Khaberni - In the coming April, the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of one of the world's technology giants, Apple, the maker of the famous iPhone, is approaching.
With this anniversary approaching, here are five strange and unknown facts about the history of the California giant, according to Agence France-Presse.
Apple Logo
Designer Rob Janoff stated that Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, gave him brief instructions when he tasked him with designing a new logo in January 1977: "Don't make it cute."
Janoff added, in an interview with Forbes magazine in 2018: "I just wanted to make the computer easy and fun to use."
He added the "bite" mark to the apple logo to indicate size with the aim to differentiate the apple from similar round fruits like cherries, only to later discover that the word "bite" phonetically resembles the computer term "byte."
Contrary to rumors, there was no connection between the logo and the biblical story of Adam and Eve, or the death of computing pioneer Alan Turing.
Janoff pointed out that the Apple project was "the only time in my career that I presented only one solution to a client," adding: "But it was the perfect solution."
Ad "1984"
In a dystopian science fiction world, a sporty young woman smashes the "Big Brother" character who was addressing brainwashed citizens through a giant screen.
Tens of millions of Americans watched the Apple ad directed by Ridley Scott, which lasted one minute, during the Super Bowl on January 22, 1984.
The ad was broadcast along with the announcement of the launch of an Apple computer, and was heavily inspired by George Orwell's dystopian novel of the same name.
The ad was notable for its originality, as it did not promote the product directly, but promised a new world of freedom for consumers thanks to home computers.
Bold Colors
Over the years, Apple devices have utilized bold colors to distinguish themselves from their more traditional competitors.
The first-generation iMac devices, released in 1998, featured transparent, candy-like bright colors such as blue and green, which added a distinctive aesthetic touch with a hint of the advanced technologies operating inside them.
The iPod music player, initially released in metallic gray, quickly diversified to include a wide spectrum of bright colors.
Lately, the release of the iPhone 6S in rose gold in 2015 led to the appearance of many imitated devices, exploiting a trend that lasted for years known as "millennial pink."
Time at 9:41
Anyone who has watched more than one Apple product launch event or browsed its website will notice a curious coincidence: almost every screen displays the time as 9:41 AM.
Australian game developer John Manning said he asked Scott Forstall, then head of iOS mobile operating system at Apple, about this phenomenon when he met him by chance in California in 2010.
Forstall explained that the timing goes back to Steve Jobs' preferred method of announcing products.
Forstall said: "We design our keynote presentations so that the main product is revealed about 40 minutes after the presentation starts."
He added: "When the large product image appears on the screen, we want the time displayed to be close to the actual time on the attendees' watches. But we know we will not reach exactly 40 minutes."
The third man in Apple
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak entered history as co-founders of Apple.
However, in reality, a third man also signed the three-page contract that launched the company on April 1, 1976; namely Ronald Wayne.
According to Jobs' biography written by Walter Isaacson, Wayne, an engineer at the video game company Atari, was responsible for hardware engineering and documentation in the startup.
While his partners went all-in on the project, Wayne feared losing his limited savings if Apple failed.
Just 11 days later, he relinquished his status as co-founder and sold his 10% stake for two payments of $800 and $1,500.
Had he retained this stake, it would have been worth about $370 billion by 2026.
