When you think of a phone, you're probably imagining something wide, larger-screened, beefy. This thing I'm holding is more like an old iPod. It feels like a heavy, polished stone. That's probably because it really is, basically, an evolved iPod. In fact, that's one-third of the tech trifecta that Steve Jobs pitched when he unveiled the original iPhone at the MacWorld keynote on Jan. 9, 2007: "A widescreen iPod with touch controls; a revolutionary mobile phone; and a breakthrough internet communications device." The punchline? It wasn't three separate devices, it was one breakthrough handheld that did it all.
I bought this iPhone back in the summer of 2007, right before I got married, I took it on my honeymoon, I wrote my wedding speech on it, After I used it, my wife had it, When I dug it back out of storage, it was sticker-covered and missing a few pixels, But 10 years later, it still turns on, It still (mostly) works, I lived with it for a week -- well, sort of, I couldn't get it to accept a SIM card, so it was a Wi-Fi-only affair, But spending a few days with the original iPhone made me realize just how different that early phone world was -- and how much otterbox strada folio iphone xs leather wallet case - soft opal reviews current tech we take for granted..
The iPhone was unveiled in San Francisco in January of 2007, and went on sale in June of that year. The AT&T exclusive was competing with such state of the art products as the Palm Treo 700, the BlackBerry Curve 8300, the Samsung Blackjack (running Windows Mobile!) and the Nokia N95. With no physical keyboard, the touchscreen iPhone rewrote the rules of the game. But 10 years on, touchscreens are so normal that it's hard to imagine how new it was. Seriously, it was small (and thick). The first thing that strikes anyone who picks up the original iPhone is how small it is. Phones just aren't like that anymore. Those curved sides are familiar: They're a bit like the Apple Watch, but on a larger scale. Curved chrome edges and a matte aluminum back give it a classic look.
It needed your computer and iTunes (a lot), The original iPhone needed to plug into a Mac to update software or transfer music or back up data, It didn't sync information to iCloud -- or "Mobile Me," as its precursor was called, It wasn't independent, It was a wireless, phone-connected iPod, (That's why I had to use it on Wi-Fi only -- because it wouldn't fully work with my Mac anymore to initiate the SIM setup process.), It didn't have an App Store, The first iPhone couldn't download apps, It was stuck with the built-in ones Apple otterbox strada folio iphone xs leather wallet case - soft opal reviews included, But my old iPhone has an App Store because it was later updated to iOS 3, Still, most apps don't work anymore, iTunes crashes, and while the App Store lets me browse apps, I can't download any -- most ask me to install iOS 8, which I can't..
My sticker-covered iPhone (2007) next to the iPhone 7 Plus. It only has AT&T Edge cellular service. If I had been able to get this iPhone up and running on a cellular network, I'd be stuck with 2G data speeds on what was then called AT&T's Edge network. 3G speeds didn't arrive until the second-gen iPhone 3G in 2008. Even Wi-Fi is slower. 802.11 b/g was the best it got. On my office and home Wi-Fi, it lags well behind my iPhone 7 (£449 at Apple)'s LTE connection. Safari works.. but it's so, so slow. I load Google. I try loading CNET. I wait for a story to appear. NY Times, ESPN: The web's no longer built for old Safari. But I remember how even loading the internet at all on a tiny mobile display seemed like magic at the time. Facebook's app works, but I try logging out, and the process takes so long that I put the phone down to get a coffee.