Here Comes iPhone Nano, But Not In the US 177
jehovajerieh writes to us in the time-honored tradition of rampant Apple speculation, pointing to an article over on IBTimes suggesting that while the iPhone Nano may be on the way, the US might not be the first to experience this gadget bliss. "Despite limited information in the supplier channels and typical secrecy with new Apple products, insiders have confirmed that the iPhone nano is not yet in the testing labs at AT&T, Marshal says, leading him to believe that the launch will most likely be with a non-US carrier. 'Obviously, the best-case scenario here would be a China launch (~600mil+ wireless subscribers total in the country), but we have no definitive knowledge of this and are working on identifying the [locale] of launch and other pertinent details,' he said."
tag: rumorsrumorsrumors (Score:1, Informative)
Pure speculation. Is this a slow news day?
Re:ScuttleMonkey (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Who cares? (Score:3, Informative)
This is something every mobile developer should already know and prepare for - alternate viewing resolutions. I know I do. Just like a windowed application one can determine the proper display format based on system information and adjust the display accordingly. IMHO It's not a huge hurdle for development, more like a tiny speed bump.
Yes it's tricky making apps on really small screens. Welcome to mobile development.
Re:Why build an iPhone Nano? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, a lot of iPhone apps would auto-scale to any resolution. Interface Builder defines the way panes adjust when the window size changes. It's the 3D games that will likely have to change if they've hardcoded frame buffer sizes, but even those should be a quick port to alternate dimensions. It's kind of inevitable that Apple will release an iPhone-like device of different screen dimensions, and they're pretty well-prepared for it even if perhaps it won't run EVERY fart-noise generator on the market from day 1.
Re:ScuttleMonkey (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why build an iPhone Nano? (Score:2, Informative)
Are you serious?
I sincerely doubt that most people are purchasing iPhones because it's a fashion accessory. I'm sure there are those who are, but that's not the point.
The iPhone is a Blackberry for non-business types. It also offers a number of innovations that are genuinely useful, and not available anywhere else (a web-browser that doesn't suck, a media player that actually integrates well into the rest of the phone, and visual voicemail to name a few)
I don't own one. I'm locked into a contract with Verizon, and even if I wasn't, I still couldn't afford one. However, I'll gladly acknowledge that the iPhone's feature-set is extremely attractive. The fact that it's rather slick-looking is just icing on the cake.
Re:Why build an iPhone Nano? (Score:3, Informative)
I'll agree here. While the iPhone interface is better than anything out there by a million miles, I can see that if it has incomplete Exchange integration it would be a problem for "business users". I'm an IT guy at a university -- the iPhone is just about my perfect sidekick:
- IMAP Email (I don't use Exchange)
- Wifi for web access (look up stuff from the server room)
- SSH client (I paid $5 for it)
- Phone in place of a pager
I honestly didn't care what it looked like, but the large screen sort of limits it to big and flat. What sold me in the end was its usability -- the interface is clean, user-friendly, communicative. Way better than the RAZR I was using, even though the features overlap (except for wireless).