WHAT EXACTLY IS THE PERFECT SIZE FOR SMART PHONES AND TABLETS?

Tablets and smart phones are all the fuss these days. Everyone seems to be arguing about what the “perfect” size is for a display. iPhone owners say Evo 4G is too big. Droid X owners say iPhone is too small. iPad owners say the Galaxy Tab is a stupid idea because 7″ is way too small for a tablet. But what is the perfect size for what you want your device to do?

I own an iPhone 4. I have many friends who own iPads, and have a handful of buddies who have the Evo 4G and the Droid X. iPhone loyalists claim that the Droid X and Evo 4G displays are too big, and the phone is not practical for stuffing in your pocket. But at the same time, they claim the iPad is the perfect size at 9.5″. Steve Jobs claims that 7″ is a stupid size for a tablet, and nobody will ever want such a size.

My opinion? My iPhone 4 is too small. The crazy-good resolution of 960 by 640 pixels is wasted on a screen that is too small for practical enjoyment. No text reflow means you cannot enjoy using your iPhone as a reading device. Movies look great, but they sure would look better if the display was the size of the massive Droid X or Evo 4G. In a time that newer devices are going the 4″-and-larger route, who was it that came up with the idea that micro-sizing a smart phone was a good thing?

I have been searching for a tablet device and hope to make a purchase by spring of 2011. I’ve thought about the iPad, and even more about a 7″ Android-based tablet (eat your heart out Steve Jobs). I would prefer to have cameras and Adobe Flash capability, so that rules out the iPad. 7″ is a good size to me, because I want to use the device mainly for reading technical and marketing blogs, and to write blog posts. But do I really need an iPhone AND a tablet device? How expensive will it get if I find that I need 3G service on two separate devices?

Recently, I was drawn to the Dell Streak. The Streak is a device that I initially thought nobody would buy or have any interest in. I thought it was a tablet computer. As a tablet, the 5″ size would be stupid. Why would you want to waste your money on a tablet less than 7″ when so many are available? Why does it have to be that small?

Then I discovered the fact that the Dell Streak is a phone, not just a tablet. All of the sudden, the Streak looks like the perfect device. This could serve as my smart phone and tablet device, thus eliminating the need for separate 3G service contracts or hauling around 2 different devices.

Looking at the Streak, it is like a Droid X on ‘roids. But not only does it have a larger display than the Droid X, it also has a front-facing camera. The Evo 4G has a front-facing camera and 8mg rear carmera, but switching to the Sprint network is not an option for me. Verizon is also not an option because I will not be willing to downgrade to lesser capable CDMA network as opposed to GSM. Dell Streak is on the AT&T network, so this looks like a no-brainer.

When I originally dropped my iPhone 4 and shattered the screen, I decided that this was the one thing I needed to finally make the transition to Android and get away from Apple once and for all.

But after looking at the smart phones available through AT&T, I discovered that none of them have a front-facing camera. I can’t go backwards on that after enjoying this capability on my iPhone 4. So I decided to keep my broken iPhone 4 and wait for the next generation to come out and upgrade… unless I pounce on a Dell Streak instead.

The Dell Streak is the only device that does everything my iPhone 4 will do (that I deem important, of course). And with the monstrous display, this would knock out the need for buying a tablet device in the future. I’d be perfectly satisfied with my jumbo 5″ smart phone. For that matter, bigger is indeed better.

What is your optimum size for a smart phone? How about a tablet? Post your opinion below and let us know!

Carlton Flowers
Gadget Geek
www.carltonzone.com

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THINGS I THINK WOULD MAKE THE IPHONE INVINCIBLE

Continuing on with my love-hate relationship with my Apple iPhone 4, I’d like to share with you the changes and additions to the iPhone that I believe would make it a world-dominating device (not that it already isn’t!). As the saying goes, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

There are many things I wish Apple would do improvement-wise on their top device that would add to my satisfaction. But at the same time, there really isn’t another smart phone on the market that fills in these gaps without taking away other fundamental features at the same time. So for now, I’m stuck with this thing.

But back to the story, here are the things I wish my iPhone had, some pet peeves, and suggested changes that would certainly help Apple continue to rule the roost when it comes to smart phones… and here they are:

1. Text Reflow - this is the biggest annoyance that I have with the iPhone. Zoom in on an article and the sentences fly off the sides of the screen. You have to pan back and forth, many times being forced to wait for the screen to redraw all of the graphics, just to read an article in a large font size. They claim the “Retina Display” is so super fine that you can’t see pixels, so there is no need increase text size. This doesn’t make one hill of beans difference to a person who has poor eyesight. I don’t care if the screen had 1920 by 1280 resolution… what good is it on a 3.5″ display? I can’t read printed ink in the maximum font size that my iPhone allows when you double tap to zoom in on an article without forcing the words off the left or right side of the screen. Android devices have Text Reflow, which basically re-wraps the words down beneath so you never have to pan side-to-side to read an article. For nearly blind people like me, I can zoom in on an article and make the font size so big that it only fits one or two words per line, and all I have to do is scroll straight down to quickly read that article.

