Tube, The New Touch?
According to InfoWorld, Nokia just let slip a picture of the “Tube” a codename for a new touch device. The handset appeared in a slideshow presentation conducted by Tom Libretto, Forum Nokia’s vice president, during the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference in Redwood City. No picture has leaked yet, but apparently the “Tube” sports an iPhone’ish look and was shown running Shrek the Third movie. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
“It’s our first touch device,” said Tom Libretto, vice president of Forum Nokia. Interfacing with the system is done via touch similar to the iPhone. He said the company has not published the planned date of shipment for Tube.
Although S60 Touch is not specifically mentioned, we’re confident that if Nokia was preparing a touchscreen device, it would be an S60 Touch (what else?). Normally we would take rumors with a pinch of salt, but coming from a Forum Nokia developer, we should say that this one is more likely to be true. Plus, it was about time we heard of a new touch handset, don’t you think?!
This news comes as a bit of a fresh breeze of air today, because frankly we were becoming skeptic, very skeptic. CES, Mobile World Congress, CTIA, all have come and gone without us hearing a single new word about the new platform that was announced in October 2007 and we know that the Finnish giant always likes to announce their products a lot earlier than their market availability. Seeing the S60 Touch devices announcements being pushed away meant for us that we won’t have our hands on them soon.
Those who know me, know I am eagerly awaiting for S60 Touch. Will it come already?
[Via InfoWorld]
I’ll bet you £100 that Chickenbackside and Eldar already have the ‘tube’ in their hands right now
It had better not be a dissapointment…
I don’t know who Chickebackside is (if there is such a person) but I would also bet that Eldar has one! Grrrrrr.
Rita,he is a person who receives proto devices from Nokia.For example he received N82 proto or last month he received N78.He became very fast famous and trusted member with the information he provided in M-R forums.This is his blog:http://meandmyphones.blogspot.com/
well he’ll have to share with eldar my hatred and envy :p
I’m not sure if all the anxiety over the S60 Touch device (whenever it’s available) is justified. I own two “touch” devices, the iPod Touch and the Tytn II (currently selling it on eBay) and my experience using them has let me with mixed feelings.
iPod Touch: the media player interface is wonderful and easy to use with your fingers, but it’s so hard to type an email or a note on this thing. The touch keyboard is hard to use if you have normal sized fingertips like me.
Tytn II: everybody knows that WinMo touch interface is not finger friendly. Some areas are hard to reach with accuracy even with the stylus. It’s also a difficult task to dial a number using the touch dialpad (I’ve tried several dialers) with your fingers. Sometimes you touch a key and it doesn’t show on the screen, sometimes you press more than one key. And this complicates things when your call is to an automated service (like your voicemail or most companies nowadays). Sometimes I wanna save a voicemail for later but I end up deleting it. And sometimes I end up being transferred to the wrong department of a company, resulting in loss of time and money.
I believe this was very much on the horizon & comes as no surprise.
After the iphone coming out with all the bling bling Nokia was virtually forced
into looking at something in that line to compete & as they put it…. come
up with an “iphone killer”.
To be honest IMO iphone all gas….. Oh hell when it comes to feature &
functionality ma N95 8Giggs leaves it so behind it remindes me of the
fist fight between Neo & a million Mr Smiths from Matrix….
LOL
I only hope in an effort to undo the iphone Nokia doesnt end up scarifying
any of its great functionality which we have come to love, hate & respect.
Dan,
IMO I think the best device to hit the market will be a touch device with a 12-key T9 keypad. It will allow you to use the touchscreen whenever it’s convenient or possible (scrolling, flicking, clicking on a link), and use the keypad to type quickly and efficiently a text.
Hey Rita,
agreed. A phone needs a numerical keypad on the front. But I’ll be greedy and ask for the E90 with touch on the internal screen. Wouldn’t that be sweet?
So Rita wishes for something like the Nokia 6708 (runs UIQ) with touchscreen and a conventional keyboard I suppose?
I think I’d second that wish as I think writing with a stylus is OK (using that on a Palm PDA), writing with T9 is OK (with reasonable keyboard), but I don’t think I will see it as convenient for myself to just have a touchscreen and having to solely use that with my fingers for writing.