It takes years to understand the appeal of the unboxing video. On the face of it, they’re very silly. And yet unboxing is one of digital video’s most popular and enduring genres.
Who wants to see someone else opening the box of a brand new gadget? Wouldn’t you want to do it yourself?
And therein lies their appeal — the vicarious pleasure of seeing a stranger enjoy a gadget you covet.
With that, here’s our contribution to the genre: Cult of Mac’s first unboxing video. Watch in enraptured fascination as we take the iPhone 6s Plus from its box.
Mmmmmmm… we love the smell of a new gadget in the morning.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the morning by the time our brand new iPhone 6s Plus arrived. It was late afternoon. We made the strategic mistake of getting it delivered to Cult of Mac towers. It worked last time. The driver arrived very early with a pair of Apple Watches. Alas, he took a long lunch or something before delivering our shiny new 6s.
And with shaking hands, we unwrapped it:
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
12 responses to “Kahney’s Korner: iPhone 6s unboxing special”
I thought there was no task more tedious than watching paint dry until I saw an unboxing video. But, to each his own. And no, I didn’t watch this one.
Just unboxed my 6[S]+ and my first impression was that it’s really heavy. Almost so much so that I have to switch hands during long periods of use. 3D Touch is cool, but it’s usefulness is limited at the moment due to only a few stock apps employing in its functionality. Pictures do look great and Live Photos are just a novelty. To the naked eye and fully-clothed casual user, it’s a heavier and slightly thicker iPhone 6.
Slightly thicker to naked eyes? Lol. Your eyes must be calibrated with BS to tell 0.2mm difference without an iPhone 6+ reference. Btw, 20g is so heavy for you that you have to switch hand? Lol. You must have noodle muscle. Stop spewing the BS, wouldn’t you…
20g, ouch, my delicate wrist hurts :P
@disqus_OdyuatBpKK:disqus you sound like a p*ssy limey whose “noodle arms” can do nothing but type garbage on tech blog comment sections. Stop spewing your boyfriend’s spunk, wouldn’t you…
Received my new 6S 64GB Space Grey Sept 25 at 9:45am by Canada Post. I was shocked! So excited about it – I immediately opened it and, because I didn’t have the box perfectly flat (or for that matter over a desk/table) the brand new phone dropped onto a tile floor. Sigh – but, at least I don’t have to stress about the first mark on the case. Bonus = NO DAMAGE!
Yes, Sandman – I totally agree! Tedious is a great word.
well no forces you guys to watch , you can simply press a button to stop or go elsewhere. I find Leander very funny – smelling his iPhone lol.
Leander. You repeatedly refer to your new iPhone as an iPhone 6s.
You have an iPhone 6s Plus.
I thought that you would want to know.
Did my own unboxing yesterday after picking it up at the local Apple Store without a wait based on my pre-order. Love it and am getting used to 3D Touch which is cool, can’t wait for more apps to integrate it too. Only hitch was a messy upgrade via iTunes. First time this has happened after five different iPhones since the first one. It froze up every time I entered my iCloud password. Probably because I didn’t first deregister my old phone. Anyhow, after a chat with support and an iCloud restore things are looking good. Drawback with this restore method is many passwords have to be re-entered.
Thank you Mr. Kahney for the laugh. I didn’t watch the video. But just reading your introspective, detailed article on the art of an unboxing video, was pretty humorous.
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Very spiritous unboxing.