Yes, use a hands free kit and integrate it into the iPod headphones. All the cool kids are using hands free mics, so why not be triply cool wiht a hands free mic, a cell phone in your pocket, and all this in an iPod mini. iPod mini's are about being cool, not about the bset $/GB ratio.
Indeed. Integrate a mic into one of the earbuds, and not only do you have a hands-free option, you'll *FINALLY* be able to tell easily which goes in which ear.
Never SMSd, although I hear it's all the rage with the hip youngsters these days.
As for scrolling through text, make a playlist with 26 songs named 'A' through 'Z'. See how hard it is to hit the one you want. Not very. In fact, I'd wager I'm faster that way than I am with the inane letter entering system on my Samsung. :P
Never SMSd, although I hear it's all the rage with the hip youngsters these days.
As for scrolling through text, make a playlist with 26 songs named 'A' through 'Z'. See how hard it is to hit the one you want. Not very. In fact, I'd wager I'm faster that way than I am with the inane letter entering system on my Samsung. :P
Certainly I know it's fairly huge here in the UK, not just the younger generations either, my computer illiterate mother uses it all the time.
While scrolling through text is certainly possible and workable, hence the MiniDisc reference I disagree that the scroll method would be quicker than having a keypad, eg keyboards over any other text input method on a computer. I'm sure I could txt faster with a keypad and i'm sure i'm not the only one.
Btw, this thread is discussing what happened to the iPhone and why Apple probably canned it
Certainly I know it's fairly huge here in the UK, not just the younger generations either, my computer illiterate mother uses it all the time.
While scrolling through text is certainly possible and workable, hence the MiniDisc reference I disagree that the scroll method would be quicker than having a keypad, eg keyboards over any other text input method on a computer. I'm sure I could txt faster with a keypad and i'm sure i'm not the only one.
Btw, this thread is discussing what happened to the iPhone and why Apple probably canned it
I agree that SMS would be faster with keys than with text. SMS however is a waste (I'm an American though). Get some hours on your cell phone plan and save your wrists for other RSI. SMS is not a big thing here in the states, probably because we're purists and like using our phones for talking.
As a side note, I curse all the modern phone manufacturers who made phones larger because of color screens and cameras. Who cares? Give me the smallest clamshell design possible and I'll pay real money for it. I cary my phone in my pocket and I don't want it to be conspicuous.
Get some hours on your cell phone plan and save your wrists for other RSI. SMS is not a big thing here in the states, probably because we're purists and like using our phones for talking.
The difference in popularity is because cellular phone voice rates are much lower in the U.S.
OK sorry guys for the mock up. I was bored. But if anyone can make a decent dialing method with a scroll pad, it's Apple. Leave the details to them. Cell phone iPod would rock.
The difference in popularity is because cellular phone voice rates are much lower in the U.S.
-- Mark
Yeah, that is the reason, although if you read the Register, they would have you believe that the US is in the cellular dark ages. State subsidized teleco's are a BAD idea. How's Brittish Telecom doing for customer service lately? Horrorible. How's that 3G rollout coming along? Horrorible. Thank goodness for competition in the phone market place. Here's how the conversation goes:
"In Europe there is only one phone standard and you don't have multiple redundant phone networks. Less money is wasted in Europe."
"In America you have competition and where there is redundancy, prices are much less."
Thank you, I will take the lower price over the ability to subsidize my neighbor's desire to download pr0n to his phone. The upside of competition is that you can't do something stupid like charge so much for voice communication that SMS becomes a viable alternative to giving someone a ring.
...
All this is to say that Apple could make a good touch pad UI for phones using the iPod scroll wheel and it would do well in the US. It would probably not do well overseas since it doesn't have the nokia seal of approval.
OK sorry guys for the mock up. I was bored. But if anyone can make a decent dialing method with a scroll pad, it's Apple. Leave the details to them. Cell phone iPod would rock.
Is that really hard? :-)
You use the scroll-pad as a good old dial, and the dial appears graphically on the screen. Press the middle button to select.
Or is this not a good idea?
If I didn't illustrate it well enough by text, I'll mock something up in Photoshop.
Edit:
I know it looks like total crap (even used the wrong font!) but it illustrates my idea. Of course, other needed functions would be implemented graphically too.
