Gnome mobile and embedded people, we have work to do: Steve Jobs is showing us his new little wonder. This time I think we will have to cooperate with the guys doing crazy 3D effects and hardware people too. I’m more than certain that with our technology we can actually compete with devices like this. The only thing we really lack, in my opinion, is coordination and cooperation between each other. Technical leadership (and I know this is the subject nobody wants to talk about).
I’m for sure going to try providing the E-mail infrastructure (not only for gtk+ based devices). But that is only an extremely tiny piece of the puzzle. The cool ui effects, like rotating the X11 window when the device physically rotates, is something for our cool X11 developers. The cool scroll effects (when using your finger) is something gtk+ can implement (if this ain’t a patented idea of Apple of course). Input techniques: same (also about the patents). Hardware: Nokia, Palm, OpenMoko? Media players, we have plenty of them, but do we have one that has a really suitable ui for mobile devices? Honest question. GSM & phone functionality, I guess that is going to be hard and will depend on the hardware a lot (but not impossible). VoIP, aha! We have Telepathy! Presence, sure: Galago! Cool art: yep we have nice SVG icons and I’m sure we would find a lot artists who could create us very good stuff for such devices.
What are we waiting for? To be as usual late for the next big thing? Steve is clearly on it already. It’s not the first time that he showed us what that next big thing in technology is, right? In combination with full wireless Internet coverage in bigger cities (which will most likely happen sooner or later), I think devices like this are one such next big thing for the coming years.
Some of the core functionalities that I have in mind (I on purpose decided not to put a lot project names in the bullet points):
- A Windows, MacOS X AND Linux client for uploading music and other files from and to the device;
- VoIP, Presence;
- E-mail & SMS capabilities;
- Small browser, good Flash & AJAX support;
- An easy-to-use media player;
- A small X11 with some effects;
- A camera and a modest photo management tool;
- A Java VM like J2ME, maybe .NET and Python too;
- A good development platform for it. One that Windows developers can use too (“emulator.exe” -style);
OpenMoko and Nokia are, indeed, a good start. In my opinion, we need a lot more like this.
My opinion? Let us not wait and sit, in other words stare at it, like lame ducks. We do have the competence in our group to compete with this!
Maybe cooperate with Steve? I’m sure that such devices need standards like configuration standards, standards for transferring files and deploying music (insert more here). Might be Utopian thinking to want to get this standardized. Yet I believe that this standardization process would unleash the mobile world. Let the others fight each other with their standards while we create the real ones behind their backs?
Think different, be different, be creative and a few years later: Right now the new is you. Your time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s live. Have the courage to follow your own heart and intuition. Everything else, is secondary.
Finally, a last great quote from that recent speech:
Stay hungry, stay foolish.