I'm no Apple fanboy but I'm getting prettyimpatient with people who whinge that the iPhone isn't a very good phone. Orthat it isn't well-featured enough for teenagers wanting to send happy slapping videosto their mates.
Stop missing the point!
Asa phone there's no doubt the iPhone can be improved, especially regarding that EDGE nonsense. As a means of text messaging - sure, there's abit of polish to be had there - Apple will no doubt add multiple messaging and SMS forwarding in a firmware update if enough people make a fuss.
Yep, the iPhone is also ridiculously expensive, especially for Brits who are used to getting their handsets for nothing when they sign up to a contract. But let's putthat to one side for the moment: all this is solvable with a tweak here, anupgrade there and possibly one day, a cheaper, smaller iPhone nano.
Whatreally matters technology-wise, is Apple's interface. Apple at its best has alwaysunderstood this: that in these days of ubiquitous information, processing powerand networking, and the infinite ways those things can be brought together tothe user, with all the attendant difficulties in doing so, it is ALWAYS theinterface that matters most.
I'llrecklessly hazard that Apple doesn't reckon it's really in the computerbusiness at all; it makes interfaces. Its greatest hits have all been poweredby superior interfaces: the Mac's desktop metaphor, the iPod's geniusclickwheel and now the iPhone's feely-touchy number.
The importance of multi-touch
Sowhy is the iPhone's interface so important? There's all that finger skiddingand cool animation going on which is fun in itself, but really, it's about multi touch. As Jobshimself put it, in a little-noticed comment, there are no 'verbs' in the iPhone interface: that sense,familiar from Windows or OS X of selecting a file then doing something to it.
Instead, you press an icon or select an object, then stuff happens immediately.It sounds basic, but it's actually cutting through a lot of the assumptionsthat have informed computer interface design since the GUI.
While multi-touch isn't a new idea - it was demoedas far back as 1982 - it's finally been applied to the right sort of gear:complicated convergence devices aimed at consumers. Complexity isn't a problemthat's going to go away as ever more features get added to pocket devices.
Apple's system works
Apple has shown it has a real solution here - a solution that sells - andnow it is applying it to its other gear - the iPodTouch and, if you believe the slosh of Internet rumours, a possible MacTablet.
The response of the handset makers has beenpretty unadventurous: they've been apingthe eye candy rather than rethinking their designs. And who can blame them,when they have so much money tied up in the status quo?
But this isn't going tocut it in the long-term. Apple can and will make better featured phones - butcan the handset makers make better interfaces?
* What do you think? Is the iPhone interfaceall that great? Is Nick missing the point himself? Email in today to editor@techradar.com
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alanbrett
December 31st 2008
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