About this ringtones issue in iTunes.

Songs as ringtones is one of the worst experience that mobile phones have brought to us : it's an attention seeker feature, nothing more. Having a song playing when this given person calls might mean something to you, and that's fine, but for the 2/5/20 people around, it's just intrusive and embarrassing.

If you don't get the point, picture yourself in the line at the grocery store ; the guy next to you receives a call. Yeah, he's a metal fan. And metal is good when it's played loud, you see. He looks at his phone, sees who's calling and doesn't look too happy about it. The song keeps playing like there was a grinder in there. He rolls his eyes, groans, takes another look, says something like "shit", looks at you, smiles and doesn't understand why this expression of pain in your face is growing into a rage rictus. Is he going to be your friend ? Well, if you still can consider it could have been much worse, maybe. Maybe not.

So, having to pay twice the price to get one ? As unfair as it can be, it's still not expensive enough. Save our soundscape, make it ten times.

Labels: apple, ecology, fingerpointing, music, phone, sound

A picture being worth a thousand words, here is an illustration of the idea explained in this first post.

This example displays four sets of albums, but the shelves could expand and the size of the covers shrink when you create news sets.
Each set could contain many more albums than the 6 shown here. To browse the content, you could either click to open, or skim through by hovering your mouse over the first cover.

Labels: apple, interface, music, software, tech

About woodworking, the pleasure of building with your hands, and an interesting argument on what qualifies a professional versus an amateur. 5'12".

Labels: artisan, ondesign, woodworking

Ohhh, look how much albums I have in my iTunes collection, look at the lovely covers, I can scroll through them for a good thirty seconds full speed without actually seeing anything but that I have loads of them. Nice eye candy aye ?

Sure enough, Coverflow offers a much better way to visualize your digital music collection than going trough a list of names, and it came as a relief when I first used it. Lately though, I found some discomfort using it, as if I felt it had no end. I think I figured why.

I made a little math today, using the (crazy) 40 000 songs numbers advertised for the new iPod :

40 000 songs = 3333 albums (12 tracks each) = 12,8m / 42 ft of vinyls records or 33m / 108 ft of CDs in cristal boxes.

Yep, that's it, I feel just as if I was in front of a 30 meters long shelve of CDs. Well, it's even worse than that : in this dark place called Coverflow, I just can see a small portion of it, not the whole 30 meters thing. But I know it's there, looking at me and waiting for me. It's a record continuum coming straight from the Matrix. Even if I could afford a house to display my record collection in this horizontal manner, I'm not sure I would find it usable. It would be sure beautiful, very minimal, repetitive and graphic, perhaps dramatic, but it would take so much time to go through and pick a record to listen to.

Ah, time.

The time you need to identify a record from its cover is what paces your progression in the collection, not the speed of your finger (wether it's flicking physical records or a mouse button), neither the distance you have to physically cover while browsing. Time is the common limiting factor between the n meters shelve and the Coverflow display.
Coverflow is a giant horizontal stack you'd better be patient to deal with if you don't already know what you're looking for. Ok, it's an organized continuum, in its inner alphabetical nature, but still, it feels a bit uncomfortable to apprenhend past, say, a hundred records. Cover flaw ? Sorry, it's really bad but I had to make this one.

I know a few freaks having the habit to classify their records in alphabetical order, but they are few. Usually, people tend to organize them differently : by music label, by sleeve designs, by time of purchase, by family of artists, or even by personal taste (duh !). In the cd or vinyl world, these groups would end on different shelves, or parts of a shelve.

I'd like to look at my digital records collection just as I would do when I sit on my couch and look at my record shelves : I can visualize everything in a single look, and I can find the music I want to listen to even if I can't recall the name of the artist or album because I know it's in the upper left corner. Shelves formalize emotions, moods, and in the music world, mood is a much better option than the alphabet to find your way.

I'd love some shelves in Coverflow. Christmas ?

Labels: apple, interface, music, software, wish

This is the fourth post about a cell phone design project that started here.

Form factors

First, about the scale. We know that the technology won't stop us from going really really small here, and that the ergonomics are the limiting factors.
Ergonomic aspects needing to be considered :
· the size of the device. It must allow you to hold it comfortably, and allow the speaker / mic to work nicely along the ear and mouth distance. The smallest phone I've used so far was as big as a credit card, and I used these dimensions as a reference.
· the size of the buttons, of course.

Semantics : it should look like a phone, as it's nothing else. It should say that it's a USB key too, as it's one. Other ideas to express : basic, solid, reliable, durable, fit.

As it's not designed for a particular brand, the branding guidelines that are usually getting into action at this point are, well, non existent. So we're left with a relative freedom here. That's one of the pleasure of the personal project after all.

Three different tracks came up so far to give a character to this object.

1. In a way, the functionality of this phone is nostalgic and backward looking, as we are refusing all the possibilities that technology is offering us but the ability to be wireless and compact. The Daddy's track.

Grandaddy's got one too.


2. The hard core nature of the functionalities can lead us to the modernist way, "form follows function and we're not expressing anything else here, ok yes we do but ya know..." The Mies track.


3. As it's compact, it's likely that the user will carry the phone in a shirt or pants pocket, so it could be a well rounded and soft object that will prevent the garment to be torn. The Tender track.


Next

Labels: cellphone, interface, phone, project, tech

This is the third post about a cell phone design project that started here.

Extending the interface

The settings of the phone numbers assigned to the keys and the ring tone adjustments are made through the other interface the phone offers through its USB abilities : the computer to which it's plugged in when need be.

Here is a mock ups of the interface that would appear on the screen once the phone is plugged in. I guess an auto launch of a dedicated app sitting in the phone flash memory is something possible, so you could use the computer based functionalities on any computer you could use.



