A design exploration by Peter Zigich has been doing the rounds on tech blogs, exploring a possible future for the iPhone line. His aims were to improve on the iPhone 5, compete with cheap smartphones and also take on ‘phablets’—a very tall order. However, the ideas Zigich comes up with are often problematic.

His first thought is that the iPhone Home button takes up too much space, and so he repositions it on the side of the device. Presumably realising this causes problems for people who use their device with the hand that would cover the button, he then duplicates it on the other side of the device. From an ergonomic and usability perspective, this often-used button would become, at best, awkward in that position. Also, with Apple devices getting skinnier with each iteration, this design takes a discoverable, satisfyingly clickable, necessary button and makes it much smaller along with placing it in the realm of ‘secondary’ interaction. It’s no longer front-and-centre, but in a place where controls live that only occasionally need to be used. From an engineering perspective, you’re now also complicating matters with two identical buttons and also doubling the risk of failure through what was previously a single set of mechanical components. (On Twitter, @jseths also points out this would cause major problems regarding cases.)

The sole benefit from this change is a larger display, because the space originally taken by the Home button is now freed up. Again, though, this feels wrong from an ergonomic standpoint. I recently wrote about not being convinced by the iPhone 5’s form factor, but turning the area currently occupied by the Home button into a space for very regular interaction would require some spectacular thumb gymnastics. Zigich also complicates matters with ideas such as adding functions that combine the multiple home buttons, such as:

double click left Home button then single click right Home button

On this blog, I still get plenty of traffic for instructions on using AirPlay with the BBC iPlayer app, due to the AirPlay button’s poor discoverability. The thought of double-clicking one button and then single-clicking another is clearly a non-starter.

Zigich then expands the line-up. Along with his revised iPhone 6 (more or less the iPhone 5 minus its home button), he adds the iPhone 6 Mini (an iPhone 6 with two rows of icons hacked off) and an iPhone 6 XL (an iPhone 6 with a display that could accommodate five icons across and seven down, plus the Dock). This looks like a wet dream for anyone who wants the iOS device ecosystem to mirror Android, but some kind of nightmare for developers, who’d suddenly be faced with dealing with more resolutions and screen ratios. From a manufacturing standpoint, this would also be tricky; and from a user perspective, you’d have issues relating to buyer’s doubt and also basic usability with the larger model.

That said, the iPhone 6 Mini has some interesting ideas. The screen Zigich has used is identical to the one in the iPhone 4, it’s very pocketable, and it looks useful for people with small hands. That said, the lack of the existing Home button would, as already noted, be an issue. (My hope for another iPhone in the line-up remains a retooling of the iPhone 4 form factor, for the most part.) The iPhone 6 XL, on the other hand, just looks ridiculous. Zigich calls it “perfect for one-handed use”, although neglects to add “for giants”, and it strikes me as something Apple wouldn’t bother with, unless Cook went nuts and decided to fight for a relatively niche market (say, people who want to do a modern recreation of Dom Joly’s cell phone sketch).

Zigich’s final suggestion is to amend iOS. He complains finding apps on iOS is getting complicated, with the average user having 100–150 apps on their device. I’d personally like to yell “citation needed” at this point, given that I imagine the majority of iPhone users have significantly fewer apps than that. What’s odder, though, is his concept that he says could solve this:

In a few easy clicks users can, narrow the search for the right app on ther phone (even if you have 1000 applications installed). I call this process “Distill”

Maybe I’m going mad, but I’m pretty sure Apple already called that ‘Spotlight’.

Apple is doomed without Steve Jobs and its grip on tablets and smartphones has been weakened as Android sinks its teeth into corporate and consumer markets. Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft. Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft. Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft.

Figures released today show Android’s share of the pie has grown from [SUB: PLEASE INSERT 2011’S PITIFULLY SMALL FIGURE HERE] to a whopping [SUB: PLEASE INSERT 2012’S SLIGHTLY LARGER FIGURE], showing how the iPad is struggling to compete against the robust, flexible, exciting Android ecosystem. [SUB: CHECK WITH ADS—SEE IF WE CAN MAKE OUR SPONSORS LESS OBVIOUS] Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft. Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft. Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft. Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft. Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft.

[SUB: ADD SOMETHING HERE ABOUT APPLE IPAD SHARE. TRY TO BURY IT. WE DON’T WANT DICKS LIKE GRUBER FIGURING OUT WHAT WE’RE DOING] Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft. Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft. Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft. Argle wargle bargle fargle. Blah blah blah blah. Wibble fweee. Burble burble burble pffft.

So, as you can see, 2013 is going to be a very tough year for Apple. It’s hard to see how Tim Cook will see out the year as CEO, and unless Apple reinvigorates a new market by the summer, I predict AAPL will be trading under $5.

