Origin of the iPhone

rambilly brings us a story from Wired about the origin and development of the iPhone. From the article: "Steve Jobs had tasked about 200 of Apple's top engineers with creating the iPhone. Yet here, in Apple's boardroom, it was clear that the prototype was still a disaster. It wasn't just buggy, it flat-out didn't work. The phone dropped calls constantly, the battery stopped charging before it was full, data and applications routinely became corrupted and unusable. The list of problems seemed endless. At the end of the demo, Jobs fixed the dozen or so people in the room with a level stare and said, 'We don't have a product yet.' The effect was even more terrifying than one of Jobs' trademark tantrums. When the Apple chief screamed at his staff, it was scary but familiar. This time, his relative calm was unnerving. 'It was one of the few times at Apple when I got a chill,' says someone who was in the meeting."

Comments

Re:Mobile Development

[Johnno74]

But progress may still be limited by network operators for the time being because to deploy software or services, providers have to go through the network operators.

I don't believe this is a risk, at least everywhere except the US. I have a sybian phone, I can install whatever I like on it, without going through the teleco's network. Plenty of applications use web access on the phone just like apps on a regular PC - things like web browsers, chat apps, SSH, youtube, google maps, etc etc. I've even seen a web server for my phone. I've seen VoIP clients for my phone.

The teleco is just an ISP. We stil have network neutrality, and thats not likely to change. Yes, my teleco has their own lame walled garden of websites that you can browse for free, and download wallpapers and ringtones for an outrageous price - but there is nothing stopping customers (except stupidity) from going to a regular website and downloading the ringtones, wallpapers, 3rd party apps and whatever.

Re:Mobile Development

[Moonpie Madness]

My Sony Ericsson seems to have a pretty decent OS, user interface, clean package, and seamless multimedia. It's not partnered with cell providers in any meaningful way... but why the hell would I want that?

And my phone came free with my cell phone plan. It holds 8 gbs. Right now, two movies and thousands of songs and hundreds of pictures. It can transfer content very easily to virtually any device that accepts bluetooth, IR, takes a memory stick, or has a USB port. I can put any software on it I like very easily, and Sony provides free programs on the internet. I don't have to download any of it over my cell connection.

Now, emailing on this little pad is kinda crappy, but it is also crappy on the iphone. I can get internet on my Ericsson, and it transfers to my laptop. I can leave the phone in my pocket and have a decent connection wherever I go.

In short, the points you mention are just whispy little nice things you could say about nearly anything electronic these days. None of it explains why the iphone is so trendy. The iphone is a great device solely because of its touch-screen innovations, and it's nice and large screen. That's it (but that can be a lot if you like that stuff). The interface is fine. But that's a minimal standard. The interfaces on most devices in that price range is fine. That lack of tactile sucks, but it's just matter of prioritizing. IF you send a lot of emails, you should get something else. If you like gorgeous and new tech and watching your photos, etc, wherever you go, the iphone is cool. I personally think the Sony is better at music and OS, but that's just taste.

Re:I hate bosses like that

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm posting this AC for obvious reasons.

It is interesting that you say the above -- I worked in Cupertino for many years during Jobs' first reign; interacted with him many times.

I also think he gets a bad rap. Every time I talked with him he was pretty calm and very focused, and would call "BS" on anything that was, but he was pretty reasonable with things that weren't BS. He would always know (technically) what was going on with projects, which was great.

Keep in mind that the CEO / leader of an organization gets press every time they do something bad, but the 99% of times they are behaved like a normal human being nothing happens.

I am sure that some of the yelling stories are true, and I heard stories of Steve pretty harshly chewing out some of the other engineers. From the article again, though, the only anecdote sounds like Steve was calm and everybody else was yelling / crazy. I'm sure he is a bit more brash and arrogant now, but he was nothing excessive; to tell you the truth the company I work for now has a boss that is much more arrogant and volatile. Thankfully I don't have to interact with him much.

Apple was just like any other smallish corporation when I was there -- *mostly* nice people, a few crazy people, led by a driven leader.

Non-programmable?

[Dr. Manhattan]

Palm and Windows smartphones...both at first where also non-programmable (yes they where and anyone who says otherwise is a liar)

What, exactly, do you mean my 'non-programmable'? Developing Palm applications is quirky but not particularly hard, and I'm not aware of any Palm phone ever that wouldn't let you load third-party apps. The vast majority of the apps I use each day on my Treo 650 are third-party.

Do you mean the phone functions themselves aren't programmable? Maybe that was true at the introduction of the early Treos, I didn't have one. Even those would take third-party apps for other functions, though. Nowadays there are multiple applications that add phone and SMS and other functions, and the API is available. I have a hard time believing that the Windows side is much different.

Iphone

[AlphaMaelstrom]

"The phone dropped calls constantly, the battery stopped charging before it was full, data and applications routinely became corrupted and unusable. The list of problems seemed endless." I got an iphone 2 months ago. Every single word in that sentence still applies. Battery has charging issues they say is a firmware problem,, but it hasn't been fixed yet after several firmware updates, it drops calls constantly (even at full signal strength), and I routinely have to reset the phone to make crashed applications work again. As to problems, howsabout the iphone plan includes MMS, but the phone doesn't support them at all, or the inability to check relatively simple information like your call history while you're in a call?

Re:"Dupe", my arse!!

[Dogtanian]

Where's Occam's razor when you need it, folks? right next to your tinfoil hat? Well, if you think that my straightforward and obvious explanation of the reposts as basic commercial pragmatism (and not conspiratorial evil) is implausible, then so be it.

Obviously, it's more reasonable to believe that the editors remain in their jobs despite being so mentally incompetent that their keyboards should have short-circuited through filling up with drool, and that Slashdot keeps itself afloat financially through the generosity of the Magical Website Fairies...