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Guess you wouldn't want of these then

tiles...icons...whats the difference?

(Mod parent interesting - lots of people think this way)

If you are a beginning interface designer, that's the way it seems. Tiles may even seem better since they have more space and so let you represent the application better. A more experienced interface designer will realise that once you have tens or hundreds of applications screen size becomes precious and small regular icons are much better. The regularity of icons allows users to get used to standard actions and most efficiently use space. This is not even some new discovery, AOL made the same mistake as Microsoft years ago and people learned from that.

Good design is pretty difficult to do. Most of us will get it wrong and, if you look at early Android designs you can see how even a company with real user interface experties can end up with a very derivative design. However, most people can easily recognise designs which are better than others. Companies like Google are able to iterate towards good design. Microsoft is one of the few which shows real social failure and, as put best in this internal Microsoft video shows a real ability to make better things into worse things.

It takes a serious level of social ineptitude to give your major new product release the same colour as shit. Microsoft fails to learn from the Zune becuase the kind of people who go to work for them are the kind of people who just don't want to take humanity into account. The tile is a symptom of failure. The fonts in Windows phone, which are designed to look cool at first glance but are unusable long term, are the real heart of the matter. It all comes down to a total contempt for their own users and human beings in general.

tiles...icons...whats the difference?

(Mod parent interesting - lots of people think this way)

If you are a beginning interface designer, that's the way it seems. Tiles may even seem better since they have more space and so let you represent the application better. A more experienced interface designer will realise that once you have tens or hundreds of applications screen size becomes precious and small regular icons are much better. The regularity of icons allows users to get used to standard actions and most efficiently use space. This is not even some new discovery, AOL made the same mistake as Microsoft years ago and people learned from that.

Good design is pretty difficult to do. Most of us will get it wrong and, if you look at early Android designs you can see how even a company with real user interface experties can end up with a very derivative design. However, most people can easily recognise designs which are better than others. Companies like Google are able to iterate towards good design. Microsoft is one of the few which shows real social failure and, as put best in this internal Microsoft video shows a real ability to make better things into worse things.

It takes a serious level of social ineptitude to give your major new product release the same colour as shit. Microsoft fails to learn from the Zune becuase the kind of people who go to work for them are the kind of people who just don't want to take humanity into account. The tile is a symptom of failure. The fonts in Windows phone, which are designed to look cool at first glance but are unusable long term, are the real heart of the matter. It all comes down to a total contempt for their own users and human beings in general.

So, not Acer: http://blog.dialaphone.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/acer-tablet1.jpg
or Motorola: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/pictures/2011/4/27/1303887422785/Motorola-Xoom-tablet-005.jpg
or the HP Touchpad: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41I6VtL6D%2BL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
or the Advent Vega: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent_Vega
or the Sony Tablet S: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Sony_Tablet_S.jpg/300px-Sony_Tablet_S.jpg
or the Viewsonic G: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/ViewSonic_G_Tablet.JPG/220px-ViewSonic_G_Tablet.JPG

no, none of these look remotely like an iPad. Except the Xoom, cause Apple have tried to sue Motorola for them. The rest haven't been sued because they're not black, with rounded edges and a single button with a rectangular screen.

This http://www.saares.net/verkkokauppa/files/nokia-e7-00.jpg doesn't look like an iPhone :)

Oh crap! Someone thought of something like iPhone before it came out:
http://alypuhelin.nettisivu.org/files/2011/05/nokia.jpg

SUE SUE SUE SUE!
http://www.brighthand.com/assets/4911.jpg
It resembles an iPhone!
How could they allow such devices as this to exist: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/PalmTX.jpg without a myriad of lawsuits!

So apple took a PDA, wanted 24/7 connectivity, added GPRS to it and noticed it could also be used for calling. (Remember, original iPhones were VERY lacking in phone related features and finishing/polishing)

Best smartphone i know was pretty much a prototype which slipped into mass production:
http://blog.dialaphone.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/nokia-n900.JPG

Before that there was N810 which actually predates iPhone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N800

Or for some really early work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_770_Internet_Tablet

Clearly Nokia 770 was too early on the market, before technology properly supported what they wanted to do.

In any case, Apple simply took Mac OS X, stripped it down, took something already built, and added a few hippies to dev team (artists), seriously nothing else.

Before you start your fandroid bashing, i've actually never used android before, getting my first android pad from customs tomorrow to see how it is, and i actually am receiving tomorrow my new phone: Nokia E7-00. Sure some iPhone could have been cheaper to buy, but i want something i can actually do whatever i want with AND make phone calls, and i want to make damn sure it will not fail on me for the next couple years :)

Seriously, you need to take a few weeks off from the sunday mass @ your local apple store.

I completely agree with this. I seriously wish the iPhone would die a horrible death; it is mildly popular (in some geographical regions) despite being horrendusly expensive and locked down, because it looks flashy and 'cool', and is marketed a lot. People need to stop getting distracted by that.

What you have to realize is that Apple came into this mobile market pretty late. There were already a few contenders, most notably Nokia, that had been producing quality devices for quite a while. But the first thing that most probably went through Jobs' mind when he envisaged an Apple mobile device was not, 'how can we make it best for customers and developers?' It was, 'how can Apple make the most profit out of this with the least effort?' He came up with the idea of the iPhone app store. Promote the iPhone a lot, sell it for a fortune to cover those costs, force people to release apps with Apple's blessing through their app store, and sit back and wait for the profits. Oh, and as a side benefit, Apple can censor what apps they want, as part of their lust for control. (Yes I do have a problem with a company controlling even their own hardware when you've paid to BUY it.) Worse, they actually promote their 'app' model as being some kind of a virtue, as if other sophisticated devices can't do apps. They can, and they don't have to go through a fucking Apple website.

Me, I'm hoping that the Nokia N97 is a real iPhone-killer. Quite similar to the iPhone in many ways, has a touchscreen, a ton of functionality, Flash Lite 3 can be embedded in the browser so you can do interactive apps and streaming video/audio WITHOUT spending big time.resources to learn the specifics of the particular mobile platform being targetted (dumbass iPhone-specific apps), runs Symbian, and it's by Nokia, who don't have such a megalomaniac interest in locking the thing down so you have to go thru them for everything. And it even looks quite shiny, too. Buy Nokia, people! (the only wish I have is for it to have a stylus with it, but I guess you can't have everything)

And before you mod me down, think: is anything I've said here untrue or illogical?

weird that the post here mentioned germany AND the UK but the numbers given are the German ones - was there an ASSUMPTION that the UK would mirror US hype? even tho' the UK is the most heavily-subsidized handset market in the EU (and maybe the world)?? http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/blog/?p=750 has pix of the windy absence of such crowds at opening...

A friend who works for Carphone Warehouse (who shall remain unmentioned) received an email on launch day from "the powers that be" saying that he expects staff to push for "80% penetration on insurance, 50% penetration on accessories". It's no wonder you were harassed into getting insurance...

The title of this thread is proof positive that hype overrules fact. There was nothing like the sort of chaotic scenes that came with the US iPhone launch, at most stores it was business as usual with no queues. Whether that's general apathy towards a handset that is so unusually priced in the UK (as mentioned previously we're used to getting high value handsets for free on £35+/month contracts), the delay between the US and UK/EU launch (lots of people buying unlocked from the States) or whatever - either way it wasn't the grand launch with people queueing everywhere that Apple and co would have you believe.

Pretty much all the news stories highlighted the Regent Street branch as it was a rare example of a store with a queue. My local CPW and O2 stores had no queues at 6:02pm.