An iPhone Nano launching at January's Macworld Expo? You don't say.
It's unlikely, but a few websites are drumming up rumors about the fabled gadget. An image purporting to be a leaked photo of the iPhone Nano suggests the device is just like the original iPhone, except shorter and less wide.
Boring. Apple designers are a lot more imaginative than that, aren't they? But while we're in the spirit of wishing, here's a list of features Wired.com would like to see in an iPhone Nano, if one ever sees the light of day.
Dual-Screen Clamshell Design
In order to deserve the name "Nano," this iPhone needs to be considerably smaller than its bigger brother. It should easily slip into a pocket, to the point where one could barely even notice it. If all Apple did was scale down the original iPhone, as ["leaked" photos](https://www.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/possible-iphone.html ""leaked" photos") suggest, it would be difficult to control the touchscreen without a stylus. Imagine typing on one of those things or playing with an app!
Instead, Apple should embrace a clamshell form factor similar to a patent the company published in 2006 (left). We're taking this a step further: Folded up, the phone resembles the iPod Shuffle (same buttons), with a very small, always-on screen to display status icons (e.g., missed or incoming calls).
Unfolded, the iPhone Nano would look somewhat like the fourth-generation iPod Nano -- except a second, low-powered touchscreen would replace the scroll wheel. The low-powered touchscreen would display a dialer once the phone is opened. The screen above would be the primary, fully powered one, and this would display the apps. The bottom screen would change depending on which app is open on the above screen (e.g., if the SMS app is open, the bottom screen would turn into a virtual keyboard.) You'd also be able to unfold the phone both length-wise and width-wise. (The photo at the top of the story, illustrated by reader James Camp, is similar to our idea.)
__A Separate App Store
__So here's what would make the diminutive size of our iPhone Nano work logistically in terms of software: It would have its own App Store. The current App Store is cluttered enough; imagine how messy everything would get if developers had to code software for two different types of iPhones. With a Nano
App Store, developers could code mini, simple apps meant to be played around with on a two small screens. Heck, this would even create a new market for iPhone developers looking to strike it rich.
__Universal Landscape Mode
__In order for a mini iPhone to not be a pain in the butt to use, landscape mode should work for everything.
Not just Safari or the video player, which is how the original iPhone works. We're talking text messaging, e-mail, third-party apps. Make this happen, Apple -- and while you're at it, think about doing the same thing for the current iPhone.
__Built-in, Beefed Up Voice Recognition
__The current iPhone doesn't have voice recognition, and a Nano version would need it even more. Apple could even step it up a notch and make voice-enabled text messaging, e-mailing and web search to work.
Those are just some ideas that sprung off the top of our heads.
What would you want in an iPhone Nano? Submit your suggestions and vote on your favorites in the Reddit widget below.
What do you want in an iPhone Nano? Submit your suggestions -- and drawings, if you want -- in the Reddit widget below. Then vote on your favorites!
While you can submit as many suggestions as you want, you can only submit one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed.
See Also:
- iPhone Nano Rumors Continue, Look More Legit
- Possible iPhone Nano Photos 'Leaked'
- Rumor: Apple Definitely, Probably Not Working on iPhone Shuffle ...
- iPhone Nano To Be Announced Within Next Decade
Photos: James Camp, Apple*
