Fire up that iPhone 1 emulation and party like it's 2007

Browser-based fun to remember a time before Apple's annual cash grab became a thing

A browser-based emulator for the original iPhone is the latest project to tap into the rich vein of nostalgia running through the tech industry.

While far from a complete implementation, the emulation does enough to evoke happier times, before Apple burdened its mobile operating system with frills and complexities, and spent years (and multiple operating system updates) making the Podcasts app steadily more broken.

The browser-based emulation (and we use the term carefully; anyone expecting all the functionality of yesteryear will be sorely disappointed) shows an original iPhone as it debuted in 2007. The buttons are where you remember them, the screen is ringed by bezels that wouldn't pass muster today, and the skeuomorphic icons are all present and correct. There's even the browser, though it doesn't do much yet.

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Even a gentle prod shows how incomplete this implementation is. Some apps work well, such as Calculator, while others - Contacts - struggle, and anything that needs an online connection fails, including loading today's web in 2007's Safari. 

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It does, however, recall how simple things were almost 20 years ago, when the iPhone first appeared, and it joins an array of old-time systems that can be fired up (or at least look like they are) in a browser. Want a look at Apple's abandoned System 7 replacement? Step this way. Perhaps an XP-like implementation? No problem. 

It would be churlish to dwell on the emulation's deficiencies. For now, it's arguably more curiosity than anything else: Apple didn't launch the App Store until 2008, so third-party apps would be off the table, at least until a later version of iOS landed.

Running it in a browser is undoubtedly convenient, though. Alternatives such as Light Touch offer a fuller implementation, but they demand more than a handy Chrome instance on a Windows device to open a portal back to a brighter time.

So, fire up 2006's Nintendo Wii, pop on that CD of Back to Black, and relive the excitement of switching on the very first iPhone. Although perhaps give that other 2007 icon, Windows Vista, a bit of a swerve… ®