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iPhone Nano Design Possibilites?
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... How?
I don't know about others, but I text with my thumbs. Both of them. I can type quite fast. A clickwheel can only register one point of contact at a time, and I imagine that I've got to rotate it quite a bit to select a letter, especially the first one or two in a word. I imagine in the time it would take me to enter in 2 letters on the clickwheel, I would've been able to have typed an entire word on my Sony Ericsson.
If (If!) it comes with click wheel, this is the only possible way to dial.
Actually it seems interesting, just like old times...
Also, I'm confused, why are people saying that a nano-size form factor is too small for a touchscreen? I think it's great. The nano form factor has more than enough room for a keypad, d-pad, and a small screen. If there was a touchscreen all you would have to implement in terms of space is a keypad.
Not really. Just take the iPod Nano and stretch the screen vertically and move the click-wheel down a bit. That's far from a Zune.
That's pretty much exactly how the the Zune looks (doesn't function the same because it's not a click wheel)... unless you were being sarcastic.
I am sorry I do not have the cite, but one official Apple comment (discussed on macrumors mainpages) said they developed the sub-price Apple phone concurrently with the iPhone.
Rocketman
Rocketman
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Random spots along the click wheel which is now touch sensitive with a firmware upgrade.
I still like rotary dial phones. They work in power outages reliably and do not suffer from data loss, dropouts, or Chinese sniffing.
Rocketman
There are a dozen phones like that already in the market. Apple always brings something new to the table. I'm sorry, but if the iPhone Nano is real, it is going to impress us all somehow (even if it doesn't cook dinner)
1. There aren't dozens of phones on the market with an iPod click wheel.
2. New doesn't take precedent over ease of use. Rotary dialing is a step backward about 50 years, and making a phone that is cool looking but difficult to use won't yield Apple quality products. Apple makes easy to use, innovative products, rotary dialing is a complete contradiction to their entire philosophy of product design.
Apple, like many companies, patent so many things that they never use. In part this is to hinder competitive offerings. In my opinion, all of the recent patent findings are just this. Dialing, etc. is just a natural extension of what the click-wheel is used for today. So, patenting it just seems obvious, but do they intend to use the patents, I don't think so.
As many of you mentioned, text messaging (a key feature to Apple's intended market) would be more difficult than on a standard keypad.
As many of you mentioned, text messaging (a key feature to Apple's intended market) would be more difficult than on a standard keypad.
Compared to other phones, yes it would, and also be slower and less accurate.
This is a bad idea. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is one of the worst ideas ever.
How do you get the impression that this phone will have a "better" UI, web browsing, bigger screen, or email? You can't even type, let alone control a pointer and browse the web.
I think that it makes most sense for the device front to be half click wheel and half touch sensitive screen. For dialing numbers, the screen would show the digits, like the regular iPhone.
Not sure about text messages though
Not sure about text messages though
Just made this in Photoshop.
Not a multi-touch screen, just a touch-screen, with a clickwheel for misc. navigation.
Basically no gestures, just a basic touchscreen to keep the cost down. A virtual keypad for both dialling and texting (basically like a standard cellphone).
I think this would be nice, yeah?
Not a multi-touch screen, just a touch-screen, with a clickwheel for misc. navigation.
Basically no gestures, just a basic touchscreen to keep the cost down. A virtual keypad for both dialling and texting (basically like a standard cellphone).
I think this would be nice, yeah?
See my post above.
A virtual keypad could fit on a nano-size form factor. As for texting, don't put a full-fledged QWERTY keyboard up there, but leave the virtual keypad, like in traditional texting, and just use T9 or iTAP, what most consumers are used to. It'll fit, and it'll work just fine.
Just made this in Photoshop.
Not a multi-touch screen, just a touch-screen, with a clickwheel for misc. navigation.
Basically no gestures, just a basic touchscreen to keep the cost down.
I think this would be nice, yeah?
That's actually pretty interesting. But still, no way would I want to use that as a phone. Seems too hard to use, no matter how Jobs sugar coat it. It'd be best to make a smaller iPhone without WiFi and apps versus that.
Just made this in Photoshop.
Not a multi-touch screen, just a touch-screen, with a clickwheel for misc. navigation.
Basically no gestures, just a basic touchscreen to keep the cost down.
I think this would be nice, yeah?
Yes, THAT is possible. A number pad on that touch-screen would make this more realistic. I don't care if I have to send text messages the old fashioned way using the number pad. Just don't make people use the click-wheel.
I doubt that Apple would be stupid enough to make a rotary-style phone, but with the numbers going the wrong way.
I don't think you can fit a QWERTY keyboard on it. The iPhone is already cramped.
The keypad is doable, though. And so just keep using a numeric keypad for texting, with 3-4 letters/characters on each key, like a normal phone. It works just fine, most people are used to it, and it fits the space. Apple can also continue to use their predictive text technology. Word suggestions can be chosen either by touching them or by scrolling to them with the clickwheel.
This looks TOO complicated.
I don't have a guess one way or the other whether Apple will ditch the click wheel, but it does feel like a great concept that has reached its limitations.
The click wheel is great for drilling two or three levels into a menu, but multi-touch is a generational leap that I hope to see Apple adopt up and down the iPhone/iPod line.
I figure that this iPhone Nano will again be GPRS.
As for dialing, I think it has to have a touch screen or a slid out standard keypad. I know the patent suggests otherwise but what about emergency calls if you have to use a wheel - too tricky I think. And SMS is pretty big, and would be a huge deal breaker for a good chunk of the youth market.
And I am hoping that Apple do a world wide release not locked down with this new model.
As for dialing, I think it has to have a touch screen or a slid out standard keypad. I know the patent suggests otherwise but what about emergency calls if you have to use a wheel - too tricky I think. And SMS is pretty big, and would be a huge deal breaker for a good chunk of the youth market.
And I am hoping that Apple do a world wide release not locked down with this new model.