Image via Complex Original
During its 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference , Apple's CEO Steve Jobs, fresh off a medical leave, took the stage to introduce the future of the companies mobile offerings. Sure, company execs like Phil Schiller took the stage to handle the meat of the presentations. But after iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion features were discussed, Steve hopped back on stage to unveil the big news of the night: Apple's new Internet storage and streaming service, iCloud.
In true Jobsonian fashion, he touted the features of the system as well as why and how it's going to beat the competition all before leaving us with one more thing: Apple's Music Match. Though it wasn't Steve's most astounding "One more thing…", it was still dope to see the best public tech figure in the game doing what he does best. If you've been watching Steve Jobs' keynote speeches before the iPhone came out, you know how ill his past "One more thing" reveals have been. If you haven't, take a couple minutes and watch his 7 Greatest "One more thing..." Moments.
#7. Steve Jobs Makes First FaceTime Call
Year: 2010
Event: Worldwide Developer's Conference
Truth be told, after Jobs introduced the highly anticipated iPhone 4, many—if not all—viewers were pretty much satisfied with the keynote speech. A new high-speed handset featuring an extremely high-res screen, running an all-new operating system was all anyone could have asked for from Apple. But, like he always does at that time, Steve left the audience with one more gem before they bounced: FaceTime. Apple's video calling system was heavily rumored about thanks to early reports of the iPhone 4 having front- and rear-facing cameras. It became official when Steve made the first-ever FaceTime call to head designer Jonathan Ives. Even more remarkable was that the wi-fi based service actually worked! If you've been watching Apple keynotes over the years, you'd know how impressive that is...
#6. Steve Jobs Introduces PowerMac G4 Cube
Year: 2000
Event: MacWorld New York
Yes, we listed the PowerMac G4 Cube as one of the biggest fails in tech history, but that doesn't meant it wasn't a huge deal for Apple and Steve Jobs when released 11 years ago. Steve Jobs brought his love of all this minimalistic and cube-shaped from NeXT to Apple. This speciality version of the popular PowerMac G4 tower, was encased in a 10-inch tall arylic cube and made to seem as if its internals were floating. It was, at the time, the best designed computer on the market. It was also advanced, cramming the innards of a tower into a neat cube package while negating the need for fans—a convention-based cooling system was instead used to keep it cool and quiet. People close to the project have said the Cube was Steve's passion project, and you can see clearly in the unveiling how amped he is about his new creation. Unfortunately noone wanted to buy an overpriced piece of modern art posing as a computer. Sales tanked even after a price-drop, and Apple was forced to discontinue the machine only a year later.
#5. Steve Jobs Introduces 12- and 17-inch PowerBooks
Year: 2003
Event: MacWorld Expo
Among its non-iOS, actual computer offerings, Apple's laptop line is the breadwinner. However, it would not be that way without the diversification of the PowerBook line back in 2003. With only a 15-inch model holding down the fort, Apple added two siblings to the shelf in the form of its smallest full-featured laptop: the 12-inch PowerBook, and the world's first 17-inch laptop: the 17-inch PowerBook.
#4. Steve Jobs Unveils "World's Thinnest Notebook"
Year: 2008
Event: MacWorld Expo
When first introduced as Steve's "One More Thing" in '08, the MacBook Air floored people with its extremely thin design. Its price and limited feature-set made people balk. Critics cried that it made no sense buying a MacBook Air when you can get better specs in a slightly thicker page for less money. They were right. But that didn't stop people from fawning over how damn thin the thing actually was. Steve's build-up—brining it on stage in manilla folder—and Apple's hefty claims of being the "World's Thinnest Notebook" also helped.
#3. Wi-Fi Comes To Apple
Year: 1999
Event: MacWorld Expo
Remember when wireless Internet was new? When every device people purchased didn't come with built-in wi-fi? Sounds like the dark ages, right? Well, it wasn't that long ago when the only way to get wireless Internet was setting up a complicated wireless router and installing wireless cards into your desktop and laptop computers. Apple looked to simply the process and bring wi-fi to the masses when it partnered with Lucent to build its AirPort line of wi-fi accessories back in 1999. Starting with an AirPort card that could be plugged into the newly introduced iBook line of laptops, and an AirPort Base Station wireless router, Apple set the tone for easy-to-use wireless access for years to come.
#2. The PowerBook G4 Titanium
Year: 2001
Event: MacWorld Expo
When looking at the resurgence of Apple, the iMac, iPod, and iPhone are seen as its trio of saviors, and for good reason. Without those three products who knows what would have become of Apple, but we feel there's a product that gets overlooked. No, not Mac OS X, although, Apple couldn't have made it without that OS. We're talking about the PowerBook G4. First released in a titanium shell, the G4 PowerBook line set the industry standard for how a professional grade notebook should be designed. It was massively thinner than its predecessor, was plenty fast, and looked better than every other laptop on the market. It was groundbreaking, at least to us.
#1. Apple's Return to Profitability
Year: 1998
Event: MacWorld New York
Steve Jobs' keynote at the 1998 MacWorld New York conference can be viewed as Apple's most important keynote, ever. Not yet officially the CEO, Jobs took the stage to tell customers, fans, the press, and investors that, simple, Apple was going to be O.K. It had more software developers willing to work on the platform, it had a bright outlook for the future, and it had this little thing called the iMac it was preparing to unleash onto the world. Oh, and one more thing, Apple had a strong game plan for the future. Though, not technically a product reveal, Steve Jobs' plan to get Apple out of the red was the public rebirth of the company that would go on to completely conquer the consumer electronics industry.
