On Fri, 2007-09-07 at 12:35 -0700, Ted Lemon wrote: > On Sep 7, 2007, at 11:27 AM, Andreas Utterberg wrote: > > What the v2 neo needs is a nice oi, the best would be if its > > possible to add compiz fusion, beryl effects to it. That would > > really boost the interest to the mass, just look at the development > > speed to the berylproject had, and the very big community around it > > in a very short amount of time. > > I like cool effects as much as the next guy. But what the phone > needs is a really good UI. To sell against the iPhone it needs to > be as good a value proposition as the iPhone. Doesn't necessarily > have to be better, but has to be as good, and it also has to be > different. For me, right now, it's already better, because the > iPhone isn't open. But for an average person, what's going to make > the value proposition work is that it does the things they want their > phone to do nicely, transparently. Frankly, we are many person- > years of coding away from that right now. > > At a minimum, we need: > > - It's got to actually work as a mobile phone. > - At least several hours of H.264 playback. > - A good music app, ideally tied in to the Amazon/Universal store. > - Smart connectivity - connecting up bluetooth devices has to be > easy, and sensing and connecting to known WiFi networks has to be > seamless and automatic. > - Mobile Safari-like web browsing - that is, you get to see the whole > web page, and you can expand and contract the image. > - Leverage the GPS to do things the iPhone doesn't do. > > Most of this is self-explanatory, but just a couple of notes. > > Remember that a touch screen is not the same as a mouse - you have a > lot of built-in positional cues when using a touchscreen that a mouse > UI has to *show* you. One example of this in the Neo UI that's > already been adopted is kinetic scrolling. Another thing that the > iPhone UI has that we don't is shrink and grow. > > Since we don't have multitouch, we can't do shrink and grow the way > that the iPhone does. The way I would do it is to designate an area > of the screen to be the size zone. Maybe the bottom. When you > hold and drag in the size zone, it shrinks or grows the view. So > hold and drag to the left, and the view zooms out. Hold and drag to > the right, and the view zooms in. The new GPU ought to make this > possible. I think this is more important than any of the stuff i've > seen demoed in compiz/beryl. I don't understand why the compiz/ > beryl people spend so much effort on window dressing. But maybe I'm > missing the point - I've never actually run the stuff, just seen the > online demos, none of which have ever impressed me. Sigh. > > As far as leveraging the GPS, something like a remotely-updateable > locational todo list would be smart. Say you go out to pick up > groceries. At home, your sweetie remembers that you need more tp. > No problem - she updates the todo list for the supermarket you're > going to. When you get there, the phone bleeps with your complete > shopping list - the stuff that was already on it, and the tp that was > just added. > > You're making coffee, and you notice that you're almost out. You > select the local coffee roaster and put in a note that you need > more. The next day, you're at the Indian restaurant a mile away, > which is relatively close in your milieu, and it bleeps to tell you > to stop at the coffee shop on the way home. Or, if you're a New > Yorker, it bleeps when you wander by the store. Proximity depends > on your milieu. Extra credit for locational milieu sensing. > > Another app - you have a list of friends, and your phone and theirs > share information at a common site somewhere. You can update your > drop-in-ability - when you've got dropins available, your friends' > phones will all tell them if they are near you. If you're trying to > meet your friend who has a Neo, you both tell your neos to be on the > lookout for the other, or to give you a running positional > commentary, and using that, you plot a course toward each other and > meet. > > These are things the iPhone doesn't do, so they create a new value > proposition that makes the Neo competitive. > > Another thing that would really change the Neo value proposition for > me is that I'm afraid to put it in my pocket because of the > touchscreen, and the carry bag we got with our Neos is (a) completely > artificial and stinky and (b) has too much padding, so it's too big > to use. The Neo needs a protective case. > >
All this sounds really good, but am I wrong when I say that the GPS has been cancelled for GTA02? Best Regards, Jens _______________________________________________ OpenMoko community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
