> I actually think a PDA environment is a possible good use for Étoilé... > And in any case a "knowledge infrastructure" would be a great thing to > have, > obviously. It's also not a simple problem ;-) but well..
I've also been thinking a lot about this environment and problems in this space that need to be solved. It seems to me that wireless devices will more and more assume the role that laptops have occupied, and will be used more and more for general computing tasks. Looking at the increased capabilities of cell phones, and devices like the ZipIt (for IM) and the Nokia 770 (for web, email, IM, media consumption), and some of the new mobile/social technologies that are being released (such as Dodgeball), this seems like a great space to be looking towards and doing some forward thinking on. I think Nicolas is onto something here. Open source is already playing a huge role in embedded devices: how can we tailor the development of Etoile so that it can be integrated into these increasingly-relevant platforms? Some topics to consider: Text input methods: Texting on a cell phone is horribly slow. Narcoleptic Electron and I were throwing around ideas for alternate methods of text input on a handheld device. We've come up with a few thoughts -- they might be something that could be utilized, if anyone wants to discuss further. Screen real estate: How can we overcome screen boundaries so that a phone or a PDA could be used for more generalized computing tasks. As of now, I can't imagine doing image or video editing on a cell phone -- what would need to happen to devices to make that a reality? Are there software solutions here? While Nicolas and I seem to agree that this is a good direction to for Etoile to move in, does anyone else have any thoughts or ideas on whether we should chase this or not? J.
