How can it possibly be that rumors regarding the iPhone Nano/Mini resurface and we do not report on them? Since the past few weeks, we've begun hearing once again that Apple is working on a smaller iPhone, something which shall have edge to edge touchscreen & voice navigation, and will have cloud storage instead of internal storage for which a revamped MobileMe could be on the front line. Now, Max Rudberg, a developer who runs Max Themes, suggests the iPhone nano might use squeeze action in place of the home button. Details on that, after the break.
Here is what he has to say:
If a phone were to be designed with an edge-to-edge screen, it would lack a hardware home button on the front. Therefore it would require a new way to go to the Home screen. Advanced gestures often requires two hands, which is not optimal for such a frequently used feature.
A more intuitive way could be to equip the phone with a pressure-sensitive body. The phone could then be squeezed and the current app would shrink and return the user to the Home screen.
This could be a real wow effect. Seeing how the phone reacts to your grip and then having the app vanish in the palm of your hand.
To avoid ‘squeeze to go Home’ from happening by accident, a visual cue could show that pressure is being applied. In this concept, the app begins to shrink to reflect the pressure that is being applied. When the pressure goes over a defined threshold, the user is returned to the Home screen.
The strength of a users grip will of course vary. Therefore, a setting for how much pressure that’s needed before an app is exited could be a good idea
By the sound of it, this feature does look kind of cool, but lets not forget the fact that Apple has a high tendency of being unpredictable about the features of its upcoming devices so we can not say for sure if one feature or the another is bound to make it on any particular device, in this case, the iPhone Nano.
However, regardless of that, do check out the concept demonstrated in the video embedded below.
[youtube=