iOS to remove physical buttons – Inspiration from N9?

I’ve come across some videos demoing the new iOS 5 Beta. Yeah I know, I feel guilty for it.

Anyway, I have seen various videos and read some articles showing completely gesture based UI. (Although videos are of the OS on iPad 2  and iPhone 4 which still has home button, but it is never used).

Here are some of these videos and an article;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddUC1zfxFVQ

• thenextweb

Does this mean that Apple is feeling threatened by the Nokia N9 and MeeGo Harmattan’s Swipe? Why wouldn’t they be!

Jay: I’m not sure I totally understand the point of these particular gestures shown on the video. It’s apparently there to be more of an accessibility feature. Otherwise, removal of the home button simply to have touch gestures requires more additional presses than you would if the button is there.

MeeGo Harmattan does not fall for this compromise and utilises gestures to actually speed up what you would otherwise do with a button.

What’s hilarious is the lock screen. You LOCK the screen with touch but you cannot unlock it with touch. Nokia MeeGo Harmattan already solves this with double-tap which wakes the screen up. No buttons necessary AT ALL. There might be some new hardware or further improvements to take care of this, but otherwise, in current state and possibly for current devices, not useful.

I also like how this little “orb” thing blocks the music button. I guess it is in Beta, and it would be unApple like to have something so unpolished. I’d expect their gestures to work more like their pinch to close stuff.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com / 9to5Mac /  thegadgetsite

Category: Nokia