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Apple "Discussed" Putting a Hardware Keyboard on the iPhone
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I wouldn't say it's "obviously better". In fact, quite the opposite. And it does reduce available screen space, as was mentioned in the YouTube clip. Try and convince me that an iPod with a hardware click wheel allows for a larger screen than an iPod Touch?
I wouldn't say it's "obviously better". In fact, quite the opposite. And it does reduce available screen space, as was mentioned in the YouTube clip. Try and convince me that an iPod with a hardware click wheel allows for a larger screen than an iPod Touch?
You are approaching it wrong. I am sure you are aware of the existence of slider keyboard. Well, I don't think anything else needs be said.
I think the point was that he said there were "heated" discussions about whether to have a keyboard or not. That indicates that it could've ended up either way, especially if a few things hadn't fallen into place at the right time.
Imagine, for instance, if that unsung hero of a UI researcher had never shown fingertip scrolling to Jobs, or had taken longer to finish up that multi-touch keyboard prototype.
Interestingly, many of the original fan concepts of an iPhone were also based around iPods with scroll wheel controls.
Here's a YouTube video of the best of the iPod and iPhone concepts from just before the real one was announced. Pretty humorous in retrospect.
So you're saying that the most absurd news story by The Onion - The MacBook Wheel - really wasn't that far fetched, and for all we know, actually produced? Dear God.
My job is testing my company's app on iOS devices. Though I firmly believe the iOS virtual keyboard the best I've used (and I have owned a Droid 1, 2, and Samsung Stratosphere, and I've used other devices), the lack of a physical keyboard is one of the things that has kept me away from the iPhone thus far. It's very likely I'll be buying the next iPhone, but still.
His opinion was perfectly reasonable. Your reaction to it is a little harsh!
I always thought the virtual keyboard was going to be a huge compromise, but I quickly preferred it. With the autocorrection in place, it competes well with any hardware keyboard and just feels less awkward.
Of course Apple fails with designs. Anyone should remember what happened to MacBook Wheel.
The MacBook Wheel was the best laptop I ever owned. Loved the predictive sentence technology, and the fact that every file on my computer was just a few hundred clicks away...
Funny, some of those mockups are of "iPad" and one even has "Mobile Me" as a feature (which wasn't introduced for another 1.5 years).
Nope. Either way you approach it, a physical keyboard will require some negative change to the physical size of the device. Either shrinking the screen size, or increasing the thickness.
As far as screen keyboards go I prefer iPhone over anything else. I can't explain exactly what it is but for me it just feels the best and is the most comfortable to use.
But I'll be honest about one thing. If all I did was use my mobile phone for email and texting hands down my Blackberry Curve 3360 was the best. It really was phenomenal and I would still be using it today.
But I'll be honest about one thing. If all I did was use my mobile phone for email and texting hands down my Blackberry Curve 3360 was the best. It really was phenomenal and I would still be using it today.
I've had my iPhone for almost 6 months now and I still can't type as well with it as I could on my Pre's physical keyboard. It works well enough I guess. I do miss being able to just start typing on my Pre as opposed to performing an action on the iPhone to bring up the keyboard.
Lethal
Lethal
Sure, but sometimes that's preferable to shrinking the screen size every time a person needs to use a keyboard.
An onscreen version also usually involves moving objects on the screen around to make sure they're viewable even with the keyboard taking up half the display. This can be disconcerting at times.
Besides letting the display be actually used to display infromation, physical keyboards also offer superior gaming controls and eyes-off typing.
All considerations have to be balanced for the most numerous user type... either someone who rarely enters data like most iPhone owners, or perhaps a field worker or salesperson who does a lot.
even RIM is releasing a bb w/o a keyboard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JEPYYo0-gfc#
rumours are that another version with a keyboard will come out after this one in the fall, but who knows..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JEPYYo0-gfc#
rumours are that another version with a keyboard will come out after this one in the fall, but who knows..
I wouldn't say it would make it clunky and less durable. The motorola droid series is way more durable than the phone and has a classy industrial look to it that really works well.
well to be fair that is an alpha phone only. RIM has made that crystal clear. The OS is an Alpha and really only there for dev testing. Something RIM has made crystal clear.
That being said I expect RIM to make a touch screen only BB10 but I would be shocked if they went away from the hardware keyboard. RIM makes the gold standard in terms of hardware keyboard. That is the only thing I really miss about my 8900 is that keyboard was great for typing things out and blows any virtual keyboard away in terms of getting things done.
Make note talking about the keyboard and not the rest of the phone. The blackberry was by far the best messaging and email phone I have ever had but that is a fairly limited area for a phone.
My biggest issue with the lack of physical keys lies not with a QWERTY keyboard, but a numeric one. On any phone with a physical numeric keypad, you can dial 911 without unlocking it or waking it from sleep. Not so with the iPhone...you have to slide to unlock, then depending on what you were last doing with your phone, it's an additional few clicks in an emergency situation. It's the one feature I really wish hadn't been overlooked in the iPhone design.
I am just going to point out that even on phone slike blackberry that was a it depends on the settings. It is very easy to disable the keys on a blackberry in the settings. Heck with the phone unlock depending on the settings it might not let you start dailling at all until you went to that part of the phone. Now for me I had it set any keys sent you to the dailer and it would start going threw my contacts right then at there.
You specifically spoke of screen size, hence my response.
Your original comment I responded to:
Remove click wheel, make device slightly thicker, add slide-out keyboard. I made no claim of not making the device thicker (and neither did you).
Nope, didn't miss it at all. If there was intent to utilize a literary device, it wasn't successful;
1. His characterizations of the "better" and "worse" attributes did not rise to a level of exaggeration that would qualify as hyperbole.
2. If the former statement was meant as verbal irony, the latter statement, by contradicting it, subverted the irony.
3. If he intended satire, again the contradictory nature of the statements would undermine any satirical effect.
If you know of another literary device that the structure of the argument follows, please enlighten.
In the absence of such, I must read it as written - that physical keyboards are "obviously better", but they are also "worse" as well. Which of course is self-contradictory if read literally. So really I can only comment on the assertion that physical keyboards are "obviously better," which seems to be a serious belief given the writer's expressed preference for a physical keyboard.
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I didn't mean to be harsh. "Obviously better" is a pretty bold statement - way beyond "better for me" or "better in some respects".