Next-Gen iPhone & iPhone Nano Speculation

[Xmas]

Whether your thumb can reach all important UI elements is mostly a question of UI design, not of screen size. And even on 3.5" you can get it wrong, as shown by the iPhone lock slider with its terrible placement for thumbs. With only a few models to support, iOS developers have it relatively easy, though, they can design not only for specific resolutions and screen sizes but also device shapes.

It's interesting that Siri kind of opens the path to a functional smartphone with much less reliance on the screen. So that could give Apple the opportunity to split their product line into a larger, browser/reader/games focused iPhone and a smaller, PDA focused "iPhone Nano". Or they could just create an iPod Nano-like Siri communicator.

3D performance is a bit of an odd case though; some people love playing not-so-casual games on these devices, others just don't care. Because of that I expect you'll eventually see a phenomenon where SoCs either have a *lot* of GPU performance or very little - there won't be much of a "mid-range sweetspot" like there is in the PC market. Or maybe not - we'll see what the market looks like in a few years.

I really don't see how the usage pattern is much different from the PC market.

The skeptic in me thinks 3.7" Horizontal Edge-to-Edge with the same 960x640 resolution is more likely for the iPhone 5 though, but we'll see.

3.7" with the same resolution is the worst they could do IMO.

In the quest for pixel density, Apple could leverage the 150K+ apps built for iPad and increase the phone's resolution to that level. That would be a poor choice versus making a clean break for a much higher resolution corresponding to a larger screen size, though.

Most iPad apps would be completely unusable at that size. Resolution matters much less than physical size for touch UI design.

 

[silent_guy]

All the fun to teasing Totz out of his cage with arguments that don't fit his world view aside, shall we maybe conclude that the screen size is a matter of personal preference? That there are arguments that go both ways? And that there's no reason to accuse non-big-screen believers of being brainless members of a strange cult.

I think the big screens are a great way for Android phone makers to differentiate themselves from the iPhone. Good for then they found something other than price that reasonates with a non-technical public.

I always put my phone in the coin pockets of my jeans. It fits perfectly. No way a 4 inch screen one will fit in there. (Another example of the attention to detail of prescient design geniuses at Apple, of course. )

 

[Deleted member 13524]

The difference in radii of the two sweeps shown could simply be because of different scale employed in the two photographs. I don't know if the two pictures are using the same level of scale.

It could..

Reality measures
GS2 height: 125,3mm
iphone4 height: 115,2mm
125,3/114,3 = 1,096

Pic measures:
GS2 height: 496 pixels
iphone4 height: 453 pixels
496/453 = 1,095


Nope, they're using the same level of scale. Yet the "thumb radius" is blatantly smaller on th GS2 pic.
Which leads to the main question (somehow everyone seems really afraid to answer this one):
Do his thumbs retract when he's holding an android or do they get bigger when he's holding an iphone?

Here you are responding to ltcommander.data's post, while you are quoting me as having said those words. I never said any of that.

I think you should edit your prior post and remove my reference in the last bit that you have quoted.

My bad, done.

I agree fully with you! Whenever Apple is mentioned, your posts reek of fanaticism which translates into hate/despise of Apple.

I assume you're talking about this one post and "magically" turning it into several, hence the "whenever apple is mentioned".
Fanaticism is usually on the side of that kind of "magic", mind you.

If not, care to say which other posts translate "hate/despise" (which was never aimed at the company btw, but rather at the personality-less blogger)?

P.S. I have a 3.5" touch-screen phone (NO it's not an Apple) and I wouldn't want to have a bigger screen.

I also own a 3.5" touch-screen phone, I ended up giving more value to the spectacular camera, I/O, free worldwide offline maps, etc than the touchscreen itself.
But I'd welcome a larger screen (plus higher resolution) in the N8, no doubt about it.

All the fun to teasing Totz out of his cage with arguments that don't fit his world view aside,

It's not a cage! Mommy says it's a gingerbread house, and they only chain me for my own protection!

shall we maybe conclude that the screen size is a matter of personal preference?

Of course it is.
Doesn't make that blog entry any less stupid, though.
But sure, it's a matter of preference.

And that there's no reason to accuse non-big-screen believers of being brainless members of a strange cult.

Now let's be serious here: I won't condone a preference.
I will condone using the stupidest (and false) arguments on earth in order to justify a company's decision, out of pure fanaticism (again, the blog dude).

I think the big screens are a great way for Android phone makers to differentiate themselves from the iPhone. Good for then they found something other than price that reasonates with a non-technical public.

Agreed, but it's also to differentiate between their own (android or not) phones in price and target audience.
Not everything is about iphones in the world

I always put my phone in the coin pockets of my jeans. It fits perfectly. No way a 4 inch screen one will fit in there. (Another example of the attention to detail of prescient design geniuses at Apple, of course. )

How about using the coin pockets to put your coins in there, and using the normal pockets to put your phone instead?

