Leaked photos from Foxconn Brazil show new 'N90A' iPhone 4 model - Page 2

I agree it may confuse some people.

That said, I find the hype about the teardrop design just bizarre. Check out Gruber's treatment of the topic: http://daringfireball.net/2011/09/teardrop_skepticism

I have to agree with Gruber - a teardrop design for a device like the iPhone just seems wrong. When I first saw the CAD renderings for it, I had an immediate visceral reaction and it wasn't good; I hated it, and immediately thought that it seems gimmicky, at best. The teardrop design makes solid design sense for a device like a laptop that has a single orientation. But iPhones are used in landscape orientation often, and this device will not feel natural in landscape mode. It will also be heavier at one end than the other, making it unbalanced and more likely to be dropped.

My sense is that Apple would be stupid to depart from the industrial design of the iP4 at this time... especially to embrace a teardrop design that has NO useful purpose in the phone aside from being an obvious copy of laptop designs. When has Apple ever just copied the design of a product across completely different use contexts just because it worked well in the originating context? If that had been so, the iPhones would all have looked like iPods or mini-macbooks. Copying just for the sake of a gimmicky form factor would be very unlike Apple.

Bottom line: I think Apple would be more likely to introduce multiple models with the same basic industrial design than to bet the farm on something that is, ultimately, just a game played with form factor for no good reason. We'll see come Tuesday... but I think that the manufacturers of all these teardrop cases are going to be wishing they hadn't bet on such a goofy design ethos.

Very often. Look closely.

Please put me on that list to spare me. Please

I agree with you disagreeing with me.

Much better idea.

Someone else wrote this (can't remember who and can't find it): Waiting for iPhone 5 is like a Samuel Beckett play. Well said, IMO.

Give examples that have anything more than a superficial resemblance (e.g. it is rectangular and has a curved back.). I don't think you'll find very many.

iPad 1, for example, was very different from iP4, even though it followed after. iPad 2 is different from the MacBook air, even though it followed after.

I suggest that you can't look closely and find there are many examples of copying significant design details across use contexts just because; to find such similarities, you have to be looking at a very superficial level.

Well, all this iPhone 5 talk has allowed the iPod Touch 3G rumors to die down. Perhaps there might be some validity to the latter after all, which would allow Apple to increase the footprint of iOS5 and also to get a leg up on the soon-to-come Samsung competitors to the iPT.

I'm not sure if you have ever used a curved glass smart phone, but I find them easier to use than flat glass. Having smaller hands, I don't have to move my hands as much to navigate the screen and scrolling feels much more natural. Reviews for the curved glass display have been positive.

None of the rumors for the 5 include curved glass, so i'm not sure of the relevance here. And for the very few phones produced which have had a curved screen (like the Nexus S), the handset has had an overall case design which is pretty much neutral end to end with respect to form and weight.

Take a look at the Google Android handset gallery and see how many of them feature a case design which displaces the center of gravity (e.g. they are notably thinner from one end to the other):
http://www.google.com/phone/#manufac...eset_filters=1

You aren't going to find many (if any).

Frankly, I think it would be a real design mistake for Apple to introduce a tear-drop phone, and I hope they don't.

We'll see Tuesday.

Apple is likely just to recycle the iPhone 4 chassis for their fifth-generation iPhone. Apple seems to be playing it too safe for the past generation or two, and allow Android and Windows to innovate, and then "borrow" the features they like. Lets hope iOS gets notifications right this time, because they were a disaster in iOS 4.

I just wished Apple would develop a new phone and OS revision that sets a new standard for others to imitate. Android has become quite popular, and if Apple does not release something to put others to shame, the landscape may look different in a year. I want to see Apple try something bold to put Android and others into a lower class category in consumers eyes. Sitting idle and playing it safe is what hurt Microsoft, in both the OS and browser wars. Firefox came around and introduced tabs which was it's big draw at the time.

At a minimum Apple could increase the display size while maintaining a similar form factor. There seems to be a demand now for larger displays, and if Apple canonit even deliver that, the average Joe might scoff at the iPhone's 3.5" display when making a decision on which smart phone to purchase.

That's clearly not what the market is saying...

Android is not popular because it's better than iOS, it's popular because it's cheaper than iOS. Android can't compete from an overall integration standpoint...which is and will be the strong point of iOS.

Worry when you see another company build a operating system ecosystem that is as cohesive as iOS from top to bottom. Until that happens, iOS will be the gold standard. That doesn't mean it won't be outsold - but it remains the reference design for a smartphone and a smartphone OS. I'll put my money behind the innovators in the industry before gross sales.

Why? It's not like anyone but Microsoft is doing anything on their own right now, anyway. It's all imitation of Apple.


Yeah, we'll see the iPhone 5, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS ALL outselling every single model of Android phone instead of just the iPhone 4 and 3GS.


And the fact that Android is just a branch of iPhone OS 0.7 doesn't make it 'lower class'?


