I want to be able to do everything I do in my home and office environments, and have access to most things I have there, without having to think about it.

I am fed up:

a) copying things to SD cards for my N800
b) reformatting video files for my N800
c) worrying about line-endings in text files.

So:
- similar tools
- automatic syncing
- format conversion automation - I remember my Psion 5 used to convert Word documents on the fly when I moved them from my PC.

I understand your grief, but in all honesty, it sounds like you need something that runs WinMo. :/

Tim

No, no and thrice no!

Was "tat" a typo?

Yeah. Fixed.

Tim

But "tat" was so appropriate.

I was just trying to point out that in my puerile developing tryies I missed some basic services I would loved to have in my experiments. To be creative and explore new idea the tools have to be as much simple and basic as possible otherwise the platform will always be conditioned from the development choices determined by the libs avaibles. The devs priorities are always be to the portability of programs trough gtk or qt: that will probably bring really few innovative idea on the table.
Give access to more basic services and let people trying to play with things peculiar of the tablet and the creativity will flow. Having a fixed predeterminated know hardware should lead to use it to the maximum (something similar of what was usual on old home computers and consoles). IMO too high level libraries hide too much to the developers to let the ideas flow. The tablet need more hardcore programmers: the dev community lost 1 entire year just waiting for next cool device instead of trying to squeeze the juice from the actual hardware. Sure I cant blame Nokia for pushing on OS features more than specific hardware hacks but the point was what could unlock creativity.
Buona domenica

I'm not sure I accept your conclusions as foregone. I think creativity will always find a way-- what's more important than anything else here IMO is an assurance that creative effort will not be for nothing, ie, that the value will persist for a reasonable time. Nokia did a poor job of conveying just that assurance... now it is trying to do better.

So, yes, let's talk about creative potential, so we don't get mired in the clamor for Office apps...

"What does Mobile Creativity mean to you?" Allow me to ramble.

I think the interesting aspects of mobile creativity come from the context: Where I am, what am I doing, who am I with. Personally I think the best strategy is not to try to compete with the desktop, but rather to do things that the desktop is simply unable to do.

So a mobile Photoshop application will never be as good as the desktop Photoshop. But the desktop (or traditional laptop) will never be with you and active while I'm sitting in a bar, or hiking in some forest.

So: Utilizing the here and now, and being inspired by it. Mashing up the real and the virtual.

- Virtual graffiti on real walls, seen only with the device camera.
- "Music bombs", i.e. planting a song to a given physical location, and other people hearing that song when they come to the same location. (Or any media format.)

Augmented reality also gives additional ways of being inspired. There might be things around us that we are just not observing, or that we do not know what they are. Travel applications are of course the easiest example of this: Walking in a strange city, pointing your camera towards targets and the view giving realtime info about what you're seeing and experiencing.

Mobile can be a tool for literal ESP: Extrasensory perception.

Well, just as much as it can be a tool to actually detach you from whatever is actually going around you at any given moment. That's the thing that I personally find myself struggling with. For instance in zen practice a lot of emphasis is put on being involved with the moment, and the ... even the definition of what the moment is - when nearly anything that is online will be available with you always - gets rather blurred. It's almost like why some people do drugs, or why people get addicted to World of Warcraft.

Hi everybody,

I'm back from holiday and ready to continue! So cool to come back and find so many responses to the first discussion topic. The many different opinions, nicely written thoughts & innovative ideas make it very valuable and interesting to read!

I'm currently collecting all your input in order to make a compact overview of it. When it's finished, I'll put it on here.

I'll post a new discussion topic this week, in which I - now I'm back - hope to be able to interact a bit more!

cheers,

Marieke

Creating a Temporary Autonomous Zone.

The lack of being rooted in one certain, static place or state of being. The ability to, albeit temporarily, live like a nomad in this modern world with as little physical connectivy (wires, bagage, ...) as possible, therefore increasing the ability to experience emotional (or spiritual) connectivity. This while, till some degree, still being able to relate and interact with the physical world when necessary.

Mobility has its advantages and disadvantages which have to be dealt with, and through the ages, hav been dealt with. A classic example is a swiss army knife, but there are tons DIY projects, such as bakscii. We must adapt to our state of being (mobile) and our goals, and therefore sacrifices and effort must be made.

For example, software synths are portable on a laptop and use less space and weight than a hardware synth. However, certain hardware synths are of better quality than their equal software synths. A choice, a sacrifice, has to be made here.