 

[Exophase]

Just check the rest of his blog and you'll see another apple-adoring post about the voice commands (something that'll probably wear off as soon as people realize how ridiculous they feel when talking to an inanimate object... as they did back in the 80's) and a post about how he hates an android tablet commercial.

Let's just wait and see where voice commands go, if anything I think this arbitrary "feeling ridiculous" would wear off more than increase in time, don't you? At any rate, it seems at least as likely to catch on as 3D displays are likely to become the de facto standard.. just out of curiosity are you still anticipating that happening soon?

 

[silent_guy]

I assume you're talking about this one post and "magically" turning it into several, hence the "whenever apple is mentioned".

This here also.
#facepalm#, claiming somebody is an Apple PR mouthpiece, and your history of going all emotional whenever somebody disagrees with an article of faith (the usefulness of USB ports on tablets is just one thing that comes to mind) create a certain image over time.

Fanaticism is usually on the side of that kind of "magic", mind you.

Let's add this to the pile.
Accusing the other side of accusing you that they're accusing you of accusing the other side (etc) of being worse fanboy?

Doesn't make that blog entry any less stupid, though.
...
Now let's be serious here: I won't condone a preference.
I will condone using the stupidest (and false) arguments on earth in order to justify a company's decision, out of pure fanaticism (again, the blog dude).

(I think you've go the meaning of condone reversed, but that aside...)
That fact that a bigger screen requires bigger hands for the same reach is simple math. The larger point is that a larger screen can make some single handed UI interactions more cumbersome. I think that's indisputable, but feel free to argue that it's not significantly so.
Either way, his argument doesn't support your preference, so he's stupid. No, wait, he's a fanboy fanatic who's must be lying about actually owning a Android phone, the sneaky bastard! (Still surprised people sometimes have a bit of a hard time taking you serious?)

Agreed, but it's also to differentiate between their own (android or not) phones in price and target audience.

Sure.

I've stated before that I believe that the vast selection of different Android phone models is not always an advantage, in the same way the vast selection of PC laptops is a curse, compared to the product line simplicity of Apple.

It's a significant burden in terms of R&D overhead, supply chain management, marketing, and brand definition.

From the consumer point of view, there's something about the piece of mind of buying a phone/laptop and knowing that it won't be trumped by a slightly better version a week later. Or avoiding the burden of analysis paralysis. (I'm sure you'll declare all of that BS too, but it definitely works for me that way.) I think Apple has long made the decision that the loss of some customers who do want more choice (screen size, 'open', being able to buy a model that doesn't support Netflix, etc) is not worth the negatives.

How about using the coin pockets to put your coins in there, and using the normal pockets to put your phone instead?

If you want to put coins in a pocket, you need to have them first. Something I often manage avoid for days on end.

 

[Ailuros]

First GL Benchmark2.1 results from the iPhone4S:

http://www.glbenchmark.com/compare....ied_only=1&D1=Apple iPhone 4S&D2=Apple iPad 2

Lucky guess the GPU block is clocked ~200MHz.

 

[wco81]

How are people getting hands on the phone to do benchmarks already?

Apple announced 1 million sales in the first 24-hours, compared to 600k for the iPhone 4. Same form factor, same-sized screen hasn't hurt sales yet.

 

[hoho]

Same form factor, same-sized screen hasn't hurt sales yet.

They could announce pretty much anything and would sell everything to die hard fanboys for a few days.

 

[Ike Turner]

They could announce pretty much anything and would sell everything to die hard fanboys for a few days.

Plus you have to add the "Jobs death effect" this time around. Biggest marketing exposure Apple has ever had (sad but true).

 

[wco81]

Well if that's true, they should have just kept the A4 or go back to the SOC used in the original iPhone, remove camera and digital compass.

Because they could sell anything, right? They might as well put out the product with the cheapest BOM if that thesis is right.

 

[hoho]

I just said they could be able to sell everything for a few days, not that it's something sustainable.

 

[wco81]

So after a few days -- say a week or two -- sales will fall off a cliff and people are going to go in droves towards those 4-inch or greater Android phones?

 

[silent_guy]

They could announce pretty much anything and would sell everything to die hard fanboys for a few days.

And while some competitors continue to believe this, Apple continues to walk happily to the bank.

I would like to see the following answered: when a crowd of, say, 100M buys an iPhone. How many of those are, in your opinion, fanboys?

My mom called me yesterday to ask me if it'd be a good idea to buy an iPhone to take pictures of the grand kids and not have to carry a separate camera. She has never had anything Apple before. She doesn't understand what the 'Droid' in the Verizon ads means, let alone what an OS is. She thinks my iPhone 4 looks 'nice'.

Is she a fangirl?

 

[hoho]

For portable camera wouldn't N8 make much more sense? It's quite a bit cheaper to boot

 

[silent_guy]

For portable camera wouldn't N8 make much more sense? It's quite a bit cheaper to boot

I didn't tell her about the N8, but did mention the much higher cost (of the phone plan, the initial $200 will be a nice Xmas gift.)

