I just had some ideas for things that *might* make Fremantle a bit easier to use, so I spent some time today using Photoshop to make those concepts "realities."

This is a transparent keyboard concept:


A lot of people are disappointed that the n900 will not have a portrait mode for the browser (as far as we know), but here is how it may look if we get a pleasant surprise:


I really like the concept of the task manager, but I want to be able to group windows based on either originating program (i.e. all MicroB programs in one group) or by arbitrary selection.

Here is a basic idea about how the grouping could possibly work.
1) Drag one window onto another.


2) Grouped windows will have a different title bar.


3) Touching the window representing the grouped windows will bring up the "grouped windows" menu.


I hope you guys have some other ideas about features you could use in Fremantle!

If someone could spend a little more time on the transparent keyboard and create a version for portrait mode, I think it would look pretty nice.

Anyone that wants to edit the images can download the:
PSD Files
PNG Files

Have fun!

Note: These are ALL concepts. None of these pictures represent actual device functions. Credit for all pictures goes to mobile-review.com

I don't like the grouped apps in the task manager. Web pages could be apps in the future, or even today. I want the fastest way to change apps, and adding a layer would mess that up. But love the portrait views and opaque keys.

Opaque keys is a nice idea if the normal view is still available too as I think having this opaque only would be bad for accessibility.

Do you guys mean transparent?

Or better yet, translucent.

I've been wondering about the opaque comments myself..
I thought they're talking about the browser toolbars.

i think they mean transparent not opaque

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/0...s-easy-instal/

something like this?

I wanted to write a new virtual keyboard that's more reminiscent of what a typical qwerty keyboard layout would be. I've installed the sdk but I haven't got a chance to start coding yet mostly because I'm not sure where to start. Ideally I would like to look at the code for the current keyboard to see how it's initialized and to see what type of widget it actually is.

Here is a quick layout I did in Visual Studio to get a general idea of what it might look like. I did the calculations and with the current config it takes up about 40% (vertically) of the screen which is pretty good considering the spacing between keys.

If it's possible making the keys "translucent" maybe it's something I could add as a task if people think it would be useful.

What do you guys think?

Maybe look at Enlightenment, Fremantle or Mer folks how they did it.

Usability research has shown you don't want a big spacebar you want one easily reachable with the right hand.

You also cannot put a key on the very outside of the screen because there your pointer device will never reach it. So you need some open space there.

1.) Thanks, I'll check that out

2.) That's assuming the user is right handed isn't it? There's been a lot of controversy surrounding Nokia's decision to put the space bar on the right. I'm not sure how they did there "Usability Research" but from what I can tell it hasn't received a very warm welcome. I myself hate it but maybe it's just me. I'm more inclined to leave it in the middle because I think that's what people are used too and it doesn't give an advantage to right handed users.

3.) Thanks, forgot about that!