The whole truth about the iPhone: how the legendary smartphone was created

Фото: Depositphotos

Since the release of the first model of the iPhone, 10 years have passed. A week before this anniversary date, the book of journalist Brian Merchant, which tells the story of creating a global brand, went on sale.

Edition Meduza Selected the seven most interesting facts from the book.

Steve Jobs hated regular phones

In fact, they were not carried out by all the key employees of the company, including Steve Jobs, designer Johnny Ive and one of the creators of the ipod Tony Fadel. Between themselves, they called them "pieces of shit." In the fall of 2005, Steve Jobs introduced the first iTunes Phone - Motorola Rokr. As expected staff Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),, the phone was useless, and even Steve Jobs himself, telling about him from the stage, kept the device as a dirty sock.

As Tony Fadel recalls, after the speech, Jobs came down from the stage upset. “It will not take off. I'm tired of messing with these stupid pipemakers, ”he said. According to Fadel, it was after that presentation that it became clear that Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), will release his phone, although before Jobs was afraid that some nerds would use smartphones.

The development was conducted in the strictest secrecy

Project Purple was top secret. When they hired employees there, they were told something like this: “We know that you are a talented engineer, and we want you to work on a project about which we will not tell you anything. And we want to hire you today. " And many agreed. Sometimes new employees were forced to sign a non-disclosure obligation, in which they pledged not to say anything about the non-disclosure obligation about the project itself.

The team that worked on the iPhone occupied the floor that other employees couldn't get to. In some rooms it was possible to pass only by scanning four passes. In one of the offices where the team working on the creation of the interface of the iPhone, even the cleaners were forbidden to enter.

Due to the heavy schedule, families fell apart

When employees Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), offered to work on the creation of an iPhone, they heard from Tony Fadel the following: “I cannot tell you what this project is, but I can say that if you agree to work on it, then you will work as you have never worked in your life . As long as we make this product, you will be working nights and weekends. ” It was true.

None of the staff counted on weekends and holidays. Everyone worked day and night; many slept right in the office - because of this, there all the time smelled of sweat and leftover food. According to one of the developers, during his work, he gained more than 20 kilograms. Especially hard to have married - because of the heavy schedule, not one or two marriages fell apart. Manager Richard Williams, while working on the iPhone, had three children. When the first was born, he went to the hospital and immediately returned to work. When twins were born, he took one day off. "This was hard. Very hard, ”he recalls.

One Saturday evening, after working all day, developer John Wright began to get home for his son's birthday. His colleague Kim Vorath was outraged that he would not attend the meeting a bit later: "I also have children." In anger, she slammed the door so that it was locked. I had to call security. As soon as Kim Vorath was released, she returned to work.

The iPhone could look like an iPod

At first, Steve Jobs doubted that the iPhone could have a touchscreen and preferred the option of turning the iPod into a phone. The prototype looked like this: it was an iPod with a screen and a wheel, which worked in two modes - in player mode and in phone mode. The phone number was proposed to dial the wheel, as on the old dial-up phone. Likewise, they came up with typing messages - a series of letters are displayed on the screen, you choose a wheel, for example, A, click, then B, click, and so on. To simplify this, they invented an autochange system.

Total Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), I made two hundred of these phones, and you could even call from them. However, the team soon realized that no one would ever dial phone numbers and messages that way - this is too difficult.

Iphone grew out of interface

Steve Jobs instructed the developer Basu Ording, who worked on the creation of the touchscreen, to invent a phone model. He began to ponder what the interface might look like. Ording made a phone model on his poppy and began to figure out how the basic things would work - for example, the rebound effect appeared when Ording could not understand why the page did not scroll - did the program hang? A few weeks later, Ording called Jobs and showed what he came up with. “When I saw the rebound effect, scrolling by inertia and a few more things, I thought:“ My God, we can make a phone out of this ”.”

Users almost forced to unscrew the valve to unlock the iPhone

Engineers needed to think of a way to unlock the phone: at the same time simple and complicated enough to prevent accidental unlocking in your pocket. Employees Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), They were looking for an idea for a long time, and one of them suggested rotating his fingers across the screen, as if opening a valve. In the end, decided that it was too difficult.

Once the designer Freddie Anzures flew from San Francisco to New York and went to the toilet. He closed the lock from the inside, and in order to get out, he had to move the latch. Here he came to mind Slide to unlock (translated into Russian as "Unlock"). Then he was tested on a small daughter of one of the employees, she managed, and it was decided that such a solution would be suitable.

Фото: Depositphotos

Steve Jobs wanted two buttons

The iPhone has one main button - “Home”. When pressed once, it returns to the main screen, and when double, it shows open applications. She was conceived, the behavior should be predictable - wherever the user clicks on it, he will be where he is usually. At first, Steve Jobs was against it. He wanted another “Back” button, but the designers managed to prove to him that this would only complicate the interface.

There was another person in the company who lacked buttons - Phil Schiller, head of marketing. As Tony Fadel said, he demanded that Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), made a phone with a full keyboard like a Blackberry. According to Fadel, it happened that Schiller sat down and began to lament: “You have to make a real keyboard. Only a real keyboard. ” Once at a meeting, when everyone had already agreed to a touchscreen, Schiller shouted that the company was making the wrong decision. As a result, Steve Jobs kicked him out of the office.

After the publication of this chapter on the Internet, Phil Schiller called everything described as a lie. Tony Fadel agreed with him, but the author insists that everything is true - he has recordings of interviews with Fadel and confirmation from another source.

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