
HP Announces The Veer, A Credit Card Sized webOS Device - lotusleaf1987
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2011/02/09/hp-announces-the-veer-a-credit-card-sized-webos-device/
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cryptoz
I really wish "Credit Card Sized" would take into account all three
dimensions. This thing looks 5 to 10 times bigger than a credit card! I was
super excited clicking on this headline, waiting for an actual really serious
innovation in small technology. Imagine a credit card with a touch screen and
the Internet and apps and oh wow this is going to be so cool!

Oh. It's huge.

~~~
juiceandjuice
The point is, it's small enough that girls will want it because it will fit in
their pockets.

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barista
But isn't a usable screen size a big factor when selecting a smartphone? I
dread browsing on the credit-card screen or playing games or writing email or
doing anything else that I do on my phone

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juiceandjuice
This phone has a pull out keyboard, that means you still get have a similar
area to write emails that an iPhone would with a virtual keyboard.

So, for communication and entering text, I don't see how this would be
inferior to an iPhone unless you are only using a virtual keyboard. For
browsing, you're correct. Scrolling up on a text message in landscape mode is
nearly impossible on my iPhone. The vertical screen real estate is smaller
than the width of my thumb.

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maximilianburke
Out of the major mobile operating systems, from a developers point of view, I
find WebOS to be the most straightforward to develop for and as a result
really enjoy writing code for it. This looks like a neat little device and I
hope that the platform succeeds!

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corin_
It might be "the size of a credit card", but not a phone I'd personally want.

\- Surely the selling point of something sized like a credit card disappears
as soon as you remember that, errr, it's about ten times thicker than a credit
card.

\- I've never looked at my Blackberry and thought "man, I wish this could be
shorter and thinner so that it leaves more space above and next to it in my
pocket".

\- I have thought "I wish this could be thinner deph-wise, so that it doesn't
stick out of my pocket as much". This phone actually looks deeper than
Blackberry Bold, iPhone and quite a few Android devices, I think?

\- It looks... kinda weird. Maybe that's just because of it's unusual
dimensions, and I would get used to it if it was my phone. But right now, it
looks like a novelty phone designed with teenagers in mind - to me, at least.

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sahaj
i think it looks thick because of the small size in other dimensions. it would
also feel thick due to the same reason.

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mgkimsal
From what I have seen, it's a phone, not just a 'device'. Which is going to
mean contracts and lock-in. Why couldn't this have been a small handheld
'device' - wifi-only (ala ipod touch) and priced low enough to flood the
market with these? There's loads of verticals a device like this could likely
dominate - good OS to build on, small form factor - throw in a low cost and
let 1000 vertical apps bloom. But they chose yet again to chase the 'phone'
market. _sigh_.

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metageek
There's the Archos 28 [1], which is a little taller (3.9" instead of 3.25"),
but thinner and lighter (9mm and 64g instead of 15mm and 103g), and costs less
than $100. Runs Froyo.

The Veer's screen looks better, though, at 320x400 instead of 320x240.

[1] <http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_28it/index.html>

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mgkimsal
Thanks for that - hadn't seen the small one (had seen an earlier archos 7"?
tablet).

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zitterbewegung
I think most of the phones are trending toward a larger display. I wonder what
the appeal of a much smaller device will be compared to most of the industry
moving to larger screens. In my opinion this device might not be well received
because of that.

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Semiapies
I look at the picture of the hand holding this device, and I wonder how the
_hand model_ could select those icons, much less a big-fingered guy like
myself.

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rbanffy
It's a lot easier to guess where the user clicked when you have clickable
regions defined.

An on-screen keyboard would be nasty at this size, but it has a Centro-sized
(surprisingly comfortable, IMHO) keyboard.

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SkyMarshal
The headline made me envision a device the size (and shape) of a credit card,
in which the entire front face was screen and nothing but screen. No bezel, no
top and bottom non-screen black areas for buttons and mic, just 100% screen.

I instinctively figured that's what you'd have to do shrink a smart phone down
to the size of a credit card, and I was kind of excited to click the link and
see some real design innovation from HP of all places.

But alas, it wasn't to be. I should have known better. Same layout and form as
every other smart phone, just smaller. Oh well, maybe Apple will make an
iPhone mini one day.

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kujawa
You know, every day I look at websites on my iPhone, and I think to myself,
"You know what would make this phone better? If the screen were _smaller_!
Yeah!"

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rbanffy
You know there are people who don't look at websites on their phones and who
don't find that feature particularly compelling. I am also happy with the size
of my phone and really don't need a larger one.

