When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4 at WWDC 2010, it surprised no one. Tech blog Gizmodo had already spilled the tea two months earlier by publishing photographs of a lost prototype. Jobs was furious, but he found a way to turn the situation to his advantage.

The design of the iPhone 4 set the standard for all subsequent models. And with innovative new features like FaceTime and the Retina Display, Jobs described it as the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone.

iPhone 4 proved wildly popular, but the launch did not go smoothly. One month later, Jobs had to rush back from a family vacation in Hawaii to deal with “Antennagate,” a media frenzy over concerns about dropped calls. The institutional learnings Apple acquired from this PR nightmare continue to inform iPhone launches to this day.

LINKS

Original Gizmodo iPhone 4 leak coverage via the Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100421020922/https://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone
https://web.archive.org/web/20100423034754/http://gizmodo.com/5520438/how-apple-lost-the-next-iphone

Gourmet Haus Staudt:
https://gourmethausstaudt.com

The guy who sold the iPhone 4 prototype to Gizmodo did a Reddit AMA:
https://www.cultofmac.com/news/the-guy-who-sold-apples-lost-iphone-4-prototype-spills-all-on-reddit

WWDC 2010 Keynote - iPhone 4 launch:
https://youtu.be/EP81hZ_HdXU?si=DT2FHhmYWq-IZh5N

Gizmodo Antennagate coverage:
https://gizmodo.com/video-clearly-shows-antenna-defect-on-iphone-4-web-brow-5575347

Jonathan Mann Antennagate song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKIcaejkpD4

Antennagate press conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8tXyfjfnB0

AnandTech iPhone 4 review:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2

Kara Swisher’s Burn Book includes her account of asking Steve Jobs what he planned to do in the next ten years:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Burn-Book/Kara-Swisher/9781982163891

Safari is one of Apple’s most enduring and popular apps, with versions running on Mac, iPhone, iPad, and even Vision Pro. But it wasn’t always the behemoth we know today.

When it launched in 2003, Safari faced fierce competition from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, a bruiser of a browser with over 95% market share. Safari didn’t seem to stand a chance. And yet, just twelve years later, Microsoft gave up the fight, scrapping Internet Explorer in favor of Edge, a new app based on code borrowed from Safari.

So, how did Safari deliver this knock-out blow? In this episode we go back to an era when Apple championed standards, interoperability, and open source. We’ll learn why Steve Jobs argued passionately against proprietary platforms. And we’ll discover how Apple handed its crown jewels over to a bitter rival.

This is a David versus Goliath story of a plucky little web browser that went on to conquer the world.

LINKS

Full video of MacWorld SF 2003, where Steve Jobs introduced the first Safari beta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTF9wnTPpK0

Don Melton, former director of internet technologies at Apple, explains how Safari got it’s name.
https://donmelton.com/2012/12/19/when-i-first-heard-the-name-safari/

Clip of Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2007, where Steve Jobs introduces Safari for Windows.
https://www.cnet.com/videos/steve-jobs-announces-safari-for-windows/

Webkit.org
https://webkit.org

Apple launched its first handheld computing device way back in 1993. With no internet access, flaky handwriting recognition, and an eye-watering price tag, the Newton MessagePad never stood much chance of success. But the writing was really on the wall with the arrival of the PalmPilot, a cheaper, more compact alternative, with a breakthrough text input system.

Inspired by the “Knowledge Navigator” concept video Apple published in 1987, the Newton MessagePad was ahead of its time, featuring bleeding-edge technologies like Assist, which enabled users to control the device using natural language, much like Siri today.

Although Steve Jobs scrapped the Newton on his return to Apple in 1998, its legacy lives on to this day. Apple’s investment in the Newton’s processor paid off big-time, providing vital working capital during the company’s darkest hour, and spawning a line of processors that powers every Mac, iPhone, and iPad today.

Featuring special guest D. Griffin Jones from The CultCast and Cult of Mac.

LINKS

Doonesbury “Egg Freckles” cartoon:
https://newtonglossary.com/terms/egg-freckles

Apple Knowledge Navigator Video:
https://youtu.be/umJsITGzXd0?si=1VNFsKBqXjt4bLeQ

Michael Tchao pitched the idea of the Newton to Apple’s CEO, John Sculley:
https://web.archive.org/web/20211112015207/https://www.wired.com/2013/08/remembering-the-apple-newtons-prophetic-failure-and-lasting-ideals/

How Newton’s handwriting recognition software was acquired on a trip to: Moscow:
https://www.cultofmac.com/436469/today-in-apple-history-steve-jobs-visits-the-soviet-union

How Griffin uses his MessagePad 2000 for playing Dungeons and Dragons:
https://www.cultofmac.com/825770/using-an-apple-newton-today/

Inkwell - Newton handwriting recognition in Mac OS X:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkwell_(Macintosh)

Newton and the ARM processor:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/09/05/apple-arm-have-been-crucial-to-each-others-survival-for-three-decades

eMate 3000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMate_300

Apple Newton Messagepad 2000 image:
Ralf Pfeifer, GNU Free Documentation License
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_Newton.jpg

Apple eMate 300 image:
Felix Winkelnkemper, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_Newton_eMate_300_(cropped).jpg