iPod mini looks a lot like a ...

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
... cell phone. It's narrow, thin and light enough. Replace the center dial with a keypad and you have one.



The iPod mini killer app would have been built in cell phone. Add a little microphone near the bottom, a speaker near the top, voila! Number entry would be a bitch with the current dial pad, but this could be overcome. To place a call a blinking 5 cursor would appear on screen and you would go forward and backward with the pad (5 is in the middle so you have the least amount of clicks to get to the number you want) , click the center to lock in that number, and you dial up your number up. Of course having your number in the address book would make this much faster. No need to make it with a color screen. First and foremost it's a MP3 player.



I would buy that phone.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 50
    kraig911kraig911 Posts: 912member
    phew! my mind almost went in the gutter there... you worded the title in a had to look. heh, I still don't get the click wheel thing..
  • Reply 2 of 50
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Well Apple does own the iPhone.org domain. I don't think Apple will start making cellphones anytime soon. I think iPhone was going to be part of the software feature-set they offered to phone companies to use Quicktime on digital phones. I believe Apple, Sun, and Sony partnered on this.
  • Reply 3 of 50
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    With the dial and the clicker they could just bring back the old rotary standard.
  • Reply 4 of 50
    g-newsg-news Posts: 1,107member
    I think it looks more like a pregnancy test than like a mobile phone, especially the pink one.
  • Reply 5 of 50
    othelloothello Posts: 1,054member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Crusader

    Well Apple does own the iPhone.org domain. I don't think Apple will start making cellphones anytime soon. I think iPhone was going to be part of the software feature-set they offered to phone companies to use Quicktime on digital phones. I believe Apple, Sun, and Sony partnered on this.



    you need to read what Harald had to say about the iphone recently



    http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...ghlight=iphone
  • Reply 6 of 50
    baumanbauman Posts: 1,248member


    It looks a lot better.
  • Reply 7 of 50
    bill mbill m Posts: 324member
    Problem is battery life. The HDs inside the current iPod and iPod mini are power hungry. I don't think we will see an iPod/iPhone combo anytime soon, yet I believe the next digital life product from Apple will be indeed a mobile phone / organizer.
  • Reply 8 of 50
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Amorph

    With the dial and the clicker they could just bring back the old rotary standard.



    actually... that makes sense...



    better for the numbers to start at 1 because it is more common (it is in 90% of area codes) and plus you will *always* have to go in the same direction to get the correct number... even if it takes longer, this would make more sense...



    plus auto-complete by just typing the first couple of numbers of the phone number... THIS FEATURE IS KILLER...
  • Reply 9 of 50
    escherescher Posts: 1,811member
    I think David Pogue describe the iPod mini best as a cross between a lipstick tube and a box of Tic-Tacs in his article, iPod's Little Brother Makes a Big Splash.



    Quote:

    In shape, the iPod Mini suggests that its mother was a lipstick tube and its father was a box of Tic-Tacs.



    Escher
  • Reply 10 of 50
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    How about this?



  • Reply 11 of 50
    yevgenyyevgeny Posts: 1,148member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Outsider

    How about this?







    You should be ashamed of that



    UGLY!



    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). At first, I thought that the idea of a combo cell/mini was stupid, but I have to admit that there is something to it. Of course, it will never happen.
  • Reply 12 of 50
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    You know, I was sitting here thinking that the rotary idea was silly, because you'd be scrolling through numbers and clicking the center to dial, and how *slow* that'd be...





    And then I realized that 99% of the time when I call someone on my cell phone, it's by bringing their number up. I almost *NEVER* dial someone's number from scratch. If I figure I'll ever dial it again, it goes in the address book.



    And how do I access the address book? By *SCROLLING*. What's the iPod interface excel at?



    Ka-ching.







    I think you're onto something here. New UI, but one that works. I *like*.





    Dammit, now I want an iPod interface on *MY* cell phone...
  • Reply 13 of 50
    yevgenyyevgeny Posts: 1,148member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    You know, I was sitting here thinking that the rotary idea was silly, because you'd be scrolling through numbers and clicking the center to dial, and how *slow* that'd be...





    And then I realized that 99% of the time when I call someone on my cell phone, it's by bringing their number up. I almost *NEVER* dial someone's number from scratch. If I figure I'll ever dial it again, it goes in the address book.



    And how do I access the address book? By *SCROLLING*. What's the iPod interface excel at?



    Ka-ching.

    I think you're onto something here. New UI, but one that works. I *like*.

