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what the iphone should look like...


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what the iphone should look like...
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New Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
 
2005-09-25, 21:17

hi gang,

i was looking foward to the rokr phone but was extremely disappointed. it is wanting on alot of fronts. i then started playing around the nano and came away impressed at it's size and weight.

after reading reviews of nokia n91 phone with 4gb microdrive, i am skeptical of it's efficacy and price.

however, i think i have come up with a perfect form factor for the iphone.

it should have the same form factor as the discountinued ipod mini with flash memory. the scroll wheel should be on a slider to reveal the keypad. the microphone should be below the scroll wheel and the speaker should be right above the lcd screen.

it should have a covered slot on the bottom for your sim card.

it should not have a camera. the beauty of the ipod is it's simplicity and focus along with software integration. the phone function could be integrated with the address book and ical as well as itunes.

a simple phone with contacts and calender hidden underneath an ipod mini.

if i was better at photoshop i would mock this up but unfortunately not that talented. with flash memory i think there would be enough room in the mini for the technology.

just some thoughts.

chung lee
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scrouds
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Orlando, FL
 
2005-09-25, 22:04

That form factor is pretty big for a phone
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flail
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
 
2005-09-26, 01:38

I agree except for the camera thing. And yes, it should be thinner and longer.
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T2dak668
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Join Date: Feb 2005
 
2005-09-26, 18:22

itunes cell should be .... a white RAZR with revove able sd card memory and a new apple built interface
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onlyafterdark
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Join Date: Jul 2004
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2005-09-26, 18:41

Did anyone see this over at AI ?

I wanted a RAZR as my next phone anyway, this just sweetens the deal I guess.

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zman2005
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
 
2005-09-26, 20:39

the big hype?? I don't understand whats so great about a phone w/itunes compatability. my verizon v710 has removable slot drive. I put 512mb card in there and I can hold about 50 songs plus pictures. All i do is drag and drop music onto the card. What is so great about having itunes on your phone? you can't buy music directly and 100 songs isn't that great either. I'll wait a year for a 10gb phone/4megapixel camera/and itunes that is a true itunes. Just my thought
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alexluft
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Join Date: Apr 2005
 
2005-09-27, 19:28

how about this news? From MDN: http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/7041/

"In an interview with the German daily Berliner Zeitung on Monday, Apple vice president and iPod division head Jon Rubenstein expressed his feelings on the convergence of music devices and cell phones, saying the devices are best left separate," Ed Oswald reports for BetaNews. "The remarks were published the same day Motorola CEO Ed Zander was criticized in the media over his 'Screw the nano' statement made at a leadership conference in California on Friday. The recent comments made by either side -- whether a joke or not -- emphasize just how tenuous the Apple-Motorola relationship may be."

"'Is there a toaster that also knows how to brew coffee? There is no such combined device, because it would not make anything better than an individual toaster or coffee machine,' Rubenstein argued. 'It works the same way with the iPod, the digital camera or mobile phone: it is important to have specialized devices,'" Oswald reports.

I agree with what MDN wrote as their comments on the subject/interview: something along the lines of that there need to be no cofee makers and toasters all in ones, but there need to be ipod and cell phone together...and that Apple is doing this to divert attention of competitors, but I'm not so big on their concept of the clip on phone...

Thoughts...Comments????

Al
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userinterface
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
 
2005-09-30, 17:18

I think his comments are rather stupid. Everyone carry's a cellphone. Why would I want to carry 2 devices when I could just carry one?

Obviously Apple has explored this. I mean why should I have to carry:
iPod
iPod Headphones
Cellphone
Bluetooth Headset

WHEN i could just carry:
Cellphone + Bluetooth headset?

Geeze who would want less crap to carry around?
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MacGregor
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Stumptown, Puddlecity, many names
 
2005-10-01, 12:49

Apple will keep saying this until they come out with an iPhone 'a la Shuffle and Mac Mini.

It is painfully obvious that a phone and music player are not a toaster and coffee maker. People don't hang out on chat rooms and talk about bagel toasters or spend hours (that should be used doing something useful like working for world peace) making Photoshop mockups of microwave ovens. They do this kind of thing for music players and phones!

