Has something like this been done?
[...]lack of TWO SD slots (really, who wants microSD? And only one?).[...]
As others have alluded to before, usage can have 3 equally important modes, even if these modes change rapidly:external buttons only stylus only external buttons and stylus in concert So, agreeing to disagree is all good, just to the point where you remove my 12 buttons. Then, not so good.
I simply can't follow you any more. a) I never talked about optimizing for fingers. On the contrary, I said a finger UI usually fails and therefore shouldn't be considered much.
b) I also don't say that different parts of the UI should be optimized for different input methods. Why make everything so complicated?
Most graphical GUIs I know can be used with hardware keys (you can use Windows/Gnome/... more efficiently with the keyboard than with the mouse). This includes all versions of maemo so far: There's nothing "optimized for stylus" or "optimized for D-Pad", still you can use both to cotrol the device. (And you can also control the whole UI with a bluetooth keyboard without even touching it... I wonder how this would work if the UI wasn't made to accept hardware keys.)
The hype will vanish, I'm sure.
Also, people do get irritated by their jPhones etc. the longer they use them.
Also, people tend to stand up for their own decisions even though they prove wrong afterwards.
And finally: Yes, we do see touch devices returned in large numbers when factors like these don't play a role.
Like when employees were given touch screen devices (HTC) as company phones and returned them in favor of the alternative, a plain SonyEricsson K550i.
... all valid points for not having a touch only UI but having a choice. People are different. Let's not force them all into the same way of using the UI.
I'm 41 years old and had a lot of UIs... from my Atari 400, MS-DOS, Windows (1.0, 3.11, 95, 98/Me, NT, 2000, XP, Vista), KDE, Gnome, Fluxbox, OS2005-2008, a number of phones by different manufacturers, VCRs and DVD players,...
Yes, it may take a few hours or so to feel comfortable and at home, but if a UI requires people to adjust their muscles and do some training as for painting... and then, some will still never learn it, while other happen to "have a gift"... then there's something seriously wrong with it. Any UI has to adapt to the people who use it, not the other way round.
... again, I'm completely lost here. I don't understand what you're talking about. Why should a scollbar "know"? It didn't in OS2005 and it was fine the way it was.
.... click on an image to save it or copy its location. View HTML source (of page or frame or selection). Open frame in new window. Open link in new window/tab. Perform some action to trigger what's "mouseover" on a desktop. Zoom in/out. View image properies. View link properties. .... Quite few things to accomplish when all you have for input is the press of a finger.