The iPhone at 10

Ten years ago today, Apple released the first iPhone. Steve Jobs unveiled the game-changing device in January of 2007 with the claim that, "today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone." Now, it's clear that they succeeded.

There's a claim to be made that the iPhone began the era of smartphones. Its integration of a phone with apps and focus on Internet connectivity along with its definitive sleek look and groundbreaking touch screen provided a standard for other companies to match, so that swiping a handheld device is now an ubiquitous pastime. (The touchscreen inspired some skepticism upon release. As Bloomberg incredulously reported, the iPhone "doesn't even have a physical keyboard.")

Revisit some of the legacy of the iPhone and its creator in a clip from Chicago Tonight that aired in 2011, after Jobs's death. As the contributors make clear, the iPhone was epochal in that wasn't just a piece of technology: "It was probably the first time en masse that someone introduced a phone as a fashion item, as a cultural statement. It really became an icon." A decade late, technology is more than ever our constant companion.