

The iPhone “Icon Ceiling” has been broken: is this the beginning of the end? - KuraFire
http://justinhileman.info/article/the-iphone-icon-ceiling/

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nostromo
I feel like yesterday's announcement has left a news vacuum that is trying to
be filled.

The announcement was not so amazing that the cheers are deafening; nor was it
so disappointing or controversial that the opposite occurred. So, instead
we're giggling at Jimmy Kimmel videos and long iPhone photoshops.

Perhaps this is why Apple hasn't announced the iPad mini yet -- to make sure
the iPhone 5 gets a bit of time in the limelight. If it was announced
yesterday, few people would be talking about the new iPhone today.

~~~
georgemcbay
In addition to the announcement not being that amazing in absolulte terms, the
leaks this time were pretty much 100% exactly right.

Apple's big reveal was that the iPhone 5 was, in fact, pretty much exactly
what everyone expected them to announce for the past half year or so.

yawn.

~~~
mdonahoe
I enjoy that the media hypes the iPhone release and then bashes it for not
living up to the hype.

What is the next thing on the hype horizon? The iPad mini?

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dpeck
As usual xkcd provides just as much insight, <http://xkcd.com/605/>

And for something a bit cruder, but even more phone related
[http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/the-day-smartphones-
stop-g...](http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/the-day-smartphones-stop-getting-
bigger)

~~~
gavinlynch
Sums up this article _perfectly_. Hilarious, thanks for sharing! :)

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incision
Anyone can make a larger smartphone display. But if you go large for large’s
sake, you end up with a phone that feels oversize, awkward, and hard to use.
iPhone 7 features a 7-inch display designed the right way: it’s bigger, but
it’s the same width as iPhone 4S, 5, 5S, 6, 6G and 6GS.

~~~
twmb
I don't know why everybody claims that the iPhone has the "perfect" screen
size[1]. I have never had a problem with any android phone size... they are
larger, but nobody ever considers they aren't just larger for larger's sake.

I appreciate the larger screen, not only for the extra space on the keyboard
but because I like the extra display. My pockets aren't miniature. They can
fit a slightly larger phone. Sitting down with any phone in my pocket is
uncomfortable, so I always take my phone out of my pocket. Screen size for
pocket size is not an issue.

My thumb is not tiny, and can reach across an extra inch. I don't know how far
away the guy in the linked article holds his thumb, but I have always been
able to reach across every android I have come across, without a problem. The
-times I notice that I cannot reach across don't matter because most apps that
are designed well don't put tiny buttons on the side of the screen.

I would enjoy a larger android with the iPhone retina resolution more than an
iPhone with the retina resolution.

[1][http://www.iphonehacks.com/2011/10/iphone-4s-no-4-inch-
scree...](http://www.iphonehacks.com/2011/10/iphone-4s-no-4-inch-screen.html)

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
As a counter-point, I bought a Nexus S (4.3") when they were first available,
I loved it and appreciated the screen size bump from my older Nexus One. But
when my employer gave me a Galaxy Nexus (4.7"), I thought the screen was too
large. I can still use the phone, but a lot of one-handed uses feel awkward or
strained because my thumb can't reach the top of the phone without having to
first reposition the phone in my hand. When I go back to my Nexus S, I miss
the size and clarity of the larger screen, but I love having the smaller and
lighter device in my hand, and it's so much easier to use.

While I still prefer the Android OS, I think Apple has struck a good balance
in the iPhone 5 by making the screen larger and a proper widescreen resolution
(I love being able to watch Netflix fullscreen on my GNex), and the hardware
design looks amazingly good. I just wish I could run Android on it instead of
iOS.

~~~
dakotasmith
I needed to get another phone weeks before yesterday's iPhone announcement, so
I went with the Galaxy Nexus, since it is contract-free and affordable.

Attempting to select multiple emails, one-handed across the screen with my
thumb, has lead me to drop the phone several times.

Fortunately it is built like a cheap plastic tank. Dropping it is part of how
I introduce it to people. "Remember when you used to drop your phone and the
back and battery would go flying off, but the phone would be fine?" _CLUNK_

~~~
PhrosTT
From a physics perspective isn't a flying battery a good way to dissipate
energy?

~~~
shardling
(That was the point)

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dhyasama
The iphone 7 prototype looks like a good start but they can take it much, much
farther. A quick calculation: my arm is roughly 34 inches long and an icon row
is about 1/2 inch. Factoring in for hardware chrome they could squeeze in
maybe 64 rows for a whopping 256 apps on the home screen! There is TONS of
room to grow here.

~~~
Tichy
They could add rails for the arm, like for the guns in Taxi Driver, except you
could slide the iPhone up and done your arm. That way you could still reach
everything with your thumb.

~~~
jerf
This suggests an augmented reality approach where the icons are arrayed on a
curved 2D surface in front of you, with your iPhone being just a window onto
it. Or, heck, why a surface when you could have the whole sphere surrounding
you? I'm pretty sure we could pack thousands of icons onto that, and just
think of the awe-inspiring demos.

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Tipzntrix
If you read the whole thing, this seems like some very clever satire.

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kolinko
The only reason iPhone 7 mockup looks weird is because our laptops' screens
are not tall enough.

I predict Macbooks Airs in 2014 will be 28 inches tall and will display the
new iPhone 7 photos flawlessly.

~~~
ConstantineXVI
You jest, but I'm afraid we're going in the other direction. 4:3 laptops are
all but dead, and spotted an extra-wide (~21:9?) laptop at Best Buy the other
day.

~~~
FrankBooth
Personally, I'm looking forward to CinemaScope (2.66:1) A/R displays.

