UI metaphor collision... or not?

Person A >> Hmm.. I wonder why computer 'desktops' are covered with 'wallpapers', not with 'tablecloths'?

Person B >> You see, monitors are vertical, so tablecloths would not hold.

Source here

What's next for iPhone?

I have been watching Steve Jobs giving iPhone lauch Keynote 2007 and it just struck me - he was talking about Visual VoiceMail as "just an example" of "what's coming", and he assured the public that "this is just a first fruit" of cooperation between Apple Inc. and AT&T. He underscored that point, obviously it was important for him.

"The innovative Visual Voicemail feature lets you view all your voicemail messages at once, then listen to them in the order you prefer. Use the Play/Pause button to control playback of your voice messages. The scrubber bar even lets you replay portions of a message you find hard to understand"

In fact, the telecom industry, as a whole, has not been fast to adopt IT-led innovations, and Visual VoiceMail is not an exclusion from that.

(Reality Check: Of those coutries where iPhone is sold, how many have VVM now?)

It does not take much observation power to see that user services innovation rate is much slower in telecom than it is in IT. This only adds to user's attachment to the Intenet and aversion to mobile operator "innovations".

Nokia takes on that with it's Ovi services suite. But Ovi is completely IP-based.

Is there a space for innovation of telecom-based services?
Will Apple take lead in that?

As if that "left hook" from Apple's honcho was not enough, there was a second hidden punch, an uppercut done by Cingular's chief Stan Sigman who went on stage and, incidentally, talked on the same subject - how Apple innovated [their sleepy] telecom kingdom.
At about 6:30 down the show he talks about partnerships with Apple, and at 7:35 he mentions VisualVoiceMail, ominously uttering "and I promise - you'll see more of that coming down the road".

Now, hold on. WHAT could they mean?

Well, I have an idea.
It seems so that right now we are in need of "3G saviour", a killer app which would be the differentiator, a watershed, between old-style 2G networks and the new ones, "innovated and reinvigorated with some help of Apple Inc."
Of course, I hear you say, internet via 3G is so much faster!
Well, but WiFi on a 2G handset can give you better speed, not to talk of a wired computer.

And what about VideoCalls? "Yuck!", you'd say, "who needs those?"

Well, sure, like nobody "needed" internet on a handset before iPhone.
Remember, when there's no market, there's opportunity to create one - exactly Apple's business.

I'm very sure that further innovations in mobile networks must focus on this single feature - mobile video call.

First of all, video quality must be improved.
Current 3GPP codecs were developed during the 90s era - they are just pure crap by modern merits, even when compared to YouTube's FLV (Flash Video) compression.
Ripping and replacing them for H.264 or some proper codec would be the first great step to improve usage rate.
Of course, next comes into play the high usability of iPhone user interface.

If it's easy to use and the quality/price is great - people will use it.

Why would you not make a "killer app" (and a cash-cow) out of that?
iPhone could do it to mobile internet usage, it can do the same revenue increase with proper use of video calls.

It also takes some consideration to notice that video calls are of greater use to long-distance (like Paris/Rome tourists calling Moscow home) and business users (telecommuting, making it a corp policy to call workers with video).
While the former group makes it harder to implement (all CSPs must be capable to handle the new H.264 codecs), the latter group is much easier to harness (as was demonstrated by the Windows gang) - they are policy-driven. And policies are centralized...

Next gen iPhone would need a separate frontal camera for video call.
I was surprised when I did not see videocall demo by Steve at Keynote 2008, along with launch of iPhone 3G. There must be more to do, to be ready for such massive roll-out. New standards, RAN upgrades, new mobile phones...

Could this happen this year? Probably not, "thanks" to reduced budgets for innovations, worldwide.
But I secretly hope it's still in the iPhone's+AT&T roadmap.
Maybe LTE version?

Can't hold it, sorry. Have to share.

"Wisdom #403460" from bash.org.ru (Russian)

"Create a simpler user interface and the world will come up with dumber users"

One more exploit for Nokia 1208

As a follow-up to previous topic, here's another firmware defect on Nokia 1208.
Let's ironically call it "a longer way to reboot", or a "Nokian way of Ctrl+Alt+Del"?

Here's how to epxloit it:

1/ From the main screen, press Down button to go to Contacts
2/ Open any contact
3/ Press Down button to see contact Name, not number
4/ Select "Options" by pressing Left soft button
5/ Scroll down to "Copy Contact" and select it
6/ Press Back, as to cancel contact copy
7/ Now scroll to "Delete Contact" and select it

Boom, RESTART
Enjoy

Exploiting a Nokia 1208? Why not?

There are simple things you are almost always sure of. Water pipes, electricity, central heating, cell phones... Ooops!
Did I say "cell phones"? In fact, most often than not, you could find some ways to hinder its' performance. Even for the smallest ones, the dumbest ones.

Take Nokia 1208, for example.
Who'd ever think that this "flashlight" phone, running sub-par version (is it S20, I'm not sure) can be exploited?

Now, don't hold your breath, the exploit is purely local - only phone's user can do it.
It can not be said of as a "security breach", just a fun with firmware, an example of attention needed for thorough and rigorous testing.

You can cause stack overflow and phone restart with the following routine:

1/ Press "Menu", go to "Messages"






2/ Select "Message Settings"

3/ You will see 10 items, starting with "Info Service". Note the number 1 in upper right.

4/ You can scroll down all 10 items, and you will roll back at "Info Service", number one.

5/ Press "Select", then press "Back". Notice the scroller on the scroll bar became smaller!


6/ Now, if you keep scrolling down, you will start passing numbers 11, 12, 13 and so on. The list got duplicated as result of step 5.

