Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What is Apple Planning on Making with this 3x3cm Touch Screen?

whooleytoo said:
Touchscreen in lieu of a trackpad on MacBooks/MacBook Pros?

Edit - obviously way too small. Maybe the "new AppleTV" will have a small touch-screen?
Click to expand...

As soon as I saw it and read the about dimensions, that's the first thing that popped into my mind as well. I don't think it's too small. I'm not good with centimeters and I can't find a rules in my house that has it on it but, I'm saying MacBook track-pad.

UPDATE: Nevermind, I used good old Google to convert it to inches and that's just 1.18 (less than 1¼ inches). I'm not so sure anymore.
 
SnowLeopard2008 said:
I agree. I was wondering why iFixit only confirmed the front glass to be gorilla and not the back. It might have been gorilla glass due to what you described but changed to non-gorilla glass in the final design to conserve on costs. There's not much reason for the back to be gorilla glass otherwise. :)
Click to expand...

Yes, most likely just a cost-saving choice. Keep in mind, though, that next year's iPhone 5 can easily be a light revision of iPhone 4 without a major redesign and incorporate this or any other sort of rear screen thanks to the rear glass. I find the glass back to be attractive and it feels nice in your hand, but then I always prefer glass and metal over plastic. But surprisingly, no one that I'm aware of has considered the other and fairly obvious use for glass in industrial design: transparency.
 
I agree with some that it might be a touch screen trackpad for the Macbook Pros. Apple does have patents for a touch screen component for the Macbook/Pro so this could be it. Or it could be something like the Sony Dash. Whatever it is it could be interesting.
 
jimthorn said:
Yes, most likely just a cost-saving choice. Keep in mind, though, that next year's iPhone 5 can easily be a light revision of iPhone 4 without a major redesign and incorporate this or any other sort of rear screen thanks to the rear glass. I find the glass back to be attractive and it feels nice in your hand, but then I always prefer glass and metal over plastic. But surprisingly, no one that I'm aware of has considered the other and fairly obvious use for glass in industrial design: transparency.
Click to expand...

I'm just curious to see how Apple will cram the screen without making the entire phone thicker. It would open more opportunities for developers to take advantage of the camera/back screen combo. I prefer glass/metal over plastic too. What do you mean by transparency? Wouldn't it be kind of bad for consumers to see the internal components of their device?
 
iTouch said:
I agree with some that it might be a touch screen trackpad for the Macbook Pros. Apple does have patents for a touch screen component for the Macbook/Pro so this could be it. Or it could be something like the Sony Dash. Whatever it is it could be interesting.
Click to expand...

No Sony Dash. It's a useless thing. I might as well buy a cheap netbook or even an e-reader.
 
Touch Screen on back of iPhone

Earlier, I said no one had talked about a rear screen on iPhone 4's glass back. I just found a discussion from the forums a few weeks back and in the interest of fairness, here are a few of you discussing this very possibility:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/954338/

A tiny screen like this is not likely to be useful for MacBooks, AppleTV units or remotes, and is a terrible aspect ratio for any other members of the iPod line. It's an iPhone part, folks. Cut from the final design of iPhone 4. But it's an iPhone part.
 
Anybody with an iphone4 take a quick looksie at the black plastic rim encasing the glass.. Same design as were seeing in this leak..

No itouch, iPhone nano.
 
SnowLeopard2008 said:
I'm just curious to see how Apple will cram the screen without making the entire phone thicker. It would open more opportunities for developers to take advantage of the camera/back screen combo. I prefer glass/metal over plastic too. What do you mean by transparency? Wouldn't it be kind of bad for consumers to see the internal components of their device?
Click to expand...

I mean just like the front. Clear glass with a black bezel to cover the parts you don't want the user to see through.
 
drummerlondonw3 said:
Wow that looks great, I could see that replacing the current shuffle and nano leaving the nano up for a complete refresh.
Click to expand...

While that's a nice bit of photoshoppery, the only problem is that the iPod shuffle has three basic characteristics: it's small, it's inexpensive, and it can be used without looking at it. That these three points converge in the shuffle is not an accident. A design like this looks great, but would not be very functional in reality. Why not just use physical buttons?
 
I've haven't worn a watch in decades, so I tend to agree.

Mkz said:
Would be amazing if it was a watch but it wont be because it's something thats become more useless as everyone has a phone with the time on.
Click to expand...

While I'm not a watch wearer I do see one use where a watch like shuffle might might be a good idea. That would be for use at the gym or other workout venues. It would be almost exactly the same market that the shuffle serves.

To simply be a watch though would doom the thing to failure. As noted watch wearing is a thing of the past. At least for that part of the humanity calling themselves men.

As a side note it wasn't until the two world wars passed that watch wearing became habitual. Before that most people whereby all that concerned. The railroads put some structure into place, thus the term "railroad time", but the average guy could hardly care.

Of course the big thing for railraods was accurate time keeping via pocket watches. Interestingly today's modern iPhones and Touches are used in very similar manners. I'm certain that if they where available back then pocket Touch devices would have been used by the railroads, for many today they serve the same basic need.



Dave
 
jimthorn said:
While that's a nice bit of photoshoppery, the only problem is that the iPod shuffle has three basic characteristics: it's small, it's inexpensive, and it can be used without looking at it. That these three points converge in the shuffle is not an accident. A design like this looks great, but would not be very functional in reality. Why not just use physical buttons?
Click to expand...

It doesn't have to be used for control buttons. It could also show album art and song information, much better and more logical than VoiceOver. Also, Apple could decide not to support a navigtion system through the touchscreen in order to preserve simplicity.
 
Compile 'em all said:
Is it not obvious?

It is the new shuffle.

This is too small and not practical for use as a remote (a remote has to be relatively bigger than that and easy to find around the couch).
Click to expand...

Yeah, because the :apple:tv white remote is enormous, right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back