December 23, 2008, 10:36 AM — Yes, I get it: people like things that are small. Heck, I like things that are small, generally speaking, though I've never gone in for the give-up-power-and-features-for-smallness mindset that underlies, say, the Macbook Air. Anyway, I think that my iPhone is pretty small -- it's certainly slimmer than the first-generation 5G iPod I had back in the day, and infinitely more functional -- so I haven't exactly been dreaming of an even smaller version that could fit into my pocket, I dunno, twice or something.
Yet apparently someone is dreaming of such a thing, because rumors about an "iPhone nano" are all over the Net. (I'm sticking with Apple's capitalization standards for small things, like the iPod nano and Mac mini, even though I think they're unbearably precious.) The vague impetus for such a future gadget comes from pictures of cases for said thing from Chinese manufacturers and now supposed pictures of the thing itself on Macrumors, about which I say unto you: Photoshop.
It's fully possible that I'm wrong, obviously, but beyond doubting the sheer engineering ability Apple would need to cram the phone stuff into a small case, I don't quite get the why of it. I do love the iPhone UI, but I also think that objects on the screen really are at the edge of usability in terms of size. If the pics at Macrumors are accurate, then the application icons have been shrunk in such a way that they'll be difficult to poke at with your finger. And wouldn't having devices with multiple screen sizes running the iPhone OS result in headaches for developers? (Admittedly that last is also true for my dream Apple-netbook-thing running the iPhone OS. Hmm, yet another reason that won't happen.)
This is my last post before I go off for the holidays -- see you next week! Hope you all get something shiny and expensive under your tree.
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