Back in 2007, I was working as a reporter for Wired.com, covering mostly Apple.
I was supposed to be a general-assignment tech reporter, writing about everything, but I was particularly interested in Apple, so I carved out the company as a special beat for myself. My editors didn’t particularly mind.
On the morning of January 9, Steve Jobs was scheduled to give the opening keynote at Macworld Expo, the annual gathering of the Apple tribe in San Francisco.
Of course, what he was going to reveal was a tightly guarded secret, but the rumors pointed to some kind of Apple phone.
Actually, the rumors were all over the shop, hinting at maybe a PDA, or a special TV called the “iTV,” or maybe a video iPod. From what I can remember, that was the other big rumor — a large-screen iPod designed primarily for video rather than MP3s.
By that point, I’d been to a lot of Steve Jobs keynotes, but there was a palpable sense that this one was going to be special. There was an enormous line of Macworld showgoers to get into the keynote hall and, IIRC, quite a lot of people at the front of the line had queued up all night. Many arrived predawn. As we filtered into the hall, there was a huge buzz of excitement: We all knew this was going to be a big deal.
As did Jobs himself, who set the scene perfectly as he walked onstage.
“Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything,” he said in his opening remarks. Jobs was prone to hyperbole, but in this case, he was exactly right — and the audience knew it.
What followed was the best keynote of Jobs’ career, and it was a treat to witness it in person. For 80 minutes, we all knew history was being made.
If you’ve never seen it, and have a bit of time this weekend, it’s well worth a watch. We embedded a video of the keynote in our “Today in Apple history” post below, and it’s still fun to watch such a thrilling moment in tech history, even if you know what’s coming.
Also in today’s newsletter:
This is a great tip that every iPhone photographer should know by heart: how to add, adjust or remove bokeh after the fact. It’s dead easy.
A noninvasive blood glucose tracker — just shown off at CES — is in clinical trials. It could pave the way for other wearables. However, it might be a very weird addition to the Apple Watch.
If Apple had come out with the Apple Watch in 1999, this is what it might have looked like. There’s been a mini revival of see-through electronics of late; perhaps it might yet see the light of day! What do you think? Would you buy? Take today’s poll below.
I LOLed at this line in our report about new emoji coming later this year: “The early proposal for 2026 includes the aforementioned pickle, though what feeling it’ll be used to express is perhaps best left unmentioned. There’s also a lighthouse for when the pickle emoji can’t handle the job.”
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
Cult of Mac’s buyback program
Tweets of the day
Wallpaper of the day
One more thing ...
An iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator. An iPod, a phone … are you getting it?! These are not three separate devices. This is one device, and we are calling it iPhone.
Today’s poll
Would you wear a G3 Apple Watch?
Results from yesterday’s poll: What do you think of old iPhone 4 photos?
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