The 29th June 2008 shaped the technological landscape we live in today, when Apple released the very first iPhone. Regular listeners may wonder why I’m dedicating an episode of HistoryPod to an event that only took place 8 years ago, but the impact of the iPhone on society was enormous.

Although smartphones had existed before the arrival of the iPhone, they were targeted at business users. This changed when the iPhone came along with its large capacitive touchscreen instead of a bulky keyboard or stylus. Furthermore, users could install software onto their device from the App Store, which went live ...