Yes clickwheel can be fitted into almost any phone out there, either in a slot or on the face. Unfortunately Apple feels no pressure yet to do so, and no one else can do it fror now.

The "Mother of All" Flip-flops.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/
Support the Freedom of Information Act by using it ... support the troops by being an informed electorate!
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Reid
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN
 
2005-11-08, 01:33

Well, this is a really rough mockup, but I've been thinking that if Apple ever wanted to do an iPhone, they should start with a nano-like form factor, and turn it into a slider. I'm sure many here could do a better job, but my photoshop skills leave something to be desired:

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evilswan
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Join Date: Nov 2005
 
2005-11-08, 04:24

Quote:
Originally Posted by MacGregor
Unfortunately Apple feels no pressure yet to do so, and no one else can do it fror now.

i'm not sure... this article is good: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.11/phone.html

i think apple would dearly love to have the iPhone looking and working great, playing music from iTunes. The problem is the networks. All the major networks are developing music download services and there's no way they'll let apple anywhere near them.

Apple may have the digital music download monopoly, but it pales compared to vodafone (et al)'s network monopoly.
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evilswan
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
 
2005-11-08, 04:27

Quote:
Originally Posted by onlyafterdark
Did anyone see this over at AI ?

I wanted a RAZR as my next phone anyway, this just sweetens the deal I guess.

i've had the razr for about 9 months now - worst phone i've ever owned. it's slow (writing text takes an age as you wait for the cursor to catch up with you), buggy and the user interface is very frustrating (example: there's no way to save a text message as you're writing it). the battery also seems to last about a day if you make any calls. i want my nokia back but i'm signed into a contract.

definitely play with one in the store before you decide to buy!
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alexluft
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
 
2005-11-08, 11:24

Well, for those who want more of a phone and a better-looking one at that, look no futher: motorola just announced new RAZRs: http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo

THe GSM RAZR (called the RAZR V3i) has iTunes player and a miniSD card slot, a 1.23 mp camera, etc...
Check it out.

Now surely, this is no iPhone if Apple were to ever release it (and I really hope they will), but it does the job and (somewhat) takes away the need to carry iPod+headphones and phone+b.t. headset...

However, I still want the functionality of something like the Nokia N series phones (which are awesome, but sadly not compatible with my Macky)
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BarracksSi
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Washington, DC
 
2005-11-08, 21:21

Really, the only way that Apple would be able to release the kind of phone they want is if they can also become a wireless provider.

The existing cell phone companies want too much money and too many concessions for Apple to feel comfortable making any more deals.
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Doxxic
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Amsterdam
 
2005-11-09, 06:11

I think Apple's ambition would be to build a phone that could be handled with only the click wheel, if it's their ambition to build a phone into their iPods at all. And if it is, Apple would choose to make one with with less features than are usually offered, instead of more.

This might be keeping them from convincing the phone companies, which base their decisions on what seem rational calculations, but really are corporate daydreams, like: "sum (features * possible extra turnover per feature generated by data transmission)". At least, that's why I think you get so many features on your phone you never asked for, never use, and don't pay for either.

So I think that if it were their ambition to add phone functionality to their iPods, they would make it extremely basic on features and easy to use. And therefore, they’d indeed have to launch their own phone company.
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Reid
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN
 
2005-11-09, 12:51

I think a phone's calling and dialing functions could be operated entirely with the click-wheel with no problem. Hell, you can store all of your contacts on an iPod already, and it works fine.

The issue is text/data entry. Sometimes you need to add a contact or a calendar item on the go, a problem for which the iPod currently does not have a solution. It's entirely possible Apple could sell a phone with no ability to do that. SMS messaging just isn't very popular in the U.S., but nobody overseas would buy a phone that can't send text.

