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Not really. The “I guess we’re not shipping that phone” quote was about not shipping the Blackberry-clone Sooner device, but the full-screen touch-first “dream”

Not really. The “I guess we’re not shipping that phone” quote was about not shipping the Blackberry-clone Sooner device, but the full-screen touch-first “dream” prototype was already on the drawing board. Android source code is publicly available, with time stamps. You can read it and see how little had to change to make it a touch first ux. Android had to add multi-touch events, make the default controls bigger, and add inertial scrolling to the list views. They didn’t even have to add a soft keyboard, because the first few gens of phones had physical keyboards.

WoodenChair 5y ago
> Android source code is publicly available, with time stamps. You can read it and see how little had to change to make it a touch first ux. > Android had to add multi-touch events, make the default controls bigger, and add inertial scrolling to the list views. They didn’t even have to add a soft keyboard, because the first few gens of phones had physical keyboards. Whether or not it was a lot of code, multi-touch was a revolutionary new UI paradigm and a beautiful symbiosis between well tuned hardware and software. I don’t think its importance should be trivialized and the iPhone was undoubtedly the catalyst that brought Fingerworks’s invention to the masses.
- ksec 5y ago
  This. The genius of iPhone UI was that it was so obvious once you saw it. There were plenty of so called Smartphones then, with or without Keyboard. But none of the touch screen phone interface were user friendly. Zero.
  - Joeri 5y ago
    There was a full touch screen phone that predated the iphone, the LG prada, but if you look at the demo you can see in some places they arrived at a similar design (the dialer), in others they had a laughably bad design (T9 text message entry on the touch screen) and overall it was very unresponsive. The iphone didn’t just have the right touch ui concepts, it executed them really well. LG prada phone demo from 15 years ago: https://youtu.be/5mo7Ab6ZcJ4 https://youtu.be/5mo7Ab6ZcJ4
    - ksec 5y ago
      Yes I even had one, the LG Prada. Along with other Smartphone like Sony Ericsson P800, or O2 XDA which was similar to LG Prada but way earlier, I think it was 2002. They were based on Windows Mobile. And some other PDAs before that. The O2 XDA were built by HTC ,at the time they were like Foxconn doing ODM before it became a consumer brand. There were lots and lots of other small details that Apple got it right. And I said it the first time I saw the iPhone, what sets them apart was Apple was trying to make an iPhone like an Appliance. While all other Smartphones was trying to cramp a computer inside a Phone factor. The day I saw iPhone I knew that was it. The Smartphone I have been looking for. Strange it is 15 years already. I still dont know why the Visual Voicemail patents had not expired. It really should be the standard on all network.
- colinthompson 5y ago
  I purchased the fingerworks gesture keyboard insert for my TiBook. It was amazing. I remember thinking it was the future of all laptop input devices. While I'm glad it resurfaced as the iOS input device, I am super bummed I still don't have that keyboard on my MacBook. That thing was incredible.
GeekyBear 5y ago
> Not really Yes, really. >[Google] had been working with prototypes for six months and had planned a launch by the end of the year . . . until Jobs took the stage to unveil the iPhone. Chris DeSalvo’s reaction to the iPhone was immediate and visceral. “As a consumer I was blown away. I wanted one immediately. But as a Google engineer, I thought ‘We’re going to have to start over.’” “What we had suddenly looked just so . . . nineties,” DeSalvo said. “It’s just one of those things that are obvious when you see it.” https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/the-day-google-had-to-start-over-on-android/282479/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/the-d...
- exsf0859 5y ago
  Those quotes are entirely compatible with "not really". Chris is talking about the Sooner: https://www.androidcentral.com/look-back-google-sooner-first-android-phone https://www.androidcentral.com/look-back-google-sooner-first.... It was called Sooner because it was going to come to market "sooner" than the other, more advanced, Dream prototype. After the iPhone announcement Sooner was canceled, in favor of the "Dream" prototype, which eventually shipped in a modified form as the G1. The _software_ difference between non-touch Sooner and the touch-capable G1 were relatively minor. Same OS, same view system, same application framework. As I recall, Chris's role at the time was as a UX focused engineer, so perhaps from his POV it was a massive redesign. But if you consider Android as a whole, relatively little changed. I recall the apps being pretty easy to port over to support touch. (Moving to a bigger screen helped offset the problem of having to make the buttons way larger.)

