[A12n-forum] Re: iPhone & the "both-and" dimension of ICT

["Don Osborn" <dzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Jean-Christophe, These are some excellent points. Maybe what we have
happening is several things under the general category of revising paradigms
in the wake of new technology.

I still think that the expectation of trade-offs with regard to ICT is often
proven wrong, at least in the long run. In this case it may not be so much
the combining of devices, but the fitting of functions into a device.
Another example is the case of computer keyboards, where there is now a
design for one that has LED keys that change according to the keyboard
layout selected and shift states - so it's a QWERTY and an AZERTY and Arabic
and whatever other language or layout you want (I understand that it should
be coming on market soon).  

Back to the iPhone, another angle closer to what you are saying is that of
designers getting beyond the form of what is basically descended from a
telephone and or computer (i.e., some sort of keypad/board plus some sort of
display, but each really, really small) to rethinking the limited surface of
the object as being sharable among functions in a digitally fluid way. Maybe
the transition in thinking is analogous to design of automobiles moving
beyond thinking of them as horseless carriages to something new. There's
more to the cellphone design choices, of course - one reads that designers
have felt that people expect a cellphone keypad with tactile response, which
of course reflect users' paradigms. Etc.

Interesting to note that the open source Moko device (which has been brought
up on both A12n-forum and DigAfrica) is apparently built around the same
general screen concept. This concept is actually not that new; there was
another such device that came on and left the market a few years ago. Either
it was somehow lacking or folks were not ready for the paradigm shift?...

Don

(DigAfrica ref: message #5559)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: a12n-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:a12n-forum-
> bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jean-Christophe Helary
> Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 9:17 PM
> To: A12n-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxx; DigAfrica@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [A12n-forum] Re: iPhone & the "both-and" dimension of ICT
> 
> 
> On 21 janv. 07, at 00:36, Don Osborn wrote:
> 
> > The idea that "when you take two devices ... and squish them into
> > one, both
> > devices must necessarily become lamer versions of themselves" is a
> > kind of
> > either-or or zero-sum logic.
> 
> The article assumes that one actually take two devices that are
> especially well designed for their purposes. The fact is that most
> handheld phones are not especially well designed and that music
> players are not either.
> 
> Plus, the current state of the industry is more a: "this is a device,
> now let's add functions from that device", so it is actually a poor
> merging of poor solutions. So, I'd say the author does not speak
> about logic, but merely "from experience".
> 
> Although we have yet to see an actual iPhone on the market, I suspect
> Apple has worked a great lot on the design so as to create 3 minimal
> sets of features (one for each embedded device) _and_ so as to create
> bridges between the features so that they meld the 3 devices into
> one. Add to that bleeding edge hardware technology and you get what
> will most probably become a revolutionary device, not because it
> stacks a lot of functions, but because it makes them a whole, with
> the user in mind.
> 
> Jean-Christophe
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