Sounds like an interesting idea. Perhaps a gesture could be used to swap, not sure how you would make that clear to a user though.<br><br>I need to carve out some coding time :S <br><br>-Pete<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">
On 12/08/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Derek Pressnall</b> <<a href="mailto:dpressnall@gmail.com">dpressnall@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
One of the things that I've found on most pda-phones/smartphones is<br>that they make the phone capabilities feel like just another<br>application. But when you want to use the device as a phone, it would<br>be nice for the rest of the features to melt into the background. The
<br>Motorola A780 does this nicely; it is a pda-phone when the flip is<br>opened, but with the flip closed it becomes a regular feature-phone.<br><br>So, that gives me an idea for UI layout. First, have the interface<br>
support two virtual desktops, most likely via the window manager. The<br>primary desktop (PDA desktop) would remain how OpenMoko has it<br>currently laid out. The second desktop (PHONE desktop), however,<br>should resemble the face of a normal phone. The bottom half (or two
<br>thirds, whatever) of the screen would have a permanent phone keypad<br>displayed (the keypad app), includuding directional buttons and<br>several special-purpose buttons (answer/disconnect, function-A,<br>function-B, Menu, OK, etc.). Any application running in the Phone
<br>desktop would only be able to write to the window in the upper part of<br>the screen, and they would receive their input through the keypad app<br>runnin in the bottom. The keypad app could have an API so that apps<br>
can request that certain keys be re-labled when that app is in the<br>forground, but other than that the keypad would always display a<br>similar layout for any running app. This would enforce a consistant<br>feel among the various apps.
<br><br>Now any app that wants to use the secondary Phone desktop would have<br>to be specifically coded for it; I'm thinking that apps such as the<br>Dialer would be running in the background, and have an active<br>connection to the Phone desktop along with the PDA desktop. The list
<br>of apps that should have Phone desktop capabilities would include the<br>Dialer, SMS/Email, Media player, Calculator.<br><br>Also, I haven't decided what the best method of switching between<br>desktops should be -- should a common button that appears in both
<br>desktops toggle between the two, or should there be two buttons that<br>appear on each desktop, at opposite sides of the screen, so that you<br>know that hitting the lower left corner of the display will always<br>bring up the Phone desktop (even if it is already displayed). Or
<br>maybe have one of the hardware buttons assigned to this task.<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>OpenMoko community mailing list<br><a href="mailto:community@lists.openmoko.org">community@lists.openmoko.org
</a><br><a href="http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community">http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community</a><br></blockquote></div><br>