wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

Hearing about the new devices makes me think.

What would you like to do with super powerful hardware and your own personal development team?

Are there any activities you would want to do which you cannot do easily right now (for whatever reason)?

It doesnt have to be feasible or practical, but have you ever thought "wouldn't it be cool to..."

I personally think it would be cool to have a hand held animation studio to bring my sketches to life, for you it might be playing direct dvd images, or managing your evil empire.

be creative.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

Nothing fancy, just a solid PIM to forever replace my Palm Pilot (without clumsy emulation). :)

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

i believe that sits in the managing your evil empire slot ;)

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

i don't want anything more advanced than an small, pocketable, personal teleportation device (with electronic logging).


...oh, and it should have a built-in mp3 player, as well.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

For me - two things:
Internet browser and pdf reader with liqbase's kinetic scrolling behaviour @ super speed.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

Sounds like you're waiting for Fremantle. ;)

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

I want a really nice video camera, that can either save to any kind of attached media in one of several codecs, with a no-brainer upload-to-cloud-service function, or stream out live on http. It would be really cool if the streaming part of the app would be able to adapt the bitrate dynamically to available bandwidth (with a warning about quality if your bandwidth drops too low). (This should also be integrated into the video chat function, so you can have a two-way video conference with nice clear video.)

I dream of a video tool that will change the face of journalism / blogging forever.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

Hmmm... I have not used it, but doesn't Jaffa's mediautils transcode on the fly - perhaps something like that could make its way into our hands natively...

And, I have to comment - The General's new avatar is much friendlier looking - more in line with his new community council chair role... ;)

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

video out, usb host port with ability to fully power devices, and a fully open source software environment...

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

It would be awesome to have IR. You could totally turn your NIT into a universal remote that'd beat any Logitech Harmony remote hands down.

...hmm, the things that you could control with your NIT... TV, media center, blue ray player, xbox/ps3...

jbk

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

Irreco is in Extras. You also have a wide variety of control options through generic stuff like HTTP and VNC, or more specific stuff like MythTV.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

I had an Ipaq Pocket PC with IR. I could change the TV channel in my dentist office waiting room.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

that doesn't work, because if the receptionist misses her daily dose of Neighbours your file will be switched with the guy having a root canal.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

You know . . . I did get a root canal that last visit!

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

have wireless USB (with provided extra dongle to connect external devices for file tranfers/ USB keyboard/ flashing...) instead of minUSB/microUSB/.... connector/wire!

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

...and it didn't strike you as odd that you went in to get a cleaning and somehow got a root canal instead?

BTW: I'm curious to see what "wouldn't it be cool" applications people suggest here. Try to avoid listing features or applications that you want on a new device without giving a "wouldn't it be cool" application. If you want powered USB, tell us why that would be cool? And no, PIM is not "cool".

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

Ah, that depends. Is the creative team young and female? :D

Seriously, I'd love a way to more fully take advantage of either platform emulation or remote desktop/VNC functionality in tablet form. VNC on my 770 is quite useful, but I do wish the 770's screen was just a little bigger sometimes.

I want to be able to run DOS stuff on my 770, and run a Mac emulator with some of the old Mac IIci software I have lying around. Pararena or Cyclone on the 770 would be soooo fun! :-)

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

http://www.pomegranatephone.com/default.html

I am now inspired...

Automatic voice translator - (actually possible, using something like Dragon Naturally)

Scanner App (like G1, but also picture scanning using accelerometer and camera with light)

Face Recognition for security (Some laptops have this)

Super Fast PDF rendering and panning with annotation (So I can read and mark my Ebooks)

All the other cool things...

I tried to limit myself to the doable in the "near future," so no infinite batteries, screen projectors, etc...

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

Heh. I would want augmented reality where I have a heads up display which recognizes what i'm looking at and pops up helpful info over real world objects ... allows me to use voice commands... activity recognition so that it knows when i'm looking at someone i'm probably not giving commands to the computer, or that in the car I want my phone to only give me urgent phone calls... automatically remembers where I parked when there's good GPS reception... and when I get home and sit down at my monitor / keyboard / mouse it automatically uses those instead.

We should have these with fremantle right?

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

This sounds like Xournal + Liqbase + better hardware... I'd like that too...

My video camera dream should just be possible with the current tablet hardware, if only I had that theoretical development team...

EDIT:
I was totally buying into this until I got to the built-in coffee maker.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

I'd be happy just being able to hold up the camera and it will overlay info on your display. I seem to remember somebody doing something cool like this with Android...

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

There's at least one guy running around with something like that already. He's using a semi-transparent display in front of one of his eyes, and it augments the image of e.g. the building he's looking at with additional info. There's a web page somewhere with illustrations, but it's been so long since I looked at it that I've lost it in the overflowing list of bookmarks.

And, as he said in an interview, he's online as well, so when he's in the shop his wife would frequently send shopping lists to his little eye-display..

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

About a year ago, I read Vernor Vinge's "Rainbow's End", which dealt with a futuristic "wired-in" society using wearable computers, contact lenses with built-in video, etc. Very cool book! You can read a preview here.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

6 of 8: We are the Borg. Lower your shields. Your biological and technological, errrr just a minute

6 of 8's wife: Hunny, do you want peas or beans with your waffles?


excellent ideas so far, I've been thinking of a few more things as well.

I really like the idea of augmenting the tablets and devices with additional displays, so spreading fbreader over a pair of tablets, or playing multi screen games or using them as an IDE with design on one and code on another would be sweet. It could even be just using one as an extra keyboard (bluemaemo) would be nice, it also gives additional useful things to do for your older devices.

