10 things we didn't know about Apple

WHY are Apple products white and what is a Macintosh? Find out interesting facts about the world's biggest and most secretive company.

Apple is the world's most valuable company with an influence that spans the globe and has changed the way we all approach technology. Yet what we know of the shiny Californian company is relatively little.

The Guardian did some digging and found some interesting facts about Apple. Here are 10 things to know about the secret technological superpower.

News_Image_File: Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was adopted and half Syrian. Source: Wiki Commons

1. Steve Jobs was adopted and half Syrian

He was an enigmatic, charismatic leader. He was also adopted. Jobs' biological parents, Joanne Schieble and Syrian immigrant Abdulfattah Jandali met as students at the University of Wisconsin and put Steve up for adoption in 1955.

2. Apple had three founders

The company was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne.

You've probably not heard of Wayne, but he drew the first Apple logo, wrote the original partnership agreement and the Apple I computer manual. He also made the biggest mistake in the history of business by selling his 10% stake two weeks into the partnership for just US$800 because he was worried about debt.

That same stake would be worth over US$35bn today.

News_Image_File: All white? Apple designer Jony Ive was the man responsible for the iconic Apple look.

3. Why white?

You have designer Jony Ive to thank for Apple's famous white colourway. Steve Jobs was against the idea of white products initially but was convinced by the British designer to go white when he was shown a different shade called "moon grey". Ive's love for white goes back to before Apple, when he was producing work as a design student.

News_Image_File: Apple has a packaging obsession with specialists employed to get their boxes just right.

4. Packaging obsession

You know the feeling of slipping open a new iPad box. This is the result of dedicated packaging designers spending countless hours inside a secret packaging room within Apple's HQ, getting it right. The company spends just as much time looking at its packaging as its products and will obsessively open boxes in an attempt to get the right emotional response.

News_Image_File: Apple co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak still receives US$120,000 a year from the company he left. Source: Wiki Commons

5. Steve Wozniak is still an Apple employee

Woz co-founded Apple back in 1976 but ended his full-time employment in 1987. While no longer working for Apple he is still an official Apple employee and receives a stipend estimated to be worth US$120,000 (A$135,300) a year.

6. Jobs' last words

In a battle with pancreatic cancer Jobs' last words were "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow" while looking over the shoulders of his family. Jobs' sister, Mona Simpson, revealed this in her eulogy which was published in the New York Times.

News_Image_File: The Apple I had a price tag of $666,66. Source: Wiki Commons

7. The first Apple computer had an evil price tag

The Apple I was the company's first computer and was priced at US$666.66. Steve Wozniak priced it without realising the devilish connotations, instead pricing the machine one-third over the wholesale price of US$500 and preferring one repeating digit as it was easier to type.

News_Image_File: The Apple Macintosh computer was named after this particular variety.

8. A Macintosh is named after an actual apple

The Apple Macintosh computer was named after an actual apple, the McIntosh, because this was Jef Raskin's (an Apple employee working on the Macintosh project) favourite variety. But the name had to be changed for legal reasons as it was too similar to an audio equipment manufacturer.

At the time it was just a codename, which Steve Jobs reportedly tried to change to "bicycle" while Raskin was out of the office, but Macintosh stuck until the end of product development and made it onto the box.

9. Apple ships all of its products by air, not sea

Apple prefers to move all of its products by air instead of boat as it is much quicker (products can fly from China to the US in 15 hours) and valuable stock is not sitting in a container at risk it could sink or get hijacked. Apple uses Cathay Pacific as its biggest freight carrier. Air might not be the cheapest method, but it is the fastest and stock can be sold on quicker.

News_Image_File: Apple makes its promotional product shots using a painstaking method

10. Apple's hero shots aren't computer generated

Those big, drool-worthy pictures of Apple's products you see on its website and on adverts haven't been created on a computer. They are the result of hundreds of close-up, high-resolution, photos all stitched together to make one massive, ultra-high-resolution image.

News_Rich_Media: Apple has officially launched its latest tablet device, the iPad Air. Courtesy Apple