Muthukumar Rajamani : Interaction Designer/Manager, Bangalore » Gadget Design

handheld.photo.eXperience

Muthu Online — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:43:06 +0000

.Photo.eXperience { resolution: 2MPx; display: 3.5″; device: apple iPhone; mode: fullscreen; interaction: touchscreen; sensor : autorotate}

.Photo.eXperience { resolution: 7.2MPx; display: 2.5″; device: sony w 55; interaction: hard keys;}

Nokia Tube?

Muthu Online — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:51:08 +0000

Nokia Tube, with a 360 x 640 px touch screen display + tactile feedback is gonna be out soon. However it wont have multi touch function like iPhone. Its also gonna be a quad band phone with build-in GPS, EDGE, WLAN et all.

More >

Unlocked Apple iPhone

Muthu Online — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:09:29 +0000




Just unlocked my brand new Apple iPhone with a firmware version of 1.1.4
Unlocking iPhone for FREE: 

Downloaded and installed the free unlocking software Ziphone version 3.0 (30th of March 2008), from www.ziphone.org 
Connected iPhone to my laptop
Disabled iTunes and related daemons & services.
Uninstalled Apple update program/li>
  
Ran ZiPhoneGUI.exe software and clicked on "Do it all" button

  (This would jailbreak, activate and unlock iPhone. It will also downgrade the bootloader if it's v4.6.)
Scrolling Text appeared on the iPhone and after 10 minutes, the system hung!

  Last known system response was "Loading zibri.dat." 
PANICKED

Clicked on "Stop Process" and then clicked on" Do it all" button. Still nothing happened 
Disconnected the iPhone from the laptop and still it wouldn't shutdown. 
I rebooted my system still nothing happenned.
Read the Trouble Shooting document and PANICKED even more. 


Venky, my friendly neighbourhood AJAX expert offered to help and connected the iPhone to a Mac. Nothing happenned.
Then we figured how to restart the iPhone by holding the "Home" button and "Sleep" button together for 7 seconds!
iPhone got rebooted. All systems functioned normally! 
Removed the SIM card holder using a paper clip and inserted my "Airtel" Sim card. And lo!, ZiPhone really unlocked my iPhone!   

 
iPhone Unlock Demo on YouTube ZiPhone 2.5 

  

 
ZiPhone GUI

 
Some initial observations

Very impressed with the  iPhone's package design.  
Displaying progress indicator on Safari's address bar is a cool idea. 
Thanks to the Accelerometer, browsing websites, reading blogs, viewing photos, YouTube videos, maps on a mobile never felt so good!
Kept looking for a "close icon" for all the apps. Took a while to get used to the "Home" button
It was a smooth experience flipping through photos, zooming into a blog  et all
On-screen keypad was initially a lil' difficult to use. Ended-up pressing the wrong keys

To be continued...

People’s Phone!

Muthu Online — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:08:38 +0000

After People’s Car, its time now for People’s Phone!
Nodia based Spice Ltd, unveiled a no frill mobile phone during the Mobile World Congress event recently. Priced at $20 (about Rs 800), it has bare minimal features that might primarily appeal to rural/illiterate users and those who’d be happy with a basic low-cost basic mobile phone. And its devoid of a screen.

I am skeptical about the pricing, ( it could be priced even less) because one can get mobile phone s for as low as Rs 1000, with additional features.

Often, we are forced to buy phones with features that we never use. But then, without new features, how could manufactures launch new models and increase sales?. They’d also stop servicing and supplying spare parts for older models.

I am not sure if this is feasible, but may be, its time for mobile manufacturers to let users/customers customize their mobile phones by choosing a list of desired features and place their order either online or with a dealer. After receiving the order, the manufacturer could assemble the hand- set, install the necessary software and ship it to customers.

And if a new technology/feature gets launched, users must be able to add them on to their existing mobile and “remove a feature” if they are so done with it.(Not all new technologies and features could be “added on” that easily)

Nokia Morph Demo

Muthu Online — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:02:28 +0000

WOW! Here’s an awesome concept demo of the possibilities of using nano technologies on mobile phones. Some of the cool features of these nano powered next gen mobile phones could be that they are Solar powered, Wearable- Fashionable, Stretchable- Re sizable, Water/Dirt-proofed, with Context sensitive 3D buttons et all. So watch!

Nokia’s Next Gen Mobile Phone Usage Scenarios

Muthu Online — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:44:55 +0000

Nokia’s view on how Mobile Phone Design might change in the next 3-4 years. Here are 4 types of futuristic usage scenarios designed to inspire and trigger design conversations. Enjoy.

1 Nokia – Live: Inspiring Sense
2 Nokia – Explore: Sharing Discoveries
3 Nokia – Achieve: Achieving Together
4 Nokia – Connect: Connecting Simply

More on futuristic Nokia Mobile Phone Design Videos

Apple iPhone runs on OS x

Muthu Online — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:24:08 +0000

Phone combines three products
— a revolutionary mobile phone
- a widescreen iPod with touch controls,
- a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. More here > and here

Accessing Calendars Online & Offline

Muthu Online — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 09:31:26 +0000

While Google’s Calendar is cool, it STILL DOENST let me access my calendar offline!
Grrrr….Google could bloody-well bundle this offline-access feature with its Desktop tool. I also would want my TO-DO list integrated with my calendar, not to mention a feature that would let me assign colors to indicate the job status and… i also wouldnt mind increasing or decreasing the font size either

Incidentally, which calendar tool/organizer do you use? and why?

Meanwhile, while Google is workin on it, you can try any of these tools…

Looking for a calendar that doesnt bind you down to a storage solution? Try Mozilla SunBird

Dont want to get stranded, when you are not connected? Try Scrybe