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jgh | karma 2139 | avg karma 3.1 · 2017-09-12 18:44:01+00:00

It's almost always been true. Think back to the early iPhone days when they didn't even have cut & paste!

Apple has always done a good job of really refining features, but I'm not certain I can think of one that they were first on.

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oneeyedpigeon | karma 7765 | avg karma 2.34 · 2017-09-12 18:46:11+00:00

First keyboard-less tablet?

redial | karma 1984 | avg karma 3.88 · 2017-09-12 18:58:09

There were many before. There was even a mac keyboard-less tablet years before the iPhone, just not made by Apple.

seanmcdirmid | karma 34701 | avg karma 1.77 · 2017-09-12 18:55:36

First use of capacitive touch on a smart phone (or anything consumer for that matter), the original iPhone really was a big deal with lots of firsts.

redial | karma 1984 | avg karma 3.88 · 2017-09-12 18:59:10+00:00

First to integrate them on a product category maybe, but multitouch was not invented by them.

seanmcdirmid | karma 34701 | avg karma 1.77 · 2017-09-12 19:08:20+00:00

Ok, what consumer device had capacitive touch before the iPhone. You just gotta name one! I'm pretty tired of these smug ignorant attitudes, this isn't reddit.

Also, I stated capacitive, not multitouch, if that is meant a strawman.

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mikeash | karma 74524 | avg karma 3.52 · 2017-09-12 19:15:14+00:00

FingerWorks? Looks like they had a bunch of multitouch products starting in 1998. Probably not coincidentally, their technology was acquired by Apple in 2005.

sorenjan | karma 6439 | avg karma 4.7 · 2017-09-12 19:19:58+00:00

LG Prada.

Neonode N1 had a different kind of touch screen (not resistive), but share a lot of features with the iPhone as well.

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seanmcdirmid | karma 34701 | avg karma 1.77 · 2017-09-12 19:24:59

Ok, I stand corrected. Looks like it was capacitive even if it didn't support gestures (single touch only).

FireBeyond | karma 18718 | avg karma 2.51 · 2017-09-12 19:43:34

Come on, now.

"I didn't mention multitouch, answer my question!"

"Oh, you're right. But it didn't have multitouch!"

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seanmcdirmid | karma 34701 | avg karma 1.77 · 2017-09-13 02:03:36+00:00

Yes. So...the iPhone is irrelevant because it didn't match some nerd first feature list.

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

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abirkill | karma 130 | avg karma 3.1 · 2017-09-12 19:32:32+00:00

If you're simply looking for capacitive touch in a consumer environment, then there are a great many. Simple capacitive touch sensors to replace physical push-buttons were widely seen in the 80s, I remember using them on elevators, and built one myself as a child.

Capacitive touch sensors that registered an X/Y position rather than a simple on/off state were also common in laptop touchpads from around the mid to late 90s. The iPod introduced a capacitive touch wheel to replace the click wheel in their second-generation model, released in 2002.

There were various capacitive touchscreen display devices around before the iPhone, but probably the most relevant to your query (and one of the most well-known, due to its similarity to the first iPhone's technology) was the LG Prada, a phone with a capacitive touch-screen announced about 6 months before the iPhone.

The thing with the iPhone's touchscreen wasn't that the technology was particularly revolutionary -- sure, if you combine enough words together, then you can make the argument that the iPhone was probably the first mass-consumed capacitive multi-touch hand-held consumer device, but you can remove any of those words and it was no longer the first. The revolutionary aspect of the iPhone was, in my opinion, the software that allowed the device to be controlled with the relative imprecision of a finger, rather than a stylus. The actual hardware to process the touch inputs was at best evolutionary, not revolutionary.

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seanmcdirmid | karma 34701 | avg karma 1.77 · 2017-09-12 19:39:56

I stand corrected. The Prada predates the iPhone by 6 months with capacitive single touch screen. I guess I got angry in my hasty reply; it was a combination of things.

jgh | karma 2139 | avg karma 3.1 · 2017-09-12 19:18:49+00:00

Yes I will concede that the original iPhone was a game changer in terms of new features. However once smartphone competition picked up Apple (rightly, in my mind) mostly sat back and refined features others had tried before.

seanmcdirmid | karma 34701 | avg karma 1.77 · 2017-09-12 19:20:11+00:00

Ya, I never claimed otherwise.

vilmosi | karma 670 | avg karma 1.33 · 2017-09-12 19:46:22

I'm not really sure what's there to refine about copy and paste though...