Original iPhone's First Four Reviewers Reminisce About Getting Their Hands on It for the First Time
With the iPhone's tenth birthday coming up this week, CBS Sunday Morning aired a segment today taking a look back at the development and launch of the original iPhone.
The segment from David Pogue includes a roundtable session with Pogue, Walt Mossberg, Steven Levy, and Ed Baig, the four journalists who received review units of the iPhone in 2007 just prior to its launch.
"After three days," said Mossberg, "I was ready to throw this thing out of the window for trying to type on glass."
"It's ten years later," said Levy, "and half the emails I get still have a little message underneath saying, 'Typed on phone, forgive typos'!"
Pogue also sits down for a brief interview with Bas Ording, one of the key Apple engineers behind the first iPhone.
Part of what made the iPhone a hit was that objects in that touchscreen world have their own physics. You can thank Bas Ording for some of it, like how lists have momentum when you flick them, or how they do a little bounce when you get to the end.
"And now, a billion people are using your idea," said Pogue.
"Is it a billion? That's a lot!" Ording laughed.
"Did anyone, at the time, on this team, have any idea how big this could be?"
"Oh, no, not at all. I didn't, for sure."
The segment doesn't break any new ground on the background of the iPhone, but it's a nice piece highlighting the milestone anniversary of the device that changed the world.
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