Omega Point

Like most Mac-owning, right-thinking individuals, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the Apple iPhone, despite living in Canada, where mobile data rates are unfortunate, to say the least. Also, the whole “closed platform” thing. That and the “how do you dial this with gloves on?” bit. And the fact that there’s no word of any Canadian release date, and there’s only two GSM carriers in Canada anyway… and they both use the same network. But hey, it syncs well with iCal and has a real web browser! I want one already!

So enough about products whose chief value is making its user look cooler and more affluent than non-owners! There’s a far more geeky smartphone just over the horizon!

Behold, OpenMoko! It’s made of Linux! FIC (not that FIC) has spearheaded the open smartphone platform with their currently-almost-released Neo1973 phone being the first capable of running OpenMoko. The actual handheld looks… cute, actually. Kind of 70s retro, like a non-translucent clamshell iBook.

The featureset is impressive, with WiFi, AGPS and a 640×480 screen, and includes everything we’ve come to expect from a smartphone, save for a camera. According to the OpenMoko wiki:

“The 2nd generation OpenMoko device will be introduced at this time. We have something special in the works, but again, you will help shape this device.”

That sounds like a camera to me, since one’s missing, but who knows?

The UI seems somewhat dated, which is not altogether unheard of with Linux, though it will obviously be skinnable in some way — a feature I’d definitely want to make use of. I’m not totally impressed by the look of the dialer in particular. I’d like to see something a bit higher-contrast, personally.

I do like the fact that it uses a similar multi-touch panel as the iPhone, but isn’t that patented? Oh. Yes it is — but maybe not by Apple.

Personally, I find the most important feature of a phone or PDA is ease of use and how well it can sync with my computer. I’m eager to see how well the OpenMoko platform does among the early adopter crowd, but for now, I think I’ll be holding off on that preorder.

This is really fascinating. Design studio Pentagram has developed the look and feel of the UI for the One Laptop Per Child project. (”Pfft, poor people… right?“)

They’ve abandoned the “desktop” metaphor, in favour of the “zoom metaphor“. This echoes OLPC’s overall design goals in sticking to the basic Children can quickly switch between different views to connect with other users, or collaborate on a single task.

Other cool features include the complete lack of text labels for icons and UI elements, meaning there’s no need for them to be translated for each localized version. Only truly necessary text must be translated to produce a localized version for a given language. This completely avoids problems phrases like “la homepage” may pose for non-English speakers.

(Via kottke.org)

This may be the least effective use of an interactive map infographic ever. It attempts to present information on an important subject, but it’s very difficult to take in due to poor UI and ineffective use of the map itself.

Why on earth does this tool use the same icon for identifying a target country as the button you click on to determine information about the top 10 countries with female political leadership and so on?

If I click on a country name, shouldn’t I be able to see it highlighted? Doesn’t it make sense to see how regions are ranked? I realize this isn’t a university mapping textbook, but honestly now.

When comparing regions, static maps can be far, far more compelling and contain much more relevant information. Cases in point. Bad CBC!