# What does the "i" from iMac or iPhoto stand for?



## Zammy-Sam (Oct 28, 2004)

Infront of my pc-friends, I call myself a mac-freak. I know, I shouldn't fool them so bad. However, they managed to unfake me quite quickly.
They asked me about the meaning of iMac and iPhoto... What is that "i" for?
eMac I could have guessed, but "i"??? 
Very embarrassing, I know.


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## brianleahy (Oct 28, 2004)

Internet?
Interactive?

Actually, "integrated" might work best.   The iMac integrates CPU and display.   The iApps are well integrated with one another, and with the OS...


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## bobw (Oct 28, 2004)

Interpersonal


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## Zammy-Sam (Oct 28, 2004)

hehe, thanks Bob!
Now we know who is the true mac-freak.


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## diablojota (Oct 28, 2004)

i(can't believe it's so simple)Mac


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## Cat (Oct 28, 2004)

It's a verb: I Mac, you Mac, we Mac ... etc.


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## Zammy-Sam (Oct 28, 2004)

could it be it had a different meaning in the beginning of iMacs and iBooks (1998?)?
A friend could swear it was once called internetMac and internetBook..


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## brianleahy (Oct 28, 2004)

Maybe it's like the Asimov book title "I, Robot" (which bears little resemblance to the Will Smith film of the same name)

I, Mac.
I, Pod.
I, Book.
I, Photo.


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## bobw (Oct 28, 2004)

It was originally Internet Mac, but an article I read awhile back said Jobs was saying Interpersonal afterwards.  Been looking for that article, but haven't found it.


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## adambyte (Oct 28, 2004)

Heheh. I was part of the Los Angeles Mac User Group back in 1998, and an Apple representitive came and showed us an iMac, and we got to play with it before its original shipping date. He said the "i" stood for internet, as the original iMac was made simply to get you on the internet in less than ten minutes.


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## symphonix (Oct 28, 2004)

I'm pretty certain it stands for "Internet", the original iMac was the first of the 'i' products and represented a shift in philosphy for computer design towards a network-enabled future. It was also the death-knell for the floppy drive.

And the E in eMac stands for "Education" ... the eMac was originally only available to schools and universities. Since then, its come to mean "Economy" too.


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## mdnky (Oct 28, 2004)

I've always heard it stands for 'internet'.


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## fryke (Oct 28, 2004)

Yup. Definitely was 'internet' at the beginning (the original iMac). It still made some kind of sense with iTunes (the first software to get the 'i', afaik), since people usually got their MP3s 'from the net' somehow.  ... However: Apple then kinda decided to 'live' off the iMac's success and for a while named everything "i"Whatever. I'm glad, though, that Apple seems to have stopped that frenzy. GarageBand, for example. Or Keynote springs to mind. Or Document. Nah, that's not been released yet.


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## adambyte (Oct 28, 2004)

If they call it "iDocument" I'm going to walk all the way to Cupertino just to smack Apple's marketing department upside the head.


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## DanTekGeek (Oct 28, 2004)

Document? First Ive heard of it. Can someone linke me to some info about it?


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## fryke (Oct 28, 2004)

Some time ago there was the rumour of a Word compatible pro word processor by Apple. The rumour came up shortly after 'Keynote' was released, and I guess the name was just an invention of some rumour-monger. There has been on-and-off discussion about it on this forum. Last time in the AppleWorks thread afaik.


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## monktus (Oct 29, 2004)

brianleahy said:
			
		

> Maybe it's like the Asimov book title "I, Robot" (which bears little resemblance to the Will Smith film of the same name)
> 
> I, Mac.
> I, Pod.
> ...



Aye, right


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## MacMuppet (Oct 29, 2004)

What does 'XP' stand for?


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## diablojota (Oct 29, 2004)

X-treme Poo.


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## lnoelstorr (Oct 29, 2004)

(the) e*X*perience (is) *P*ainful

or, I guess:

e*X*perience (the) *P*ain


something along those lines anyway.


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## fryke (Oct 29, 2004)

Please let's not even _go_ there. This is bashers' area. Nothing to see here. Stay with the 'i' in iMac or the 'i' in iPhoto.


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## diablojota (Oct 29, 2004)

i(love my)Mac


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## JetwingX (Oct 29, 2004)

well every one should be grateful that steve jumped off the "i" bandwagon because safari might have been named iBrowse


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Oct 29, 2004)

Jumped _off_ the bandwagon?  Hardly!  iChat, iSync, iCal, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iLife, iMac, iPod... aaah!


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## Jeffo (Oct 29, 2004)

I have to put in my vote for INTERNET being the definition. until this thread i had never heard of it being interpersonal.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Oct 29, 2004)

Well, it most definitely was "internet" in the beginning, starting with the iMac.  After that, peripherals and software were designed and named with an "i" to go along with the idea of ease of use, just like the iMac... but the "i" never really changed definition -- the definition was kind of dropped altogether.

I don't think it means anything now other than signifying that the application/device is consumer-oriented for ease of use.  I never heard "interpersonal" or any other definition of the "i", but I suppose it's left up to the consumer now to define it -- or, maybe it's not supposed to be defined at all anymore.

...or maybe it still means "internet": internetPod, internetCal, internetChat, internetMovie, internetTunes, internetMac, internetSync, internetPhoto... NAAAH!


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## jaredbkt (Oct 29, 2004)

In Steve Jobs original keynote address, he said that the "i" stood for many things besides "internet". There was a slide shown with lots of words like "inspire, invent, innovate, imagine, etc." That's what the "i" stands for...many things.


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## brianleahy (Oct 29, 2004)

¡iCaramba!


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## bobw (Oct 29, 2004)

From an old PAGE at Apple;


 Most people think that the i in iMac refers to its fast networking and easy-to-use Internet features. Thats true. But everything from its unique design to the power of iMac points to something more, something different. The i in iMac also stands for innovation, interactivity, intranet, ideas, interesting, illumination, imagination, and, well, you get the picture.


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## Veljo (Oct 30, 2004)

I'm glad I know now, it was just one of those questions  
And e in eMac does that stand for Education/Educational or something?


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## Zammy-Sam (Oct 30, 2004)

yup


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## Convert (Oct 30, 2004)

Yup, it's intended for education.


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## DeltaMac (Oct 30, 2004)

The eMac was originally education market only, but was quickly opened up to all markets. There are still education-only eMacs sold as of this fall, with a no-optical drive option. (also an iMac G5 with no optical drive, and smaller 'conventional' IDE drive - it's cheaper) Why would anyone buy a computer with no optical drive, except for lab use?


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## JetwingX (Oct 30, 2004)

ElDiabloConCaca said:
			
		

> Jumped _off_ the bandwagon?  Hardly!  iChat, iSync, iCal, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iLife, iMac, iPod... aaah!



If i am not mistaken, all of those things (with the exception of iLife) were released before Safari

(iLife came out at the same expo and was only named such because it had iMovie, iTunes, iPhoto, and iDvd on it)


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