~~~
CountHackulus
I for one would rather see a 4:1 display so that I could watch Napoléon (1927)
in its original format.

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JangoSteve
When I started reading the article, I thought 21 icons meant they overflowed
the first screen, and that the phone shipped with one icon on the second
screen. That seemed very un-Apple-like and interesting. As soon as I realized
that number includes the four in the dock, and that there are still three
spaces left on the first homescreen, suddenly it seems like a non-event.

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xutopia
This is extrapolation like the ones with Glenn Beck at the blackboard.

~~~
rWolfcastle
THAT'S THE JOKE.

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heyitsnick
Very well written, measured and well-paced satire. I think the picture at the
end is unnecessary, but understandable.

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tarice
Question: Per this article, what iPhone version will be able to reach to the
moon?

Assuming: Increase in icons is quadratic over time. Each iPhone version
requires an extra 8.6mm in height to hold the extra icons. The distance to the
moon is ~240,000 miles. The length of the iPhone 1 is negligible.

Step One: Regress the data from the article to get the equation "y = 3.25x^2 -
27.65x + 76.95", where y = # of icons and x = iPhone version number.

Step Two: Convert equation to mm. 8.6mm increase for every 5 icon capacity
(difference between iPhone 4 and 5) => multiply our equation by 8.6mm/5 icons
=> new equation is "y = 5.59x^2 - 47.558x + 132.354", where y = mm.

Step Three: Solve for x when y = 386,242,560,000mm (240,000 miles in mm).

*Answer: The iPhone 262,864 will be able to reach to the moon, opening up a key market for mobile users in the year 330,592 AD. It will debut with a little under 225 billion apps, too.

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mtgx
There's also the iPhone 10, the tallest iPhone yet!

[http://9.mshcdn.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/09/iPhone-10.jpe...](http://9.mshcdn.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/09/iPhone-10.jpeg)

And iPhone 20:

<http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/iphone-20.jpg>

Thumb actions might be a little hard there.

~~~
stcredzero
Both of those have potential as interfaces for music.

<http://www.stick.com/instruments/>

After looking a bit at the above site, I'm also thinking that they have
potential as interfaces for teledildonics. (This is both serious and a joke at
the same time. This goes for the whole field.)

~~~
jamie_ca
Speaking of music, that'd be a reasonable approximation of an
<http://www.eigenlabs.com/> \- and it wouldn't need a separate laptop to act
as speakers :P

~~~
stcredzero
Wow, that's cool. It's an instrument from a 1980's sci-fi novel!

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headShrinker
I started reading this with my usual skepticism. (It isn't hard to believe
that some of this could come from the likes of zdnet, or cnet.) I started to
crack a smile at the exponential growth graph, then with the picture of iPhone
7, I absolutely lost it! too funny

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joshu
IBM has a patent on this.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_SImon_in_charging_stat...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_SImon_in_charging_station.png)

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ezolotko
I would say, it's not only icons count, but the screen aspect ratio also. Now
it is more to a stripe than to a square. Having an unpleasant feelings about
this, and the future of Apple.

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evoxed
On that note, why can't we change the icon size already? I think I've clicked
enough 1 hour ago | flag | 23 comments links by now to handle at least twice
as many icons on screen...

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ionforce
The site isn't loading. Does anyone have a summary?

~~~
tta
Mirror: [http://justinhileman.info.nyud.net/article/the-iphone-
icon-c...](http://justinhileman.info.nyud.net/article/the-iphone-icon-
ceiling/)

~~~
bobthecow
Back (hopefully for good?)

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swalsh
If Steve Jobs was still around, i'd predict that Apple would wait a few years
after Google Goggles. They'd work to get it right, and the future smart phone
wouldn't have a screen at all.

In post-jobs world though, its going to be a me-too game.

~~~
Zikes
I think you mean Google Glass. Goggles is their app for scanning photos and
identifying things.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Google Goggles used to be site previews, IIRC.

~~~
Zikes
I think those are called Instant Previews.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Now, maybe, but back then...

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Zikes
Ahh, gotcha. Yeah, I had no idea they'd called it Goggles, but that wouldn't
surprise me.

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snakess
The iPhone 5 is ok.Tomorrow i order one and have fun the rest of the Year :)

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mmackh
Blog seems to be down:
[http://thequeue.org/cr?id=http://justinhileman.info/article/...](http://thequeue.org/cr?id=http://justinhileman.info/article/the-
iphone-icon-ceiling/)

~~~
bobthecow
Back now.

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kmfrk
I have a feeling that pg should include an algorithm that penalizes
submissions whose titles end in a question mark. (For the articles that aren't
sarcastic, at least.)

~~~
kragniz
Or the more extreme version: Add a single reply, "No.", and close the
comments.

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protobluffers
Check out the "iPhone backup shootout" under Related Articles. Hilarious!

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abengoam
The manipulation present on that "projections" graph alone is nauseating.

~~~
tlrobinson
You know it's a joke, right?

...it is a joke, isn't it? Oh god I hope so.

~~~
abengoam
Exactly.

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noamsml
The sky is falling! Quick, run like a chicken with your head cut off!

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antidaily
It was already broken with groupings.

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Tloewald
I hereby invoke Betteridge's Law.

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klrr
Broken link?

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djbender
Is this a well written satire?

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endlessvoid94
Are you f*cking kidding me? This is like tabloid trash.

~~~
gk1
Did you notice the satire?

~~~
endlessvoid94
I did not.

