<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">I third this (if that is even how you say it...)<br><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">----- Original Message ----<br>From: Robert Taylor <robtaylor@tinsputnik.com><br>To: List for Openmoko community discussion <community@lists.openmoko.org><br>Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 10:49:21 PM<br>Subject: Re: QVGA V/s VGA for GTA03 - product management, features & assumptions<br><br>
Ortwin Regel wrote:<br>>><br>>> Reading these posts of the last few days it has just occurred to me<br>>> that it's not Carsten we should be beating up on here.<br>>> Who the heck asked for translucency and flashy animations?<br>>><br>>> Management seem to be asking for this "alpha" bleeding rubbish, and<br>>> it seems to me that we users need to be telling management that we<br>>> don't care a heck for it.<br>>><br>>> Sure, I know the iPhone does this now, but that doesn't mean Openmoko<br>>> has to do it. Do we really want Openmoko to be just another iPhone<br>>> clone? I know we see a fair number of posts on here about the iPhone,<br>>> but surely that's just a result of the current buzz - is UI animation<br>>> really a *necessity* in the long-term (or medium-term) future of the<br>>> mobile phone market?<br>>><br>>> DISCLAIMER: I haven't used an
iPhone, and I'm not terribly interested<br>>> in it. I do use a Mac as my main desktop, but that's not for the<br>>> animation, it's because I want something that "just works" when I sit<br>>> down at my computer. All us Mac fans found Expose to be a *massive*<br>>> UI improvement when it was released, but that's because virtual<br>>> desktops have always been rubbish on a Mac - with so many windows on<br>>> a single desktop *some* way of finding the bottom-most one was<br>>> required. The other day I was talking to a Linux developer who turned<br>>> off compiz on his desktop because it slowed down his productivity -<br>>> you simply don't need Expose if you have virtual desktops (which<br>>> admittedly are not suitable for my granny).<br>>><br>>> It seems to me that, whilst the iPhone's animation may "wow" people,<br>>> what really distinguishes the iPhone is the same
attention to UI<br>>> simplicity that <a target="_blank" href="http://www.apple.com/">Apple</a> have always brought to their products. It does<br>>> a FEW things amazingly well, and that's where it separates itself<br>>> from the majority of phones on the market, none of which *quite* suit<br>>> the mass-market of users. Most users don't want to understand the<br>>> filesystem on their mobile phone, so Apple do away with it; Apple<br>>> have made it spectacularly easy (so much so that one must include in<br>>> the discussion the word "intuitive") to email a photo taken on the<br>>> camera or grabbed from a webpage, but they make it impossible to<br>>> email attachments under many other circumstances. The majority of<br>>> users don't want to copy & paste text on their mobile phones, so<br>>> Apple just got rid of it - other manufacturers "muddy up" the phones<br>>> they aim at
girls and little old ladies (excuse me) by including the<br>>> ability to copy & paste; Apple have realised that only a minority of<br>>> business-phone users want or need that.<br>>><br>>> The Neo & Freerunner have both been "smartphones", and that's surely<br>>> the interest that draws Linux users to this list. We want to be able<br>>> to shell into our unix servers, read PDFs and so on. The idea of an<br>>> open phone fires our imagination because we can integrate our<br>>> contacts from our LDAP servers and our diary with an iCal server, we<br>>> can do whatever the heck we want with Openmoko - we want to ADD<br>>> features, not remove them.<br>>><br>>> In the context of that, does animation and transparency matter? Heck<br>>> no! We want a phone that displays text & icons on the screen, and as<br>>> long as the phone does that quick enough, we don't want
you wasting<br>>> resources on trying to make the "experience" more flashy.<br>>><br>>> There has been mention in these threads about the screen requirements<br>>> of smaller phones. I can only conclude from this that FIC are<br>>> planning to leverage their experience in building smartphone hardware<br>>> in order to break into to the larger market of small "girlie" and<br>>> "soccer mom" phones. Fine, but please don't do this at the expense of<br>>> your smartphone market. Honestly, I don't see how you can do this<br>>> well, without castrating your power-phone offerings.<br>>><br>>> Parts of this conversation have focussed on making a "use case" for<br>>> VGA screens, but please, FIC management, make a use case for<br>>> transparency and flashy animations before having Carsten work on it.<br>>> Whilst I was writing an Apple spam arrived here, promoting
today's<br>>> new iPhone announcement - I clicked on the link to iSteve's<br>>> presentation. The "enterprise" take-up from Fortune 500 companies was<br>>> surely impressive, but this leverage is because of Exchange-<br>>> compatibility and all the features that OS X gives to the iPhone for<br>>> free, not the flashy animations. This is where Openmoko can compete.<br>>><br>>> I could write a lot, LOT more here,<br>>><br>>> Stroller.<br>>><br>>> <br>I second this.<br><br>Rob<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Openmoko community mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:community@lists.openmoko.org" href="mailto:community@lists.openmoko.org">community@lists.openmoko.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community" target="_blank">http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community</a><br></div></div></div><br>
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