I don’t read The Times and it’s been a long time since I messed around with its iOS app, but I heard earlier today that a new version recently appeared and immediately got slammed by just about everyone who used it. And, oh my, the ‘10 tips to help improve performance‘ on the iPad 1 are simply stunning, including the following:

• Turning off “as many options as possible” in iCloud.
• Keeping Location Services “to a minimum”.
• Disabling notifications “for apps that are not essential”.
• Disabling iMessage entirely.
• Turning off multitasking gestures.
• Disabling Spotlight indexing.
• Nuking all existing browser history and website data.

The page cheerfully adds:

If you are experiencing problems, or require further assistance, our customer services team are available to help.

I shudder to think what their next tip would be. Presumably:

• Factory reset your iPad and only install The Times. The Times is all you need. THE TIMES IS YOUR LORD AND MASTER NOW.

Note that I do realise that app development is tough, and supporting older devices isn’t easy, but then the App Store reviews I’ve been reading suggest these problems aren’t in fact isolated to the iPad 1, which suggests a much bigger problem. More importantly, the big reason to use a digital newspaper is convenience, but if you have to hobble your device in order to get it to work, you may as well just revert to paper.

I’ve in the past rallied against Apple complicating its device line-ups, but I’ve changed my mind about the iPhone and would now be quite happy in the future to see an iPhone mini. The device that prompted this change of heart was… the iPhone 5. I’d not actually used one before, but TechRadar temporarily sent me theirs, so I could write a couple of articles.

I don’t like it.

This surprised me. I cannot think of another iOS device evolution I’ve not cared for. Even the iPad 3 didn’t bother me, because I skipped and never used the lighter, thinner iPad 2. Perhaps I’d get used to the iPhone 5 over time, but it simply doesn’t feel right to me. It’s ungainly and awkward to use—the taller screen feels like a compromise to enable Apple to strut its stuff in the bigger-screen pissing competition. On the iPhone 4, my normal-sized hand can comfortably use the device and reach almost all of the screen. On the iPhone 5, no chance. I have to stretch, which feels wrong; and as someone with RSI, this makes me wonder exactly how much pain I’d be in after long-term use.

Of course, one might argue I’m holding it wrong. I should, clearly, change how I interact with the device. But in switching from one hand to two or holding the device in a less secure manner, that feels like defeat. It feels like bending to the will of relatively poor ergonomic design, and it also makes me want to punch whoever okayed the rather misleading Thumb commercial.

iOS dev Neil Gall responded earlier on Twitter about this, saying “I’ve been yelling my distaste for the comically long, ergonomically challenged thing since launch,” and I get the feeling my wife’s going to cling on to her iPhone 4S for dear life, rather than upgrade. My mother also wanted an old iPod touch rather than the new one (with the same proportions as the iPhone 5), solely because of the form factor, although she went for the newer model on the basis of the superior camera. She’s still not overly happy with it.

Perhaps, then, the iPhone should have a ‘mini’ version somehow, although instead of a teeny tiny device, it could retain a similar form factor to the iPhone 4S. I don’t see that happening though—this summer, the iPhone 5 will be bumped one rung down the ladder and the iPhone 4S will probably become the free iOS device. One more revision and only 16:9 devices will remain. Ironically, the Android devices Apple clearly responded to with the new form factor will continue to offer more variation, including one of the current trends: smaller devices. It’s not enough to get me to switch, but then I’m now looking towards whatever iPhone Apple unveils this summer without any sense of excitement, for the first time.

App.net now has a free tier. You can now access the service if someone who’s paying for it sends you an invite, and you’ll then be able to follow up to 40 users and use 500 MB of storage.

I like the ideal behind App.net a lot. It’s an ad-free and open system on which to build apps. Alpha was the first, a Twitter-like microblogging service without the increasing bloat Twitter keeps welding to itself. In its current form, Alpha reminds me of the Twitter of old, but in being so it also lacks the richness in terms of diversity and varied communities that Twitter enjoys.

I’m also increasingly wondering, from a personal standpoint, what the point is of App.net. When I stop using Twitter, I miss it. This is in part due to being a freelancer working alone in a home office; Twitter is my place to discuss things with people and to find out about what’s going on in the world. App.net… I’m not really sure what that is. I guess it’s a bit like Twitter after some kind of armageddon-style disaster after which some of the techies survive. It’s a lot quieter, quite a lot geekier, and regularly has an echo. Then there’s also the file-storage aspect, but, you know, Dropbox. And CrashPlan.

Still, when I offered up my invites on Twitter earlier, they all went in seconds, and so there’s clearly an interest in App.net. People are curious. Whether that curiosity results in permanent growth of the service or a lot of people going “now what?” remains to be seen.