, they spend all day zapping channels, but we think it's cool because it's "on the internetz" and not on a bad unhealthy CRT. Society is sleepwalking to a generation of uninformed media junkies whose technical illiteracy is masked only by their ability to infinite scroll. I hope the end of this era comes soon and the focus stops being how to dumb down everything to a prepackaged and preprocessed feed. As lovely as the screens are, the media ecosystem around them is worse than what we had with good old color tv+radio.

voisin 5y ago
> As lovely as the screens are, the media ecosystem around them is worse than what we had with good old color tv+radio. You realize this is completely subjective right? Perhaps if your interests were completely aligned with the mainstream then that past was preferable, but today anyone can “zap channels” about any niche they are interested in.
- psychedelican 5y ago
  Which for many who were teenagers with internet like myself, lead to hardcore pornography addiction, lasting mental turmoil, and problems processing intimacy correctly. Media isn't just shows and news, kids have access to an ever-expanding pool of pornographic garbage, more damaging than even the most hardcore magazines / dvds of the 80s and 90s.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - alisonkisk 5y ago
    People who can't process intimacy with porn can't process intimacy without it either. We also play GTA but somehow manage to drive cars without running over prostitutes.
    - psychedelican 5y ago

helsinkiandrew 5y ago

It was awhile before I got one - I think I waited for the 3g version - and it was the last piece of technology I've owned that felt truly like holding the future - it was so much better - contacts, calender, photos and phone that worked, visual voicemail, weather app (is this the only iphone app that hasn't changed since inception?). I still thought a Blackberry was better for (corporate) email and messaging - keyboard and wide screen but carried two devices around until my company no longer provided a Blackberry.

millerm 5y ago
Weather app has changed multiple times. It didn't have animations to match your location's current weather conditions back in the day. Rain fall over time, and other things. Plus, iOS 15 does have huge changes: https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/11/ios-15-weather-app-hands-on/ https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/11/ios-15-weather-app-hands-on/
- mustacheemperor 5y ago
  And I think a lot of the changes in iOS 15 are arriving via Apple's acquisition of DarkSky, which is going to be sunset at the end of 2022 once the features are (theoretically) folded into iOS.[0] [0]https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/10/22527878/dark-sky-apple-ios-app-website-api-shut-down-end-of-2022 https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/10/22527878/dark-sky-apple-i...

Gunax 5y ago

"No keyboard. Less space than a BlackBerry. Lame." I don't know why it wasn't obvious at the time. It just seemed like a silly gimmick. Ive still never owned an iPhone, but it's clear their design won. What I learned is that it's not even obvious to me what I want. I try to be much more open about what could be popular now.

salamandersauce 5y ago
One thing it had better was the web browser. I was blown away by the web browser on my Dad's first gen iPod touch. Nothing else we had compared except PCs. Way better than my PSP or friends cell phones. Websites actually looked correct.

incanus77 5y ago

The things I remember thinking that had the biggest wow factor were the messaging app and maps. I thought that finally normal people would be able to text and do it at some length with relative ease. And the cohesiveness of searching for a restaurant, tapping the place icon, and calling the place to check hours or to make a reservation was just mind blowing.

taylodl 5y ago

I bought a 1st gen iPhone Touch for my wife who wanted a PDA (ha!, remember those?). I remember being really impressed by Mobile Safari - you could actually browse real web pages! And they rendered normally and you could interact with them normally! I had my doubts as to how much it would catch on, boy was I wrong! The first iPhone I got was a 16 Gb 4s. Two years later I got a 32 Gb 5s. Two years after that I got a 64 Gb SE. Four years after that and I got a 128 Gb 2020 SE. Notice a pattern with my storage?! :) On my first three iPhones I used an Otterbox Defender case. For this latest one I'm using a Mous. These phones have been dropped down concrete stairs in a parking garage, I've had them in my back pocket when I slipped on ice and fell directly on them - never a cracked screen or any hardware issue. I'm pretty impressed. Meanwhile my wife has an iPhone 7 that's 5 years old and looks like new and is running the latest iOS.

tcbawo 5y ago

I remember Apple's joint product venture with Motorola, the Motorola ROKR, which worked with iTunes but was severely crippled in terms of capacity and transfer speed. Motorola seemed to spend a fortune on advertising. Apple played Motorola hard, learned the mobile phone development process, then proceeded to eat most of the industry. Motorola executives were incredibly short sighted and lacking in vision. The CEO at the time kept referring to Samsung as "Same-sung".

mustacheemperor 5y ago

I was just a kid early in my career as a geek, but I remember being so excited to see the news on CNet.com's front page: Apple announced a phone! I knew it was going to be a big deal after two events, first: my dad, a lifelong Windows diehard, bought one. Second, we were at a friend's house and the need to travel somewhere else came up and he instantly pulled up a turn by turn nav to that location. I have a distinct memory of thinking "huh, that really is going to change a lot about life." Of course, you couldn't actually run turn by turn nav without the phone being plugged in to power - remember the days of toggling off GPS anytime you weren't driving to save juice? Also, remember how much importance was placed on physical keyboards? I remember seeing R&D projects brought to CES that could make 3D buttons emerge from a screen but ultimately everyone just got used to touch keyboards and swipe-style input became a thing.

dt123 5y ago
I still turn off GPS when I'm not using it

908B64B197 5y ago

The original iPhone was still a beta product. It's the iPhone 3G that was truly 2 years ahead of anything else. I recall a lot of skeptical techies and "industry experts" still betting on the legacy players (Especially BlackBerry). Then Apple announced the 3G and the App Store and a few weeks later BlackBerry announced the Storm. The Storm was at least 2 years behind. Laggy input, no app store (some buggy device specific SDK), couldn't even connect to Wifi. The 3G just worked. The rest is history.