Re: Moblin-based mediaphone
 

The Intel Ultra Mobility event @ Computex came and went.

One screen previewed 5 upcoming Intel-based MID devices:

http://www.midmoves.com/wp-content/u...6/img-9437.jpg

And the details in plain text in case the picture vanishes:

[removed to protect the innocent from despicable marketspeak; look at the picture at your own peril ;) ]

Re: Moblin-based mediaphone
 

Well, indeed, we haven't seen actually much public (or anything interesting really to be precise) of the Maemo 5 UI except the very basic wire frame layout. All the good things such as the multitasking, status area, themes, and desktop window enhancements have been removed based on my request in the SDK. The purpose of the SDK is to allow developers to build their innovation. The purpose of SDK is not to show the UI innovation of Maemo 5. You will see the Maemo 5 UI in its entire glory when the lead device is launched. So, comparisons between Maemo 5 SDK UI images and Moblin v2.0 UI are not even comparisons between apples and pears. We haven't shown even yet how the apple looks like. ;)

Re: Moblin-based mediaphone
 

Maybe not the thread for it but could you, from a marketing position, explain why exposing only a subset of the final UI is good for marketing? Is it to produce more of a 'bang' when the final UI is shown or something else?

I bring this up as it seems there is this stance where there should be a lot of secrecy about what the final product will be. From the Maemo Summit last year (not being able to record one of the sessions) to not allowing photos of the developer prototypes at the Danish get-together, it seems there is a good reason for this but I'm not sure I understand it.

Just trawl the pages of Engadget and you will see many a prototype long before its released. If there is adequate explanation that what the reader is seeing is 'work in progress' then you do not see the 'hey this is the next Nokia tablet' comments, you get more of 'here's an early prototype of the new Nokia tablet'.

Re: Moblin-based mediaphone
 

Short explanation about the motivation: you never have a second chance to make a first impression. And for mobile computers such as the Internet Tablets, the screen is obviously rather big and, therefore, a lot of the value of the experience is derived from the UI. Another obvious reason is to keep copycats away as long as possible. And lastly, you always need to balance early excitement versus influencing your existing sales.

Re: Moblin-based mediaphone
 

Not to mention that showing the UI now builds expectations about "it will have new features X, Y, and Z! ooh I love feature X, I'm in love with feature X!!!" .... and then at the last minute they find out that X has such a horrendous bug that they have to pull back on that feature.

But, doing so causes all of the people who fell in love with feature X to become disappointed with the final release ... even though they never had feature X in their hands, and they're still getting new features Y and Z. So, showing feature X before the product was ready only served to create disappointment in the final product ... no matter how great the product was, otherwise.

The more you release about the final product, before you're ready, the more you're committing to the form of that final product ... before you've actually finalized it. That's basically painting yourself into a corner. Then any changes you want to make become PR issues, instead of internal engineering/marketing refinements.

That actually goes for the hardware too.

Re: Moblin-based mediaphone
 

Looks appealing maybe for a 6-9" netbook, but people will cry if you try to put that UI - as is - on a <4" touch screen.

Re: Moblin-based mediaphone
 

i guess my new favorite game's called "tickling peter" :)

i remember the last time i was involved in a thread discussing "have we seen all of maemo 5 ui or is there more to come?", my remark that there simply has to be more based on technical information we have was met with some hostility later. (along the lines of "how dare you not be impresssed? you're not even a developer")

nice to read your post, peter. ;)


peter, i beg you never show us anything that remotely resembles an apple. ;)

about the comparison: i could still be fooled by your information strategy, but what seems to be obvious is that maemo5 - no matter what exactly it looks like - is a step away from the desktop feeling of current and prior maemo versions. (this impression is based more on the HIG than on any code.) moblin otoh looks very much like a full-blown desktop, the only difference being a home screen that you may like or not.this is what i find appealing about moblin, not any cosmetics that we haven't seen yet on maemo. (i think they even have "cancel"-buttons over at intel's ;) ...)

Re: Moblin-based mediaphone
 

i'm not "people". i'm somebody who fell in love with the 770 because it had a full desktop on a 4" screen. i did already cry when the big menus and fat scrollbars destroyed this with their "finger-friendliness".

so from that background i think you'll understand that the current moblin UI on the 4.5"-5" screen i'm hoping for would be pure porn for me. :) - read my "appealing" above this way.

Re: Moblin-based mediaphone
 

Soylent Green is "people".

Even the 770 was heavily non-full desktop. We optimized heavily, from having only one window on screen at the same time to basically redoing every UI on the device. nothing from "the full desktop", in terms of UI, could be utilized directly.

Ok, so this is just my personal opinion here: The full desktop experience is really great, on a full desktop. Trying to emulate the full desktop experience on something which is very far from being a full desktop will only leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.

Naturally people have different definitions on what is a "full desktop experience". Being able to install applications, to multitask etc. are all of course very good parts of the experience. But in terms of the UI I fail to see why emulating the desktop UI would be a good idea on a non-desktop device. The UI should suit the device in question.

Naturally it's also a curve. There are already 10-12" display laptops running OSX or Windows, somehow ok. The Moblin UI is clearly designed for the MID screen sizes, looks quite right for 6-9".

I don't think it would be an impossible task to try to design an UI style that would scale from 3" to 9", but at least the current Moblin 2.0 UI, as in the screenshots on the site right now, does not do it.

Re: Moblin-based mediaphone
 

oh how i hate this marketingspeak meme...