Yeah, that is the reason, although if you read the Register, they would have you believe that the US is in the cellular dark ages. State subsidized teleco's are a BAD idea. How's Brittish Telecom doing for customer service lately? Horrorible. How's that 3G rollout coming along? Horrorible. Thank goodness for competition in the phone market place. Here's how the conversation goes:
"In Europe there is only one phone standard and you don't have multiple redundant phone networks. Less money is wasted in Europe."
"In America you have competition and where there is redundancy, prices are much less."
Thank you, I will take the lower price over the ability to subsidize my neighbor's desire to download pr0n to his phone. The upside of competition is that you can't do something stupid like charge so much for voice communication that SMS becomes a viable alternative to giving someone a ring.
You use the scroll-pad as a good old dial, and the dial appears graphically on the screen. Press the middle button to select.
Or is this not a good idea?
If I didn't illustrate it well enough by text, I'll mock something up in Photoshop.
Edit:
I know it looks like total crap (even used the wrong font!) but it illustrates my idea. Of course, other needed functions would be implemented graphically too.
How about combine a flip phone and the iPod mini? Have the dial be on a hinge that would flip down and then have regular phone buttons under it. You could still use the wheel to scroll through numbers you already have stored in memory, especially via bluetooth.
Actually, the rotary idea is a good one. It would be a very easy way to scroll through lists of names (this is overly hard to do on most cell phones).
Guys,
In case you did't know, the iPod wheel was "inspired" from a B&O DECT phone (Beocom 6000 if you're interested). I've had two of those at home for about 4 years, and it's an absolute joy to use for scrolling through the address book, browsing the menus, setting sound level, and even for entering text (much better than the keypad).
Of course the B&O being a home phone, its size is definitely bigger than the size of a cell or of the iPod (and the screen is very small), so they were able to to fit the wheel (similar to the 1st gen iPod weel, not solid-state) and a keypad.
SMS is not a big thing here in the states, probably because we're purists and like using our phones for talking.
SMS is popular because it provides asychronous communication, like email.
I would imagine that it's not popular in the states because... you're living in the cellphone dark ages, and it takes a critical mass of sms capable mobile phones (and network interop) for the network effect to kick in.
And why?
If you look into the history of large scale American techology rollouts, building the railroads etc. you'll find that it is usually done by granting monopoly rights to private corporations, (usually after slighty shady lobbying activities).
This is obviously different from government regulated monopolies but it is different again from a free-market which you seem to think it is in operation for cellphones in the states.
You may think that lazy fat capitalists having undue influence over government officials due to abuse of government granted-monopolies is better than lazy fat bureaucrats having undue influence over capitalists due to heavy handed regulation (and that's cool) but please spare us the oversimplified caricatures of US and European approaches to managing natural monopolies.
On the subject of text entry, most SMS phones have the T9 system that guesses the right word based on keypresses to make it easier to enter text. A similar concept that would probably work with the scroll wheel is dasher:
SMS is popular because it provides asychronous communication, like email.
I would imagine that it's not popular in the states because... you're living in the cellphone dark ages, and it takes a critical mass of sms capable mobile phones (and network interop) for the network effect to kick in.
Bzzzt, wrong. All my friends have cell phones and have had them for years. And yet we do not text message each other. We aren't living in the dark ages unless you think that not being able to stream pr0n to your cell phone is the dark ages. Bad stereotype #1 about America is that we don't have good phones over here or that we are in the dark ages. Heck, recently we started getting the more advanced phones before Europe did
Quote:
Originally posted by stupider...likeafox
And why?
If you look into the history of large scale American techology rollouts, building the railroads etc. you'll find that it is usually done by granting monopoly rights to private corporations, (usually after slighty shady lobbying activities).
This is obviously different from government regulated monopolies but it is different again from a free-market which you seem to think it is in operation for cellphones in the states.
My goodness you are not informed about the cell network over here. FYI, we haven't had robber barons running monopolies that extort people for some time. The last big monopoly was AT&T and they were broken up. Despite how MS gets treated, the US really does not like monopolies very much and breaks them up when they harm consumers. Regional monopolies like water and gas are very heavily regulated and have a difficult time getting their rates increased (because they must go before a governmental review process to obtain the rate increase).
