4 ms·

Another way to look at that state of affairs is: the required stylus is a point against the n900's browser. Styluses, particularly for navigation, have been re

by roc 16y ago

Another way to look at that state of affairs is: the required stylus is a point against the n900's browser. Styluses, particularly for navigation, have been rejected by the market. So relying upon them is simply a bad idea if you dare to dream of outperforming anything in the graveyard of Windows-Tablets-Past.

jsnell 16y ago
I've got small hands, and really hated using the browser on an iPhone due to how easy it was to click the wrong link by mistake on any sites that don't have an separate version optimized for mobiles. Switching to a Nexus 1 from an iPhone 3G was worth it just for the trackball. Unfortunately the Nexus S removed the trackball, making it a downgrade over the N1 as a whole :-( It's a sad world when solving the problem counts as a black mark, while putting your hands over the ears and singing la-la-la-there is no problem counts as good user experience and paying attention to detail.
- roc 16y ago
  > "really hated using the browser on an iPhone due to how easy it was to click the wrong link by mistake" You know you can zoom the page effortlessly and be sure the tap is properly placed amongst a group of links, right?
  - bryanlarsen 16y ago
    Sure, I can zoom effortlessly, but it would be a lot easier if I didn't have to, since that also involves zooming back out and scrolling the page once you go back. 4 steps instead of 1. Except when you zoom way in and still miss, because what you're clicking on is a javascript implicit trigger right beside an explicit link, so the browser tries to be helpful and assumes you really wanted the explicit link. I used to browse on my N810 a lot, and now use a Nexus S or an iPhone. The switch to a capacitive screen had many benefits and was the right move, but I sometimes do miss the accuracy of the old resistive screens.
    - roc 16y ago
      I used to browse on my n800 a lot. I now browse on my iPhone a lot more. Because the convenience, rendering, panning and zooming far, far outweigh the lost accuracy of the stylus.
      - bryanlarsen 16y ago
        Sure, but a large part of that is because the current generation of browsers on current hardware is a LOT faster. On the n810 you had hardware buttons to zoom, so it's not as if that was less convenient interface wise, it was inconvenient because it was slow.
  - jsnell 16y ago
    Oh, sure. There's plenty of kludges that you can use to work around the inaccuracy of the finger + capacitative touchscreen combo. The problem with zooming is that you can't pinch-zoom with just one hand, and the doubletap-zoom sometimes wouldn't zoom in enough. Also it makes the workflow of the really simple operation that little bit more complicated: doubletap somewhere nearby, wait for the zoom, find the link again, tap. As another example, in the Android browser a long press on a link will highlight the link after half a second, and pop up a menu after a second. So you can start pressing on the link, wait for it to get highlighted, and then quickly either "commit" by lifting the finger or "rollback" by dragging it away from the link. Pretty horrible, right? But at least I occasionally find even that to be more convenient than zooming.
regularfry 16y ago
Market be damned. I like it.

by roc 16y ago

jsnell 16y ago

I've got small hands, and really hated using the browser on an iPhone due to how easy it was to click the wrong link by mistake on any sites that don't have an separate version optimized for mobiles. Switching to a Nexus 1 from an iPhone 3G was worth it just for the trackball. Unfortunately the Nexus S removed the trackball, making it a downgrade over the N1 as a whole :-( It's a sad world when solving the problem counts as a black mark, while putting your hands over the ears and singing la-la-la-there is no problem counts as good user experience and paying attention to detail.

roc 16y ago
> "really hated using the browser on an iPhone due to how easy it was to click the wrong link by mistake" You know you can zoom the page effortlessly and be sure the tap is properly placed amongst a group of links, right?
- bryanlarsen 16y ago
  Sure, I can zoom effortlessly, but it would be a lot easier if I didn't have to, since that also involves zooming back out and scrolling the page once you go back. 4 steps instead of 1. Except when you zoom way in and still miss, because what you're clicking on is a javascript implicit trigger right beside an explicit link, so the browser tries to be helpful and assumes you really wanted the explicit link. I used to browse on my N810 a lot, and now use a Nexus S or an iPhone. The switch to a capacitive screen had many benefits and was the right move, but I sometimes do miss the accuracy of the old resistive screens.
  - roc 16y ago
    I used to browse on my n800 a lot. I now browse on my iPhone a lot more. Because the convenience, rendering, panning and zooming far, far outweigh the lost accuracy of the stylus.
    - bryanlarsen 16y ago
      Sure, but a large part of that is because the current generation of browsers on current hardware is a LOT faster. On the n810 you had hardware buttons to zoom, so it's not as if that was less convenient interface wise, it was inconvenient because it was slow.
- jsnell 16y ago
  Oh, sure. There's plenty of kludges that you can use to work around the inaccuracy of the finger + capacitative touchscreen combo. The problem with zooming is that you can't pinch-zoom with just one hand, and the doubletap-zoom sometimes wouldn't zoom in enough. Also it makes the workflow of the really simple operation that little bit more complicated: doubletap somewhere nearby, wait for the zoom, find the link again, tap. As another example, in the Android browser a long press on a link will highlight the link after half a second, and pop up a menu after a second. So you can start pressing on the link, wait for it to get highlighted, and then quickly either "commit" by lifting the finger or "rollback" by dragging it away from the link. Pretty horrible, right? But at least I occasionally find even that to be more convenient than zooming.

regularfry 16y ago

Market be damned. I like it.