CHM Live | Original iPhone Software Team Leader Scott Forstall (Part Two)
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters cite it for Forstall's firsthand anecdotes and his account of how the iPhone came about.
What it is
Second half of a 2017 Computer History Museum live event in which former Apple software chief Scott Forstall is interviewed by John Markoff about creating the original iPhone. He tells stories about Steve Jobs and the team and the origins of the iPhone software.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2020 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends bangonkeyboard · 2020-05 · on “Scott Forstall tells story about Steve Jobs, Microsoft, and a dead fish [video]”
He also related this story in his interview with the Computer History Museum: [this video] I'm still upset that, at 48:36, Forstall offered to give his thoughts on what we could be doing with AI that we're not, but Markoff decided to move on.
Recommends rweichler · 2025-06 · on “Apple introduces a universal design across platforms”
Mind throwing some links my way? I love me some Scott Forstall anecdotes. Here, I'll start: - [LINK] - [this video] - [LINK]
Cites ksec · 2020-01 · on “The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10”
I would have thought Double Click was something "Death would take care of it" [1] by now, so may be not. I remember twenty years ago teaching my parents double click, they then spend years on computer and they still cant understand it. They have 4 modes in their mental model, Left Click, Right Click, and Double Click on both Left and Right. They dont understand when to use which. A lot of nerds / geeks/ tech people to this day still dont understand what makes the whole touch screen / iPhone UX so special. Scott Forstall said it [2] these people just dont get it. The single tap app opening may have been trivial for most of us, it was a world of difference to 95% of consumers. ( And that is wh
Cites paulgerhardt · 2023-09 · on “Paul McEnroe’s role in developing the UPC barcode hasn’t been fully acknowledged”
There are two origin stories. The Verge article tells Tony's. The CHM interview tells Scott's: [this video] Given the iPhone hardware came from skunkworks iPad team (and not iPod) and the software came from the Mac team (and not iPod) I personally take Tony's claims of inventing the iPhone with a grain of salt and opportunistic when Scott was later forced out over the unrelated Apple Maps launch issues. But you should judge for yourself. It's probably not clear cut.