From: "Geo." 

"Randall Parker"

wrote in message news:464fce91$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> I'd like to have a techie discussion on what to want and avoid in
> cellphones and, more generally, what is wrong in the general philosophy of
> cellphone design.

Avoid stupidity. You have basically 2 kinds of devices that fall into this
catagory.  Celphones and PDA's with phone capabilities.

On the celphone side, avoid trying to be a PDA. It's a phone, it needs to
remember phone numbers, be an answering machine, and allow paging (text
messaging) and on the high end it can include crude GPS functionality. But
most importantly it needs to be a small light long battery life phone that
works from anywhere.

On the PDA side it's basically a tiny laptop trying to be a phone sized
device. Size and battery life are secondary to functions of a laptop.

> Do you think any of the cellphone makers stand out as particularly astute
> in UI design?

On the celphone side the UI has been pretty much standardized, pick up a
RAZR phone and it's the same UI as all the other phones.

On the PDA side it's Apple vs MS all over again.

> Do you want more or fewer buttons on your cellphone and which functions
> are critical to have on separate buttons?

On the celphone side this is like asking if you want more or fewer buttons
on your desktop phone. Most phones use the same layout which is nice
because there should be NO learning curve to using a phone. They should all
be pretty much the same, and they are.

On the PDA side, whatever works, touch screens offer flexibility so button
numbers and sizes are not fixed. Personally I think until these devices are
at least half controlled with voice commands (dictate and it types) that
they are a stupid idea because you just can't be a laptop without a
keyboard. Typing with your thumbs is silly. But I suppose they are better
than nothing when it comes to filling this gap. Until I see people posting
to this group with PDA's they are not in my opinion a viable option as a
laptop replacement. I'd rather see a thinkpad X40 with an internal
celphone.

Geo.

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