關於蘋果你所不知道的11件事
The company behind the ubiquitous iPhone and iPad is famously secretive, but there a few little known facts about the California-based company.
1 Steve Jobs was adopted and half Syrian
Apple’s legendary co-founder and chief executive died in October 2011, but while heading up the company Steve Jobs revealed that he was actually adopted and half Syrian. His biological parents, Joanne Schieble and Syrian immigrant Abdulfattah Jandali met as 23-year-old students at the University of Wisconsin.
Jobs was put up for adoption in 1955, through pressure from Schieble’s parents. Schieble and Jandali later married and had a daughter, Jobs’ biological sister.
2 Apple’s first computer was satanically priced
Apple’s first computer, the Apple I, was priced at $666.66. Steve Wozniak apparently priced it without realising that the triple-six configuration had Satanic connotations, instead pricing it at one-third over the wholesale price of $500, and preferring one repeating digit over 667 because it was "easier to type".
3 Apple ships everything by air, not sea
Apple is Cathay Pacific’s biggest freight customer, as it prefers to move most of its stock by air instead of boat. The benefit is being able to move stock quickly rather than cheaply, with stock moved from China to the US in 15 hours instead of 30 days. It means that less money is tied up in stock (normally on credit) before it can be sold on.
It also means that phones, tablets and computers all worth in excess of £500 each are not sitting in a container at sea which might sink or get hijacked.
4 A Macintosh is an apple variety
The Apple Macintosh is so called because the macintosh was Jef Raskin’s favourite variety of Apple.
At the time it was just a codename, which Steve Jobs reportedly tried to change to “bicycle” while Raskin was out of the office, but Macintosh stuck until the end of product development and made it onto the box.
5 Apple’s hero shots aren’t computer generated
The big, glossy super-high-resolution photos of Apple’s latest products in adverts and on its site are not computer generated. Instead, they are a painstaking blend of hundreds of high resolution, super-close up photos all with narrow depths of field.
The individual images are stitched together, in a similar way to high dynamic range photography which blends photos with different exposures, into one massive, ultra-high-resolution image entirely in focus.
6 Steve Wozniak is still an Apple employee
Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak set up the company in 1976 with Steve Jobs in his garage. He no longer actively works for Apple, but is still officially an Apple employee and receives a stipend estimated to be worth $120,000 a year.
7 Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow
Steve Jobs’ last words were "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow" while looking over the shoulders of his family, according to his sister Mona Simpson, who allowed the eulogy she gave at Jobs‘ memorial service to be published in the New York Times.
8 Apple had three founders
Apple was founded in 1976 by three people, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne.
Ronald drew the first Apple logo, wrote the original partnership agreement and the Apple I computer manual, but sold his 10% stake two weeks in for just $800 because of concerns over debt.
That same stake would have been worth over $35bn today.
9 Thank Ive for the white iPod
Steve Jobs was opposed to the idea of white products initially, but was convinced to use white as Apple’s primary colour for its products by Apple’s designer Sir Jony Ive.
In Ive’s recent biography, former Apple designer Doug Satzger has said that Jobs was only won over by white when shown a different shade called “moon grey”.
Ive’s love for white originated long before he joined Apple, right back to the work he produced while still a design student at Newcastle.
10 Packaging obsession
Apple pays as much attention to its packaging as it does to its products. So much so, that it has a dedicated secret packaging room within its headquarters in Cupertino, California.
Packaging designers spend countless hours opening boxes within this special room, attempting to elicit the correct emotional response in customers opening new products for the first time. In his book, Inside Apple, Adam Lashinsky describes the level of obsession and attention to detail Apple commits to packaging:
“One after another, the designer created and tested an endless series of arrows, colours, and tapes for a tiny tab designed to show the consumer where to pull back the invisible, full-bleed sticker adhered to the top of the clear iPod box. Getting it just right was this particular designer's obsession.”
11 Balls
In his recent unauthorised biography of Jony Ive, author Leander Kahney included a photo of an iMac G4 inside its box. The stem connecting the screen to the domed base is encased in polystyrene, with the two ball-shaped speakers carefully and very deliberately placed either side of the shaft. The idea of arranging them to look like male genitals was apparently the idea of the design team.