I want similar localised data sharing functionality (sketches/ideas/documents/pim), scratching on one tablet should ensure that ALL devices on my WAN are updated (as well as any on the far side of the cloud, but we cannot assume the cloud will exist 24/7)

neither are not overly complex but also not instantly practical.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

You want what with your what? Is that a british thing?!

Thinking of WAN-only sharing, and practical ideas, I don't know why someone hasn't built a baby monitor for the tablets yet. They can already stream audio/video to a specific IP address using the built-in GStreamer framework, I'm amazed someone hasn't thrown a python GUI on that functionality ("Please enter the IP address of the receiving tablet" with the first 3 numbers filled in, because it's a good assumption that you're going to be on the same network, and "Please enter the IP address of the monitoring tablet" on the other one)... Then you just leave the transmitting N800 face down with the camera and mic pointing out into the room, and walk away. If the connection between tablets is broken for a certain period of time, the transmitter keeps trying to re-establish the link, and after 1 minute the receiver starts flashing and beeping that there's something wrong.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

i'd make ITs more modular, to reduce waste and increase upgradability and customization. just imagine being able to swap out your n810's microSD slot for an SD or CF slot, or replace the (POS) webcam with an IR transmitter. i envision tiny little PCI slots that you can fill with XOHM, GPS, TV tuner, or 7.1-channel sound cards, just like you would on a desktop PC, but much smaller, of course.

All of this without affecting the durability of the device when fully assembled, of course.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

@qole: but then i couldn't enjoy numpty physics while the kid's down....

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

That is a good idea. In theory, you can do this now with two tablets and two GTalk or Gizmo accounts. I don't know if there is a call limit in place for either service, and re-establishing connection would be an issue. Hmmmm..... Is it possible to initiate a call on a remote tablet via ssh? If there is a way, then you could leave one tablet in the baby's room, and never have to touch it. Have the volume turned to mute, and initiate the SIP call with video from the tablet you use as the monitor... just some thoughts from someone not that fluent with this stuff :)

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

That's what the third tablet is for.

And remember folks, try to think of cool applications; the hardware specs are secondary here, and only to make the application happen.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

I can't say for sure, but Googling on "beans waffle" did turn up this. I expect it is a cultural thing, but the recipe appears to lead nowhere pleasant. On the plus side though, ingredient #6 made me giggle--perhaps even titter--and I don't think Terry Pratchett is entirely to blame.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

having a baby monitor using the NITs could also be beneficial due to the two way communication thats possible, but I would certainly be leaving an older device near the bed especially as they get adventerous, i'm not sure my n810 would cope with being a teething ring.

EIPI,

your team will build everything to spec :)
i'm glad you responded, this was not meant as technical at all, and your idea/followon was exactly the sort of thing I'm interested in.

Its just a mental exercise.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

I would love to throw everything but the kitchen sink into a Maemo device with supported drivers like Nokia do with S60 phones but retain the form factor of the N810 + 1 or two extras like so

- Omap35xx -3d acceleration
- 256 Mb Ram
- Full size SD
- BT/Infrared/Wifi/Triband HSDPA/Wimax or any other 4G technology
- 5MP camera with Xenon flash
- VGA out @1024x768 or at least TV out
- A-GPS
- BT profiles supporting mouse and keyboard
- .5 mm thinner than the N810.
- gaming standard d-pad

dual bootable into Ubuntu or Maemo.
Hire 50 programmers to take the cream of the crop OS software out there and completely hildonize for use on the tablets. Five teams of 10 people.

Sell the device at $400
This device would effectively kill the need for a laptop, mobile phone, UMPC, MID, desktop (apart from workstation uses) digital point and shoot, personal media player.


edit:

I don't have the imagination to envision crazy new software paradigms. I guess what I am trying to say is I am fairly happy with Maemo and the software that is out there right now, I think more powerful hardware is really whats needed to take advantage. I also like the idea of taking something like liqbase and throwing 20 properly organized programmers at it to see what could happen in a month or two.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

benny1967 & mobiledivide: Yeah, but what specific, cool stuff would you do with all of that hardware? Playing games and media or taking pictures isn't particularly cool.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

This second part, having your notes and jottings and sketches updated onto the cloud shouldn't be that hard though? A site with an account, and then some functionality added to liqbase or maemopad+ to just upload anything new whenever they find an internet connection. Of course, someone needs to be build and host the site, and come up with a standardized format for the items to store, but it's nothing too technically challenging.

I'd love an app like that, and would easily pay a subscription fee. Or if someone does the maemo parts, I'll build the website :)

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

You mean OMAP34xx (OMAP3430 to be specific), OMAP35xx would be both more expensive and less functional for the N900's purposes.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

I only share that ingredient with my girlfriend....


YARR!
}:^)~

Capt'n Cor-azy

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

Firstly, that waffle recipe made me laugh!

Secondly, why has noone mentioned GPS related apps. What would be really really cool, and we are nearly there is gps/navigation integration. so we could send and receive locations via email, sms etc, and to and from devices. for example at work I looked up somewhere on Google map. I can email that location. Why can't the tablet's email/mapping software realise what the link is and offer to add it as a poi and route to it?

Also Remember the milk offers locations for todo tasks, but what we really need is integration with GPS, i.e when I'm on the way home past the shop, the mapping app reminds me that I need beans and waffles for example.

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

I'm not cool, I also don't buy cool things. What's cool today is embarrassing tomorrow - and hardly ever useful.

Things like week long battery life make everything more enjoyable.

DVB-H ... need I explain what I'd do with this hardware?

Infrared emitter plus integrated remote control application, speech control, phone integration... application level, right?

Re: wouldn't it be cool to ...
 

bow,
apart from me talking about no cloud being around you are right, they aren't "difficult" problems, just outside my current reach.

regarding you becoming involved in an actual website, its really for another thread or discussion elsewhere, but please do carry on talking :)