An iPhone Nano launching at January’s Macworld Expo? You don’t say.
It’s
unlikely, but a few websites are drumming up rumors about the fabled
gadget. An image purporting to be a leaked photo of the iPhone Nano suggests
the device is just like the original iPhone, except shorter and less
wide.
Boring. Apple designers are a lot more imaginative than
that, aren’t they? But while we’re in the spirit of wishing, here’s a
list of features Wired.com would like to see in an iPhone Nano, if one
ever sees the light of day.
Dual-Screen Clamshell Design
In order to deserve the name "Nano," this iPhone needs to be
considerably smaller than its bigger brother. It should easily slip into a pocket, to the point where one could barely even notice
it. If all Apple did was scale down
the original iPhone, as "leaked" photos suggest, it would be difficult to
control the touchscreen without a stylus. Imagine typing on one of
those things or playing with an app!
Instead, Apple should embrace a clamshell form factor similar to a patent the company published
in 2006 (left). We’re taking this a step further: Folded up, the phone
resembles the iPod Shuffle (same buttons), with a very small, always-on screen to
display status icons (e.g., missed or incoming calls).
Unfolded, the
iPhone Nano would look somewhat like the fourth-generation iPod Nano —
except a second, low-powered touchscreen would replace the scroll wheel. The low-powered touchscreen would display a dialer once the phone is opened. The screen above would be the primary, fully powered one, and this would display the apps. The bottom screen would change depending on which app is open on the above screen (e.g., if the SMS app is open, the bottom screen would turn into a virtual keyboard.) You’d also be able to unfold the phone both length-wise and width-wise. (The photo at the top of the story, illustrated by reader James Camp, is similar to our idea.)
A Separate App Store
So here’s what would make the diminutive size of our iPhone Nano
work logistically in terms of software: It would have its own App Store. The current App Store is
cluttered enough; imagine how messy everything would get if developers
had to code software for two different types of iPhones. With a Nano
App Store, developers could code mini, simple apps meant to be played
around with on a two small screens. Heck, this would
even create a new market for iPhone developers looking to strike it
rich.
Universal Landscape Mode
In order for a mini iPhone to not be a pain in the butt to use, landscape mode should work for everything.
Not just Safari or the video player, which is how the original iPhone
works. We’re talking text messaging, e-mail, third-party apps. Make
this happen, Apple — and while you’re at it, think about doing the
same thing for the current iPhone.
Built-in, Beefed Up Voice Recognition
The current iPhone doesn’t have voice recognition, and a Nano
version would need it even more. Apple could even step it up a notch
and make voice-enabled text messaging, e-mailing and web search to work.
Those are just some ideas that sprung off the top of our heads.
What would you want in an iPhone Nano? Submit your suggestions and vote
on your favorites in the Reddit widget below.
What do you want in an iPhone Nano? Submit your suggestions — and drawings, if you want — in the Reddit widget below. Then vote on your favorites!
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Photos: James Camp, Apple