I'm not even going to try it in Photoshop, but come to think of it the keypad on an iPod slider phone should probably be a QWERTY rather than a phone-like number pad. Instead of sliding vertically, maybe it would slide horizontally, like this:

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BarracksSi
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Washington, DC
 
2005-11-09, 16:41

Quote:
Originally Posted by Reid
I think a phone's calling and dialing functions could be operated entirely with the click-wheel with no problem. Hell, you can store all of your contacts on an iPod already, and it works fine.
Only if calling a contact meant that you didn't need to enter any numbers. You've addressed this, though:
Quote:
The issue is text/data entry. Sometimes you need to add a contact or a calendar item on the go, a problem for which the iPod currently does not have a solution. It's entirely possible Apple could sell a phone with no ability to do that. SMS messaging just isn't very popular in the U.S., but nobody overseas would buy a phone that can't send text.
I wouldn't buy a phone that didn't have a number pad. 95% of the time that I'm entering a new number, I'm nowhere near my computer. If I could keep adding contacts with my phone, sync it at home, and later update the list on my iPod, that's fine; the iPod doesn't go everywhere with me (blasphemy!), but my phone does.

Text messaging sucks, but in my case it's because Sprint's Vision version takes way too long -- it's easier to call & leave a message.

Simply put -- to me, a phone needs a number pad. It's been the interface standard for a long time now. The iPod had the opportunity to rewrite the interface for mp3 players, and it's been successful. The opportunity to rewrite the phone interface was half a century ago... it's a little late to do something new.
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Phoenix
formerly "trav"
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Behind you
 
2005-11-09, 16:44

That's the ugliest phone i've ever seen.
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2005-11-09, 16:57

I think it should slide vertically, to reveal a numerical keypad.

Think of the people who would be using an iPod phone. Probably not mega-gadget geeks who want PDA features and a QWERTY keyboard. For the average user, a vertical slider is more intuitive than rotaing the unit.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
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Doxxic
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Amsterdam
 
2005-11-11, 04:34

I've read all the posts and agree that the ability to input text and numbers is essential for a phone. Especially in Europe where we love to sms.

But I'd still try to leave out the key pad if I were Apple, if it were just to stay true to - well I don't know - being Apple...
They just seem to principally try to bring all the quality of the interface into the software, so their hardware can remain cheap (productionwise ) and elegant.

Now Apple has experimented with predictive text input. I've seen all these wordtree prediction screenshots somewhere on the web but I'm afraid I can't find them anymore...
But one day this should offer ways to conveniently input text and numbers with the click wheel, shouldn't it?

In any case, more about the text input possibilities of the click wheel you find here...
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BlueRabbit
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: San Francisco, CA
 
2005-11-11, 11:49

Entering numbers with a wheel? Sure, that's easy enough to do:
Text, on the other hand, is a bit more difficult.

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tomp6708
New Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
 
2005-11-12, 14:36

Quote:
Originally Posted by Reid
Well, this is a really rough mockup, but I've been thinking that if Apple ever wanted to do an iPhone, they should start with a nano-like form factor, and turn it into a slider. I'm sure many here could do a better job, but my photoshop skills leave something to be desired:

I think this would be great. Apple should bypass the cell phone companies and make the iPhone a WiFi phone that will work at any hot spot with the likes of skype, Vonage, or Apples own phone service. Those of us who have WiFi at home and work as well as many hot spots around town would find this very usefull.
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BarracksSi
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Washington, DC
 
2005-11-12, 17:57

Quote:
Originally Posted by tomp6708
Those of us who have WiFi at home and work as well as many hot spots around town would find this very usefull.
Not me. It would be nice to talk around the world via Skype (or whatever it becomes by then), but I would still have to carry two phones with me so that I wasn't restricted to WiFi hotspots.

All you need to run any other Apple product is an electrical outlet. I don't think it would make sense to market something as utilitarian as a phone that's stuck with such a limited infrastructure.
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AndyX-
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Join Date: Nov 2005
 
2005-11-14, 18:32

Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueRabbit
Entering numbers with a wheel? Sure, that's easy enough to do:
Text, on the other hand, is a bit more difficult.


Nice phone - how about this one - pay as you go / no contract PLUS text messaging.....


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