Information design guru Edward Tufte has posted his analysis of the iPhone’s user interface, which includes this video which you simply must see. If that video doesn’t make you want to run out and venerate buy an iPhone, there’s something wrong with you.
He’s generally very positive about the UI, although he points out some “cartoony” elements here and there (really thick buttons, wasted space in the Weather app, etc.) that I don’t think I would have ever been bothered by until I heard what he had to say.
Some interesting comments in the article about the Weather app, too. I get the feeling there are tons of developers out there (some of whom are likely among the commenters) raring to go once the iPhone opens up to third party apps.
6 responses so far ↓
virusdoc // 27 January 2008 at 7:45 am
Actually, that video makes me want to go get an iPod touch. All the same content and capability, but no contract and no monthly fees. Who needs a phone when you’ve got wifi email and IM?
Robert // 27 January 2008 at 8:20 am
Is it really all the same content now? I know they added the Mail and a few other apps to the iPod touch, but do the features now match on a 1:1 basis (apart from the phone)?
They still need to bump the storage on the iPod Touch up to 16 GB before they have me hooked.
virusdoc // 27 January 2008 at 9:59 am
They’ve been selling 16GB ipod touches since day 1. $399. I still think this price is too high, and once it approaches $300 I’ll strongly consider it.
As far as software goes, I believe they ship the new version of the touch with everything the iphone has, minus the phone. The internals are the same on the two–same processor, same wifi. And once they release the SDK any software written by third parties will work on both.
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/whatsnew.html
Robert // 27 January 2008 at 2:58 pm
Now that you mention it, I think I knew that there was a 16GB Touch, but like you I was put off by the price. $300 is about as much as I could possibly justify spending on a device that will be surpassed by superior models in almost no time. Not that I could justify spending even that much on an iPod…
By the way, doc, thanks for being the only commenter on my blog! You do realize I no longer have the “Top Commenters” widget and so your record is safe?
virusdoc // 27 January 2008 at 6:02 pm
sorry for cluster-commenting–you’re blog is one of my frequent diversions from planning lectures and writing grants. I even learn stuff occasionally from it about teaching!
Apple read my mind (but not my wallet) « Casting Out Nines // 5 February 2008 at 3:27 pm
[...] read my mind (but not my wallet) After saying that Apple needed to add more storage to the iPod Touch before they could count on me buying one, [...]
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