Wired’s Dylan Tweney has the best of this afternoon’s “Screw the iPhone Nano” posts.
The “Nano iPhone” that iDealsChina is so excited about is probably a fake. Sorry, Apple fans. It’s just not that much smaller than a regular iPhone 3G, and it’s hard to imagine Jobs getting excited about something that’s just a little smaller (and lacking 3G). Plus, as MacRumors.com points out, iDealsChina is a “questionably reliable” source.
The underlying reasons why there’s no Nano seem obvious now that the AppStore is part of the landscape. The hardware specifications of a slightly-smaller iPhone would either break existing apps, change the existing user interface, or make it a pain in the ass. The iPhone Nano people have in mind is a high-dpi eye-gouger with a less precise touchscreen and even worse battery life.
Routing around this is the idea of an iPhone Shuffle, which could be so simple that it doesn’t run apps at all, or even have a touchscreen: check out Dennis Crothers’ mockup at the source below, the first entry in Wired’s competition to design a tiny iPhone.
I imagine something that keeps the touchscreen, but is a smidgin smaller than the Nano-most-imagined: just the keypad, address book and iPod controls, please.
Rumor: Apple Definitely, Probably Not Working on iPhone Shuffle [Wired: Gadget Lab]
“The hardware specifications of a slightly-smaller iPhone would either break existing apps, change the existing user interface, or make it a pain in the ass”
…Only if the iPhone Nano’s screen does not maintain the same aspect ratio as the regular one. Hence 640×480 scaling up to 800×600, 1024×768 and 1280×1024 and vice versa provided the app scales properly. A simple OS tweak regarding the video driver should solve that problem.
I don’t see Apple cutting off that delicious stream of revenue that is the App Store, they’ll figure SOMETHING out.
What would an iPhone Shuffle do when you wanted to call someone–dial a random phone number? Pick someone at random from your contact list?
iPhone Shuffle!!!
Wouldn-t be marvelous have an iPhone that calls randomly to any number of your contacts?
#1, I think you’re missing the point.
You make the screen smaller, you make your interactions with the device significantly different. Unless your hand is getting 33% smaller too, trying to do the very same things on a smaller screen with your same, big old hand is likely to be very, very frustrating.
The huge amount of R&D that went into designing the iPhone UI predicates a 3.5″ 320×480 screen. Changing those foundations requires changing a lot of other things.