For good measure, the book also features a high school photo of Ive, arguably the world's most famous designer and tastemaker, with a very impressive mullet.據英國《衛報》報道，如今iPhone和iPad已隨處可見，但蘋果公司卻一直裹在神祕的面紗裏。儘管如此，關於這家總部位於加利福尼亞州的高科技公司，我們還是可以稍作了解的。
1. 史蒂夫·喬布斯童年被領養，且有一半敘利亞血統。
蘋果公司聯合創辦人、前行政總裁史蒂夫·喬布斯於2011年10月逝世。據相關消息顯示，喬布斯童年曾被收養，而且有一半敘利亞的血統。喬布斯的親生母親是喬安妮·席貝爾（Joanne Schieble），親生父親是從敘利亞移民到美國的阿卜杜拉法塔赫·詹達利（Abdulfattah Jandali ），他們相識於威斯康星大學，當時他們還是23歲的大學生。
但因爲女方父母對這樁戀情的強烈反對，喬布斯最終於1955年被送去領養家庭。席貝爾和詹達利後來也結婚了，並育有一女，也就是喬布斯的親妹妹。
2. 第一代蘋果機價格的祕密。
第一代蘋果機“Apple I”標價666.66美元，史蒂夫·沃茲尼亞克顯然沒有意識到這個由5個6組成的數字背後所具有的“邪惡涵義”，他只是想讓定價比批發價500美元高出1/3。定這個價格的另一個原因是，一個重複數字要比667“更易輸入”。
3. 所有的蘋果產品都通過航空運輸，而不是海運。
蘋果是國泰航空最大的貨運客戶，蘋果公司向來通過航空運輸派送貨物，而不是海運。相比於更廉價的運貨方式，蘋果選擇了更快捷的運貨途徑，因此送到中國的貨物就可以在15天內而不是30天內到達。這意味着在售出之前，庫存凍結的資金更少。
這也意味着，每一臺手機、平板和電腦都具有超過500美元的價值，而不是在茫茫大海上一隻集裝箱裏面臨着沉沒或被搶劫的危險。
4. “麥金塔”是一種蘋果的名字。
“麥金塔”（Macintosh）是蘋果個人電腦的一個系列，根據該項目發起人傑夫·拉斯金最愛的蘋果品種而命名。
一開始“麥金塔”只是一個項目代號而已。據相關報道稱，喬布斯曾試圖在拉斯金不在公司的時候將其改爲“自行車”（bicycle）。但“麥金塔”最終還是被保留了下來，並出現在大小包裝盒上。
5. 蘋果產品的效果圖並非計算機生成的圖形。
廣告和櫃檯上那些超大高清的蘋果宣傳圖並非是計算機生成的。相反，那些圖片是由數百張高清、微距、小景深拍攝的照片經過繁瑣複雜的拼接製成的。
把數百張實物照片拼到一起的方法類似於高動態範圍成像技術——以完全相同的焦點把曝光不同的照片混合到一張超大、超高清的圖片裏。
6. 史蒂夫·沃茲尼亞克還是蘋果的員工。
蘋果公司的聯合創始人“沃茲”（沃茲尼亞克的綽號）1976年在自家車庫與喬布斯創立了蘋果公司。目前他仍是蘋果的正式員工，並且享受一份每年約12萬美金的固定津貼。
7. 噢，哦，噢，哦，噢，哦
喬布斯的妹妹莫納·辛普森（Mona Simpson）同意將自己的悼詞公開發表在《紐約時報》上。根據悼詞所言，喬布斯在最後時刻一直望着家人，最後的遺言是“噢，哦，噢，哦，噢，哦”。
8. 蘋果有三位創始人。
蘋果公司由三位創始人於1976年創立，分別是史蒂夫·喬布斯、史蒂夫·沃茲尼亞克和羅納德·韋恩。
韋恩繪製了第一個蘋果的商標，撰寫了最初的合作契約和第一代蘋果機的使用手冊。但是韋恩在蘋果成立2周後就因負債累累而以800美元賣掉了10%的股份。
那10%的股份在今天的價值將超過350億美元。
9.伊夫的白色iPod
最初喬布斯反對使用白色作爲蘋果公司所有產品的基本色，但最終被設計師喬納森·伊夫說服。
在最近出版的伊夫的傳記中，前蘋果設計師道格·薩茨格（Doug Satzger）說，喬布斯被說服的唯一原因是伊夫提出了一個叫做月光灰（Moon Gray）的設計理念。
從伊夫在紐卡斯爾上學時設計的作品來看，他在加入蘋果之前就超愛白色。
10. 包裝控
蘋果不僅重視產品的研發生產，對產品的外包裝也同樣精益求精，以至於在加利福尼亞州庫比蒂諾市的蘋果公司總部裏，甚至有一間神祕的包裝專用間。
在這間特殊的房間裏，設計師們無數次拆開產品外包裝，試圖使消費者在第一次拆開包裝時能收穫最好的情感體驗。《蘋果內幕》（Inside Apple）的作者亞當·拉辛斯基（Adam Lashinsky）曾在書中描述過蘋果公司對於包裝的執着。
“一次又一次，設計師們似乎沒完沒了地設計和測試不同的箭頭標識、不同的顏色，甚至是告訴消費者該如何揭開iPod上邊完全密封的透明塑料的小小標籤。這些挑剔的設計師對完美有着不懈的追求。
11. 球形
由利安德·卡尼(Leander Kahney)所撰寫的《喬納森·伊夫：蘋果偉大產品背後的天才》一書中收錄了一張iMac G4的照片。iMac G4的主機是聚苯乙烯制的半球體，球面頂端連接着顯示器，兩側精緻地放着兩個球形的喇叭。這種類似男性生殖器的外觀似乎反映了蘋果設計團隊的理念。
此外，傳記中還收錄了一張伊夫高中時代的照片。這位公認的世界最著名的設計師和時尚製造者少時留着一頭蓬鬆的亂髮，這種髮型有個名字叫做“烏魚頭”(Mullet)。
