Filed under: Macworld, Portables, Apple History
Phil Schiller's death-defying stunt at MWNY '99
Everyone in the Apple community is eager to see Phil Schiller deliver tomorrow's keynote address at Macworld Expo. While we're uncertain as to what he'll do, we know that he won't be leaping onto an inflatable mattress while holding a laptop. Because he's already done that.
At Macworld Expo '99 in New York City, Phil demonstrated a Tangerine iBook's wifi capabilities and accelerometer by falling from a significant height onto a small mattress below, thus ushering him into "The Demo Hall of Fame." It might not have been the Mother of All Demos, but still pretty cool. Way to take one for the team, Phil!
Click below to watch the video.
[Thanks to the folks at thinkingbricks for pointing this out]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
huth.sebastian said 1:09PM on 1-05-2009
...and this shows us what? What's he demoing? That a computer can fall on a matress? I don't get it.
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Trevor said 1:17PM on 1-05-2009
No wires needed. It was after Jobs demonstrated wifi on the ibook.
Stephen Staffieri said 1:17PM on 1-05-2009
How can this be 1999? iBooks were not released until October 1999 and the NY Macworld was always in June/July.
Alex said 1:19PM on 1-05-2009
Uhhh
Isn't it showcasing the "sudden drop accelerometer" that is supposed to shut down the hard drive to prevent damage of the computer during a potential impact?
But then I say to myself, "did they even have that technology on their laptops in 99? I don't think they did, or did they?"
I thought that was a recent addition to their laptop line that came out just a few years ago.
LaughingMan said 1:32PM on 1-05-2009
If you look carefully at the iBook in the picture, they rigged the thing with an early accelerometer accessory. The iBook was connected to the network using Wifi and it was transmitting the accelerometer data to Steve's machine.
After Phil's jump, Steve pulled up the graph showing the iBook's acceleration.
ken Broughton said 1:23PM on 1-05-2009
If you must embed video in a blog posting (a) please put it after the fold to speed up page load times for those not on fast connections, and (b) for pity's sake DON'T make it autostart!! Sorry, but I just consider this incredibly bad practice and anyone blogging here should really know better.
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Frankfurter said 2:01PM on 1-05-2009
@Ken - amen - I was just going to post the same comments (about the auto-start, anyway).
MAN that's annoying, especially at work in a cubicle environment. Nothing says "I'm screwing around" better than some random internet video smashing the silence.
TUAW, contrary to what you guys might experience in the 20' circle around your hipster-ness, some of us have office jobs in corporate environments. So STOP with the auto-starts.
noza said 1:29PM on 1-05-2009
The point of the demo was that a USB accelerometer was taped to the bottom of the iBook and the iBooks (new at the time) AirPort would send the reading in real-time to another computer, which would prove, once and for all, that gravity really is 9.8 m/s^2.
A very cool demo, and I hope he tops it tomorrow.
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Crabster said 1:48PM on 1-05-2009
Bonus points for the mullet too!
Yay!
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falcon5768 said 2:07PM on 1-05-2009
It was 1999. The iBook debuted at the June/July Macworld NY (I was there actually one of the few times I went before it was moved then canceled) It was not released till after that though. I had actually just gotten my Powermac G3 when it came out and thought to myself "damn, should have waited."
In the end I got a early prototype SE in late 2001 when I started working for Apple as a campus rep.
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Frankfurter said 2:25PM on 1-05-2009
Does that story ever get chicks?
ds said 2:09PM on 1-05-2009
I was actually there for this. Pretty awesome stuff. I was just mad because the didn't have enough iBooks in the audience for everyone to touch one, and I was in the back 1/3 of the auditorium. Possibly OT: This was also the keynote where Bungie first demoed Halo.
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SlavenPro said 2:56PM on 1-05-2009
Steve Jobs: I'm your boss, JUMP or I'll fire you!
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Pegasus said 2:54PM on 1-05-2009
Are you purposely trying to attract 10 year olds?
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SubGenius said 3:05PM on 1-05-2009
This was the first and last MWNY that I attended.
Phil's jump was certainly memorable but a chance encounter with his Steveness on the show floor made it unforgettable.
Also Noah Wyle's Steve Jobs impersonation was a great opening.
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bustanut108 said 3:08PM on 1-05-2009
WOW THAT WAS DEATH DEFYING
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Gazoobee said 3:23PM on 1-05-2009
Wow, lots of haters here today.
Does the demo have to have a big point to be worthwhile? Isn't jumping off the garage roof onto a mattress fun?
I'm glad that TUAW posted this. Whether it was intentional or not, it shows that Phil can be just as entertaining and goofy as anyone else and that he might not suck at the keynote tomorrow.
Personally, I have always thought Steve Jobs' "charisma" to be overstated. His value to the company is his design sensibilities and his role in product development. I've never really bought the idea that it was his skills in *presenting* the products at the keynote that had anything to do with Apple's success. I respect him greatly, but he is rather a dull guy after all. I'm sure after a while we won't even remember why he had to be there on stage.
There are lots of folks better at presentations than Steve Jobs.
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Frankfurter said 4:23PM on 1-05-2009
"There are lots of folks better at presentations than Steve Jobs. "
Who, please.
kknupp said 9:56PM on 1-05-2009
WOW! That'll give you a blood rush!
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