You’ve got gimmicks. And then you’ve got innovations. Gimmicks are just things which some awesome and cause people to gasp for a few seconds and then carry on walking to the next shelf. Innovation is more than that. Innovation is what makes tech exciting.
So it’s a rather lovely feeling when you read about something that seems like a gimmick but then you realise it’s an innovation. You get a warm fuzzy feeling deep down inside you. You suddenly start looking for more and more news related to the innovation, in the vain hope that you’ll stumble upon more and more information. I’m pleased to say that I just got that warm fuzzy feeling about…
First Else. First Else is a newcomer to the mobile phone industry and they’re never made a single handset before. Making a smartphone is a completely new experience to them. But so far they’ve managed to get me drooling for a play.
It’s not the phone itself that’s got me salivating. I’m far more excited about the software, a bitesize mobile operating system dubbed sPlay. It’s not the best name in the world, I must admit. But the ideas behind it are truly ground-breaking.
The main idea is to make it much easier to use the phone with one hand, leaving the other hand free to do whatever you wish. Don’t be so dirty-minded. From early pictures I can’t help but compare the interface to a Zippo lighter. There’s a wheel of links to various applications laid out on a wheel. Flick the wheel with your thumb. When you see what you want use your thumb to tap it, while the phone rests in your palm!
I assume that to make sure the left-handed among us are also catered for, there will be an option somewhere in the settings part of the phone’s OS especially for toggling between showing the wheel on the right-hand side of the display and the left-hand side.
If you’re still trying to imagine how this could possibly make things a whole lot easier imagine yourself holding an iPod Classic. The clickwheel can be operated with a single hand at all times so it seems circular interfaces are very cut out for accessibility.
Of course, at some stage you’ll be forced to use both hands. Can you imagine typing at a reasonable speed with just your thumb? Spinning the wheel to select each individual character/number/symbol would just be slow. And it would cause cramp!
So for basic browsing around the shallower parts of your phone or maybe even a little bit of browsing through a specially-designed web browser, this first innovation has got quite a bit of ground-breaking oomph and potential behind it.
Connection Connection Connection
Connectivity is always important on a phone because it defines when the user of the handset can reach the online realm and contact his or her friends. Don’t worry about there being insufficient connectivity on the First Else because they’ve promised us:
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HSDPA
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Wi-Fi
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GPS
All behind a 3.5 inch touchscreen on a relatively thin chassis. You’ll never be stuck without a connection through which you can access Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Googlemail. All with one thumb, of course.
Press 1…
We all know how annoying it is to have to be put on hold by a recorded message and forced to listen to the kind of music only enjoyed by hardcore fans of Rick Astley who waste hours of their lives Rick-Rolling themselves. Now you can know how it feels to be that recorded message. Instead of ignoring a message you’re able to press a magical button on your First Else phone and send them something like this:
If your call is urgent, press 1. If not, press 2. To start again, press hash.
I’m all for this idea but there’s just one or two problems I can predict. First of all, what’s stopping people from just pressing 1 all the time even when the call isn’t really urgent but they just wanna get through despite your phone’s awesome ability. Also, how is someone going to press the 1, 2, or hash keys on the other end if they have a touchscreen phone and you can’t summon the virtual keyboard mid-call? Awkward…
But it’s a nice idea nevertheless. It just needs to be more thought-through.
Go In, Get Milk!
It’s a nice feeling to be shouted out by an inanimate object. Usually it’s you shouting at the inanimate object. ‘COME ON YOU FLAMING TOASTER, TOAST FASTER, MY EGGS ARE GOING COLD’. ‘HOW BLOODY LONG DOES IT TAKE TO BOIL WATER?’
While the majority of phones just use GPS to guide you home or guide you to pub (if you count this two locations as separate places), the First Else does far much more than that. Photos taken with the 5MP camera are automatically geo-tagged. Entries on your to-do list are also geo-tagged so if you need to get some milk the First Else will remind you just before you pass Asda on your drive home.
This is a very useful feature which I’ve never seen anywhere else before. If this could be synced with Google Maps your better half could be watching from home and dance for joy when he/she sees you’ve got the milk. Thanks to the First Else, of course.
Very Well Mannered
If you use an iPhone you may be accustomed to having a round of gaming being interrupted and ruined by an incoming call or text. The First Else runs multiple applications simultaneously so you’ll just get a handy pop up instead!
Games automatically pausing would be even more awesome. And less rude.
Specifications? Very Well…
Now that you’re absolutely dying to know more about the First Else here’s some specs:
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The screen is 3.5 inches diagonally with a resolution of 854 by 480 pixels.
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It’s a capacitive touchscreen, which means it’ll be nice and responsive.
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The flash memory can be expanded to 32GB!
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There’s HSDPA, Wi-Fi, USB, GPS and Bluetooth connectivity.
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The camera totes a five megapixel sensor.
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You get three x optical zoom, eight x digital zoom, and 30fps video.
So in all ways it beats the iPhone hands down. Either that or it equals it but in terms of camera the iPhone definitely gets booted into a body bag. I welcome First Else to the market with welcome arms. I’m behind you.
1 comments:
Yeah, this phone is going to cost a hell of a lot!
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