7 ms·

It's a rectangle with a screen in the middle. Like an iPhone without the button. I didn't need to see a leak to know that, and don't see why this is news. Th

It's a rectangle with a screen in the middle. Like an iPhone without the button. I didn't need to see a leak to know that, and don't see why this is news. The smartphone market has become really boring in the last few years. Does anyone care anymore?

nashashmi 10y ago
> smartphone market has become really boring The time when even Android fans wish Steve Jobs was still around. Innovation has faltered and we are now just focusing on incremental improvements in current techs. No new trends.
- coldpie 10y ago
  What kind of new trends do you want? Stupid motion gestures that activate when you don't want them to, and don't when you do? More features based on voice recognition that send you to Texas when you want to go across town? More biometrics features that add cost without any benefit? More poorly supported tech features like MTP that obfuscate the computing base behind the OS, making basic computing tasks like file transfers difficult? Some garbage "3D screen" effect that makes text jimmy around when you tilt the phone for some reason?
  - tluyben2 10y ago
    Really big batteries would be a great trend...
  - maelito 10y ago
    Solar phones ?
  - nashashmi 10y ago
    Front-facing camera was a new trend. Siri was a new trend. Cloud was a new trend. Tap-and-pay was a belated new trend. Newer trends could be 1) iPhone/Tablet docks to a full laptop (Continuity was a dismal step). 2) App synergies between web and phone 3) daul screen phones 4) perfected implementations of all of the throwaway features you mentioned. I guess the trends are now focused on smart watches. But it is underwhelming. I am not going to give examples, because there will be plenty of dissenters. But the smartwatch could be so much more.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Say what? No, Jobs and iPhone was what turned the market into glass slabs! Back when Nokia and Ericcson (never mind Siemens) was the primary engines of phone design you got some real attempts at innovation.
  - anu7df 10y ago
    I have heard this Jobs bashing quite a few times and it has always left me confused. Here is what I know. Before iPhone I had a n-something phone from Nokia that in principle was a phone sized laptop. Yet, I never browsed on it unless I had to. There were some pointless apps, some "productivity" apps and some Uber technical apps none of which I would use because there was no user base. Ie.. no point looking at maps for restaurants, since it was an alphabetical list. Using browser to google something was a pain with the tedious UI. I could go on.. I am no apple fanboy. Never had an iPhone after version 2 or so. But let's give credit where it is due. Design is not just about form. It is also about usability. iPhone made the phone form factor usable for the masses. Sometimes the innovation is flawless execution.
    - digi_owl 10y ago
      Sounds like a Nokia Communicator series, but hard to say exactly what vintage (they existed between 1996 and 2007 after all).
josteink 10y ago
> The smartphone market has become really boring in the last few years. Does anyone care anymore? I'd say tech-focused blogs which earn advertisement dollars on hypes and clickbait-titles are interested. They'll try to push it as something must see interesting to drive their own traffic. As an annual event for several vendors it's probably a source of regular, primary income. But this is The Guardian. I'd expect better from them.
harryf 10y ago
Re: boring Smartphone market Why do I still need to carry a laptop and a phone around ? Of the big guys the only ones doing anything interesting here are Microsoft and Continuum https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Continuum https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Continuum - seems like the meme of distrupting yourself; cannibalizing your own revenue streams is great in theory but not in practice...
- candiodari 10y ago
  Well Pixel and Pixel XL may come with Daydream (VR headset). Maybe it'll support running apps fullscreen "in VR". (Although, yes, that will work well for Netflix and badly for coding. The question in my mind is what about everything in between)
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Crazy part is that Motorola tried doing just that with Android, and it seemed like Google was poised to go the same way once they unveiled their tablet ui. but then ChromeOS happened and non-phone Android went on the backburner.
  - kalleboo 10y ago
    Didn't ASUS also do that like 2 years ago?
    - digi_owl 10y ago
      Ah yes, padphone. Dunno why that slipped my mind.
kbody 10y ago
If you read they article you'll see they are mentioning feature/specs as well, including "fingerprint scanners on the back".
- freehunter 10y ago
  IMO the idea of "_____ on the back" is terrible usability. My grandma has an LG something or other with the volume and power buttons on the back, and every time I use it, I have to flip the phone over to see which button I'm pushing. That's fine, I don't use it often. But she uses it every day, and she still does that. Granted she's super old, but phones aren't made exclusively for Millennials. My car has controls behind the steering wheel, but for every control behind the steering wheel there is a control on the dashboard too. Nothing is exclusively hidden out of sight.
  - AndrewDucker 10y ago
    No, phones aren't made exclusively for millenials. But this one _could_ be made for one market, and other people could buy a _different_ phone that was made for a different market...
  - celticninja 10y ago
    the fingerprint scanner on the back is actually incredibly useful, at best it is placed just where you would put your finger whilst holding the phone in normal use, at worst you tap your finger and move it to the more comfortable position. I agree that any other buttons on the back are not useful but having had this feature on my phone for a few weeks now I would hate to go back to always needing to pin unlock it.
  - wstrange 10y ago
    I have a Nexus 6P, and the fingerprint scanner on the back of the phone is brilliant. It is very easy to find without looking, and you can unlock the phone one handed. I actually can't imagine why one would want the fingerprint scanner on the front of the phone.
    - 10y ago
XJOKOLAT 10y ago
Yes, agreed. Unbelievable functionality but very boring. I miss the old days when all kinds of mobile phones were being innovated in a mobile phone primordial soup. Of course, granted, they were far less useful!
intoverflow2 10y ago
Has it ever really been interesting beyond the initial iPhone showing the full web can exist on a phone and pushing carriers out of bundling their crapware?
- digi_owl 10y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_Mobile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_Mobile
- kalleboo 10y ago
  To me the 4 interesting phone releases were: 1. Sony Ericsson W800, the first Walkman phone with a good music player 2. Sony Ericsson K800, the camera phone with a good camera (even had Xenon flash) 3. Nokia N95, the everyday phone with multitasking 4. Apple, the iPhone with a good web browser and UI to support the next generation of mobile apps After that it's all been iteration to get everything up to acceptable speeds and capacities to support the app ecosystem

