There are a lot of advantages to a larger touchscreen, including making the UI easier to interact with because the hit areas can be larger. The biggest drawback is power use, though displays are becoming significantly more efficient (take a look at the LG Nova, for instance). The other would-be drawback is loss of portability, but consider this: The Evo 4G is only about seven millimeters wider and taller than the iPhone 4 despite having a screen that is 4.3″ vs. 3.5″ diagonally. So why wouldn’t Apple increase the screen size of the iPhone?

There are several reasons, most of which are obvious. The appearance has been roughly the same since the first version, so it’s easily recognizable. The smaller screen gives the iPhone longer battery life (particularly with how efficient the iPhone 4 screen is). The iPhone also has a higher percentage of female users who are more likely to have small hands (of course, they could offer more than one screen size, but that’s unlikely).

The reason that I don’t think is as obvious is the lack of a hardware back button, which is probably counterintuitive. Without a hardware back button, the iPhone could remove a lot of that wasted bezel (since you don’t need space for that physical button) and fit a much larger screen, but that’s a problem. The iPhone relies on software back buttons, which virtually every app implements, and the standard is to put them in the top left as a cancel or back button. If you’re using your phone with your right hand, that means stretching to the farthest corner of the device. When you’re looking at a screen that’s more than four inches diagonally, many people simply can’t stretch that far.

Contrast that with an Android phone where the back button is at the bottom (in portrait mode), so you can reach it easily. Phones are typically only a couple of inches wide, so the buttons are easily accessible regardless of how you’re holding the device. The screen can be 3″ or 5″ and not be affected.

Large tablets where your thumbs can’t reach across the device in portrait mode are a different matter and are much better candidates for on-screen buttons, so the buttons can be positioned close to where you actually hold the device (along the bottom of a given orientation). I’m excited to see how UI shifts as more and more tablets emerge, especially with the potential for a variety of operating systems.

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666"

You may need to run sudo reload udev and/or disconnect and reconnect the N1. Check adb devices again and hopefully you’ll see “HT9CSP123456 device” or similar.