A photo depicting what Apple's early iPhone testing rig looked like.
In case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal this week ran a compelling interview with Greg Christie, one of the first engineers involved in developing the iPhone. The story details some of the hurdles that the original iPhone team had to traverse, providing some newfound nuggets of information in the process.
[Steve] Jobs ordered employees working on the project at home to use a computer in a secluded part of the house to prevent anyone from accidentally seeing details. He also demanded that employees encrypt digital images of the device.
The green light in early 2005 was the start of what Mr. Christie called a “2½- year marathon.” It involved rethinking every part of the phone from how to check voice mail to how to display a calendar. Mr. Jobs obsessed over every detail.
Particularly intriguing was a photo depicting what one of the first iPhone testing setups looked like.The photo above, taken in 2006, shows a phone testing rig hooked up to an old PowerMac G3 to better simulate “the slower speeds of a phone’s hardware.”
Going from that to the pocketsized iPhone is nothing short of astounding.
Photo provided by Apple to WSJ
