IPhone and Open GL

Alan Fraser

Remus, yes, I realise you're referring to iPhone V2, but I doubt very much that it can do it cheaper....or that it's anything like as good at emailing It doesn't have Push email for a start. It might have soon...at extra cost...via Mobile Me, but that is some way off yet. Right now a BB can do this built-in.
The new iPhone still can't send multimedia messages, voice dial, take video, cut and paste or Bluetooth to anything other than its own headphones...some of the reasons I didn't buy the original. By contrast, the BB connection to other devices is as simple as it is superb.

Personally, I don't see it as an either/or. I think the next few years will see the rise of the smartphone at the expense of the ordinary mobile/cellphone. And I think that both RIM and Apple are both set to expand massively, with other companies falling by the wayside. Motorola has already crashed and burnt in this sector and it wouldn't surprise me if the market leader, Nokia, was about to take a massive hit despite its excellent products (and cheapness vs Apple).

I know Apple makes a big deal of its popularity and coolness, but the plain fact is that in the last quarter more BBs were sold to the "consumer" sector alone (disregarding RIM's massive corporate user base) than the total number of all iPhone sales in the same period...and that's in spite of all the hype surrounding anything Apple-scented.

They are both excellent systems, in their different ways, that will keep getting more excellent. It's just that the BB is better suited to what I require in terms of telecoms. Basically, iPhones are getting a little more BlackBerry-like, with improved business enterprise features; at the same time Blackberries are becoming more populist with all the usual bells and whistles. At some point they are likely to become virtually indistinguishable...but right now BlackBerry is the only system that will allow me to chill-out beside some pool in the Greek Islands yet still allow me to email and surf...even allow me to approve models onto the FormFonts site... without racking-up any extras at all to my comparatively modest monthly billing plan.

Back to the original point, I'd still rather run even a sawn-off version of SU on a device that was both larger than a smartphone and that wasn't subject to all the vagaries of the telecom service, or on a device that one felt compelled to upgrade every 18 moths or so.

Daniel

I recently bought an iPod Touch, which is dimensionally similar to the iPhone. I can access the internet on it, but the screen is so small, I find it useless. So I cannot see using SU on a device that small. Just think of the toolbars alone - they'd be itty-bitty, or you'd have to keep opening and closing them.

remus

Alan, you didnt mention any of those features (in the same detail) in your original post (to which i was refering.) But as you wisely said, back on topic!

Daniel, i too have an ipod touch, although i dont find browsing the internet too bad. Similarly i reckon viewing SU models would proabbly be ok as well, although as you said i tihnk a fully fledged model-altering version would have to have a brilliant UI (that didnt leave any buttons on screen), otherewise it would be unworkable. So being realistic, i dont think its too much to ask for a skp viewer.

bellwells

From our mouths to some programmers ears.....

igor

and hopefuly not out the programer's other ear.
as i mentioned before, i devised a way to view SU models on the iphone/ ipod touch (not an "iTouch", i hate it when people call it that). using one finger on the screen to orbit, two fingers moving together to pan and a pinching motion to zoom. simple, right?

bellwells

Simple idea indeed. Like you said, the basic commands would be orbit, pan and zoom. Any visible touch-commands would just take up valuable screen real estate.

I wonder if the accelerometer feature could be used for orbit and zoom. Turn left/right to orbit left/right and tilt forward/back to zoom in/out. The problem with this would be controlling the amount of movement to achieve the desired effect. Using your fingers, as you suggest, might allow for a greater degree of control.

plot-paris

and use double tab either

for "fit screen" or
for showing up some menue buttons.
which one is better?

oh, and moving your finger out of the frame (like sliding to the next image at a picture show) to switch between scenes! great...

igor

no, i think it would still count that as orbiting. maybe tap onve to bring up prev/next controls, no editing menus.

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