It displays the battery charge level and the reception level, and an eject button so you can unplug safely the phone when you need it.
There is also a text field where you can enter a phone number followed by a "send" button to allow you to place calls from the computer, using its mic and speakers if they are recognized by the software. The connection to the network is still made by the phone which acts like an antenna. Of course, this makes sense only if you can't make a good use of VOIP while using your computer.

When you click on 'Memorized numbers" in the bottom bar of the window, you are presented an interface with which you can set the phone numbers to the key numbers.



You can add the name of the contact so you can remember which contact has which fast dialing key the next time you get to set them. Clicking "Collapse panel" resizes the window to its original appearance.

When you click on "Ringtones", you get access to their settings.



You can choose from internal ringtones, or choose a sound file to be played instead. The sound file is copied on the phone's flash memory when you select it. To set the phone on vibrate, just lower the volume fader to its lower position.

I've been thinking of adding the ability to send sms from this interface, but it would make no sense since you wouldn't be able to receive them when you're not connected to the computer. You'd be better using email in this case.

> Next

Labels: cellphone, interface, phone, project, tech

This is the second post about a cell phone design project that started here.

The phone interface

What is the minimum required to place or receive a phone call ?

· A power button to turn on the device
· A standard keypad
· A send/end call button
· A speaker and a mic, of course

It's a mobile device so it needs :

· A hold button so you don't dial a number while the phone is in your pocket.
· A way to know your battery charge level
· A way to know the reception you're getting at the place you're at

A screen ? No. Why ? As said, the aim is to stay very basic and simple. We could use phones without screens for years, why couldn't we anymore ?

But we need visual feedback for some actions like :
· Dialing : to confirm a key press gesture
· Connection established : yes you are slowly & surely eating your monthly plan
· Battery and reception levels as mentioned above.

The no screen manifesto prevents the use of a contact list, but we'll deal with it buy adding a memory key that can be used to fast dial up to 10 numbers.
Knowing that you'll lose only 10 numbers if the phone dies instead of the never backed up 76 ones you could have on a regular cell might help to accept this limitation. Or, consider that you won't need to play Dr. Kawashima to train your memory because you'll need to know all your numbers by heart.

Finally, the USB plug and its protective cap.

Schematically, here's what we end up dealing with :



Just to confirm that we didn't forget anything, let's run a scenario of placing a call from the turned off device.

1 - Check that the hold button is unlocked
2 - Press 2 seconds on the power button
3 - Continuous blinking signal from the reception level display to invite you to enter your pin number. If nothing happens, charge the battery by plugging the device to the nearest usb port around.
- - - - Starting from now, every key press will be confirmed by a single blink of a LED.
4 - Press the four digits of the pin number and dash symbol to validate.
5 - Three long blinks from the reception level display then information on the reception level confirm you accessed the network.
6 - Dial the number you wish to call and press the send/end call button.
7 - Once the number has been reached, the visual feedback LED is continuously on.
8 - Have a nice conversation.
9 - End call by pressing the send/end call button.
10 - Lock the phone with the hold button.


If the number you wish to call is one of the 10 memorized number of the phone, then the 6th stage becomes :

6alt - Press the memory key followed by the number of your choice.

When someone tries to reach you :

1 - The phone rings
2 - Check that the hold button is unlocked
3 - Answer call by pressing the send/end call button.
4 - The visual feedback LED is continuously on.
5 - Have a nice conversation.
6 - End call by pressing the send/end call button.
7 - Lock the phone with the hold button.

If you can't or don't want to answer the call, you can stop it from rigging by pressing the power button once.

Turning off the phone is as easy as pressing 2 seconds on the power button.

> Next

Labels: cellphone, phone, project, tech

Here is the first of a serie of posts about a cell phone project I've been working on. The idea is to document the process leading to the definition of the object and its experience, and hopefully get some constructive comments about the ideas pushed here.


One of the current negative comments from cell phones users is the clutter of functions shipped with them. These functions are unnecessary to many users, but they have no choice but dealing with them daily. Even if it means that it will cost them more money, add confusion in the user interface. Good start to make a customer happy.
Some people want to take pictures, send 50 sms a day, surf the web or send emails with their phone, but some others have a cell because they want to place and receive calls while they're on the road, just as they would do with any basic land line phones.

In a MobileMonday Paris conference I attended last year, there was a very interesting presentation of the latest advances in mobile phone chips, describing all the features you could embed into them. I asked the guy to give me an idea of the room needed to get the GSM, dialing and memory capabilities in a chip. He couldn't find anything small enough around him to answer my question but his little finger's nail. Today's technology is able to bring you the basic cell phone functionalities in a Bic pen cap, aside of ergonomic issues. There is no technical obstacle preventing us to build a simple, compact and robust cell phone for a basic use. Sounded like a good design project to me.

One of the high tech devices I enjoyed the most because of its small size is a Phillips USB key that is also a digital camera. Sure enough, the image quality is crap (good crap though), but I had it in my pocket everyday for a year and a half without noticing it, and I could take loads of pictures when I felt like it. No preview, unusable viewfinder, but all I want now is a new battery so I can use it again because the original one has died.
Anyhow, 1+1=2, and a USB key phone made its way. The USB feature is resolving the charger issue (you actually don't need one), and provides a new functionality that will be described later.

The brief is simple : design a compact USB device enabling the user to have wireless vocal conversations through a cell phone network. Nothing more. It's tempting to add features, but no, let's stay very basic and simple, even if it's just for the sake of this exercise.

> Next

Labels: cellphone, phone, project, tech