Folding phones aren’t going to be a major improvement over the usability problems with touch-only devices. We need keyboards again, most people are just unwilling to accept that. Touch screens might be more flexible than fixed physical input devices, but humans aren’t and getting rid of buttons is going to hurt us all far more than it will help us.
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No, they very clearly didn’t:
This PopSocket has the image of a Viewmaster Reel on the back of it, so as not to scare the older folk.
I have written about how my kid and her associates are all Coo-Coo-for-Cocoa-Puffs over their PopSockets. Every new case requires a new PopSocket.
Strangely, I want this PopSocket. I am going to put it on my Trapper Keeper tablet case, however.
From the second link:
My daughter and niece will whine incessantly if their phones do not have a Pop Socket attached.
I’m pretty sure the author has made it clear that the PopSocket is the “kiddie gadget” and the presence of a Viewmaster wheel is meant to ingratiate the device to an older, nostalgic crowd. My point still stands, these are not devices that only children use, they’re devices that exist because of design anti-patterns in phones. My Pixel 2 is so slick on the front that it will slide right down any incline above about 10 degrees from level. The back is slightly better, but the problem is still there.
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A wizard’s phone has a knob on the end.
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I like the idea of a pop socket, I just can’t bring myself to spend $10 on what I’m sure is less than a nickel’s worth of plastic.
I’m a woman with fairly small hands and even the smallest phones require both hands for me to use. Additionally, I have recurring tendonitis in both wrists. The pop socket on my phone is indispensible in allowing me to hold the phone securely in a wrist-friendly position with one hand.
Also, $16 is indeed crazy; I got mine at a Marshall’s for around half that.
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Crazy idea, I know - but what if phones were designed in a way that lets you hold them in a way that reduces the risk of accidentally dropping it?
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Big phones don’t have to be hard to hold:
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Let us begin!
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They used to sell retro handsets to attach to cell phones and I really wanted one for ages…
Maybe they still have them… though the image of them being used are… weird:
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