I love it when people talk about how you 'won't be able to dial a number without looking at the phone' Who dials numbers on a cell phone? I don't know anyone's number I just pick them out of my stored numbers list. I'm surprised they aren't asking why it doesn't have a rotary interface.
Good point. Knowing Apple, I also have a feeling they'll come up with some innovative solutions to the no-number-pad problem.
Some ideas:
- Automatically complete phone numbers, as you dial them
- Spotlight-type search for contacts. I.e, I dial "442" and the phone displays all contacts with 442 in the number, address, etc. I could then press the contact I want to call.
- Better voice recognition technology. For example, if I say "Call Mike," the phone displays the top 3 contacts it thinks match my request, I then confirm the default choice or select one out of the list. Maybe the phone even learns?
Obviously, this is all speculation. But the point is, it should be easy to come up with solutions to this problem that actually make the phone easier to use.
This is how I would solve the problem after just a minute of thinking about it:
You may tap twice, and the iPhone makes a noise letting you know that the dial-pad is activated, at which point you can touch any square in a 3x3 grid of numbers, with a voice telling you which number you just pressed.
A problem is if you're holding it upside down. If you're holding it upside down in your hand, the built-in orientation sensor would simply rotate the grid correctly. The less thinking a user has to do, the better.
In other words, it could actually work better than the treo (another phone with a touchscreen), which you definitely can't use to enter a new number blindfolded with its tiny keyboard. And, you could hold the phone upside down and dial the same way, which no conventional phones let you do. A voice announcing the keys is a great idea, as well, since most phones use tones for keypushes.
This would be great in an additional way, because whenever somebody tells you a phone number, they can follow along. "My cell is 111.2345. " "Ok (enters it on the iPhone, and a voice speaks each number.) One. One. One. Three. Four.." "NO, no, I said 2345."
Current voice recognition technology is actually fine. My wife's phone has a dial-by-voice feature that she uses all the time to select from her contacts, and it's a prepaid phone she bought outright for 19 bucks. This suggests to me that voice recognition for things like "Call Mike" is a solved problem.
"calling..." and it starts ringing. The prompts are optional too, you can just push the button and say 'Call someone, joe, yes, yes' and it'll go for it.
I too think it's silly to remember phone numbers...I speed dial or directory dial everything. But the only two people who's cell habits I happen to know, are very often guilty of snail dialing. I don't understand it, but I'd guess that this is a real use case for a lot of people.
