What's with Apple and paperclips?

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 04 July 2007 14:35

Your IT - Home IT

Microsoft might have dropped Clippy from Office 2007, but Apple's affair with real paperclips continues.

From the introduction of the original Macintosh in 1984 right up to the 1998 introduction of the iMac, experienced Mac users kept a paperclip on hand to manually eject floppy disks that were stuck in the (usually) auto-eject drive.

And a bigger paperclip came in handy when the CD trays on Nineties Macs refused to open.

In 2007, the paperclip returns as the tool of choice for opening the iPhone's SIM card tray. Gently pushing a straightened paperclip into the small hole in the unlabelled cover on the top of the iPhone ejects the tray.

In some cases, an improperly seated SIM card can prevent the iPhone from working. Removing and refitting it may be the solution.