Hmm, I'm not sure the minimizing I describe is strictly 2D. If you see the window minimizing and going to the taskbar while seeing its artifacts going to the taskbar icon, being smaller, it is 3D.

If you think of useful 2D and 3D effects, I believe it is first important to observe how competitors and other devices (sometimes using the same soft- or hardware) provide these effects and what their usage is. That way, only useful effects are implemented, and I tend to believe there are various useful 2D effects like the ones I stated. Problem is: there is no hardware acceleration. The community could add these effects or build upon previous source code provided there is hardware acceleration, but the driver isn't there. Therefore, it should be first priority to get the driver (PowerVR) working on the NIT. It is difficult to test the PowerVR in a Scratchbox though because this is't emulated by QEMU and the performance isn't measurable.

The iPhone is quite an interesting machine to observe for usability analysis. I highly recommend you to review it for this purpose, there is much to be learned from this device. Mind you, I don;t like Apple, I don't like vendor lock-ins, I don't like proprietary software or hardware, the iPhone has its disavantages IOW I don't see it as the creme de la creme; however, it is a device to analyse for this purpose.

We agree more than it may seem. For starters, it is important one is able to put such effects off.

The NIT has a stylus, and allows finger mode too. Therefore, it has to support (together with its applications) 2 modes of operation: 1) stylus 2) finger. Some applications have a wide vertical bar while others have a tight one. IMO, there should be 2 modes which one is able to set. Based on that, the tablet goes into 'stylus' or 'finger' mode. This goal is partly succeeding.

The NIT has a battery, and AC plug. Therefore, it has to support 2 modes of operation: 1) power saving / energy efficient mode 2) experience mode and eventually 3) hybrid. Mode 1 is for battery when absolute battery longevity is required. The screen is, by default, lit on a minimum, daemons like tracker are disabled (metacrawler?), and everything is extremely fast. 2) everything is instead enabled for maximum user expereince 3) this is a hybrid. In relation to power saving it also has to support Suspend To RAM.

I want to write more, but I must go now. Maybe I edit my post later because I'd like to give some more examples of useful effects I use in GNOME 2.22, talk about MDI versus tabs, and related to the latter an example in Pidgin where I believe it'd be useful to inform the user better (this is Pidgin related; not strictly maemo related, but it describes a general problem).

All indications are that the next major OS release, Fremantle, will establish a consistent, finger oriented UI.

I'm actually not disagreeing with you. Yes the things described are just 2D done with acceleration. I'm merely suggesting the benefits of having these transformations done in hardware designed for this type of task; in this instance 3D acceleration. The benefits are higher performance, lower power requirements, and familiar APIs to work with.

In addition to enhanced zooming, real transparency, and smoother movement, 3D hardware is a very capable of real-time 2D vector renderer; a tremendous tool for enhanced visualization of certain types of data.

But I'm not ready to count out (just yet), the use of actual 3D in the UI simply because I haven't seen a great use for it yet. The ability to rotate and zoom on a constricted desktop could open the door for much simpler and more intuitive interfaces -- if done right, of course.


For the most part, it does seem superfluous, especially since some peoples desktops are jammed with every possible visualization (paper airplanes, fire, snowflakes, etc). However, this isn't always the case. Some 3D GUIS are quite subtle and most importantly many people seem to respond very well to them (OSX).

For example, my girlfriend, a very casual user, finds the mac OSX GUI far more pleasurable than WinXP, even when only using firefox and word. What's the difference? As far as I can tell: window dressings and animation. But it would seem that a lot is packed into those window dressings and animation. From my perspective it 'feels' more smooth, solid, and stable, while the comparatively jerky draw-bit-by-bit WinXP is more annoying. I know the smooth, solid, and stable, 'feeling' is an illusion (the apps are the same after all), but it appeals to something human in me.

Don't read this the wrong way: I respect your position, and am not arguing nor am I trying to convince you. 3D can be superflous and is certainly not for everyone.


}:^)~
YARR!

Corruption above

I'm not arguing too, certainly 3D interfaces have their place in our world - they are a big user magnet and we will see them more and more often from now on. I'm just saying that for now their usability is nonexistent and people tend to switch them off after some days/weeks/months (of course if that's possible). For instance - a good interface should have everything a couple of clicks away. What we are facing now in the mobile world is an awful number of clicks, gestures and effect waiting to get to what you need. Of course the screen estate is limited, but i'm starting to forget in which direction i should swing my finger away. And with these patents for touchless interfaces i'm starting to wonder when the arthritis will hit me At least the effects should be optional, unless the developer forgot to include that

I disagree, with the correct chipset we could get RDS-TMC and try hacking into it

well, as time goes by our expectations increase. Every week we see new stuff coming up on the news (Engadget, Crunchgear, Cnet, Pocket-link, etc.). We have a moving target...

i would just like to see anything new from Nokia that does not resemble a repackaged N810.

o Faster CPU.
o Waaaayyyy more onboard storage.
o Wayyyyyyy more RAM.
o Hardware accelerated graphics 2D and maybe 3D?
o Longer battery life.
o Extremely high accuracy GPS...
o Really long range on the wifi. 802.11n?
o Developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers....

You remind me of Steve Ballmer!


}:^)~
YARR!

Capt'n Capt'n Capt'n ...

Bah. The stylus is not the problem with the tablets.