Kyocera and Sprint Now Hyping a Dual-Screen Android Smartphone 75
Sprint and Kyocera want you to believe that two screens are better than one, even on a pocket-sized phone. The new Android-powered Kyocera smartphone, the Echo, will feature two touchscreen surfaces in a hinged design. The article says:
"The Echo’s highlights can be seen in the phone’s obvious multitasking potential. The phone can be operated like most other touchscreen smartphones in its single-screen mode, but in 'Simul-task mode' users can run separate apps on each screen — like, say, open a text on the upper screen while reading an email on the lower one."
a fresh idea for once (Score:5, Interesting)
instead of copying the other 500 cell phones out there they actually have a good, original idea. Refreshing!
I guess now that I look at it, one thing that IS irritating on my phone is having to switch between apps for brief times. Being able to have two apps open AND visible at the same time would be very useful. But it's just one of those limits we take for granted because until now there really hasn't been any good solution, and every phone has suffered from that same limitation.
And this will never see Gingerbread.... (Score:4, Interesting)
From the article:
"....we'll forgive the older software because Kyocera had to do extensive customization to add dual-screen support to seven core apps like the browser, email, and messaging. The seven optimized apps can be run on each screen individually so you can have the browser up top and email below, and several of them include useful full-dual-screen views as well. There's also a new dual-screen app manager, which is brought up by tapping the two screens simultaneously. Unfortunately, third party apps can't be run in any of the new modes and just fill the entire display for now -- Kyocera and Sprint say an SDK is coming shortly".
Just what I DON'T want in my next Android smartphone: a Gimmicky dual screen that required a ton of customization to the Base OS guaranteeing that it will never see another carrier-supported OS upgrade during it's lifespan.
Hey Sprint, here's an idea to take back to the folks at HTC......
Make the EVO 2.0 the love-child of a stock EVO, the EVO Shift (with a decent keyboard, not that POS they stuck on the Epic 4G) and toss in a dual core processor. I was really looking forward to the Shift only to find out it was a very nuetered unit. Don't me wrong, I love my EVO, I have just decided virtual keyboards aren't for me.