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Apple Testing Three iPhone 5 Prototypes, One With Slide-Out Keyboard?

Or work at a company w/ 25+ iphones and 2 have cracked within 6 months...

Or supported 700+ at various companies and seen 6 additional cracked phones first hand...

Or looked a data from an actual warranty provider with large and accurate data-sets...

The iPhone 4 is made of glass, and it is more fragile than the original iPhone, 3G, and 3GS. More fragile than most other phones as well...

The design is killer, antenna not withstanding ;), but to claim it is not a fragile device - perhaps too fragile - is my somewhat educated opinion...

Consultant said:
LOL at slide-out keyboard rumor. That's so 2006.




I dropped mine a bunch of times and it didn't break. Nobody I know with an iPhone 4 broke their screens either.

Maybe someone has clumsy friends? Or believe everything on the internet are real?
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AidenShaw said:
Why don't Apple fans like (or consider) the idea of having options available for people with different needs and tastes? Instead of "instantly abandon Apple", it would seem to be more reasonable to say that "I don't care if Apple adds a model with a slider, but I'll stick with the current style".
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Yet most of them would rush out and buy it if Apple did release it.

You only have to look back at some of the threads from last year when the prototype iPhone 4 first surfaced. Loads of people said it was ugly or an obvious fake yet rushed out and bought it as soon as it was released. :)
 
.Shine said:
Steve Jobs was very passionate when he said that he didn't like the keys, and therefore i don't think there will be a Slide-Out keyboard.
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While I agree that we won't see an iPhone with a slide-out keyboard, just the fact that Steve Jobs said it would be a bad idea doesn't mean it wont happen. He was pretty passionate about how much better PowerPC was, so if that logic worked, we would probably still be waiting for the Powerbook G5.
 
Nermal said:
I'd welcome a physical keyboard, but not that one. The keys have no offset.
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To me that's minor compared to the lack of a Ctrl key.

I've an Nokia N900 just for using Terminal when I want/need to and it was bought because hacking *nix servers is a royal pain in the arse without Ctrl.

Try using vi or nano without Ctrl and using a touchscreen keyboard. Hell.

You can pick Nokia N900s up really cheaply these days. *sigh* :rolleyes:
 
mrkramer said:
While I agree that we won't see an iPhone with a slide-out keyboard, just the fact that Steve Jobs said it would be a bad idea doesn't mean it wont happen. He was pretty passionate about how much better PowerPC was, so if that logic worked, we would probably still be waiting for the Powerbook G5.
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For awhile PowerPC *was* better. Things change.
 
cmaier said:
For awhile PowerPC *was* better. Things change.
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... at least initially for code hand-written in assembler for AltiVec ;)

Apple kept the "faster" line in advertising, though, long after NetBurst was commonly outperforming PowerPC. Steve and Phil had to get very creative when choosing benchmarks for the "SteveNote bakeoffs" to find some narrow application/dataset combination where PPC would beat Intel.

The fans didn't catch on to the deceit, though.
 
marksman said:
Secondly it would mean they had lost their minds and started adding things that are going extinct to their hardware.
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Extinct??? :rolleyes:

I used to have a touch-screen Universal remote control a long time ago. I threw it out. Why? You can't "feel" a touch-screen button and operate it in the dark. Sometimes touch-screens blow chunks for certain applications. The addition of an optional real keyboard that takes up virtually no space and is hidden away is a very good thing IMO, but then I don't drink Apple Kool-Aid and say the world is ending because Apple suddenly does something smart for once (contrary to their usual pig-headed ways of thinking like with the one-button mouse and then the "hidden 2nd button because we cannot admit we were wrong" mouse followed by even more attempts to avoid just admitting that the PC got it right from the start.
 
This doesn't seem like a rumor. I can see the need for a slide out keyboard. Some people just don't like typing on a touch screen. And I think there's a blackberry touch phone with a slide out keyboard, so whatever they have to do to keep up with competition. But I can imagine this would make the phone somewhat thicker and also available as an option. pretty cool.
 
MagnusVonMagnum said:
Extinct??? :rolleyes:

I used to have a touch-screen Universal remote control a long time ago. I threw it out. Why? You can't "feel" a touch-screen button and operate it in the dark. Sometimes touch-screens blow chunks for certain applications. The addition of an optional real keyboard that takes up virtually no space and is hidden away is a very good thing IMO, but then I don't drink Apple Kool-Aid and say the world is ending because Apple suddenly does something smart for once (contrary to their usual pig-headed ways of thinking like with the one-button mouse and then the "hidden 2nd button because we cannot admit we were wrong" mouse followed by even more attempts to avoid just admitting that the PC got it right from the start.
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You know, I'm totally not an advocate of replacing keyboards with screen keybaords (I mean full size keyboards). In fact, that's a huge reason why if I had to lug something as big as an ipad around I'd rather just have my 13" MBP that has a keyboard too.

But I have to say for something as small as an iphone, how they implemented the keyboard is easier to use than what they could fit physically for a keyboard on the phone. Before I got the iphone I was also insistant that the phone I get (I was coming from a dumb phone but I wanted a PDA/phone combo this time) have a keyboard.

But... because you can't have the physical keyboard switch keysets with one button (like going to a number keyboard), they have to fit more keys on the keyboard (at least the numbers). So those keys on the physical keyboard are tiny and hard to hit. That makes a big difference right there.

