January 9, 2007

On January 9, 2007, in front of the Macworld audience at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Steve Jobs unveiled to the world a device that would forever change the Internet and how we interact with it - the iPhone. As Jobs said in his keynote, "Every once and a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything." With the iPhone, Jobs and Apple did just that.

While other manufacturers, such as RIM with the Blackberry, made the Internet portable, but it wasn't until the iPhone that we had such a device that made the Internet look and feel like the Internet. The user experience was the closest thing to browsing on a desktop, while the introduction of apps added a new level of engagement not previously available or experienced.

What the iPhone gave us was, and has grown to be, so much more than a sleek looking phone. It was an all-inclusive device - phone, camera, video camera, calendar, personal computer with email and Internet, among many other things. The iPhone made the Internet ubiquitous, without taking away from the user experience.

Today, the iPhone is the bar at which all other mobile devices are measured and you can pretty much set your watch to the new release schedule, they still sell like crazy. For me personally, when I'm not at work in front of my office computer, my web browsing products by choice go: iPhone, tablet, laptop. Despite having, by far, the smallest screensize, it still offers the best user experience.

Using the Internet

When it comes to technology, my family offers a pretty stereotypical representation of a generation gap. This is especially evident when comparing the way I use the Internet to the way my father does.

For me, the Internet is my primary source of pretty much everything. I use it to read the news, do the bulk of my banking, plan and book vacations, discover new restaurants, find each new apartment, connect with friends, colleagues, and others on social media, and pretty much everything else in everyday life. As a publicist and social media manager, I use the Internet constantly in my professional life, as well - from contacting the press to promoting the Museum online.

And then there's my father...the man who generally avoids new technology at all costs. As a recreational sailor, he'll use weather.com to check up-to-the-minute marine forecasts to make go/no-go determinations on sailing on a certain day...and that's pretty much it. It's 2013 and this man still does not have an email account and has zero desire to get one. There are certainly people out there who understand the Internet less than my father, but he's probably only a few poorly timed clicks away from going viral...