Next week marks 10 years since Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone, blowing our collective minds regarding the possibilities that smartphones presented.
Coming up on a decade later, if you’re still using the first-gen iPhone on a regular basis, we want to hear from you!
2016 sent Apple for a wild ride full of fantastic new products, crazy controversies and tons of extra drama with its rivals.
Tim Cook and his colleagues probably can’t wait to jump into 2017. But before we start looking toward Apple’s future, let’s take a quick look back at all the stories that made 2016 a year Apple fans will never forget.
Covering Cupertino is more than just statistics and rumors about upcoming products. There’s plenty of weird Apple news, whether it be a Chinese billionaire buying iPhones for his pet dog or the revelation that, in some alternate universe, Tim Cook could become vice president of the United States.
With that in mind, here are the weirdest Apple news stories of 2016.
The iMac didn’t get much love in 2016, but according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, killer new desktop Macs are coming.
In a note to Apple employees, Cook assured staff that desktop computers are still “really important” and that they shouldn’t worry about future machines.
The world of quotes is a poorer place without Steve Jobs, who was a quote machine. Nonetheless, plenty of people talked about Apple this year, whether lauding the company’s successes or damning its strategies.
Here are the most memorable Apple quotes of 2016.
To promote his new design book, Jony Ive has made a video giving a very rare peek inside Apple’s ultra-secretive design studio.
The video is only the second one that I know of that shows the inside of the “studio behind the Iron Curtain” — so called because it’s so sealed off from the outside world. (The other was last year’s 60 Minutes episode).
While watching it, I recognized a lot of details that I mention in my book about Jony Ive but I don’t think are generally well-known. So I screenshot the video and made a few notes. Warning: This one’s for the design nerds.
Apple is planning to launch new iPad Pros in the first half of 2017 and according to a new rumor out of Asia, they may be a bit thicker than the previous models.
This week on The CultCast: Is a secret Apple project stalling Mac updates? It wouldn’t be the first time. Plus: Apple teases Black Friday deals; AirPort routers are walking dead, and the Mac Pro might be next; the future of Time Machine; why iPad should be an iOS/OS X hybrid; and Jony Ive’s new role designing Apple itself.
Jony Ive’s vision for Apple stores includes plenty of live trees, so who can be surprised that the “Christmas tree” he and BFF Marc Newson designed for a swank British hotel turned out to be a minimalist fir with not a bauble in sight?
Unusual as it is, Ive and Newson’s creation is far from the most offbeat reimagining of festive firs in Claridge’s history. Check out previous Claridge’s Christmas trees, which range from truly ostentatious to totally bizarre.
Jony Ive certainly can’t be accused of not applying his minimalist mantra to every aspect of life.
Having previously been announced as the co-designer (with BFF Marc Newson) of the Christmas tree at London’s famous Claridge’s hotel, Ive’s creation was unveiled over the weekend, and — surprise — it’s a plain tree with no decorations, set on a white background.
Really, were we expecting anything different?
Earlier this week, Apple debuted its pricey $200-$300 Designed by Apple in California coffee table book — and, boy, has it already garnered a ton of publicity. Not all of it favorable.
In a fake ad which debuted on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the Apple book is ridiculed for, well, basically being an insanely expensive book.
Check it out below.
Increasingly, some Apple fans think Jony Ive has lost it.
He’s killing ports and headphone jacks left and right. The latest MacBooks value form over function. He’s designing gold watches for the 1 percent.
And now his glossy new photo book, Designed by Apple in California, looks like a $300, linen-bound ego trip.
Going inside Apple’s design lab is a rare privilege some Apple execs don’t even get, but Jony Ive is giving the world a glimpse inside his lab to celebrate the company’s new book.
In Apple’s latest video, Jony Ive’s disembodied voice floats through his Industrial Design Studio while describing the processes for making the company’s iconic gadgets. Shots of Apple’s prototyping machines can be seen, as well as the product benches where every single detail of a product is analyzed and reconsidered.
Take a look:
I don’t know about you, but I imagine Apple having an amazing vault somewhere under 1 Infinite Loop, containing pristine, still-packaged copies of every single computer it’s ever come out with — if for no reason other than as a design reference for employees.