Oh, yeah. That's important. That'll show 'em. A uselessly huge screen for absolutely no reason.


The same was said about 7" tablets. Look where that got them.


"Hmm, this phone fits in my hand and is comfortable to use while this one barely fits in my pants and cannot have its OS accessed by one hand in one position. I think I'll take the latter."

What do you say about this http://www.tuaw.com/2011/10/01/iphon...-bell-website/ ?

Tell you what... you bet against Apple for the next year and I'll bet with Apple for the next year...

... before the cloth is raised on Tuesday.

For the last 14+ years Apple has never let me down and I'm not about to lose faith in them now.

So... it's all or nothing on Tuesday. I'm in for Apple, and anyone who isn't... well, put up or shut up and we'll tally the bets over the next year.

Ok - let's assume for a moment that what you said is all true. Define how giving the phone a slightly bigger display and a teardrop shape matches any of what you have held out as a need for Apple? How are those innovative?

Well, I'll show you. You just have to have an open mind about these things. Blah, blah, continued pretending-to-be-in-favor-of-Apple-all-the-while-openly-mocking-them rhetoric.


To mirror the "Fandroids'" tears as their empire crumbles against the might of Apple!


To sell slightly more iPhones than the amount already sold, continuing to outsell every single Android phone model ever made by a slightly bigger margin.

Excuse me but the Americans aren't the ones wearing Speedo's at the beach...

The "S" stands for SOLAR.*
The 4S will have a photovoltaic backplate.*

Which is completely and utterly useless, as the phone stays in your pocket most of the time and the documentation explicitly states not to leave this sort of device OUT IN THE SUN.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010...nes-global.php



Remember: Apple just invested 2 billion $ in SHARP.

Apple invested in Sharp for displays, not because they had the idea to put a solar panel on a cell phone.

Did you read the specifications on their device? 10 minutes in the sun for 1 minute of talk time. Similar devices for iPhones promise 30 minutes of talk time for every 2 hours in the sun. Wow, just wow.

Call me crazy, but I think most users aren't even the slightest bit interested in setting their phone in the sun for two hours in order to make a 30 minute phone call... or play Angry Birds for 10 minutes.

Also call me crazy, but the last time Apple chose to use 'S' in an iPhone name it was when they updated the capabilities of the device without changing its form factor.

But I guess this time around, 's' standing for solar just makes more sense, eh?

...flat glass backplate was supposed to be a cell last year.
...supplier didn't make the deadline.

F.

For one I would love an iPhone that was solar rechargeable. Im a pilot and being able to leave my phone in the cockpit window to charge during a flight would be fantastic.

I guess at this point if its a redesigned phone or a 4S I'm ready four a new one. My 3GS just doesn't last a full day anymore on a full charge. new battery would be cheaper but a newer phone will be more fun.

Having what to do with anything?

Yes. We get it. It's not happening.

Leaving cell phones out in the sun is a terrible, terrible idea. Also, having a solar panel on a device kept in pockets and purses is completely pointless.

upper right hand corner shows a green sticker with Chinese writing.

I appreciate your use case... but I would say that your particular circumstances represent a pretty small fraction of users for such devices, wouldn't you agree?

36 hours until the unvieling and still so little is known about (a) product(s) to sell about two-dozen million in the first quarter, in many countries and dozens of carriers around the world after being built with components from a done companies from many countries.

As to why not, kind of emphasizes the original point...

Aahhh yawn. Wow, Ywan. Hmm Ywan. This is actually a pathetic attempt to get people jacked up about ahh yawn. Another so called device that has no grounds for publishing. Maybe they accidentally posted this. Hmm.

Banana hammocks are a crime against humanity all on their own.

Where? I don't see it.



They seem pretty innocent to me

do you see what I did there? ha-de-ha-de-ha

Oh my god that's disgusting! Think of the children.

Agreed, I remember when I first bought my iPhone 4, I had it in the map pocket of my tank bag. My thought was to use the GPS to help our group "return to civilization". That idea lasted about 4 minutes before the phone overheated and shut down.

I don't see solar charging being a good idea unless things keep going they way that they are and before you know it coal/nuclear/hydro electric power becomes illegal.


You almost caused me to spit out my coffee!

That will never happen. Ever. Leave the political fearmongering in PoliticalOutsider.

Why would hydroelectric be made illegal? It's fricking water.

The water is evil? Maybe the turbines mutate it into an evil creature that will devour our young.

Wonder if he's Portuguese…

American, apparently.
Thats even worse!

Why? People with too much time and money on their hands can come up with lots of reasons to remove hydroelectric dams (the truest clean energy we know of).

http://www.oregonlive.com/environmen...l_ramps_u.html

http://www.hydroreform.org/news/2011...ific-northwest

http://www.americanrivers.org/our-wo...ound/faqs.html

I wish this was political fear-mongering, unfortunately calling attention to what is actually going on is just pointing out reality. Don't worry though, there are people who are fighting against solar and wind technology as well as the other big three....