The free market we do have over here is that I have the possibility of choosing between three (or is it four?) different standards with different companies all in competition with each other to provide the customer with the cheapest rate for phone service. Yes, it is chaotic but you can switch between companies and keep your number, so it isn't that bad because you can jump ship and not be locked in to a particular standard. You get choice.
As for your thought that there are locally granted phone monopolies, I don't know what you are talking about. I have four different networks that I can choose from where I live. How exactly is this a locally granted monopoly when there are three other competitors? Do you even know what a monopoly is?
Quote:
Originally posted by stupider...likeafox
You may think that lazy fat capitalists having undue influence over government officials due to abuse of government granted-monopolies is better than lazy fat bureaucrats having undue influence over capitalists due to heavy handed regulation (and that's cool) but please spare us the oversimplified caricatures of US and European approaches to managing natural monopolies.
Them's fighting words!
You are completely wrong. Let me prove it to you. I just went to BT.com (British Telecom) to spec out a cell phone plan. 1000 anytime minutes will cost 90 pounds. I just went to my cell provider's web page (Sprint.com) and found that for 115 dollars I can get 2500 anytime minutes. Right now, one pound is worth 1.8 dollars (I admit that this is high, usually it is about 1.5 dollars per pound) and this means that with BT, you get 6.17 minutes of talking time per dollar. Sprint gives me 21.73 minutes talking time per dollar. This means that on a per minute basis, a cell plan in England costs 3.5 times more than a cell plan in America. Let's hear it for having four formats and not having video phones to download our pr0n on! Let's hear it for chaotic capitalism! The end result is that Americans can talk on their phones while Europeans use their "phones" as wireless pagers with color screens.
Comments
Originally posted by Yevgeny
Yes, use a hands free kit and integrate it into the iPod headphones. All the cool kids are using hands free mics, so why not be triply cool wiht a hands free mic, a cell phone in your pocket, and all this in an iPod mini. iPod mini's are about being cool, not about the bset $/GB ratio.
Indeed. Integrate a mic into one of the earbuds, and not only do you have a hands-free option, you'll *FINALLY* be able to tell easily which goes in which ear.
Sorry to be pointing out negatives in this, I think it's a really cool thing and i'd go a buy one!
As for scrolling through text, make a playlist with 26 songs named 'A' through 'Z'. See how hard it is to hit the one you want. Not very. In fact, I'd wager I'm faster that way than I am with the inane letter entering system on my Samsung. :P
Originally posted by Kickaha
Never SMSd, although I hear it's all the rage with the hip youngsters these days.
As for scrolling through text, make a playlist with 26 songs named 'A' through 'Z'. See how hard it is to hit the one you want. Not very. In fact, I'd wager I'm faster that way than I am with the inane letter entering system on my Samsung. :P
Certainly I know it's fairly huge here in the UK, not just the younger generations either, my computer illiterate mother uses it all the time.
While scrolling through text is certainly possible and workable, hence the MiniDisc reference I disagree that the scroll method would be quicker than having a keypad, eg keyboards over any other text input method on a computer. I'm sure I could txt faster with a keypad and i'm sure i'm not the only one.
Btw, this thread is discussing what happened to the iPhone and why Apple probably canned it
Originally posted by dnisbet
Certainly I know it's fairly huge here in the UK, not just the younger generations either, my computer illiterate mother uses it all the time.
While scrolling through text is certainly possible and workable, hence the MiniDisc reference I disagree that the scroll method would be quicker than having a keypad, eg keyboards over any other text input method on a computer. I'm sure I could txt faster with a keypad and i'm sure i'm not the only one.
Btw, this thread is discussing what happened to the iPhone and why Apple probably canned it
I agree that SMS would be faster with keys than with text. SMS however is a waste (I'm an American though). Get some hours on your cell phone plan and save your wrists for other RSI. SMS is not a big thing here in the states, probably because we're purists and like using our phones for talking.
As a side note, I curse all the modern phone manufacturers who made phones larger because of color screens and cameras. Who cares? Give me the smallest clamshell design possible and I'll pay real money for it. I cary my phone in my pocket and I don't want it to be conspicuous.
Originally posted by Yevgeny
Get some hours on your cell phone plan and save your wrists for other RSI. SMS is not a big thing here in the states, probably because we're purists and like using our phones for talking.
