Transparent keyboard gives nothing but additional noise to the picture and frustration to the user.

As for portrait mode, you can see that browser became barely usable. Shrinking everything to fit is not a solution.

App grouping is a nice idea but i suspect that there's something similar in Fremantle already

I can't remember if we've already talked about this but I have a suspicion that it is possible its just some implementations are bad. If they used a frost effect rather than straight translucency and added a border around letters/numbers/symbols, it might just work.

For the love of whatever you pray to, don't make the transparent keyboard! There was something similar with os2008 on the tablets. At least with a terminal window, didn't work nearly as well as the idea.

I know application grouping isn't for everyone, but that's the beauty of linux, isn't it? There are typically options for everyone, even if not endorsed officially. I, personally, would like the grouping, since it would let me easily organize related windows into a "workspace" of sorts. It might also help to consider what happens when there are more than 6 windows open. Do you have to scroll down to view them all? If so, it might make window grouping more desirable.

As far as the transparent, translucent, opaque, whatever you want to call it keyboard goes, I think it could be extremely useful if implemented correctly. My mockup is a poor representation, but I do think it would allow a full-screen keyboard (the only way I would really feel comfortable using the keyboard) along with a clear view of the box you are typing into.

While I'm here, I might as well throw out some other "innovative" ideas I had (that I know some people will hate ):
1) In combination with the transparent keyboard, clicking in a text/typing field will zoom in so that the field takes up about 75% of the screen, and it will be positioned on the right side. Typically, when filling out a form, the information to be filled out (address, email, etc.) is indicated on the left, so it would be important that the text box does not take up the whole screen.

2) Many sites that the n900 is purporting to support will be flash based, meaning logins/passwords will not be saved in flash-based login boxes and others (like meebo, etc.). To overcome this, it would be quite useful if there was a "login manager." The purpose of the "login manager" would be to save login information and allow passwords to be changed if needed at a later date (if security policies force you to change your work email password every 3 months, for example). Also, the login manager could create floating "bubbles" containing login information that appear every time the main page to a site is loaded. The bubbles (containing username/password, and possibly other information) could be "dragged & dropped" into the various fields to auto fill them and allow quicker access to websites.

3) The n900 software keyboard should be customizable. The keys could possibly be changed in a method similar to how you move icons around on the iPod touch/iPhone (touch and hold until the keys start swinging, then drag to the position you prefer). There should be options to add any key you want to the "main" keyboard, so that different users can have access to the keys they want faster (ex.: A person is a stock trader, and they need the "$" more than the letter "z" on the main keyboard. They could simply drag the $ into the position the z occupies and drag the z into the other "tab"). Keys should also be customizable in size (ex.: I prefer the "enter" button to be bigger than the "backspace" key).

4) The n900 could use an alternate method of zooming. The user could place a finger in either one of the four corners of the screen for 5 seconds, until a fingertip-sized circle appears halfway between the upper right edge of the screen and the center. To zoom in, the user could drag the circle nearer to the center of the screen, while zooming out would be accomplished by moving the circle nearer to the upper right corner of the screen. If the circle is not touched within 2 seconds, it disappears (to minimize accidental zooming). The edge the circle appears near would be customizable, and would automatically reorient in portrait mode.

5) Borrowing from Apple *gasp*, the n900 could create screenshots when changing between applications, so that switching back to an application would be seamless and the animation from small window in the task manager to full screen application window would consume less processing power than a "live" preview. When I saw the video of the n900 in action, I was disappointed at how the application windows seemed to "hiccup" and not smoothly transition from the task manager to full screen view, even with all the hardware power behind it.

6) Not really an innovation, but I like the "page flipping" look to change between the desktops, like what's shown in the advertisement video, rather than the swipe to left and right we saw in the demonstration video.


Wow. This has been too long a post. Just a side note: I was impatient & didn't have too much time when I was watching the videos, so if I got anything wrong, please feel free to tell me, and I'll correct it in the post.

Edit: I think the n900 does use screenshots (from what I saw from other videos) when zooming in. So forget you ever read #5