2007/8/12, Derek Pressnall <<a href="mailto:dpressnall@gmail.com">dpressnall@gmail.com</a>>:<div><span class="gmail_quote"></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.</blockquote><div><br>I'm in agreement with all what quoted above,
and for obtain this I think that must be implemented at least three
things: Multitouch screen, Tactile feedback via buzzer, and a good
input method like these: <a href="http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Wishlist:Text_Input#New_input_methods" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Wishlist:Text_Input#New_input_methods
</a>
(for me finger splash could be very good). Substantially, IMHO the
"finger use" of principal functions of the phone joined with a good
text input interface is basically for the real usability of the
terminal as a phone.
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