And then Steve said: "Let there be iPhone», part 3

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Some iPhone team members so burnt out in the process that went from Apple after the mobile phone has appeared on store shelves. Tony Fadell (Tony Fadell), head of the project, the creation of iPhone compared to the first lunar landing.

One of the project participants believe that in fact it was created six fully working prototypes with different hardware, software, and design.

Jobs initially wanted the iPhone runs on a modified version of OS X, but no one had any experience of such a massive launch systems on mobile facilities.

OSes need to shrink by ten times. Millions of lines of code had to be rewritten, and the engineers had to develop the process of testing software emulators of mobile chips as the chips themselves have appeared only in 2006.

Another problem - the introduction of a capacitive multi-touch in a mass product. Previously, no one did not do. While consumer electronics dominated resistive screens, although capacitive touch screen technology has been in the minds of engineers with more 60-ies of the last century. If it came to the screen that supports the simultaneous operation of two or more fingers, then everything becomes more difficult. Not very active development in this area began only in the mid-1980s.

Next problem - the volume of production of such screens. Even in this case the money is not the decisive factor. Apple needed a bold and responsible supplier, ready to take on such a complex order.

And yet it was necessary to somehow invisible to the user to introduce multitouch under glass. In this case, the screen needs to be smart keyboard with autocorrect. The very same screen should make it easy to work with photos and a web browser.

Such a huge amount of difficult to be realized requirements make production of prototypes is incredibly expensive. Who will take up such a job? there were only a few companies in the world that owns production lines for multitouch.

Back in 2003 a group of Apple engineers were able to implement a multi-touch on the tablet. Then Steve like device that he could "read e-mail in the toilet." It was in the product specifications.

Head of the project Strikon Joshua (Joshua Strickon) argued that it is impossible to provide sufficient time work in order to use this tablet out. And yet there was not enough productive mobile graphics chips. Therefore a lot of time was spent simply on trying to figure out what to do.

The Apple almost did not think about multitouch phone until the middle of 2005, when Steve began to promote the idea.

Then he summoned Tony Fadell and showed him the prototype of a giant almost as big as the room. Fadell strongly doubted the prototype compression capabilities to the size, lets you put all this into the phone, but he also knew what it meant to say "no" to Jobs.

Tony was a superstar Apple. He came to Apple in 2001 and served as a consultant when the first iPod. Naturally, he would not have been at his post if the yield to complex technological problems.

I understand how things should be done, but this is only one side of the issue. It is necessary to manufacture that can produce millions of such screens, and that production must be cost-effective.

Tony Fadell

List of issues that need to be resolved, simply did not fit in my head.

You need to go to the manufacturers of LCD-displays and learn from them how to build a similar technology under glass. Then you need to make you take the time of their production lines. After that is necessary to create compensation and calibration algorithms to eliminate all the noise generated by the screens. We have tried two or three ways, we have not yet found a working version, which could be produced in sufficient quantities.

Tony Fadell

Shrink OS X and do multitouch difficult, but for Apple it was possible. The company's engineers were familiar with display manufacturers, since the display was placed in each laptop and iPod.

But mobile phone physicist was for them an entirely new discipline. And deadlines, demanding the creation of a working iPhoneWe confirmed this.

The Apple built the test rooms and equipment for the study of the antennas. models of human head have been created to analyze the level of radiation received by the user in interaction with the phone.

According to one of the board members, the creation of the first iPhone took about $ 150 million.

First Jobs was hoping that the iPhone will work with touchscreen-based OS X. However, by 2005, Steve has no idea how long it takes to create such a device. Therefore, the first iPhone was like a joke. It was an iPod with a radio module and a set of tracks was carried out through the steering wheel.

The second prototype, which appeared at the beginning of 2006, was already more similar to that showed Steve the presentation. In it was a touchscreen, OS X, but the building was made entirely of aluminum. Jobs and Jonathan Ive (Jonathan Ive) were proud to create a design.

However, neither Jobs nor Ive were not experts on the airwaves, so in practice they are one-piece aluminum iPhone prototype turned a beautiful brick.

Me and Ruben Caballero (Ruben Caballero), an expert on antennas, undertook to explain Jobs and quince, why not take and pass the radio waves through the metal. It was not so easy. After all, designers - are artists, and the last time they had to deal with the technical sciences in the eighth grade. But they have the power, and they tell you to make small holes in the hull, the waves pass through them, and you explain to them why it is simply impossible.

Phil Kearney (Phil Kearney)

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• part 4