She said how her 8 year old grandson has demonstrated on his father's phone how easy it is to email pictures to others. That was probably what did it. You don't want to teach a 70 yo how to do that on a Nokia...

I can't wait to show her iCloud! I think picture sharing is still one of the biggest problems non-techies struggle with, despite all the wizards and what not that try to make it easier. Solve that and you rule the world of grandparents.

 

[hoho]

That was probably what did it. You don't want to teach a 70 yo how to do that on a Nokia...

I admit I haven't ever used N8 but sharing photos can't really get any easier than with n900 or n950 that I own. It's literally two clicks (share->pick service). Is N8 really that much worse?

 

[Lazy8s]

Well, you also have to make/have an account with those picture sharing services. That's a big hurdle for the average person, unfortunately.

With iCloud, it's zero clicks.

I assume iCloud reduces the quality of the pics for its Photostream, but I haven't read up on it yet. If true, it'll still be nice for sharing but not for archiving with the intention of editing.

 

[mboeller]

Hi;

for me the most logical update of the iPhone-screen would be a 18:9 screen with a resolution of 1280 x 640 pixel, 320dpi and a screen diagonal of ~4,5in .
Therefore the screen would be only slightly wider as the iphone4 screen (1,96 -> 2,00 inch) but rather long (4,0in instead of 2,95in). But the next iPhone itself could be only slightly longer because Apple "wastes" a lot of space above and below the screen now.

your thoughts?

 

[ltcommander.data]

They could announce pretty much anything and would sell everything to die hard fanboys for a few days.

Even if it's purely fanboys, it should still be concerning to competitors because the numbers are growing, 600k to 1 million in 1st day pre-orders. It wouldn't surprise me if the iPhone 4S could hit 10 million sales in a month. That is a lot of people to be basicaly locking in as guaranteed customers and probably represents a very lucrative portion of the market, those with plenty of disposable income to buy things to support the ecosystem and are willing to evangelize their purchases.

Well, you also have to make/have an account with those picture sharing services. That's a big hurdle for the average person, unfortunately.

With iCloud, it's zero clicks.

I assume iCloud reduces the quality of the pics for its Photostream, but I haven't read up on it yet. If true, it'll still be nice for sharing but not for archiving with the intention of editing.

I don't think Photostream reduces the quality of the picture. Everything in Photostream is supposed to be pushed to your Mac or PC, where it is stored without the 1000 photo limit for archiving so presumably this would have to be full quality otherwise everyone would be up at arms.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Let's just wait and see where voice commands go, if anything I think this arbitrary "feeling ridiculous" would wear off more than increase in time, don't you?

Feeling ridiculous, yes. Not only because people are talking to a machine, but also because they can do most tasks a lot faster through tactile input, and because the error rate, without some sort of confirmation command system, will be stupidly high.

Thousands of researchers have been working on voice commands for visual impaired people for tens of years.
Making transparent communication between a computer and a person through voice alone is near impossible without a confirmation system..

One thing is what you see in a pretty presentation or a tv spot. Real life interaction will be a whole other issue. Even more once they start adapting the feature to other languages with tons of dialects and accents.
I foresee the Germans being specially delighted with this...


But let's just wait for some reviews to confirm either all the biomedical/accoustics/electronics/software engineers that have dedicated their careers to voice command inputs have been totally wrong and apple is capable of doing "magic".

At any rate, it seems at least as likely to catch on as 3D displays are likely to become the de facto standard.. just out of curiosity are you still anticipating that happening soon?

Yes, they will. If 3D can be turned on and off, and increases the immersiveness of interaction with the smartphone, why wouldn't they?

Either way, his argument doesn't support your preference, so he's stupid. No, wait, he's a fanboy fanatic who's must be lying about actually owning a Android phone, the sneaky bastard! (Still surprised people sometimes have a bit of a hard time taking you serious?)

I didn't call anyone stupid, I just said it's a stupid blog post.
And it is. No one's been able to explain why he made the "thumb range" smaller for the GS2.
It's not explainable, the guy just made it like that so that he could make the GS2 look worse and hit the punch line "it's an apple product" in the end.

And after hitting the rock-bottom of argument validity like that, why would I (or anyone, for that matter) believe he actually has a GS2?

I admit I haven't ever used N8 but sharing photos can't really get any easier than with n900 or n950 that I own. It's literally two clicks (share->pick service). Is N8 really that much worse?

Steps to share on N8:

1 - press camera shutter key to enter camera mode
2 - press camera shutter key again to take picture, enters pic preview mode automatically
3 - press share button
4 - choose share site (facebook, picasa, etc)

Done.

Camera is far better than the supposed Exmor R in iphone 4s..
But then again, ladies don't hear about N8 in the news.. nor can they brag to their friends with it..