Random Change of subject: A cool concept phone

In my last post , when I said about the problem we have nowadays is not about the lack of creativity, here is one of the example of it that still make you surprised by what can be done with mobile phone. Here is the company website if you want more details.
 



The first impression of this phone is that it actually reminds me of a "feature phone" I used to have before the "iPhone"-era which also happened to have a dual-monitor.

 -The Samsung Upstage from sprint

I liked that phone ; it was one of the kind (I think it still is) that combine iPod like music device with a traditional phone with a keypad from the good o'day. That's pretty much the same reason why I fall in love with Yota phone. As you can see, I do have my fair share of using two monitors at once. So, when I tell you it is not difficult to get used to the switching, I know what I am talking about.That being said, it is still unclear to me how the switching experience of the Yota phone is like , such as, practicability: which apps can go on e-link and which apps can not and the smoothness of the transition experience (which I find it very important, as you don't want to miss a call when you are in the middle of reading).

Although I like the idea, I still have some reservations on the e-ink integration into this phone. Based on the demo and the couple others I watched on YouTube, I didn't see much of interaction on e-ink side. Most of the activities have to be done at the front side; I suspect there is no or limited touch capability on the e-ink screen. Also, my own experience with e-ink wasn't that great, as I found it rather unresponsive and slow, but it was couple years ago. The technology is definitely better by now (check out the kindle paperwhite and you know they ain't playing around). So, it is really up to folks from Yota to meet up the high expectation.

In all fairness, the idea of putting e-paper on the back of the phone is intriguing but the fact that they actually make it work is even more impressive. It definitely opens up a new venue for phone application and it definitely helps with people that can't read on a LCD monitor.  I think this phone generates enough hype that there are plenty of information and coverages about this phone out there already, so I am gonna skip  the fine prints and call it a day (the demo clip is also pretty much self-explanatory).

*One more thing to add is that not only they did a significant change on the hardware front, but they also did some changes on the software front. They modified the Android OS to make it a more gesture-based OS. That make me wonder if it is possible to port other emerging gesture-centric linux OS into this phone.

I really hope this phone is a hit, not so much because it is a great idea that deserves much of the success but mostly because it will make those major phone manufacturers wake the hell up and once again start making phones that people actually want to buy .