June 29, 2007

Are you ready for another Throwback Thursday post?  Well, I can tell you that for this week's entry, we are going back to a time that completely changed the way that we communicate with people - whether we liked it or not.

Before we make that connection though, let's see what other events took place on June 29 that were interesting but not enough to devote a blog to.

1534 - Explorer Jacques Cartier becomes the first European to reach Prince Edward Island

1613 - A fire completely destroys London's Globe Theatre

1864 - At least 99 lose their lives near St. Hilaire, Quebec, in what is to be known as Canada's worst railroad disaster - the train, which was carrying several immigrants from Russia and Poland, fell through an open swing bridge into the Richelieu River

1888 - George Edward Gouraud records Handel's "Israel in Egypt" onto a phonograph cylinder

1889 - Several Illinois townships vote to become annexed by the city of Chicago which at the time formed the largest United States city in area

1901 - Singer/actor Nelson Eddy (d. 1967) is born in Providence, Rhode Island

1915 - Edmonton, Alberta is devastated by the North Saskatchewan River flood

1922 - France grants one square kilometer at Vimy Ridge "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes".

1927 - "The Bird of Paradise" completes the first transpacific flight from the United States mainland to Hawaii

1943 - Singer Little Eva Boyd (d. 2003) is born in Belhaven, North Carolina

1967 - Actress Jayne Mansfield is killed in a car accident at the age of 34

1974 - Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" tops the Billboard Charts

1975 - Steve Wozniak tests the first prototype for the Apple I computer

1990 - Author/screenwriter Irving Wallace dies at the age of 74

1995 - The Sampoong Department Store in Seoul, South Korea collapses, killing over five hundred people and injuring almost a thousand more; on the same day actress Lana Turner dies at the age of 74

2002 - Singer Rosemary Clooney dies at the age of 74

2003 - Actress Katharine Hepburn passes away at the age of 96

2012 - A derecho (a severe line of windstorms capable of producing severe thunderstorms) sweeps through the eastern United States killing twenty-two people and knocking out power to millions

A couple of notes to make:  One, if you're 74, June 29th might be a deadly day for you.  And two, I purposely added some Canadian bits in there in preparation of Canada's 150th birthday on July 1.  And yes, I have a special themed blog for that coming up this Saturday.

June 29 also happens to be the day in which the following famous people were born; Cara Williams, Bobby Morgan, Pat Crawford Brown, Robert Evans, Gary Busey, Richard Lewis, Fred Grandy, Bobby London, Colin Hay, Maria Conchita Alonso, Robert Forster, Sharon Lawrence, Amanda Donohoe, Jeff Burton, Melora Hardin, Theoren Fleury, Judith Hoag, Emily Skinner, Matthew Good, Daniel Carlsson, Bret McKenzie, Nicole Scherzinger, and Lily Rabe.  Happy birthday to all of you and anyone else celebrating today!

So, where are we throwing this Thursday back to this week?  As it turns out, it's a very special anniversary.

We're going back to June 29, 2007.  Exactly ten years ago today!

Now, remember how I said that today's subject changed the way that we communicated with each other?  I have to say that this is very much true, as it revolutionized the way we speak via phone...in that many people don't even use the phone to communicate, as per this cover gag from a Betty and Veronica Double Digest that was released right around this time.

It sort of makes one wonder how we communicated when we were kids.  I still remember our old family telephone.  This would have been circa 1983, 1984...well, when my earliest memories started to formulate.  It was a simple beige phone with touchtone keys (though the upstairs telephone was a rotary dial).  There was no such thing as call display back in those days either so every telephone call was a mystery.  It could have been Grandma, the Sears catalog people telling us our order was ready for pick-up, or someone trying to call to reserve a squash court and realizing that they had dialed the wrong number.  It was a simpler time.

I don't even think I knew what a cellular phone was until I started watching "Saved By The Bell" in 1989 and saw Zack Morris holding that gigantic brick phone that looked like you could murder someone with it if you struck them hard enough.

These days, mobile phones are a lot smaller and sleeker, and they are capable of doing so many things.  You can check the weather, you can see what time it is, you can use it as a calculator, and you can even make phone calls with them!  I know, what a concept!

Of course, the mobile phone industry really took off with the invention of the first "smartphone", a phone that had about the same technology and storage space of a modern day computer (well, provided you paid for the right data plan that is).  And it was ten years ago that the device that sparked the surge in smartphone technology was released.

Yes.  The iPhone has been around for a whole decade now.  Can you believe it?  Of course, the iPhone has evolved over the years to become one of the most successful mobile phones ever made, and these days you'd find hardcore iPhone users who defend the product as vigorously as those who use Android phones.

Believe it or not, the iPhone began development in 2004, and was headed up by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive, the designer of both the iMac personal computer and the iPod.  Reportedly, a team of one thousand employees of Apple got together to work on a project that was coded "Project Purple".  With assistance from Cingular Wireless, the two companies worked together over the course of two and a half years to develop the iPhone, and the reported cost of the project over that time was well over $150,000,000!

That investment paid off in a huge way for Apple.  In January 2007, at the Macworld 2007 convention in San Francisco, Steve Jobs debuted the first model of the iPhone - and immediately people were excited over the new creation.  It seems a bit wild to think that this was the case now, but the very first iPhone only had a 4GB model and an 8GB model.  Seems very small, given that some cell phones can go up to 128GB!  The cost also seemed to be a bit high, with the 4GB model starting at $499 and the 8GB at $599 - and that's only if you signed up for a two-year phone contract at that.

But it seemed as though cost was not a factor when the first iPhones went on sale on June 29, 2007.  The lines outside of the stores where the phones were being sold extended down entire city streets and many locations sold out of the phones the day they went on sale.

With the success of the iPhone in North America, other nations quickly started to sell the device as well.  Many European nations started selling the first edition iPhone in November 2007, and by the spring of 2008, the phone became a global hit.

And why wouldn't it have?  The phone was very much like an electronic Swiss Army knife of sorts.  You had a calculator, internet browser, GPS device, calendar, walkman (provided you had an iTunes account), and so many other things.  And, after ten years, it shows no signs of going anywhere soon.

Happy 10th anniversary, iPhone!