The Dark Furie

The Symbian Foundation have finally released a phone theme that incorporates their new stylings and I'm in love with it. So much so that I've extracted the background image and am planning on incorporating it into this page design to make things a bit more stylish. Of course it'll need blowing up a little and if the quality suffers too much I'll scrap the idea, but it may work.

For those of you that like the look of this stylish phone theme and own a Series 60 phone (3rd or 5th edition) you can download it from here.

Wouldn't it be great if my ideas could somehow be brought to the attention of the CEO of a company that creates a leading mobile phone operating system? Can you imagine the fast forward the technology would have if my ideas were taken on board and integrated into a new operating system? That's the reason I recently signed up for an account on Symbian Ideas, where I can submit my ideas and get them rated by others, and eventually have them brought to the attention of the Symbian CEO. Well, that and the fact that my last source in the Symbian team recently left the business meaning that if I'm going to post about the future here I'm going to have to create that future myself. Unfortunately the site is full of people who're going the "copying ideas from other companies" route that I mentioned earlier, with hardly any innovation in their ideas at all so I don't know how long the initiative will last.

My first idea that I posted there is as follows, and includes links to more detailed posts that I've made here.

I suggest scrapping third and first party downloadable applications having new icons and instead integrating them into the existing applications already on the phone.

Okay the basic idea is that the phones have a more powerful core application package (PIM functionality, gallery, image editing, web browser, etc), achieved by combining some features, that deals with most situations and that can have the core applications functionalitys improved via plugins to add new features and browser window shaping widgets rather than having an entirely new application added to the menu. These plugins would use the core user interface as standard, only adding new functions to the existing applications. For example, rather than downloading a new application to add funny stickers to my images I'd add a plugin to my image editor that does that. Rather than downloading a new Twitter client I'd add a widget to my Twitter bookmark that shapes how the site is presented when I open the bookmark.

This would result in both a cleaner user interface with less icons needed, making it easier for newcomers to find their way around the phone and for themers to create themes, and a more personal device containing only the extra functions you actually need. As user interface wouldn't be a concern for most developers, they could release smaller function packages quickly for smaller development costs, luring bedroom coders towards Symbian as they design things for their own use.

I've written about this in a bit more detail before now and there are more examples and a more advanced way of looking at this at that link. I'll try to copy it over at some point, but the main points are all present.

Today's Game
Ever dreamed of seeing Hilary Clinton flying through space on her way to a meeting? How about Obama riding a giant rock to the polls and picking up his voters on the way by rolling over them? If so, you're a scary weirdo.

You're also the person that Battle For The White House is aimed at. This weird little collection of mini games lets you pick a challenger and take them all the way to the White House in the boxing, brick breaking, rock riding, space travelling, parade marching, sabotaging chaos that is the American election process. And should you win the election there's a special bonus gift waiting for you.

Meet Polaris. Filled with wireless sensors, the ability to wirelessly send a signal to a TV and a couple of speakers, this docking station does a bit more than charge your phone or synchronise with a PC. It's that TV signal that's interesting as Polaris beams the entire phones user interface onto your television. Processors within Polaris optimize the phone user interface to the television screen allowing easier access to key features.

And now for the clever bit. This is designed to work on every phone on the network. Unfortunately that network is KDDI in Japan so don't expect to see it over here anytime soon.