Life
These Original iPhone Screenshots Will Blow Your Mind
You remember your first iPhone right? It's probably stuck to the bottom of one of your desk drawers, all cracked and cold. It's been lying dormant for almost 10 years now, and is as good as a time capsule, since mobile technology at Apple has changed exponentially since then. Proof: Just try comparing the first iPhone to the iPhone 7S. It's a true time warp.
When you look at it, you're instantly in 2007, fully engrossed in the Blair and Serena feud on Gossip Girl Season 1, and probably wondering if you could pull off a private school wardrobe in your every day life. You're upset because Britney Spears seems to be having literally the roughest year ever and you cannot get Rihanna's "Umbrella" song out of your head. Flash-forward to 2017 and Britney Spears is dominating the music world again, Serena and Blair are long gone from our TV sets, Rihanna is more interested in Puma than umbrellas right now — it's a whole new world.
Everything has changed in the last decade. Aesthetically, we've moved towards sleeker and lighter designs. Technology is no longer metallic, it's light and warm and made to fit in our palms and pockets. And maybe most importantly, our iPhones have become the official hub of communication, email, entertainment, navigation, web surfing, game playing and all things social media. We rely on our iPhones for everything now, they've become extensions of our own beings. We personalize our phones to become representations of our creativity and to humanize a technological boom that's closing the gap between human and machine.
It's wild to think that 10 years ago, when we got our first iPhones, we thought we were at a technological peak. We couldn't really imagine anything else that we'd need to feel closer to a Jetsons future. We already had touch screens and internet on our phones, what else could we ask for? Now, looking at our iPhones current offerings, it's even harder to imagine a need for improvement. And yet today, Apple will announce it's ten year anniversary iPhone, the device to outshine every other phone on the market, forever changing once again our realm of expectation with mobile technology. So before we get too familiar with the new phones and all the bells and whistles that we didn't know we needed, here's a retrospective look at how much the iPhone operating system has evolved in the last 10 years:
Lock Screen
Not all that much has changed on the lock screen. It's certainly more sleek, but the basic appearance isn't much different.
Basic Calling
The phone app is so much more chic and phone-like. The earlier version looks more like a calculator than a phone.
iCal
Back then, we didn't really keep our appointments on our phones, we kept them on our computers and in physical planners. Now everything is synced on all devices, all the time. (Also, fun fact: Turning on your old iPhone after seven years might result in it believing it's January 2000.)
Instagram Profiles
It's a whole new world. Our personal pages are much more aesthetically pleasing. They look like digital catalogs rather than boxy data pages.
Instagram Feeds
Besides the obvious design differences, the addition of "Stories" is the only significant change here.
God bless Zooey Deschanel for keeping the same profile picture all of these years. At least some things are sacred.
iMessage
Chat windows were quite basic in 2007. Now we have the ability to send media files within the conversation making our communication much more dynamic. But more importantly, #teamcharles, right?
iTunes
While the music app might look a lot neater, not much has changed here. It's always been pretty straightforward.
Video
Once upon a time, in 2007, you had to buy and download movies and TV shows in iTunes in order to watch them. Now, you can stream everything. There are so many ways to watch and the viewing quality has been epically updated.
iMaps
Turn-by-turn directions that help to reroute you when you get lost are most certainly a luxury of the future.
