Brian Merchant on the history of the iPhone

By Live Talks LA | June 22, 2017
Thursday, June 22, 2017
8pm 
 
Brian Merchant
in conversation with Claire L. Evans
 
discussing his upcoming book,
The One Device:
The Secret History of the iPhone

Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404

PURCHASE TICKETS 
$42 Reserved Section seat + a copy of The One Device
$30 Reserved Section Seat
$20 General Admission Seat

The secret history of the invention that changed everything-and became the most profitable product in the world. June 29, 2017, marks the 10th anniversary of the device that changed our world—the iPhone.

Brian Merchant is an editor at Motherboard, Vice’s science and technology outlet, and the founder and editor of Terraform, its online fiction outlet. His work has appeared in the Guardian, Slate, Vice, Salon, Fast Company, Discovery, GOOD, Paste, and elsewhere.

“The One Device is a tour de force, with fast-paced edge and heaps of analytical insight.” -Ashlee Vance, New York Times bestselling author of Elon Musk

“A stunning book. You will never look at your iPhone the same way again.” -Dan Lyons, New York Times bestselling author of Disrupted
 
Odds are that as you read this, an iPhone is within reach. But before Steve Jobs introduced us to “the one device,” as he called it, a cell phone was merely what you used to make calls on the go.
 
How did the iPhone transform our world and turn Apple into the most valuable company ever? Veteran technology journalist Brian Merchant reveals the inside story you won’t hear from Cupertino-based on his exclusive interviews with the engineers, inventors, and developers who guided every stage of the iPhone’s creation.
 
This deep dive takes you from inside One Infinite Loop to 19th century France to WWII America, from the driest place on earth to a Kenyan pit of toxic e-waste, and even deep inside Shenzhen’s notorious “suicide factories.” It’s a firsthand look at how the cutting-edge tech that makes the world work-touch screens, motion trackers, and even AI-made their way into our pockets.
 
The One Device is a roadmap for design and engineering genius, an anthropology of the modern age, and an unprecedented view into one of the most secretive companies in history. This is the untold account, ten years in the making, of the device that changed everything.
 
The One Device includes interviews with key members of the original team behind the iPhone—many of whom have never before spoken on the record, including star Apple designers Imran Chaudri and Bas Ording, as well as dozens of other Apple employees—about creating the prototypes and building the software that determines how we interact with the machines today. Merchant speaks to Henri Lamiraux, former Apple VP of software; Tony Fadell, the creator of the iPod and former head of iPhone hardware; Tom Gruber, the engineer who co-created Siri; and hundreds of inventors, laborers, and iPhone pioneers

To trace the story of the iPhone, Merchant traveled to every inhabited continent, from the Bolivian highlands to the city of Shenzhen, using “the one device” to document the effort. He took 8,000 photos, recorded 200 hours of interviews, tapped out hundreds of Notes, and had dozens of FaceTime sessions with his family back home. He went through three different iPhones: an iPhone 6, whose screen was broken and repaired three times, a black-market 4S that he bought in China but which was stolen in Chile, and an iPhone 7 he snapped up on its launch day.

Claire L. Evans is an American singer, writer, and artist based in Los Angeles, California. She is the lead singer of the pop duo YACHT. Evans joined YACHT in 2008 after sharing a “mystical experience” with collaborator Jona Bechtolt, and has recorded three albums, See Mystery Lights, Shangri-La, and I Thought the Future Would Be Cooler with Bechtolt. She also appeared as a guest on YACHT’s third album, I Believe in You. Your Magic Is Real. Known for her androgynous onstage persona as a performer, she has been called a “neo-Annie Lennox” by the New York Times.[1] NPR music journalist Bob Boilen has referred to her as “one of the most striking performers I’ve seen in a rock band.”

She is a member of the feminist collective Deep Lab. In addition, Evans is a science journalist, with a popular science and culture blog, Universe, hosted by National Geographic’s Scienceblogs network.  She is the co-author of New Art/Science Affinities, a book about contemporary artists working at the intersection of science and technology.  She is also the author of a collection of essays called High Frontiers, published by Publication Studio, a small press in Portland, Oregon.  In August 2013, she became the editor-in-chief of OMNI Reboot, a new online version of the science magazine OMNI.[9] She is currently the Futures Editor of Motherboard, Vice (magazine)‘s technology and science website.

 

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