Former iOS head Scott Forstall to talk iPhone's creation at Computer History Museum
Scott Forstall -- Apple's former head of iOS development -- will appear at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. on June 20 to talk about the origins of the iPhone, according to an announcement.
The event will be hosted by historian John Markoff, and be preceded by a panel discussion with three engineers from the iPhone team: Nitin Ganatra, Scott Herz, and Hugo Fiennes, the museum said. The latter begins at 6 p.m. local time.
The museum is hosting an ongoing program called "iPhone 360," marking the iPhone's 10th anniversary. Apart from events, the effort includes research, educational initiatives, and collecting artifacts and oral histories.
Forstall may be asked to weigh in on a minor controversy about an upcoming book, The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone. In it author Brian Merchant claims that Apple's marketing head, Phil Schiller, pushed for the iPhone to have a physical keyboard, even when everyone else was onboard with touchscreen typing. On Tuesday Schiller denied this, later receiving support from Tony Fadell, Merchant's original source. Merchant said that he has an audio recording of Fadell backing him up.
Forstall was forced out of Apple in Oct. 2012, largely as a result of iOS 6. The software's Maps app jettisoned Google content in favor of other sources, and quickly became infamous for missing or mislabeled data. Forstall was also allegedly unpopular among some executives, in part because like former CEO Steve Jobs, he was in favor of skeuomorphic interface design. iOS 7, released the next year, immediately switched to a "flat" look less reminiscent of real-world objects.
The event will be hosted by historian John Markoff, and be preceded by a panel discussion with three engineers from the iPhone team: Nitin Ganatra, Scott Herz, and Hugo Fiennes, the museum said. The latter begins at 6 p.m. local time.
The museum is hosting an ongoing program called "iPhone 360," marking the iPhone's 10th anniversary. Apart from events, the effort includes research, educational initiatives, and collecting artifacts and oral histories.
Forstall may be asked to weigh in on a minor controversy about an upcoming book, The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone. In it author Brian Merchant claims that Apple's marketing head, Phil Schiller, pushed for the iPhone to have a physical keyboard, even when everyone else was onboard with touchscreen typing. On Tuesday Schiller denied this, later receiving support from Tony Fadell, Merchant's original source. Merchant said that he has an audio recording of Fadell backing him up.
Forstall was forced out of Apple in Oct. 2012, largely as a result of iOS 6. The software's Maps app jettisoned Google content in favor of other sources, and quickly became infamous for missing or mislabeled data. Forstall was also allegedly unpopular among some executives, in part because like former CEO Steve Jobs, he was in favor of skeuomorphic interface design. iOS 7, released the next year, immediately switched to a "flat" look less reminiscent of real-world objects.
Comments
will he tell us how Maps got its problems, and why they could not be fixed?
That was mostly politics. The software was fine, the data was missing.
I'd be interested in what he is doing. I always wondered whether he could come back to the company at some point. It was said that he was kept as an advisor. So I thought, they might just want to know how he is doing after being expelled from Apple. And then maybe think about him again.
I personally think that the subject was a grey area, and their were indeed contentious points, but when Tony Fadell's name came up as part of his retraction of that specific part of the story, the author responded that he had Fadell's statement on tape.
For that, and for Schiller's denial, it makes sense to further investigate the truth. Hence, why I posted my opinion.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/15/15804782/vergecast-brian-merchant-author-the-one-device-special-edition
But sometimes the skeuomorphism was a bit too much, especially the wood grain and green felt.
So yeah I care to comment, but not for the same reason you apparently do. I don't personally care what any particular employee at Apple thought about some specific iPhone feature 10 years ago ( if they even remember accurately). Why do you? Is it somehow important what any single person said at some point in some meeting in someone's meeting room one unspecified day in the iPhone development process? Put 10 people in a room for a big discussion and ten years later you'll have 10 different memories of the meeting details. Heck there's posters here that can't accurately recall/understand what someone said two hours earlier and they even have a written record to refer back to.
Isn't it enough that Apple created a great phone, mobile computing platform and media device all in one? I guess not.
Because he decided to produce theater.