I didn't realize even that I'd prefer touchscreen to a physical keyboard that small it til I saw that keyboard phone case for the iphone on this thread and realized that I wouldn't like using that as it would be more awkward than the touch screen to use.

Now, that being said, if they ever make a keyboard like I had for my ipaq, that folded out to an almost full size keyboard (it was split into three and you expanded it out, never saw another designed like it, most just folded the keyboard in half), for the iphone, I'd be all over that.
 
tigress666 said:
You know, I'm totally not an advocate of replacing keyboards with screen keybaords (I mean full size keyboards). In fact, that's a huge reason why if I had to lug something as big as an ipad around I'd rather just have my 13" MBP that has a keyboard too.
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I don't think anyone is suggesting that a slide-out keyboard model would have to eliminate the touch-screen keyboard. You could pick and choose and I dare say there are plenty of times I wish I had a real little keyboard on my iPod Touch and even more when I wish there were little gamepad type buttons around the edge (your fingers tend to block the screen when gaming and that sucks for some games).
 
Aidoon said:
Not sure why Jobs has such a disdain for miniature keyboards, having used one for several years its one of the few things I miss since getting an iPhone. I would like to see a comparison study of which is faster for most users, touch or tactile.
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go to you tube, physical keyboard slaughters then onscreen every single time.

once you get used to typing on a physical keyboard you can type without looking at least 20x faster than an OSK because of muscle memory and tactile feedback.

EazyWeazy3 said:
Slide-out keyboard would up sales immensely.

Everyone would have an iPhone. EVERYONE.
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not until they ditch their stupid propriatary port for a micro usb, add removable/expandable battery, and add removable storage (SDXC currently supports 2TB, dont tell me that 16gb is good enough for all time)
 
pr5owner said:
once you get used to typing on a physical keyboard you can type without looking at least 20x faster than an OSK because of muscle memory and tactile feedback
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=1200wpm for me then, which is significantly faster than the world record on a full-sized PC DVORAK/QWERTY keyboard. I should probably get a blackberry phone and be some kind of superhero secretary.
 
iEdd said:
=1200wpm for me then, which is significantly faster than the world record on a full-sized PC DVORAK/QWERTY keyboard. I should probably get a blackberry phone and be some kind of superhero secretary.
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Yep, till now, there are three mockups about iPhone 5, one with slide-out lryboard, one with a bigger acreen and the last may be mini iPhone. And it says the slide-out iPhone will have a bigger 4in screen.:)
 
With the Coming of iMessage...

Wouldn't be awesome if this would come true because it would be the last nail in the coffin to bring over Blackberry users. Though I do wish they'd come out as a portrait slide-out keyboard but a physical keyboard is a physical keyboard and knowing Apple, they'd be very maticulous about how it's layed out.

What do you think? iMessage could kill BBM and Apple finally bring out a business professional physical keyboard version of the iPhone 4.5/5? :apple:
 
Def complete tosh, Its obvious with the introduction to gestures that Apple are heading towards ios devices without a home button, this is the future not some dumb backwards step
 
There's no way Apple would go to that given the sales of the previous iPhones, just wouldn't make sense.

If somehow it does have a physical keyboard, then I'll get the next Google phone or something.
 
Another thread resurrected from the dead :)

So, once more for those who don't know their Apple history:

Steve Jobs NEVER said he didn't like physical keyboards. He said he didn't like keyboards that always take up display space, whether needed or not:

"Here's four smart phones, right? Motorola Q, the BlackBerry, Palm Treo, Nokia E62 -- the usual suspects. And, what's wrong with their user interfaces?

Well, the problem with them is really sort of in the bottom 40 there. It's this stuff right there. They all have these keyboards that are there whether or not you need them to be there. " - Jobs, Jan 2007, iPhone intro
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A slide-out keyboard neatly solves that problem... better yet, it leaves the entire display usable, unlike the current on-screen version which obscures half of what you're looking at.
 
Haven't we been down this road? I highly doubt we will ever see a physical keyboard... if you want a physical keyboard then by a keyboard and doc stand.
 
Mikey7c8 said:
Officially waiting til iPhone 5.
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I'm waiting till iP6 and in NO hurry whatsoever. True or False, the bizarre rumors run rampant more than ever before.

Apples declining product quality is very real, with few that even seem to care. Now the really big dog on the block, Apples milking it for all it's worth. You certainly can't blame them, why improve quality control when little Billy will buy anything Apple.

Now that I'm well covered with a fantastic mobile smartphone from the competition, I have no pressing need or reason to take the iPhone seriously, much less use one. Similarly, it's thanks to the terrific 24hr news cycle & plenty of advance warning regarding the ever questionable iCloud, I celebrate my well tested and secure NAS setup which makes me "cloud free". Thereby keeping my data mine with no chance of compromise.

Working & playing in a cross platform environment that presented a handful of challenges, has suddenly become the golden goose that's freed me from any silliness that has become the defacto standard in AppleLand.

The final move of reframing how I view Apple from a serious partner to source of much amusement, it no longer matters what comes out of Cupertino. Thus I'm sitting in the best seat in the house, watching this movie with nothing to lose.

Rock on, Stevie Boy, let er rip ;)
 
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