nashashmi 10y ago

> smartphone market has become really boring The time when even Android fans wish Steve Jobs was still around. Innovation has faltered and we are now just focusing on incremental improvements in current techs. No new trends.

coldpie 10y ago
What kind of new trends do you want? Stupid motion gestures that activate when you don't want them to, and don't when you do? More features based on voice recognition that send you to Texas when you want to go across town? More biometrics features that add cost without any benefit? More poorly supported tech features like MTP that obfuscate the computing base behind the OS, making basic computing tasks like file transfers difficult? Some garbage "3D screen" effect that makes text jimmy around when you tilt the phone for some reason?
- tluyben2 10y ago
  Really big batteries would be a great trend...
- maelito 10y ago
  Solar phones ?
- nashashmi 10y ago
  Front-facing camera was a new trend. Siri was a new trend. Cloud was a new trend. Tap-and-pay was a belated new trend. Newer trends could be 1) iPhone/Tablet docks to a full laptop (Continuity was a dismal step). 2) App synergies between web and phone 3) daul screen phones 4) perfected implementations of all of the throwaway features you mentioned. I guess the trends are now focused on smart watches. But it is underwhelming. I am not going to give examples, because there will be plenty of dissenters. But the smartwatch could be so much more.
digi_owl 10y ago
Say what? No, Jobs and iPhone was what turned the market into glass slabs! Back when Nokia and Ericcson (never mind Siemens) was the primary engines of phone design you got some real attempts at innovation.
- anu7df 10y ago
  I have heard this Jobs bashing quite a few times and it has always left me confused. Here is what I know. Before iPhone I had a n-something phone from Nokia that in principle was a phone sized laptop. Yet, I never browsed on it unless I had to. There were some pointless apps, some "productivity" apps and some Uber technical apps none of which I would use because there was no user base. Ie.. no point looking at maps for restaurants, since it was an alphabetical list. Using browser to google something was a pain with the tedious UI. I could go on.. I am no apple fanboy. Never had an iPhone after version 2 or so. But let's give credit where it is due. Design is not just about form. It is also about usability. iPhone made the phone form factor usable for the masses. Sometimes the innovation is flawless execution.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    Sounds like a Nokia Communicator series, but hard to say exactly what vintage (they existed between 1996 and 2007 after all).

