Hello

"Canola2 really needs maemoscrobbler support."
This is on our list. Actually we are "polishing" the plugin support and this is one of the requirements ( to signal when music starts, ends, 10 sec played etc)

"ne of the thoughts I've had is that you have to thumb all the way backwards through all the steps you took to exit the app.
"
You can actually hold back a little bit and go straight to home. We were going to place a home button on all the screens, but we decided to go with a hard button (menu) and the hold back options for that. The problem came when the n810 was announced : the menu button is hidden on the keyboard slide. Damn, this caught me.


"I don't like the visual design though. The icons are too small and it all seems a bit vague/bland. "

Well, this would lead us in design discussion =) but not a problem, it's impossible to match everyone's expectations. I think a theme could solve this. But I really don't think the icons are that small, also don't think at all the look vague oor bland, they have pretty clear meaning and strong features (color x illustration) to build on. The grey theme has more shapes and can go better to those who like a gestalt approach of contours and shapes, but I really disagree with the vague and bland. Apart of all of that (size) is there because we are looking forward do extensibility not the opposite.

"Also I don't like the fulscreen-by-default behaviour. An app should blend in with the OS in my opinion."

I get your point, and actually is the same I have been listening from ZeroJay and Others, and now that I understand why that, I can only say :
blend with OS? sorry, this is the default media player. 20px white board around the application area? borders? no thanks.

That's exactly why we built canola on a different design to give users a media center like experience. Like you have when you start your windows media center or your front-row. It's really not supposed to blend with windows's regular toolkit or even cocoas.

So I think this clarifies a little bit more.

In my vision we have the following:
1) we are aware of a lot of issues and working hard to fix them. most will be fixed and we also plan more features to improve the overall experience.
2) we are also aware of what we cannot do: While canola2 was tested with the option to be minimized, 75% os all the screens were ok, but quite awkward, this is not our goal. We will also not try to reach everyone, because this is just impossible. We will keep trying to simplify things, support what we can support and the most important: keep listening to those who want to share their opinions and improve the software.