One of the Kindle’s big advantages over the cell phone, as an e-reading device, is the size of the screen.
How many cell phones boast six-inch displays?
But a patented new Nokia approach would allow cellphones to include much-bigger screens than otherwise.
So, gang, what do you think of the this idea, as described by The Boy Genius Report?
“When closed and viewed head on as in figure 21 above, the handset looks like a standard QWERTY candy bar reminiscent of the E61i or E71. As figure 22 reveals however, half of the display tucks behind the keypad and pivots open to reveal what would be an amazingly large widescreen. We’re not sure why Nokia took the concept further than this, but figure 25 shows the display swiveling from side to side once open. The only reasoning we can think of for the swivel: Perhaps Nokia envisions the display rotating a full 180° and then folding back down so that the handset can be used as a full touchscreen device with the QWERTY keypad facing away from the user.”
The right design for you?
Would you buy a cell phone based on the above design and use it for e-reading? Why or why not?
Please note that the Boy Genius report says that “The odds of us ever seeing this exact form factor in a Nokia handset aren’t great,” but who knows? Maybe with enough public interest in the new swivel arrangement, Nokia can respond to some of our dreams. With flexible display technology, moreover, the challenge would be less formidable. Sooner or later it’ll be here.
That’s exactly like the old ericson smartphones except that the keypad rolls to the side instead of folding forward like clamshells. It amazes me how little (if any) integrity the people at the US patent office actually have when deciding what patents to approved.
Thanks for the helpful info, Marcus. You’re not the only one curious how new the approach really is.
And now the natural question. Why isn’t the approach in wider use, when it could be so helpful for e-bookers wanting larger screens on cell phones? David
Why do some comments get stuck in some filter somewhere instead of appearing among the responses? Is there any logic to it, or is it just some random thing?
Thanks for the feedback, Marcus! ALWAYS e-mail me at dr NOSPAM teleread.com if you have a problem with our anti-spam Dobermans. I hate it when legit comments get lost. Are there any you still need to recover?
Akismet is the filtering service we use, and it many delete stuff that contains, say, too many links (a characteristic of spam).
Much of the spam is truly vile. I don’t think you’d enjoy seeing it amid the comments from TeleRead community members. Spam tarnishes everything it touches or even adjoins.
Happy holidays,
David
OK, 4th try now…
> Why isn’t the approach in wider use, when it could
> be so helpful for e-bookers wanting larger screens
> on cell phones?
Well, simply because cellphone makers don’t consider ebook-reading to be a feature even worth mentioning (which is kinda odd since so many mp3 player list it as a feature). We first need to get every cellphone maker to put “ebook-reader” in their feature lists, and then people will realize one can read books on the phone, and then cellphone makers will make their ebook-reading-software a bit less unusable and only after reading on the phone gets VERY popular it will influence the physical appearance of new phones.
And for this to happen the ebook tower of babel needs to be blown away, so it’s really the fracking shortsighted publishers that hold it all back. So, lots of thanks to all the DRM-supporting publishers keeping the masses from reading (and on big screens at that). Good work, morons…
I’ve now tried submitting the comment 4 times. I tried replacing “damn” and “morons”, but to no avail.
OK, Marcus, I just despammed your comments. Please confirm that nothing’s missing. Sorry about the false positives that Akismet came up with, whatever the reasons. ALWAYS complain. I can generally rescue the filtered-out stuff.
Thanks,
David
If Akismet tells the reason for flagging something as spam it would be nice to know what triggered it so that I, and others reading this, could avoid it in the future.
I could be wrong, Marcus, but I don’t think Akismet does give reasons why a particular comment gets shot down.
As I said, though: ALWAYS e-mail if you have problems, and pass along the failed post. Retransmit the mail if you don’t receive a reply (I’ve got the usual spam-cluttered box even after filtering). It’s very important that legit comments survive the anti-spam Dobermans.
Thanks,
David
dr NOSPAM teleread.com