josteink 10y ago

> The smartphone market has become really boring in the last few years. Does anyone care anymore? I'd say tech-focused blogs which earn advertisement dollars on hypes and clickbait-titles are interested. They'll try to push it as something must see interesting to drive their own traffic. As an annual event for several vendors it's probably a source of regular, primary income. But this is The Guardian. I'd expect better from them.

harryf 10y ago

Re: boring Smartphone market Why do I still need to carry a laptop and a phone around ? Of the big guys the only ones doing anything interesting here are Microsoft and Continuum https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Continuum https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Continuum - seems like the meme of distrupting yourself; cannibalizing your own revenue streams is great in theory but not in practice...

candiodari 10y ago
Well Pixel and Pixel XL may come with Daydream (VR headset). Maybe it'll support running apps fullscreen "in VR". (Although, yes, that will work well for Netflix and badly for coding. The question in my mind is what about everything in between)
digi_owl 10y ago
Crazy part is that Motorola tried doing just that with Android, and it seemed like Google was poised to go the same way once they unveiled their tablet ui. but then ChromeOS happened and non-phone Android went on the backburner.
- kalleboo 10y ago
  Didn't ASUS also do that like 2 years ago?
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    Ah yes, padphone. Dunno why that slipped my mind.

kbody 10y ago

If you read they article you'll see they are mentioning feature/specs as well, including "fingerprint scanners on the back".

freehunter 10y ago
IMO the idea of "_____ on the back" is terrible usability. My grandma has an LG something or other with the volume and power buttons on the back, and every time I use it, I have to flip the phone over to see which button I'm pushing. That's fine, I don't use it often. But she uses it every day, and she still does that. Granted she's super old, but phones aren't made exclusively for Millennials. My car has controls behind the steering wheel, but for every control behind the steering wheel there is a control on the dashboard too. Nothing is exclusively hidden out of sight.
- AndrewDucker 10y ago
  No, phones aren't made exclusively for millenials. But this one _could_ be made for one market, and other people could buy a _different_ phone that was made for a different market...
- celticninja 10y ago
  the fingerprint scanner on the back is actually incredibly useful, at best it is placed just where you would put your finger whilst holding the phone in normal use, at worst you tap your finger and move it to the more comfortable position. I agree that any other buttons on the back are not useful but having had this feature on my phone for a few weeks now I would hate to go back to always needing to pin unlock it.
- wstrange 10y ago
  I have a Nexus 6P, and the fingerprint scanner on the back of the phone is brilliant. It is very easy to find without looking, and you can unlock the phone one handed. I actually can't imagine why one would want the fingerprint scanner on the front of the phone.
  - 10y ago

XJOKOLAT 10y ago

Yes, agreed. Unbelievable functionality but very boring. I miss the old days when all kinds of mobile phones were being innovated in a mobile phone primordial soup. Of course, granted, they were far less useful!

intoverflow2 10y ago

Has it ever really been interesting beyond the initial iPhone showing the full web can exist on a phone and pushing carriers out of bundling their crapware?

digi_owl 10y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_Mobile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_Mobile
kalleboo 10y ago
To me the 4 interesting phone releases were: 1. Sony Ericsson W800, the first Walkman phone with a good music player 2. Sony Ericsson K800, the camera phone with a good camera (even had Xenon flash) 3. Nokia N95, the everyday phone with multitasking 4. Apple, the iPhone with a good web browser and UI to support the next generation of mobile apps After that it's all been iteration to get everything up to acceptable speeds and capacities to support the app ecosystem