    Dammit, now I want an iPod interface on *MY* cell phone...




    I'm in the same boat. I am always scrolling to names already in my phone. I am scrolling across menu options, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. I want a scroll wheel on my phone.



    Anyhow, phone number entry is usually done one of three ways. One is manual entry. One is have the person call you and save their number. One is use something like iSync and use a keyboard. The scroll wheel paradigm is not good at entering in people's names, but really- how frequently do you do that?? If I enter twenty names in a year, then it was a busy year.



    An Apple iPod mini phone should not have a built in microphone and it should only have a speaker that is capable of playing a ringer. You should use a plug in headset that is integrated with the iPod's headphone jack. While you are listening to music and you get a phone call, you could just press a button to answer and the mic built into the headphone jack would take care of everything. (mind you, I don't use headphone jacks, I personally dislike them).



    If Apple could add all of this and keep the same form factor, then I would be positive that Steve and Ive are Satan and the antichrist. Of course, I would probably buy one since I am in the market for the smallest possible phone that doesn't take pictures (who really needs that? Phones are for talking!). Merging an iPod and a phone is a marriage of convenience, and best of all, you could pick your own favorite MP3 for your ringer (instead of some MIDI bastardization of your favorite song).
  • Reply 14 of 50
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Yevgeny

    and best of all, you could pick your own favorite MP3 for your ringer (instead of some MIDI bastardization of your favorite song).





    *BLINK*





    You do realize, of course, that this alone will probably mean we'll never see one, since Apple needs a provider to partner with, and ring tones are now a multi-BILLION $ side-industry?
  • Reply 15 of 50
    yevgenyyevgeny Posts: 1,148member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    *BLINK*





    You do realize, of course, that this alone will probably mean we'll never see one, since Apple needs a provider to partner with, and ring tones are now a multi-BILLION $ side-industry?




    Yes, I realize that. All Apple should do is make it possible to select an MP3 as your ringer. It could be an MP# of your voice saying "Pick up your phone!". Users would load the MP3 on the phone, thus making it the responsibility of the user to deal with RIAA. RIAA could no more sue Apple than they could sue Sony for making walkmans with speakers. Apple can get away with this because they are not preloading music onto the iPod for use as a ringer. It is something that the user does.



    Don't get me wrong- I am all in favor of not stealing music, but the whole $ for ringtones is just a bit much. I don't think that the ringtone payment logic would survive a strong court challenge. Right now it works because companies are having to recreate the same music in MIDI format. If it was your own MP3, then it would probably fall well under fair use since you are just playing your music on a speaker and last time I checked, that has been legal to do in a public space for deacades. This is easier to to than people think.
  • Reply 16 of 50
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    No, no, no.



    What I meant was that the *provider* makes massive bucks off the ringtones (not the labels), so no provider is going to threaten that lucrative market by partnering with a phone maker that lets people bypass it.
  • Reply 17 of 50
    Umm, I can use my own .wav files or MIDI files on my Nokia 3650, exactly the same formats that they want to sell me. This has not seemed to hurt availability of these phones.



    -- Mark
  • Reply 18 of 50
    yevgenyyevgeny Posts: 1,148member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by mark_wilkins

    Umm, I can use my own .wav files or MIDI files on my Nokia 3650, exactly the same formats that they want to sell me. This has not seemed to hurt availability of these phones.



    -- Mark




    Now that is a cool feature. It sells phones.



    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    No, no, no.



    What I meant was that the *provider* makes massive bucks off the ringtones (not the labels), so no provider is going to threaten that lucrative market by partnering with a phone maker that lets people bypass it.




    Well, I can see them not wanting to do so, but the above nokia phone shows that it can be done. Of course, Apple might not want to tick off the record companies since they kinda need to do business with them.
  • Reply 19 of 50
    dnisbetdnisbet Posts: 201member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Yevgeny

    An Apple iPod mini phone should not have a built in microphone



    Sorry to be picky but how would you talk to somebody without some sort of hands-free kit? Not sure many would go for a phone without that ability.



    It's a great idea though, my only problem is unless they could make the HDD or something smaller how would they fit in the phone circuitry? (or perhaps it's already there or perhaps they might add it in á la the new iMic's or photo readers)



    I do see this as pretty farfetched, but we can dream!!
  • Reply 20 of 50
    yevgenyyevgeny Posts: 1,148member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by dnisbet

    Sorry to be picky but how would you talk to somebody without some sort of hands-free kit? Not sure many would go for a phone without that ability.





    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.
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