The difference in popularity is because cellular phone voice rates are much lower in the U.S.
-- Mark
Originally posted by mark_wilkins
The difference in popularity is because cellular phone voice rates are much lower in the U.S.
-- Mark
Yeah, that is the reason, although if you read the Register, they would have you believe that the US is in the cellular dark ages. State subsidized teleco's are a BAD idea. How's Brittish Telecom doing for customer service lately? Horrorible. How's that 3G rollout coming along? Horrorible. Thank goodness for competition in the phone market place. Here's how the conversation goes:
"In Europe there is only one phone standard and you don't have multiple redundant phone networks. Less money is wasted in Europe."
"In America you have competition and where there is redundancy, prices are much less."
Thank you, I will take the lower price over the ability to subsidize my neighbor's desire to download pr0n to his phone. The upside of competition is that you can't do something stupid like charge so much for voice communication that SMS becomes a viable alternative to giving someone a ring.
...
All this is to say that Apple could make a good touch pad UI for phones using the iPod scroll wheel and it would do well in the US. It would probably not do well overseas since it doesn't have the nokia seal of approval.
Originally posted by Outsider
OK sorry guys for the mock up. I was bored. But if anyone can make a decent dialing method with a scroll pad, it's Apple. Leave the details to them. Cell phone iPod would rock.
Is that really hard? :-)
You use the scroll-pad as a good old dial, and the dial appears graphically on the screen. Press the middle button to select.
Or is this not a good idea?
If I didn't illustrate it well enough by text, I'll mock something up in Photoshop.
Edit:
I know it looks like total crap (even used the wrong font!) but it illustrates my idea. Of course, other needed functions would be implemented graphically too.
Originally posted by Yevgeny
Yeah, that is the reason, although if you read the Register, they would have you believe that the US is in the cellular dark ages. State subsidized teleco's are a BAD idea. How's Brittish Telecom doing for customer service lately? Horrorible. How's that 3G rollout coming along? Horrorible. Thank goodness for competition in the phone market place. Here's how the conversation goes:
"In Europe there is only one phone standard and you don't have multiple redundant phone networks. Less money is wasted in Europe."
"In America you have competition and where there is redundancy, prices are much less."
Thank you, I will take the lower price over the ability to subsidize my neighbor's desire to download pr0n to his phone. The upside of competition is that you can't do something stupid like charge so much for voice communication that SMS becomes a viable alternative to giving someone a ring.
Well I don´t know. My current plan gives me:
¢10/m talk
¢4/SMS
Free GPRS
No monthly fee
No minimum use
And thats with a weak dollar
Is it much cheaper in US?
Originally posted by Anders
Well I don´t know. My current plan gives me:
¢10/m talk
¢4/SMS
Free GPRS
No monthly fee
No minimum use
And thats with a weak dollar
Is it much cheaper in US?
I'm paying about $80 a month for
unlimited internet
500 SMS messages
5000 daytime minutes / unlimited nights and weekends
so the structure of the plan encourages lots of voice calls.
-- Mark
Originally posted by Zapchud
Is that really hard? :-)
You use the scroll-pad as a good old dial, and the dial appears graphically on the screen. Press the middle button to select.
Or is this not a good idea?
If I didn't illustrate it well enough by text, I'll mock something up in Photoshop.
Edit:
I know it looks like total crap (even used the wrong font!) but it illustrates my idea. Of course, other needed functions would be implemented graphically too.
That's awesome. I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Nick
Originally posted by Yevgeny
Actually, the rotary idea is a good one. It would be a very easy way to scroll through lists of names (this is overly hard to do on most cell phones).
Guys,
In case you did't know, the iPod wheel was "inspired" from a B&O DECT phone (Beocom 6000 if you're interested). I've had two of those at home for about 4 years, and it's an absolute joy to use for scrolling through the address book, browsing the menus, setting sound level, and even for entering text (much better than the keypad).
Of course the B&O being a home phone, its size is definitely bigger than the size of a cell or of the iPod (and the screen is very small), so they were able to to fit the wheel (similar to the 1st gen iPod weel, not solid-state) and a keypad.
Great interface for a phone.
[Corrected typo]
Originally posted by Amorph
With the dial and the clicker they could just bring back the old rotary standard.
