[popo]

Excuse me?

Ok, to be fair I should have said the modern Apple, since they became something of significance. We're talking around iPod era and later Apple, as before that they were practically nobody outside niche uses. I have owned Apple products in the past, including an Intel era Mac Mini. While I may criticise Apple, it is not targeted or exclusive. I will also gladly criticise the many faults of MS too... if anything that's a much longer list!

 

First Retina display?

This is a good example of nothing special marketed well. High DPI display was already possible, but not well supported (and still isn't) by other OSes, except perhaps Android. 

 

After that first usable tablet without having a 2 kg brick + stylo in the hand?

do you recall any on screen keyboard before iPad / iPhone?

At work we had a Toshiba "tablet" with OSK, well before iPad era. Basically a laptop with a flippable screen allowing you to uncomfortably hold and not use the stylus that someone else had already lost. It was rubbish, but it did have OSK.

 

As for the iPod: Which MP3 player comes in your mind with usable playlists, scrollable and on-the-go playlists?

 

I used to own an iPod during their heights. Can't remember the exact model but I think it was a 40GB mini. It was a great MP3 player for sure, but again it was far from the first mp3 player. All credit to Apple for making the first one to stick, through its interface, and integration with music store.


My first mp3 player was many years before that. It was 32MB dram based, and exactly as horrible as that sounds. Flash was too expensive, so they used cheaper dram. 32MB still wasn't a lot but you could get a lower bitrate album on it. Worst part was battery life. It took two AAs, and had 48h standby time since the dram took constant power even when not in use. Play time wasn't great either. However, it was the first "affordable" mp3 player I ever saw. I was far too ahead on the early adopter wave there...

 

Apple were pretty often innovative. And that's the bloody point. They are no more. 

The dual camera is still of some interest. Will they be the first to do that well and make it stick? If anyone can, I'd expect it to be Apple to do it.