[ajmoo]

I worked on many of these! Was on the Marcom team that rebuilt screenshots for content swaps and hi-res output. Every screen went through multiple rounds of approvals by many different teams, including writing. Unfortunately any Easter eggs I tried to hide in there were all caught ;)

[tobr]

> rebuilt screenshots for content swaps and hi-res output

Can you explain this work in more detail? Are you basically reconstructing the contents of a screenshot in vector graphics so it can be translated/edited/scaled up but still look correct?

[ajmoo]

Yep! I worked there from 2007-2012, and at the time we used Photoshop, which on the surface sounds counter-intuitive (being a primarily raster-based program.) We would take screenshots of product (or get screenshots from HI if we weren't allowed access), and would redraw everything in Photoshop at a minimum of 288ppi (4x) using vector shapes and type layers, lots of nested smart objects, and layer effects (back in the iOS <6 days everything had gloss and shadows and reflections.) Content teams pop in retouched photography, photos of employees as avatars, names of employees to go with those avatars, and text to tell a story for that launch. Our 4x vector screens (sometimes well over 2GB PSBs) would then be shared with international teams for translation, and translations would come back to HQ for a final approval. We would also sometimes scale these screens as high as 32x for output to MacWorld / WWDC hero banners which was fun. You better believe we put our names in all these screens (mine appears once in the linked article!)

[tobr]

This is an awesome answer, thank you!

> mine appears once

Hm! Do you like rock climbing? ;)

[ajmoo]

Haha loved it at the time

[ImaCake]

Thanks for trying. I think it would have played to Apple’s advantage to keep easter eggs in these but bureaucracies abhor risk.

[saagarjha]

Got any insight on how the rickroll in the watchOS contacts slipped through?