Looks a little like this:
http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,2273,00.html
Doesn't it?
the following would also be cool:
- standard bluetooth access to handsfree carphones
when you step into the car, including the handsfree
keypads in some cars.
- wireless access to your iPod from the car
stereo (automatic, when you get into the car).
- public key encryption of voice information when
two iPods call each other.
Eric
Originally posted by Yevgeny
SMS is not a big thing here in the states, probably because we're purists and like using our phones for talking.
SMS is popular because it provides asychronous communication, like email.
I would imagine that it's not popular in the states because... you're living in the cellphone dark ages, and it takes a critical mass of sms capable mobile phones (and network interop) for the network effect to kick in.
And why?
If you look into the history of large scale American techology rollouts, building the railroads etc. you'll find that it is usually done by granting monopoly rights to private corporations, (usually after slighty shady lobbying activities).
This is obviously different from government regulated monopolies but it is different again from a free-market which you seem to think it is in operation for cellphones in the states.
You may think that lazy fat capitalists having undue influence over government officials due to abuse of government granted-monopolies is better than lazy fat bureaucrats having undue influence over capitalists due to heavy handed regulation (and that's cool) but please spare us the oversimplified caricatures of US and European approaches to managing natural monopolies.
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/
Check out the animated demos and downloads for the Mac.
Originally posted by stupider...likeafox
SMS is popular because it provides asychronous communication, like email.
I would imagine that it's not popular in the states because... you're living in the cellphone dark ages, and it takes a critical mass of sms capable mobile phones (and network interop) for the network effect to kick in.
Bzzzt, wrong. All my friends have cell phones and have had them for years. And yet we do not text message each other. We aren't living in the dark ages unless you think that not being able to stream pr0n to your cell phone is the dark ages. Bad stereotype #1 about America is that we don't have good phones over here or that we are in the dark ages. Heck, recently we started getting the more advanced phones before Europe did
Originally posted by stupider...likeafox
And why?
If you look into the history of large scale American techology rollouts, building the railroads etc. you'll find that it is usually done by granting monopoly rights to private corporations, (usually after slighty shady lobbying activities).
This is obviously different from government regulated monopolies but it is different again from a free-market which you seem to think it is in operation for cellphones in the states.
My goodness you are not informed about the cell network over here. FYI, we haven't had robber barons running monopolies that extort people for some time. The last big monopoly was AT&T and they were broken up. Despite how MS gets treated, the US really does not like monopolies very much and breaks them up when they harm consumers. Regional monopolies like water and gas are very heavily regulated and have a difficult time getting their rates increased (because they must go before a governmental review process to obtain the rate increase).
The free market we do have over here is that I have the possibility of choosing between three (or is it four?) different standards with different companies all in competition with each other to provide the customer with the cheapest rate for phone service. Yes, it is chaotic but you can switch between companies and keep your number, so it isn't that bad because you can jump ship and not be locked in to a particular standard. You get choice.
As for your thought that there are locally granted phone monopolies, I don't know what you are talking about. I have four different networks that I can choose from where I live. How exactly is this a locally granted monopoly when there are three other competitors? Do you even know what a monopoly is?
Originally posted by stupider...likeafox
You may think that lazy fat capitalists having undue influence over government officials due to abuse of government granted-monopolies is better than lazy fat bureaucrats having undue influence over capitalists due to heavy handed regulation (and that's cool) but please spare us the oversimplified caricatures of US and European approaches to managing natural monopolies.
Them's fighting words!
You are completely wrong. Let me prove it to you. I just went to BT.com (British Telecom) to spec out a cell phone plan. 1000 anytime minutes will cost 90 pounds. I just went to my cell provider's web page (Sprint.com) and found that for 115 dollars I can get 2500 anytime minutes. Right now, one pound is worth 1.8 dollars (I admit that this is high, usually it is about 1.5 dollars per pound) and this means that with BT, you get 6.17 minutes of talking time per dollar. Sprint gives me 21.73 minutes talking time per dollar. This means that on a per minute basis, a cell plan in England costs 3.5 times more than a cell plan in America. Let's hear it for having four formats and not having video phones to download our pr0n on! Let's hear it for chaotic capitalism! The end result is that Americans can talk on their phones while Europeans use their "phones" as wireless pagers with color screens.