This is an easy fix. The developers could have this solved over a cup of coffee. But what is sad is the fact that the techs at Apple don’t even know what Text Reflow IS, much less thinking about adding it to the Safari browser. 99% of iPhone owners that I have spoken to have no clue of what Text Reflow is either. This is probably due to the newness of the feature, and that most Android users are not prior iOS fans.

Text Reflow is the deal-breaker for me and my iPhone. If Apple gave me this one gift, I would overlook each and every other shortcoming with the device. I have waited since the 2nd generation iPhone for reflow, and thus far we haven’t even gotten to the awareness point. If Text Reflow is not incorporated into iOS4 by the time my contract with AT&T is up, I’m switching to Verizon.

2. Flash Support - We aren’t going to beat this dead horse. It is a known fact that Steve Jobs has openly declared war on Adobe, and he’s not going to budge on disallowing Flash for iOS devices. They toyed around with the idea of allowing flash-based apps 2 years ago, but we know how that ended. They have good reason to ban flash. It could allow a work-around for the iTunes store, which is a revenue stream they have to protect.

Their reasoning? They believe the world should stick with the open standard of HTML5. While I agree that we should push for the standardization of the web, it’s going to take a long time (if ever) for Flash to disappear from the web. Until then, I can’t view some of my favorite Flash-based sites from my Apple device like NFL.com, and Quansite.com. This very blog post that I am writing comes from an amazing service (Quansite) that is Flash-based. I want the ability to use this site on my mobile devices. But this is not going to ever become a reality if I stick with Apple. But we’ll just leave this one alone.

3. iPhone 4’s Antenna - I have taped up m iPhone 4 to prevent signal loss from touching the wide band of metal that surrounds the device which serves as an antenna. Yes, I did order my free case from Apple which would solve this problem, but the Speck case that I ordered was broken within 3 weeks (cheap crap). The iPhone 4 is the world’s thinnest smart phone. That’s really cool. But what good is it if you have to put a case or bumper on it to make it work right?

I was shocked at the level of denial by Steve Jobs over the antenna issue. He just flat-out denied that it was happening. I wish Steve would come to my house and sit next to me while I hold this phone in the way that he dictates so he can see that the reception still goes straight out the window no matter what. His denial doesn’t make my reception get any better. What it boils down to is the simple fact that this phone is not a finished usable product as it is right out of the box.

4. SWYPE - This is just a wish that will never get fulfilled. SWYPE is the most amazing innovation to hit smart phones since the first buttonless touch screen. You can enter text at a rate of up to 50 words per minute using SWYPE, and it just seems like a natural way to enter data. I’m fairly impressed at the accuracy of SWYPE on correctly predicting what I am wanting to input into the device. Maybe Apple could come up with something similar, but I see this feature as one that will be swept underneath the rug for a few years by the Apple geniuses.

5. The Glass Sandwich - This great looking phone owes its aesthetic appeal to two glass layers that are prone to breaking. As time goes on, it becomes more and more of an issue. These phones are just too fragile. I’ve already cracked my front digitizer. I’m one of many people who have crunched their displays from drops that are not that violent. Sure, you can buy a big fat Otterbox to protect your fragile investment, but what good is it to have the “world’s thinnest smart phone” device if you have to add an inch of protective rubber all around the phone? Being the thinnest is rendered useless when the phone is so breakable that you can’t operate it or transport it without an ironclad protective suit. I need a manly phone that will continue to work when it is snatched down to concrete when my headphones get snagged on my car’s rear view mirror. One that has the extra Otter Box capability actually built in to the phone. Wouldn’t that be genius?

6. Small Display - Ok so call me old school, but I like a phone that fits my fat face. If it were up to me, I’d have a smart phone that was shaped like the original Bell Telephone handset. Yeah, that big curvy chunky thing that molds to your jaw. It would have a 6″ color display stuck to the outside of the handle too. Remember those bag phones? Well I had one. And I loved it. That’s what a phone should feel like when you put it up to your face, not like these dinky little credit-card size things that you stick in your ear that don’t fit.

It cracks me up hearing people say that phones like the Droid X and Evo 4G are “too big”. Whatever! I say BIGGER IS BETTER. I have bad eyesight. Staring at this tiny 3.5″ screen just makes me mad! Give me a big fat honking 7″ smart phone and I will carry it around in a bag phone style carrying case, and I’ll attach a spiral-corded handset and look like I did back in the day.

