it drives me nuts!
why do phones have the keys upside down? its the other way up from just about every keyboard and all calculators, ever since they started making them. and calculators were there first, at that time, phones had rotary dials.
when i dial, it only takes a momentary lapse of concentration and suddenly the rest of the digits are dialled upside down and i get a wrong call.
can someone make an inverted model please?-- barkinghugh, Jul 11 2003 information from the Straight Dope (a syndicated newspaper column) http://www.straight...bag/mphonedial.html [snarfyguy, Oct 04 2004] Huh? The numbers are the right way up on my phone. It's the keyboard that has it wrong.
(Since I exclusively dial numbers from telephone keypads, and only enter financial data on numeric keypads, my brain has never had trouble switching between the two layouts. I guess if you did a lot of dialing from the keyboard, it could be problematical.)-- DrCurry, Jul 11 2003 I suppose it's because in the old (rotary) days, the 9 and 0 were the "hardest" numbers to dial, since they were at the far end of the rotary. So they built the touch tone keypad the same way, with 9 and 0 at the bottom.
Really, I think it should be 5 4 3 6 9 2 7 8 1 . 0
...but you know I've always had strange ideas about keypads...-- phundug, Jul 11 2003 I think it's more likely that a marketing executive decided that the computer keypad was upside down and rearranged the keys in numerical order. Remember computers weren't quite as widespread in those days.
Has anyone else noticed that moble phones are upside down? I would find them much easier to use if the screen were at the bottom with the keypad above. If you have one that's not some diddy little christmas cracker star trek communicator type thing, try it. The keys fall within easy reach of the thumb, without having to strain uncomfortably. On mine, the shape fits into the hand better too.-- egbert, Jul 11 2003 See link for information on phone / computer keypad disharmony.-- snarfyguy, Jul 11 2003 I wish I could have a calculator style phone, specifically RPN. I have an easier time remembering names than numbers, and I suspect this is a neurotypical tendency. Often I see a name and number on a truck, a t-shirt, a billboard or other noise origination point. It would be nice to be able to start entering digits immediately and then press some postfix "new #" key followed by the name and some postfix "new mn" key or some such thing.-- LoriZ, Jul 12 2003 [egbert], I don't understand the logic in having the keypad above the screen on a mobile phone. If you were to do that, the base of your thumb would obscure the screen most of the time, wouldn't it?
I imagine the reason for having the lower digits above the higher ones on the mobile is that the lower digits are going to be used more frequently, and therefore are placed nearer the menu keys (which are in the centre of the unit, for comfort), to reduce the distance you need to move your thumb when typing and make strains less likely.
The lower keys are at the bottom of the keyboard simply because it's more comfortable to reach this part of the keyboard than the top, and again the lower digits are the ones you will use most often.
As for ordinary phones, I've never really noticed anything wrong with them. Maybe that's a sign that I'm quite happy with the way things are and I don't find any discomfort in the way the numbers are arranged. If you really find it that irritating, I imagine it wouldnt be too difficult to take your phone appart, fiddle around with the circuit a bit and rearrange your numbers.-- fshhhh, Jul 12 2003 Not even slightly original.-- waugsqueke, Jul 13 2003 why not just install a rotary dial on your mobile ? problem solved.-- neilp, Jul 15 2003 random, halfbakery