Google on the iPhone

The last couple of months we've worked very hard on a number of designs tailor made for the iPhone. The iPhone gives us designers and engineers much more room to create compelling end user services as it supports webkit.

Here a screenshot from the Apple site of our new search design:

Confusopoly

Soon I will be moving to the UK, and I would like to buy a new phone and SIM there. Deciding which phone to buy won't be big of a problem, but what about the network and subscription plan? Which one fits my needs? The deals offered by the various operators are constantly changing and differ in such a way from each other that making a sensible comparison between them is virtually impossible. So, how is a normal customer, with no advanced degree in mobile telecommunications, going the choose his/her perfect new mobile phone and subscription. Answer: they are not going to. Buying a phone and accompanying subscription plan will be based on sheer guesswork or the work of an overzealous salesperson for most users. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, devised the perfect word for this kind of customer-unfriendliness: Confusopoly. At confusopolists, customers are not king, they themselves are. Their goal: to keep you trapped, because you won't know where else to go.
Well, I can rant on for a bit more, but I still need to buy that perfect phone and subscription... and yes, sad but true: I can't do without one ;-)

Nabaztag: Le lapin communicant

As of this week I'm the proud owner of a Nabaztag. Nabaztag is a WiFi rabbit, which enables you to commuincate with other Nabaztag owners. If you twist its ears for example, your buddy's Nabaztag will twist his in response. Isn't that cute? It can also speak to you and read out text from websites and tell you the weather.
It seems that the next generation Nabaztags are able to detect smell....

New Blackberry 8100 Pearl consumer phone

Never been a big fan of Blackberry phones and never understood why anyone would want one. Okay, you can access and read email with it, and their SureType is very user-friendly. But surely you must get a paper brown bag with it when you buy one to put over your head when using your Blackberry in public, cause the thing is so darn ugly!
Now, RIM is trying to get a hold in the consumer market with their new Blackberry Pearl phone. I haven't been able to actually get my hands on one, but MobileBurn has an extensive and interesting review of the Pearl on their site.


My conclusion: it definitely looks better than their business devices (but that's not so hard), but their user interface design really scared me: it's very cluttered and ugly and reminded me of Telnet sessions on a Unix machine. Personally I think good UI design should combine a well worked out interaction design and an attractive graphic design. Furthermore, it doesn't offer anything really exiting. With their 1.3 megapixel camera and polyphonic ringtones this phone should be send back in time to 2004, then it might be cool...

Interaction by gestures: roll the dice!

One of our interns at TNO is currently working on new interface concepts using gestures instead of 'normal' key input. He found out there are some interesting terminals out on the market which have motion sensors, amongst others the Samsung SCH-310 and the Nokia Sports. Both terminals use the sensory input for games, the Sports can also be used as a (not so accurate) stepcounter.

Apple iPhone in 2007?

According to AppleInsider, the iPhone will be introduced in early 2007 and will merge iPod and phone capabilities, and will also have an 2 megapixel camera. Yes! 60GB of ringtones to choose from, I can't wait!

Check the AppleInsider article for more info.

J2ME Gmail app for your mobile

Finally! As a Gmail addict, I was pleased to see the release of a new version of mobile Gmail, now available as J2ME application. Although I'm a bit biased ;-) I really think this is a neat application! It offers you almost all the functionalities the web version has, and it's small, fast and user friendly.

To download the app browse to: http://gmail.com/app with your mobile phone. After download you can directly access it from your phone's main menu.