All that said, the iPhone 4 is still the king of the hill when it comes to smart phones. I looked on the AT&T site to try to pick another smart phone and just realized that none of them have a front-facing camera. GACK! Now that I have my front-facing camera, which happens to be one of the features I have waited 2 years to see, I can’t go back. I’m going to have to put up with all of these missing wish-list items and shortcomings until someone comes up with a smart phone that is hitting on all 4 cylinders. Who knows… maybe that perfect phone will be the iPhone 4G next year.

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IPHONE 4 GLASS SANDWICH – SHOULD YOU BE CONCERNED?

I am the proud owner of an iPhone 4. I have had it since July 25th, 2010. This is my second Apple smart phone device (I previously had a 3GS). Today I dropped and cracked the front digitizer glass on my iPhone 4 after dropping it approximately 2.5′ down to concrete, face down. It has me wondering if the glass sandwich idea was good for aesthetics, or a bad design decision.

Of course the obvious question is, “Carlton, why didn’t you have your iPhone in a case?” To answer that question, I sort of did… until my case broke. I got my Speck case for free from the “anteanna-gate” program offered by Apple. But it only took 3 weeks for the Speck case to break on the top half in a thin spot, rendering the case useless. I had not bought a replacement since.

Immediately after dropping my iPhone 4, I was very happy that this might be the one thing that would help me finally make the decision to sell my iPhone to buy an Android-based smart phone. But after looking at the choices available to AT&T as far as GSM-based cell phones, the only choice I really have is a Samsung Captivate. I absolutely love the Captivate handset, but it lacks one thing that I cannot overlook: a front-facing camera. I would much prefer a Droid X for the larger display and additional camera, but it is a CDMA phone. I have not done the research to find out if a CDMA phone can be jailbroken and activated on the AT&T network.

For right now, it looks like my only choice is to replace the display and wait for the next round of smart phones to come out next summer. The main things that I must have and cannot live without are a front-facing camera, text reflow, and a camera flash. If something were available right now that had these things on a GSM phone, I’d sell my iPhone on eBay tonight. But for now, I’m stuck with my cracked iPhone 4.

All-in-all, I want to go with the Android operating system over iOS4. I also want the biggest possible display that I can get out of a phone. I’d have a 6″ smart phone in my pocket if there was such a device on the market. To me, bigger is better, and it makes for easy reading. Reading is one of my principle activities on my smart phone. So we will just have to sit tight and wait for someone to put ALL of the current features that are available onto one single smart phone. It’s bound to happen some time.

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TEXT REFLOW SEEMS STANDARD FOR ANDROID OS… WHY NOT iOS4?

“Text Reflow”, or the function of word wrapping text when you zoom in on an article using your smart phone browser, seems to be a normal feature on Android smart phones these days. But this is lacking on the iPhone iOS4 platform. I am a heavy article reader, and I rely on my iPhone 4 to keep up-to-date with trends within the fields that I do business.

A major annoyance to me is the need to scroll horizontally to read articles when zooming in using the Apple’s Safari browser. When I pick up an Evo 4G or a Droid X, the text automatically re-wraps itself beautifully when you zoom in on an article or document. This is especially handy for those that like to speed read. In fact, you can download several programs on the net that basically provide the function of flashing text in groups of 2 or 3 words at a time to facilitate rapid reading. When you zoom in using an Android device, you can increase the text size as much as you want and it will reformat the text to allow vertical reading. You can easily flick down the page and rapidly read any article much faster than you could be scrolling sideways.

The folks over at Apple seem to think that text reflow is not necessary because the Retina display is so clear that you don’t need to zoom in on text to ease reading. I don’t understand this argument, and I think it’s an excuse to get around the fact that the Android platform has outdone iOS4 in this one single area. It doesn’t matter how clear the screen might be. If you can’t read tiny text on a printed document because of poor eyesight, you’re not going to be able to read it on a Retina display either. So you are left to zooming in to a decent size, and having to scroll back and forth horizontally to get through an article. It is very cumbersome to say the least.

Text reflow is almost a deal-breaker for me. I absolutely love my iPhone 4, but I would consider trying to get out of my contract and sell my device just to be able to have a device that I could use to speed read information in the manner that text reflow allows. I’m not a programming expert or software developer, but I would have to assume that this is an easy fix (or addition) for the Apple developers. In order to stay ahead of the competitors (who seem to be catching up rapidly), why not put the Apple ego aside and get this done?

I have started a blog page dedicated to drumming up support for text reflow on iOS4. If you are an iPhone user and you see the benefit of having text reflow for reading purposes, please click on the link and post a response on my blog page. I want my iPhone 4 to be my primary reading device, and I’ll do just about anything to have this feature!

Carlton Flowers
Techno Geek

http://carltonzone.com/blog/iphone-text-wrapword-re-flow-discussion-page/

UPDATE! I have found a temporary solution to the text reflow issue with the Safari browser! Read about it in my latest blog post here:

http://carltonzone.com/blog/quasi-text-reflow-on-an-iphone/

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