Everything and the Mobile Software Universe…

Seen on this french Blog: La vidéo 3D pour bientôt ? – Torréfaction

Ok, quite not ready to be embedded in a cellphone … but this is futur!

iF Design iF details view: The Black Box Concept:





What I especially like is the “no button” design (like an ipod , or a LG chocolate) : The whole User interaction is software , yummy

Thanks moPocket for the video!

Ok it Seems a little bit SciFi for now, but after all look at the VK 2020 or the latest korean “card size” phone are not so distant (ok appart the flexibility ).
But what is even more surprising is the software depicted in the video : it is adapting to the user and any context … so far from our little applications and their static icones, a BIG step further compared to the previous post about live UI.

found here : bLaugh » Archive » Cell Phone Overkill

Really this is happening…our customer (phone manufacturers) are asking for features that even us, as geeky as we are, don’t know how to use! (found again via the Kathy Sierra: http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/ )

This shows also that voice is and continue to be the “killer app”…of a phone (how bizarre how bizarre). The industry is truggling to find a new one (camera is a good idea, I like the concept of “personal data gatherer”).

My guess is that a “one fit all user device” (as in the PC land) is really simply irrelevant : see the latest SonyEricsson offering, see how many segments you have for cell phones, opposed to the PC market:

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As a proud gadget geek, I’ve got my first palm (a palm III) when I was still a student: at this time in France it was more of a geek oddity than the cool and fashionable gadget for young executives it was in the US. (things have changed, and now in France or US it is no more than a “has never been” gadget )
I was REALLY using it, for all my contacts and all those tiddibits of information one needs to acced/enter anytime. Then I grow up, I began to work with a wifi notebook and above all a cellphone was always in my pocket: my beloved palm Tungsten 3 had been downgraded to a poor game boy like device…And one inspired day I bought a Treo 650 on eBay.
I’m really amazed by this device:

• The keyboard is BRILLIANT, fast, precise: I can really use it to enter data (like this post, or above all ideas/todos).
• It is a phone…so it is CONNECTED email, sms, web all in one package, in comparison my bluetooth phone + my tungsten T3 was a lame package (The treo phone part is good enough to forget easily my K700i).
• And above all it is COOL&FUN to use it

The key part of the equation is that I’ve became addicted to my own adapted (rather simple) GTD methodology, and the treo, as a great data gathering and consulting device really makes the whole thing …hum…should I say efficient?
A next action to add/change/mark as complete…treo. A whiteboard to be saved after a meeting…take a picture with the treo. A new idea that will revolutionize the whole world (hey a boy also can dream)…add a todo or note in the treo.A quick mail check/send…treo.
I’ll describe more precisely my GTD implementation in another, long term due, post.
Anyway I’ve came up with few downsides:

• The treo is far from being as thin as my K700i, and you look like a kind of goldorak/bioman/power ranger with this small brick on your ear … Now I really use my bluetooth headset
• If you have a good keyboard…it is easier to write messages…my sms plan has exploded.
• If you have a good browser/mail app and it is easy and quick to be connected….your data plan, like mine, will explode
• Add/test/remove/configure applications … Procastination takes a looooong time, but it is sooooo fun (more on my treo setup in yet another post)

So for now I use my treo everytime, for everything… Did I say waiting for the next gadget? Anyway I really feel this time I USE my gadget, I’m not only PLAYING with it…perhaps after all I’m really growing up…brrrr…frightening isn’t it?

Ok, I use it for a few months now with a 1Go San Disk SD card Ultra II, a wedding, our holidays many many shots … (see the family blog for shots)

• Battery life : impressive, the first quality of this model.
• Move recording : why by a camcorder??? really great movies.
• FAST,FAST and FAST
• Advance mode (ie video recording runs in background and it keeps 5s of film BEFORE your press the record button, you never miss this lovely baby smile…)
• Did I say it was FAST ?
• Flash is OK, not perfect…..
• Autofocus : correct … but FAST

So this is a great one! costs around 300 euros now, my father and three of my (pretty techy) friends had bought one, and are all quite happy. Bravo Casio, you’ve won an happy customer!

Thomas