image via Apple PR
I was an Apple Genius-in-training and working part-time on the sales floor at the local Apple store when the first iPhone went on sale six years ago today.
And boy, was it a circus.
The iPhone went on sale at 6 p.m. local time. Our store — like all others — closed four hours before the event. In those four hours, everyone in the store was assigned a job, after heavy black-out curtains were hung over the floor-to-ceiling glass at the front of the store.
This is clearly a joke, but HOLY COW.
66 percent of people who responded to Polar’s poll do, actually.
Bradley Chambers looks at the changes coming to iCloud and iTunes U with iOS 7.
Earlier today, John Gruber tweeted:
Ive and his team completely remake Mac OS X next year, right?
When I saw that scroll by in Tweetbot, I realized something. Look at these two pieces of art, both from Apple’s website:
Before the WWDC keynote, based solely on this art — which was hanging as banners in Moscone’s lobby — it wouldn’t have been crazy to think that OS X was getting a new coat of paint, just like its mobile brother was rumored to receive.
iFixit’s Kyle Wiens breaks down what Macs are easy to work on, and which ones are terrible to take apart.
Jim Dalrymple, linking to this piece by Austin Sweeney on Apple and the console market:
The big question for me is will it be easier for the console makers to convince the public they have an entertainment device or for Apple to convince the gamers they have a gaming device?
Crazy-ass DRM stuff aside, the vast majority of complaints surrounding the Xbox One is that Microsoft is going after the living room at the expense of the gamer experience. Now, the company is trying to reaching out to the community with changes, but it may be too little too late. Could Apple connect with the gaming community? Do they even need the hardcore guys to pull this off?
From what the trailer shows, things seem to be mostly accurate historically, but I’m sure there will be details glossed over or changes.
Also — holy crap — Ashton Kutcher looks like Steve Jobs.
When you sign up for an iOS or Mac developer account, you agree to certain terms. These are outlined in this public-facing PDF on Apple’s website. There are several sections that are referred to as “the NDA” by those in the community. Here’s the gist of it, from sections four and five of the document 1:
Confidentiality. You agree that any Apple pre-release software and/or hardware (including related documentation and materials) provided to you as a Registered Apple Developer (“Pre-Release Materials”) and any information disclosed by Apple to you in connection with Apple Events or Paid Content (defined below) will be considered and referred to as “Apple Confidential Information”. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Apple Confidential Information will not include: (i) information that is generally and legitimately available to the public through no fault or breach of yours, (ii) information that is generally made available to the public by Apple, (iii) information that is independently developed by you without the use of any Apple Confidential Information, (iv) information that was rightfully obtained from a third party who had the right to transfer or disclose it to you without limitation, or (v) any third party software and/or documentation provided to you by Apple and accompanied by licensing terms that do not impose confidentiality obligations on the use or disclosure of such software and/or documentation.
It’s super lame that both of these apps require a cable subscription, but this seems like a step in the right direction when it comes to adding content to the Apple TV. Slow and steady is Apple’s mantra here.
Nilay Patel at The Verge:
13 hours and 29 minutes. That’s all you really need to know — that’s how long the new MacBook Air running Safari lasted running The Verge Battery Test, which cycles through a series of websites and images at 65 percent brightness. Run time in Chrome was shorter, at 11 hours and 29 minutes, but both are still ridiculously impressive. In fact, it’s the record for a laptop running our test without an external battery.
Chris Clark, on iOS 7:
Best to embrace it, the good and the bad, and get back to work.