3 ms·

> stylus-free interaction due to use of capacitative screen > multitouch IMHO these two were the key standout killer features that made the iPhone a qualitati

by jl6 7y ago

> stylus-free interaction due to use of capacitative screen > multitouch IMHO these two were the key standout killer features that made the iPhone a qualitatively different and better experience than every handset that had come before.

pjc50 7y ago
I'm still expecting someone to well-actually us and point out an obscure device that did both first, but to me these were the spectacular features. Resistive touchscreen + stylus was and is awful (qv the other thread about how you hold a pen, like a ballpoint a stylus on resistive requires pressure and can be hard on the grip. It's also extremely loseable)
- jsjohnst 7y ago
  > I'm still expecting someone to well-actually us and point out an obscure device that did both first There were devices before the iPhone with multi-touch, but that doesn’t matter. Being first isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be if you can’t market it to the world.
  - blackearl 7y ago
    The first palm pilot was around 10 years before the iPhone, but despite the similarities we had flip phones, screen+keyboards, flipout keyboards, etc. It really took the iPhone nailing it to bring us the generation we have now of rectangle you can touch.
    - catblast 7y ago
      The palm pilots were very clearly conventional resistive touchscreens.
    - mcny 7y ago
      The use of glass as opposed to plastic was also critical in my opinion > In other famous cases, Jobs’ exacting demands won out, to the eventual benefit of the final product. The screen of the phone was originally supposed to be composed of the same plastic that iPod screens were made of. But after a day in Jobs’ pocket, the prototype unit suffered from deep and permanent scratches thanks to his car keys. On a dime, Jobs switched the screen from plastic to Gorilla glass, even talking Corning into converting an entire factory in Harrisburg, Kentucky to produce the quantities Apple needed. This actually complicated things for the hardware team, since the multitouch sensors now had to be embedded in glass, and glass was an entirely different proposition from embedding in plastic. http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/2017/01/the-history-of-the-iphone/ http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/2017/01/the-history-of... (previously on hn https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13356003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13356003 )
- anon73044 7y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4436657 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4436657 Doesn't sound like the first gen supported multi touch
foobarian 7y ago
It went further; not only was the touchscreen better, and multitouch, but the UI was designed for fingers through and through. When I saw it I remember thinking, wow, finally a design team that cares about users at large, instead of showing off how they got X-windows to run on a phone. It was comical how previous designs slapped a desktop UI on a phone and expected you to emulate a mouse with a tiny, easy-to-lose stylus.

by jl6 7y ago

pjc50 7y ago

I'm still expecting someone to well-actually us and point out an obscure device that did both first, but to me these were the spectacular features. Resistive touchscreen + stylus was and is awful (qv the other thread about how you hold a pen, like a ballpoint a stylus on resistive requires pressure and can be hard on the grip. It's also extremely loseable)

jsjohnst 7y ago
> I'm still expecting someone to well-actually us and point out an obscure device that did both first There were devices before the iPhone with multi-touch, but that doesn’t matter. Being first isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be if you can’t market it to the world.
- blackearl 7y ago
  The first palm pilot was around 10 years before the iPhone, but despite the similarities we had flip phones, screen+keyboards, flipout keyboards, etc. It really took the iPhone nailing it to bring us the generation we have now of rectangle you can touch.
  - catblast 7y ago
    The palm pilots were very clearly conventional resistive touchscreens.
  - mcny 7y ago
    The use of glass as opposed to plastic was also critical in my opinion > In other famous cases, Jobs’ exacting demands won out, to the eventual benefit of the final product. The screen of the phone was originally supposed to be composed of the same plastic that iPod screens were made of. But after a day in Jobs’ pocket, the prototype unit suffered from deep and permanent scratches thanks to his car keys. On a dime, Jobs switched the screen from plastic to Gorilla glass, even talking Corning into converting an entire factory in Harrisburg, Kentucky to produce the quantities Apple needed. This actually complicated things for the hardware team, since the multitouch sensors now had to be embedded in glass, and glass was an entirely different proposition from embedding in plastic. http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/2017/01/the-history-of-the-iphone/ http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/2017/01/the-history-of... (previously on hn https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13356003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13356003 )
anon73044 7y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4436657 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4436657 Doesn't sound like the first gen supported multi touch

foobarian 7y ago

It went further; not only was the touchscreen better, and multitouch, but the UI was designed for fingers through and through. When I saw it I remember thinking, wow, finally a design team that cares about users at large, instead of showing off how they got X-windows to run on a phone. It was comical how previous designs slapped a desktop UI on a phone and expected you to emulate a mouse with a tiny, easy-to-lose stylus.