Not so.
In fact, according to a new interview with Jony Ive, Apple had to actually go out and buy copies of its old products in order to photograph them for its new $300 coffee table book, set to be released tomorrow.
Apple has announced that it will be debuting a new hardbound book, entitled “Designed by Apple in California,” chronicling 20 years of its groundbreaking designs — boasting 450 photographs of past and present Apple products.
The book, which is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs, will also include exclusive details on the design processes used by Apple’s design team under the leadership of Jony Ive.
iPhone sales in China might tank once Trump takes over the Oval Office, but late-night TV host Bill Maher has a brilliant product idea that could be Apple’s next big hit.
“It’s now liberals’ turn to become doomsday prepping gun nuts, they just need survival products tailored to our lifestyle,” he said during the most recent Real Time With Bill Maher. To get liberals to love guns, Maher suggests Apple make one called the “Apple iDefender.”
Watch the funny segment below:
A new interview with Jony Ive sheds light on his team’s thought process as they created the new MacBook Pro and its innovative Touch Bar.
Ive addresses the history of the Touch Bar project, touches on his rationale for ruling out a touchscreen Mac, and explains why thinking different is easy — but doing so is only a small part of the innovation battle.
Desktop computers aren’t going away any decade soon. Not if Jony Ive and Phil Schiller have to say anything about it.
In an interview with Ive, Schiller and Magic Man Craig Federighi, Apple’s team of vets explain that they don’t plan to ever morph the iPad and Mac together to make a Frankenstein desktop tablet like the Surface Studio.
Apple debuted the all-new MacBook Pro and its gorgeous Touch Bar at an event this morning, but if weren’t able to catch the action at work, you can now watch all the videos online.
The full video for the “Hello Again” keynote can be streamed from Apple’s website. Apple also uploaded five new videos to YouTube featuring the history of the MacBook Pro, the new Touch Bar and Accessibility features.
Watch them all below:
Jony Ive might have his hands full with, you know, being the top designer for the world’s most-admired company, but he’s taking a bit of time out of his busy schedule to team up with BFF Marc Newson to design the Christmas tree at London’s famous Claridge’s hotel.
Two of the biggest names at Apple made it onto Vanity Fair‘s 2016 ‘New Establishment’ list that ranks the top names in Silicon Valley, Hollywood and Wall Street. But instead of including designer Jony Ive, the fashion mag bumped him for ugly-shirt-lovin Eddy Cue.
If you thought Apple’s new spaceship campus looks impressive during the day, just wait until you see it at night.
Apple’s stunning new HQ looks like it’s glowing in the latest drone videos that show construction is nearing completion. Landscaping is now underway on the campus with new trees popping up all over, along with walking trails for employees.
Check it out:
Welcome to iPhone Day 2016.
Months of rumors and leaked parts finally culminate today at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, where Apple CEO Tim Cook and his merry gang of techno wizards are expected to unveil some new iPhones and Apple Watch.
Cult of Mac is set to liveblog the festivities today. We’ll be mixing real-time details and analysis with all the dull wit and pithy snark we can muster for what is expected to be one of the “most boring iPhone updates” ever. The event starts at 10 a.m. Pacific, but we’ll be getting started well before that.
For a quick recap of what to expect from today’s keynote, check out our roundup of all the announcements Apple will make, including the possibility of some new AirPods.
Today’s event promises to be Apple’s biggest event of the year, so turn on the stream on your Apple TV and join us in the iPhone 7 event liveblog below.
One of the world’s oldest universities has given Apple’s VP of Design, Jony Ive, another honorary PhD to add to his growing collection.
Not to be out done by their centuries old rivals at Cambridge, the University of Oxford conferred an honorary Doctor of Science degree to Sir Jony at a ceremony on June 22, giving him two degrees from two of the world’s oldest and most prestigious universities.
Sometimes affectionately called the “cheese grater,” the original Power Mac G5 first went on sale on June 23, 2003 — offering what was then Apple’s fastest-ever machine and the world’s first 64-bit personal computer.
Check out the video of Steve Jobs introducing the computer 13 years ago today.