Ortwin Regel wrote: >> >> Reading these posts of the last few days it has just occurred to me >> that it's not Carsten we should be beating up on here. >> Who the heck asked for translucency and flashy animations? >> >> Management seem to be asking for this "alpha" bleeding rubbish, and >> it seems to me that we users need to be telling management that we >> don't care a heck for it. >> >> Sure, I know the iPhone does this now, but that doesn't mean Openmoko >> has to do it. Do we really want Openmoko to be just another iPhone >> clone? I know we see a fair number of posts on here about the iPhone, >> but surely that's just a result of the current buzz - is UI animation >> really a *necessity* in the long-term (or medium-term) future of the >> mobile phone market? >> >> DISCLAIMER: I haven't used an iPhone, and I'm not terribly interested >> in it. I do use a Mac as my main desktop, but that's not for the >> animation, it's because I want something that "just works" when I sit >> down at my computer. All us Mac fans found Expose to be a *massive* >> UI improvement when it was released, but that's because virtual >> desktops have always been rubbish on a Mac - with so many windows on >> a single desktop *some* way of finding the bottom-most one was >> required. The other day I was talking to a Linux developer who turned >> off compiz on his desktop because it slowed down his productivity - >> you simply don't need Expose if you have virtual desktops (which >> admittedly are not suitable for my granny). >> >> It seems to me that, whilst the iPhone's animation may "wow" people, >> what really distinguishes the iPhone is the same attention to UI >> simplicity that Apple have always brought to their products. It does >> a FEW things amazingly well, and that's where it separates itself >> from the majority of phones on the market, none of which *quite* suit >> the mass-market of users. Most users don't want to understand the >> filesystem on their mobile phone, so Apple do away with it; Apple >> have made it spectacularly easy (so much so that one must include in >> the discussion the word "intuitive") to email a photo taken on the >> camera or grabbed from a webpage, but they make it impossible to >> email attachments under many other circumstances. The majority of >> users don't want to copy & paste text on their mobile phones, so >> Apple just got rid of it - other manufacturers "muddy up" the phones >> they aim at girls and little old ladies (excuse me) by including the >> ability to copy & paste; Apple have realised that only a minority of >> business-phone users want or need that. >> >> The Neo & Freerunner have both been "smartphones", and that's surely >> the interest that draws Linux users to this list. We want to be able >> to shell into our unix servers, read PDFs and so on. The idea of an >> open phone fires our imagination because we can integrate our >> contacts from our LDAP servers and our diary with an iCal server, we >> can do whatever the heck we want with Openmoko - we want to ADD >> features, not remove them. >> >> In the context of that, does animation and transparency matter? Heck >> no! We want a phone that displays text & icons on the screen, and as >> long as the phone does that quick enough, we don't want you wasting >> resources on trying to make the "experience" more flashy. >> >> There has been mention in these threads about the screen requirements >> of smaller phones. I can only conclude from this that FIC are >> planning to leverage their experience in building smartphone hardware >> in order to break into to the larger market of small "girlie" and >> "soccer mom" phones. Fine, but please don't do this at the expense of >> your smartphone market. Honestly, I don't see how you can do this >> well, without castrating your power-phone offerings. >> >> Parts of this conversation have focussed on making a "use case" for >> VGA screens, but please, FIC management, make a use case for >> transparency and flashy animations before having Carsten work on it. >> Whilst I was writing an Apple spam arrived here, promoting today's >> new iPhone announcement - I clicked on the link to iSteve's >> presentation. The "enterprise" take-up from Fortune 500 companies was >> surely impressive, but this leverage is because of Exchange- >> compatibility and all the features that OS X gives to the iPhone for >> free, not the flashy animations. This is where Openmoko can compete. >> >> I could write a lot, LOT more here, >> >> Stroller. >> >> I second this.
Rob _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community