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Upside Down Phone Patent

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the upsidedowntalkin dept.

An anonymous reader noted that "A patent has been filed for the "Upside Down Phone", which features the keypad on top and the screen on the bottom. The idea behind the upside down phone is, apparently, to allow faster texting by have a more comfortable position for the thumb to work from. A quick check of this seems to confirm the theory, making this one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" moments."

4 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. Not Why Didn't I Think of That by ISoldMyLowIdOnEbay · · Score: 4, Insightful

    More

    How the H*ll Can You Patent That?

  2. Layout patent? by FredDC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How is it possible to patent the layout of something? I'll just go and patent a much used way of laying bricks on top of eachother and everyone who builds a house has to pass by my bank account first? This patenting is getting way out of hand!

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    09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63
  3. Re:"Why didn't I think of that?" by Radon360 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I agree. Maybe I'm missing something, but the idea seems to go against simple ergonomics. I would compare it to the early versions of the Garmin hand-held GPS receivers. Several models had their buttons above the screen. You had to "drive" it with two hands; one to hold it and one to run the keypad with a finger so that you could navigate through the menus. It was my major gripe about their GPS at the time, and the reason that I went with a Magellen GPS receiver back then (I have since purchased a Garmin eTrex).

    I suppose if the intent is that proficient SMS users would simply tap out their message without looking, then it might work. But for people with big hands who need to see what they're entering, it would present too much of a visual interference issue.

    Once, someone suggested building in voice recognition for entering an SMS...My reply was, "why don't you just call them instead."

  4. It's an *application* people by hacksoncode · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Complaining about the ridiculousness of a pending patent *application* is about as useful as complaining about people spending time thinking of what they'd wish for if they found a bottle with a genie in it.

    So someone thought they had a cool new idea because they hadn't ever seen anything like it and they were wrong... so what? If the patent *issues* then there's something to complain about (though pointing the patent office at the prior art would be a useful public service, unlike whining on Slashdot).