WoodenChair 5y ago

> Android source code is publicly available, with time stamps. You can read it and see how little had to change to make it a touch first ux. > Android had to add multi-touch events, make the default controls bigger, and add inertial scrolling to the list views. They didn’t even have to add a soft keyboard, because the first few gens of phones had physical keyboards. Whether or not it was a lot of code, multi-touch was a revolutionary new UI paradigm and a beautiful symbiosis between well tuned hardware and software. I don’t think its importance should be trivialized and the iPhone was undoubtedly the catalyst that brought Fingerworks’s invention to the masses.

ksec 5y ago
This. The genius of iPhone UI was that it was so obvious once you saw it. There were plenty of so called Smartphones then, with or without Keyboard. But none of the touch screen phone interface were user friendly. Zero.
- Joeri 5y ago
  There was a full touch screen phone that predated the iphone, the LG prada, but if you look at the demo you can see in some places they arrived at a similar design (the dialer), in others they had a laughably bad design (T9 text message entry on the touch screen) and overall it was very unresponsive. The iphone didn’t just have the right touch ui concepts, it executed them really well. LG prada phone demo from 15 years ago: https://youtu.be/5mo7Ab6ZcJ4 https://youtu.be/5mo7Ab6ZcJ4
  - ksec 5y ago
    Yes I even had one, the LG Prada. Along with other Smartphone like Sony Ericsson P800, or O2 XDA which was similar to LG Prada but way earlier, I think it was 2002. They were based on Windows Mobile. And some other PDAs before that. The O2 XDA were built by HTC ,at the time they were like Foxconn doing ODM before it became a consumer brand. There were lots and lots of other small details that Apple got it right. And I said it the first time I saw the iPhone, what sets them apart was Apple was trying to make an iPhone like an Appliance. While all other Smartphones was trying to cramp a computer inside a Phone factor. The day I saw iPhone I knew that was it. The Smartphone I have been looking for. Strange it is 15 years already. I still dont know why the Visual Voicemail patents had not expired. It really should be the standard on all network.
colinthompson 5y ago
I purchased the fingerworks gesture keyboard insert for my TiBook. It was amazing. I remember thinking it was the future of all laptop input devices. While I'm glad it resurfaced as the iOS input device, I am super bummed I still don't have that keyboard on my MacBook. That thing was incredible.

GeekyBear 5y ago

> Not really Yes, really. >[Google] had been working with prototypes for six months and had planned a launch by the end of the year . . . until Jobs took the stage to unveil the iPhone. Chris DeSalvo’s reaction to the iPhone was immediate and visceral. “As a consumer I was blown away. I wanted one immediately. But as a Google engineer, I thought ‘We’re going to have to start over.’” “What we had suddenly looked just so . . . nineties,” DeSalvo said. “It’s just one of those things that are obvious when you see it.” https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/the-day-google-had-to-start-over-on-android/282479/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/the-d...

exsf0859 5y ago
Those quotes are entirely compatible with "not really". Chris is talking about the Sooner: https://www.androidcentral.com/look-back-google-sooner-first-android-phone https://www.androidcentral.com/look-back-google-sooner-first.... It was called Sooner because it was going to come to market "sooner" than the other, more advanced, Dream prototype. After the iPhone announcement Sooner was canceled, in favor of the "Dream" prototype, which eventually shipped in a modified form as the G1. The _software_ difference between non-touch Sooner and the touch-capable G1 were relatively minor. Same OS, same view system, same application framework. As I recall, Chris's role at the time was as a UX focused engineer, so perhaps from his POV it was a massive redesign. But if you consider Android as a whole, relatively little changed. I recall the apps being pretty easy to port over to support touch. (Moving to a bigger screen helped offset the problem of having to make the buttons way larger.)