I like that 'retro' Idea. On my next Iphone I want a rotary dialer too!
Hey, I like antiques!
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Apple Testing Three iPhone 5 Prototypes, One With Slide-Out Keyboard?
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I like that 'retro' Idea. On my next Iphone I want a rotary dialer too!
Hey, I like antiques!
The only physical keyboard I liked was the one on the Nokia N97, the design of Nokia's E7 looks neat too I'd love to try it out. (Phone design, not OS folks!)
I cannot see Apple doing this, and that image is just so manky. Spoils the whole look of the iPhone 4. Personally I get on with a keyboard better than a touch type, I tend to hit the keys better. Don't like Blackberry keys. Too darn small.
I cannot see Apple doing this, and that image is just so manky. Spoils the whole look of the iPhone 4. Personally I get on with a keyboard better than a touch type, I tend to hit the keys better. Don't like Blackberry keys. Too darn small.
Weird week and a half of rumors, ones that I hope never come to fruition. That smaller iPhone intrigues me, nothing more.
So first the rumor mill suggests that Apple will be removing the Home button, and now they think there will be a physical keyboard?
So... we go from 1 button, to no buttons, to way too many buttons?
Also, a physical keyboard will completely take away from the form factor appeal of the iPhone, which is very important to most people I believe. I know it's one of the #1 reasons I picked the iPhone 4 - it's the most perfectly-sized and best-looking phone I've ever owned. No way are they going to bulk it up and add a keyboard. In fact, that was my #1 reason for not getting the Droid 1 when it came out, and I went with the Droid Eris. Form factor is very important to me, and slider phones are 100% always ugly, every time.
So... we go from 1 button, to no buttons, to way too many buttons?
Also, a physical keyboard will completely take away from the form factor appeal of the iPhone, which is very important to most people I believe. I know it's one of the #1 reasons I picked the iPhone 4 - it's the most perfectly-sized and best-looking phone I've ever owned. No way are they going to bulk it up and add a keyboard. In fact, that was my #1 reason for not getting the Droid 1 when it came out, and I went with the Droid Eris. Form factor is very important to me, and slider phones are 100% always ugly, every time.
Umm, that Apple are being a good engineering company and testing multiple ideas to prototype stage even if it's extremely unlikely they'll ever actually make it into production?
Actually the one use I could see for a physical keyboard would be on an iPhone Nano. Wait, hear me out before reaching for the tar and feathers. Make the screen much smaller than the current size and the on-screen keyboard in portrait mode gets very small indeed and in landscape you'd have it obscuring most of the screen. Maybe, just maybe, it makes sense to have a slider in that situation, especially as the guts of the device would be a fair bit slower than the current iPhone so you can probably get away with a smaller battery and the space that frees up might accomodate a KB.
Eh, who knows, just wait and see I guess. Either way I do find it quite funny that Apple aren't at MWC yet are dominating the rumour mill and dictating the direction of the vast majority of new products at the show.
I'm totally skeptic about it, but it would be nice, I HATE when the keyboard fills more than half of my screen, I've tried to use a Bluetooth keyboard on both my iPad and iPhone and everything feels much cleaner. (edit, even a slide out touchscreen keyboard [if steve hates buttons that much])
I would see them doing that on an "iPhone nano" because that would fill the screen even more than on the current 3.5", something like the new mini Pre that came out
I would see them doing that on an "iPhone nano" because that would fill the screen even more than on the current 3.5", something like the new mini Pre that came out
I don't understand all these posts about "Iphone w/ real keyboard? No way!"
Do you REALLY expect Apple to keep the iPhone's form factor untouched for over 5 years? Yes, iPhone has been a huge success all these years with the current form but there is only so much you can do with it. Apple's gotta change the iPhone, if they don't they're gonna come to a end of road in Iphone development. It is a true fact that one form factor does not suite everybody and that consumers will lose interest in a phone they've seen and used for the last 5+ years, what they see today is the iPhone they bought back in 2007 (look wise). Software development is an always ongoing process and hardware should be too. I personally need a phone with a real keyboard, and would love to see Apple implement it on the iPhone. If they don't that's fine, but they're gonna lose a customer 'cos iPhone is too big for my small woman hands and short thumbs.
Change is a good thing, a real slide out keyboard does not make an iPhone less an iPhone, it gives more choices and may just bring the hard keyboard fans to the one phone they've been avoiding
Do you REALLY expect Apple to keep the iPhone's form factor untouched for over 5 years?
Yes, iPhone has been a huge success all these years with the current form but there is only so much you can do with it. Apple's gotta change the iPhone, if they don't they're gonna come to a end of road in Iphone development. It is a true fact that one form factor does not suite everybody and that consumers will lose interest in a phone they've seen and used for the last 5+ years, what they see today is the iPhone they bought back in 2007 (look wise). Software development is an always ongoing process and hardware should be too. I personally need a phone with a real keyboard, and would love to see Apple implement it on the iPhone. If they don't that's fine, but they're gonna lose a customer 'cos iPhone is too big for my small woman hands and short thumbs.Change is a good thing, a real slide out keyboard does not make an iPhone less an iPhone, it gives more choices and may just bring the hard keyboard fans to the one phone they've been avoiding
No steve will NOT allow slide out keyboards. In fact I am surprised he allowed this assessory to be sold. see the 1g iphone event here when he explains how much he hates those keyboards http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYZBl2FEuEM
slide out keyboard is ugly
and the idea is nowdays very stupid with touchscreen/multitouch displays
manufacturers like Nokia have been keeping this for years and now see where they are...
and the idea is nowdays very stupid with touchscreen/multitouch displays
manufacturers like Nokia have been keeping this for years and now see where they are...
This is finally one sane guess why all this bs is in the rumor mill ....
I can't see Apple producing three variations of the iPhone ... but if it turns out that they do, I don't care too much as long as they keep the idea of the current one alive and keep improving it and as long as there is not too much fragmentation that will lead to that some apps work only on some phones but not all.
But this might also be some old or new prototype that apple is toying with for user studies but that is never intended to be released as a product - just to be learned from what to do or don't do for the next iPhone n
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Thank you for saying this. People think that the image is a leak or a Photoshop. IT'S A CASE, and it's been available for months now. In fact, you can buy it right now. Because it's a case. Not a phone. A case. It is not an Apple product.
If Apple wants to put a major kibosh on Blackberry users, an iPhone 5 with a 4" screen and built-in keyboard is a must, even at a higher price.
First off, he's a salesman over anything else. If his device doesn't have something, then he'll say that thing is unnecessary. If it does have that thing, it's magical. Any Apple watcher knows this.
As for keyboards, Jobs never said he hates them.
He said that it didn't make sense to dedicate frontal space to them instead of to the display.
A slideout keyboard gets around that.
That said, it's more likely that Apple would sell addon cases with keyboards or game controls, than to build them into the phone. That way only those who want them, buy them, and it's extra profit for Apple.