Pathway #6: Thinking outside the slate
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A new aspect ratio for tablets
The LG Optimus Pad and HTC Flyer announced at Mobile World Congress 2011 are distinct from the iPad in offering a more elongated form factor, roughly approximating a 16:9 screen ratio.
This shape gives two clear modes. Horizontally, it is …
Video: Haptics turn mobile phone into virtual guitar
Immersion, a MEX alumnus and sponsor, was launching the latest version of its haptics platform at Mobile World Congress: Motiv. The new platform makes it much easier for handset manufacturers to add haptics to Android devices by pre-integrati…
Video: Cutting edge mobile user experience from Japan
The Toshiba REGZA T01 C from NTT DoCoMo has a 12.2 megapixel camera, comes in a range of coloured metallic shells and boasts a truly stunning display. It is also waterproof. A testament to Japan as the place where the boundaries of mobile de…
Samsung’s dominant display
With the rise of the slate as the form factor of choice, touchscreens have become a proportionally larger part of the user experience. The whole front face of devices is taken up with the screen and it determines the experience of text input, dis…
Multi-platform thinking at the heart of Motorola’s strategy
The number of services experienced across multiple digital touch points is growing rapidly. Today many of them are essentially replication engines, enabling the same pieces of content to be accessed in a more or less optimised format on a range o…
Thinking beyond the slate
There are signs at MWC of form factor innovation extending beyond generic slates.
Sony Ericsson’s Play device is perhaps the boldest new design on display from a major handset manufacturer and is in the vanguard of this trend. It holds the…
Motorola Defy: secretly tough
A recent review in Engadget of Motorola’s new splash-and-bash-proof smartphone made an interesting point that sets it apart from many of the previous tough-phones:
“Typically, ruggedized phones are overbuilt, over-engineered behemoths that are ob…
Pesky kids import iPhone 4 parts direct from Foxconn
Fast Company recently featured an article about a 17-year-old New Yorker who managed to get hold of white iPhone four casings, direct from the Chinese manufacturer Foxconn. Apple has delayed the release of the white iPhone 4 until spring 2011, so …