‘The apple cards origin story’

My old pal (and my old Macworld editor way back when) Lex Friedman published a blog post this week in which he recounts the Apple Cards app. The cards, printed in 100% cotton paper, purportedly were the brainchild of Steve Jobs.

“In 2011, Apple released the Cards app. The app—which required iOS 5—let you design custom letterpress cards, with your messages and photos printed upon them—which Apple would ship to your recipient on your behalf,” Friedman wrote. “The Cards app icon: a cream note card and envelope with a fountain pen on a maroon background. I recently learned the origin story of Cards, and that it was specifically a Steve Jobs product. It also wasn’t smooth sailing. But first, some backstory, and inserting myself into the narrative, because it’s my site and I can do what I want here.”

The post is well worth a read in its entirety. The reason I write about Friedman’s blog post is because I have a fond recollection of Cards. Even 15 years ago, which predates my time in tech journalism, I vividly remember thinking how accessible Cards was on principle. To Jobs’ point, that I could create a card right on my iPhone and then have Apple mail it for me could plausibly be eminently more accessible than handwriting the card, then the envelope, then find a stamp, and then walk it to a mailbox or post office. From an accessibility standpoint, each of those tasks can be relatively inaccessible in isolation; compounded, however, they can turn ostensibly menial tasks into a Mt. Everest expedition of sorts. For someone with a disability, or multitudes, these factors may prove not at all trivial in practice.

The moral of Friedman’s story? Cards was in fact a de-facto accessibility feature disguised as a cool service.