7/ Repeat step 4, going into "Info Message" and back. Try scrolling down again, looking up numbers and notice the increasing thinness of the scroller.



8/ Once you have appended list 6 times, you will pass number 71 "Info Service".






9/ One step down and boom - your phone restarts. Enjoy.

Of course this is very geeky and who cares about such kind of "local exploit" but hey - just for your fun and info!
Firmware RH-105 v3.72

A Lifeblog integration tip

A while ago, I ranted about lack of integration between Lifeblog, Notes and Sound Recorder on my Nokia N95.

Turns out - half of those woes can be resolved by the user, although at the price of sound recording quality.

LifeBlog is able to pick up, show and transfer to PC Sound Recordings, but only those recorded in AMR format.

I don't mind a little bit more compression, as long as speaker's voice is loud enough to be legible.

Turning to Settings - Applications - Voice Recorder and tweaking File Type a little bit enables LifeBlog to recognize any new recordings. (depicted)
And so - they are backed up to PC via "bigger brother", LifeBlog on PC.

No more separate file-digging! (and there was NO syncing of recordings from PC Suite, either!)

Wonderful.

If only there was some hack to enable similar integration with Notes...
Anybody got a tip?

Wii are the champions

Checking up Nintendo Wii for a week (bought it as a gift, in advance).
First impression - it's very tightly built, very good quality of materials, all connectors connect very easily and they have easily understandable, not confusing outlines and forms, and all use different colors. Gives you a nice feel to setup such nicely-built system.

Starting up gives you tons of warnings - you must be over 18 to legally set it up. Otherwise, you kiddies are breaking the Nintendo agreement and when you get injured boxing, or break that antique vase that cost your daddy 150K - Nintendo just wash they hands and smile happily. (Ask your parent to read EULAs and press A button!)

User interface is so immersive! Wii Remote gives slight rumbles when you point at buttons on screen. It also emits sounds in-game. Really cool and important for multiplayer (indicates who's turn in Bowling, for ex.)

The "Channels" concept nicely replaces "PC programs" concept; instead of "PC desktop" you have "Wii Menu".
That's it - no wondering around. Just 4 screens of 12 channels each (max 48 channels).
I had 6 channels installed, but, after visiting Wii Shopping Store, increased to 9, for free.

It's really nice and easy, and good for your body. The best video-gaming for your body. Fitness is better - but, you know, there's Wii Fit set on sale...

What bothered me most in user experience is annoying Yes/No confirmation menu when you try for Wii Menu from within a game or an activity. If you press "Home" button on Wii Remote, you first get Home menu where you can select an action.
Usually those include "Wii Menu" , "Reset" , "Wii Remote Settings" , and "Operation Manual".
You move the pointer, you get the rumble as you focus. You do confirm by pressing "A" button.

But, in case of "Wii Menu", you get that extra Yes/No confirmation dialog.

Why do they consider everyone so stupid - to make so many actions already and STILL get ANOTHER nag dialog - does not seem reasonable to me. Is this some cultural difference?
Even if there's danger of mistakenly going to Wii Menu - why not every mistake is covered by confirming dialog?
This is Windows 95 style and ought to be avoided.
Those who do mistake, do learn and stop mistaking.

Why pester everybody on such common action?

Another note - and quite understandable - is that there are too many warnings in Sports Pack.
Those are usually to make sure you're strapped, have a jacket on Wii Remote, have enough space, have thumbs to hold the remote tightly etc.
Let's count them - I will recount for you all user interactions on my way to start Bowling, single user game.

1. Open "Disc Channel" from Wii Menu. You will see channel preview.
2. From the channel preview, pick "Start". This brings up a remote jacket warning.
3. From the jacket warning page, you either timeout or press A after some reading delay and you get new window.
4. Now you're asked to press A+B buttons simultaneously. Is this to check that you have a working thumb and index fingers?
5. Finally you get Wii Sports menu - here you select which game of 5 you want. Press Bowling.
6. Number of players, or training mode. Press 1.
7. Here you're asked to select Mii (artizans) per each player.
8. Another jacket warning! Press A to continue.
9. Al last, you see the game intro. First player is asked to press A+B to confirm.
10. Real bowl begins. Make a throw. If you do incorrect throw, Wii will warn you and make you press B to confirm.
11. Now you've (hopefully) scored a throw. Alt angle replay, plus cheering voice comment. Nice. Press A and repeat steps 10 until game end.
12. Game Finished. You see your final score, as well as all scores. Press A.
13. Final screen. You see your current Skill Level in chosen game, and it's dynamics. Nice. Press "Again" to go to 9 or "Quit" to go to 5.

Is not it a bit too much of confirming? You have to be pretty determined to get into play.
Makes sense to warn once, or maybe 3 times - but every time? I know we're talking about children here.
I can understand. I just wonder if there's another way, like fast voice warnings while the games load?
(By the way, not every child CAN read those warnings! I am not even talking about who WILL read)

Last up, my thought on improving the channel content - we need more free channels.
Why not turn it into something like Nokia WidSets, where anyone can write a useful bit of functionality (stock quotes, web clips, car alarm integration, world-wide web cams) and put it in for Nintendo's approval, and be sold in Wii Shopping Channel with some revenue split like Apple does in iTunes App Store?
Right now it seems rather limited - and I can understand that Nintendo wants us to spend more on GAMES.

What if I am not a gamer type but I like the console and I hate PC and I don't have a Mac?
Those types are mostly senior/disabled citizens, or there are some people who have adverse opinion on PC at home (I had one programmer friend who never had a PC at home, intentionally) - but anyway - they can be made a paying audience while their kids are at school.