~~~
juiceandjuice
I think a large push of the whole webOS platform was to make it much easier to
optimize web pages for mobile devices, and I think this phone would be more
than adequate for this. An intuitive interface makes it even better.

Also, this screen is larger than the blackberry curve's, and just smaller than
the bold 2's.

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haraball
Finally another smartphone with a small form factor. I postponed getting one
myself because of the large sizes until the Sony Ericsson X10 mini was
launched, and it's the perfect size for me.

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jaysonelliot
It's going to run Flash.

On a 2.6" touchscreen.

Flash sites, by and large, are designed for precise pointing devices on fairly
decent-sized screens. There are going to be a lot of frustrated Veer users
fat-fingering their way through Hulu.

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schultzor
tangent: isn't Hulu still blocking access from phone-like devices?

Agree that navigating flash sites on a screen this small will be frustrating.

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yoda_sl
It's small yes and I will not be surprise that the audience for that phone
will be leaning toward the feminine crowd: I can see such small phone being a
backup phone to put in a small purse. But as usual we just need to wait a
couple months to see if the Veer will get some traction.

~~~
phamilton
The Pixi has the same size screen. My wife has one and loves it. It's a great
phone for the non power user. It handles emails, texts, calendar, and calls
just fine. The browser works well, and she uses it to browse facebook all the
time. The app store is limited, but she doesn't really mind, as she's not that
heavy of a user.

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juiceandjuice
If marketed correctly, especially towards females, this phone could be a
decent success. None of the girls I know have ever complained about a phone
being too small, only about phones being too big. For my friends at least,
text messaging and size seems to be the first priority, with the other
features coming second to those.

There's still a slight functional balance that needs to be met when making a
phone small, however. But if you can make it small and keep it functional,
kudos.

~~~
panacea
There seems to be an acceptance that Apple nailed the form factor for a smart
phone when it launched the original iPhone.

I'm still unconvinced. I'd like a PMP slightly larger than the iPhone and I
want my _actual_ phone to be a sim card in size. I want it in a wristwatch or
my eye-glasses or my headphones (but not my shoe).

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kaiwetzel
I wanted to write a logish comment about how much I like my $30 Sony Ericsson
W205 and that I'll only replace it by an iPhone nano-class device but I found
a comment which sums it all up, at the danger of being down-voted:

"It's an HP KIN is what it is."

(If this is the competition, Apple and Samsung have nothing to fear)

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MindTwister
I like the size and form factor, just wish they'd made the keyboard a
kickslide like the X10 Mini Pro.

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srik1234
No NFC chip in these new devices. That could be a deal breaker, if iPad ships
before HP..

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mediamaker
that credit card needs to go on a diet

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georgieporgie
Credit card sized from the standpoint of a Flatlander, perhaps...

I find it interesting, though. On my last visit to SF, I visited a small sushi
restaurant and found it interesting that virtually _everyone_ had an iPhoone-
like device out on the table. They didn't seem to be interacting with them, so
I assumed it was because you can't comfortably sit with an iPhone-sized device
in your pocket.

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dereg
I do the exact same thing. It's not because I can't comfortably sit with an
iPhone 4 in my pocket (sometimes I forget it's there), but it's because I
can't comfortably remove and replace my phone in my pockets with a
longer/wider phone. Thus, for easy access, it stays on the table.

