~~~ On 2009/06/18 04:42, James Fraser at
wheresthatistanbul-newtontalk@yahoo.com wrote ~~~
>
> Hello,
>
> --- On Wed, 6/17/09, Lord Groundhog <lordgroundhog@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>
> ... the i(am SO tired of hearing about
> it)Phone. :)
>
:-) I hope you don't mind but I intend to quote this.
>> And doesn't adding an external keyboard on a cell phone as
>> sleek and etc as the aesthetic iPhone remind anyone except me of taking a
>> Ferrari Enzo and welding the back of it to the rear section of a VW Bus >--
>> because you really want a people carrier?
>
> I guess that depends: are you toting around an iPhone solely as a high-tech
> fashion statement? Or do you view it, instead, as a productivity tool, and
> one that you're looking to wring the most utility out of?
>
Errrr, at the risk of sounding inflammatory, I'm not toting one around at
all because I regard it as short on the kinds of features I really want in a
phone, and long on features I don't care about plus froth I consider a waste
of precious minutes of the rest of my life. As I've said before, I want my
nice-looking things to be seriously useful, so for me, the iPhone isn't a
fashion statement, of whatever the altitude of tech. and productivity tool?
Not as it is, and not as Apple intends to make it in the future (apparently;
for who can know the inscrutable mind of Steve Jobs & Co., without signing a
NDA?). What other people do is up to them. I'm just trying to understand
their doing it.
And don't even start me on the i(am SO tired of hearing about it)Phone's (I
told you I intend to quote this!) camera and video ...
>
> Whoa, Nellie: who said it had to be that big?
>
> You're familiar with Palm's Stowaway keyboards, yes? At least, I would *hope*
> you would be, seeing as how the Newtway Stowaway connector allows us to use
> such a keyboard with our Newtons. :)
>
Not only familiar with them, I had one when I tried to make a Palm work for
me. WORST typing experience I've had, except once on one of those weird
"keyboards" that's just a membrane you can unroll on a desk and gives you no
tactile feedback and sore fingertips. I can't see how using a rattly,
cheap-feeling "thing" like the Stowaway is an experience to be desired. I
assumed a keyboard more the size of the "real" Newton keyboard, but looking
more like the iMac keyboard, on the grounds that people might want it to be
nicer to use (and of course, to look at). My mistake.
[I should add that your assumption that I'd know the Stowaway by the ability
to use it with my Newt misses the fact that I'm one of the lucky ones who
finds that the 2100 seems to be able to read my handwriting almost
flawlessly. I'm a HWR activist and I really, REALLY want Apple to resume
the development of the Newton, complete with HWR at least as good as what I
have now.]
> At any rate, with the Newtway, Newton users have access to a full-sized
> keyboard that is roughly the size of a deck of cards (or an iPhone, if you
> like) when it is folded up.
>
> I would hope that Apple (or a third-party licensee) could be at *least* as
> ingenious when coming up with an external keyboard for the iPhone.
>
And I sure hope Apple does a better job of engineering it than Palm did.
> Since when were geeks and/or cell phone users ever afraid of looking silly?
Touché! I fully concede that one. Or, in keeping with that great tradition
of cell phone users, should I shout my concession? ;-)
> I don't know how many people you have walking around with BlueTooth headsets
> in your own neck of the woods, but let's just say that I suffer from an
> overabundance of them where I am. Yes, these people look silly because,
> unless you can see the headset itself, they appear as though they are talking
> to themselves.
>
Bluetooth headsets? Is THAT what they're doing? I just put it down to Care
In The Community ...
> Do they care? Apparently not. Or, at least, they seem to have decided that
> the productivity to be gained by marching around with a BlueTooth headset and
> looking as though you're talking to yourself is worth trading (what's left
> of) their human dignity for.
Again, a point -- I mean, AGAIN, A POINT! [I'M ON THE TRAIN, ABOUT TO GO
THROUGH A TUNN-..."]
> If people aren't afraid of looking like they're talking to themselves, I don't
> think they're going to find attaching an external keyboard to their iPhone to
> be too terribly shame-inducing. :)
Alas, yes.
> Well, I guess it comes down to whether or not you are willing to "spoil the
> lines" of your iPhone. And I, for one, would be perfectly willing to do so.
I'm not sure it's so much about spoiling its lines as compromising the ease
of use.
> Well, hopefully my poster-sized post has helped generate a few insights (or a
> few cheap laughs, which are nearly as good ;) ).
>
Well thanks, James. For my part, you've provided both. But it looks like
I'll stick to my Newton-plus-OtherPhones way of working for now and hope
someone, somewhere, can create the device of my dreams.
Shalom.
Christian
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
³Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a Newton.²
-- what Arthur C. Clarke meant
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ZzpdPJ7Zr4
(With thanks to Chod Lang)
http://tinyurl.com/29y2dl
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/3942
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
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Received on Thu Jun 18 07:11:40 2009
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