Bleaaaargh!

I have 7 (seven!) mailboxes. The main screen in the N9 and Jolla mail client shows the list of the mailboxes and the combined list of new emails. And I absolutely HATE it for it. The whole POINT of having multiple mailboxes is separation. When the mail client combines the new emails like that, it breaks the main principle and forces me to make some additional steps to find out where the freaking duck the email was sent.

Another example: the N900 notification LED blinks blue if I have unanswered calls or unread emails, SMS or IM. So, which one is it? As far as I am concerned, those are four entirely, even conceptually different things and my phone is trying to make me completely reverse my way of seeing the world by trying to combine them.

You suggestion merely moves the same principle from an LED to an icon. It might suit you but is entirely against what I expect from an intuitive UI.

Similarly for the dynamic icons. They are a great idea, but I would be careful about inventing a new hammer and seeing everything as a nail. The whole point of a widget it providing information in a concise yet clear manner. I have three widgets on my N900 screen:

• A nameday widget. That could potentially be replaced with a dynamic icon if you figured out how to fit long names in it.
• A weather widget showing the current weather and the forecast for the next 24 hours in 6 hours increments. That's 5 different pieces of data. Actually 10, since each one is the weather icon (sunny, cloudy, raining...) and the temperature. I would like to also see the wind speed, that would make 15. How do you want to fit that in a single icon?
• A calendar widget. Showing the current day/date and the 5 upcoming events, all in a glance. A single icon? I don't think so.

A calendar or a clock dynamic icon is a simple example that will work but the same idea will not fit all cases. Even the calendar is questionable. For me, the most crucial piece of info is (obviously) not the year. It's not the month either. Not even the date. It's the day of the week. You left no room in your example for that, although that could be improved: a number with the date in the centre, an hour hand showing the month and the background colour for the day of the week. That's three pieces of info in one icon. Any more and you are stuck.

A media player widget? I don't use one but if I did, I would expect it to show AT LEAST the current playing song and preferably the artist name and the album. In a single icon? Bah!