Rick an I went to the annual Symbian show.

We’ve been very pleased with the new Symbian branding based on comics style.

The mole and its mechanics:

The unicycle sheep:

The switch robot:

You can download the Symbian Style Guide 0909 (.pdf – 11MB)

Grumpy: I would have prefered the new website symbian.org not using flash widgets. Flash does slow down the navigation on websites as well as your computer (especially if it’s a Mac OS X one)

You can also download the Symbian wallpapers from 240×320 to 2560×1600 pixels (that’s the resolution of 30″ screens )

And last download: exclusively for bou.me readers we’ve created a single A4 with all the illustrations (.pdf with each illustration independantly grouped and editable – 11 MB)

Last but not least, the opera stand:

If you don’t have Opera mini on your mobile phone, it’s a nice idea to get it!
The latest beta is really great. Opera mini is a small Java application that “talk” with a special Opera proxy.

What you see is pre-processed by Opera servers for your mobile screen. So it’s fast, it cost you less (you download less stuff from websites you visit).

You can see the page as you would see it on your desktop, albeit a zoomed version. But you can also use with the Opera’s mobile view which is for my taste the most efficient.
http://m.opera.com/next/
Yes rick, Skyfire is cool too.

What about the future of symbian?

Well… we did attend the talks, we even did take some pictures and some notes too!
The reality is with the 3 major platforms, if you want to develop a great application, you still need to develop for each one independantly.
3 times that is:
- the iPhone SDK using objective-C and Cocoa framework,
- the Android SDK using Java and their Android 1.6 or 2.0 framework,
- the Symbian SDK using C++ with preferably the QT framework.

What about the HTML/CSS/Javascript way ?
Palm WebOS, Nokia WRT widgets, iPhone standalone webapps, Android widgets etc. are interesting propositions but they are slow. Also each “widget” needs to be developed and tested separately.

So going “native” is still a very good investment. Maybe one day QT will change things. But at the moment it doesn’t run well… everywhere.

Ah.. the fairy tale of being platform independant.

At the end the best way to publish content on small screens is still to make web applications and websites but not optimized for small screens instead designed for mobility.
By mobility I mean the context of the user. And the behavior of mobile users, as defined since the Palm days, is simple:
1. Where is the gadget (in my pocket)?
2. Aim (bring the application in front of my eyes) immediately.
3. Shoot (do something or be entertained).
4. Lose the gadget again (back to the pocket).

And the web, because it works almost everywhere is a good plateform for this.

When the device get the network of course.

Which is… randomly (have you ever experienced the stress episode to finish and send that email before entering the tunnel?).

As users, we can’t expect our mobile phone to be always connected.. we have to thanks the network to give us a reliable fast connection (and possibly pray for it).

So the applications constantly has to deal with online status, then offline status then sync with the server.
Rince, repeat.
By making sure there is no waiting time during those states for the user and s/he can always continue to work.
This is an infinite problem to solve.

See?
See why we loved the new branding of Symbian?
It’s wacky! Like developing a mobile app!!

~·~
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Short version: Drawing helps me to have better thoughts.

You don’t do that every day, but when it happen.. you’re glad it did happen.

I mean being in a kind of flow (?)where ideas are streaming hugely fast out of your mind. You search frantically something to express them.

The pen at the end of your hands merely become the messenger of your thoughts. You can’t draw fast enough and don’t want the process to stop.

At some stage I thought voodoo: it looks like it happens when I got a new pen and/or new notebook. So I’m buying new pen and notepads all the times.

I don’t believe in voodoo stuff anymore, it’s too painful: you don’t and can’t understand what’s happening.

However I believe the context of our thoughts is as important as our thoughts themselves (and the ones that will lead our actions).

Sometimes, when the sparks illuminate my brain, I’m still learning to catch them because it usually never happen again, ever.

That’s why the act of recording (drawing, writing, taking pictures, filming, recording sounds/discussions, etc.) is important to me.
And from all those “recording tools”, the one which works the best is drawing. It really helps to get me “in the zone”. Much more than writing.

Here is a series of pages I was – spontaneously and naturally – drawing in early 2007 after I bought a new caligraphy fountain pen and a new Moleskine notebook (voodoo bouh!).
I admit the result looks too contrived but it didn’t take long to draw (about half an hour, which is still slow to get in the zone .

I do not attempt to communicate a message to you through those drawings. This not Art either. It’s a recording that might helps to ignite an inspiration, some sparks in your mind.

Thanks for reading this page

~·~
Yes! It’s a Creative Common licence (the one that give you the right to do anything with it (e.g. making money by printing it on a T-shirt, using it in your teaching lessons, etc.) without paying me. You just need to say somehow that your work as been based by this one (aka I’m the original author).

You can see a 300 DPI version of these pictures on:
• flickr
• deviantart
where you can even have them printed on almost anything.

~·~
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Defying Gravity, the new TV series from Fox is aired this summer in the US (on ABC)  for a 13 episodes run. I liked the way you open the doors and the user interface on the spaceship, the Antares.

Looks like the series need a boost (aka: ratings are low). So please press Start!
(No it’s not a video, just a screenshot showing the crew in the Antares starting their boosters to hum to Venus)

I doubt any space console user interface will be designed that way but it’s way cooler than the Windows XP Start button!

Formats: AAC | OGG

Defying Gravity is the story of eight astronauts going to explore planets in our neighbourhood.
It has been inspired by the BBC series Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets and of course 2001: Space Odyssey.

The first 80 mn (the pilote episode) were available for free on the US iTunes Music Store. Thanks Fox.
Note: It’s easy to download them: you just need to create an account choosing any US address and don’t give any payment details. Then you will be able to download all the freebies.

Defying Gravity’ story is characteristic of the new trend of storytelling with a lot of characters, complicated plots fast paced. I just hope the pile of questions the story unfold will not grow up to the mount Everest before “they” start resolving them.

This series is a perfect excuse to be an educational one, like Numbers tried to show mathematics are sexy and useful.

Look, it’s easy to go to space: hope in and go! (you need to be good looking though)
- Oops, we forgot 2 astronauts.
- No problem, they can take a cab and join us in orbit.

But wait.. there’s nothing to do in this spaceship!
It’s boring: everything is slow, it takes ages to go from A to B. You’re filmed all the time and people on Earth laugh at you like watching a Big Brother show.

Yes, but you can have sex on space when the head of everybody on Earth says:
– “Give the mission’s commander some privacy with his wife” and turns off the cameras on the deck.
You need to be a commander and willing to go back to Earth which make the sex session in space a bit pricey.

We can understand easily why space education needed more than the marvels of the Universe, like a thriller plot.
Mysterious pod 4 and Venus I’m looking at you!
And what’s going to happen when they’re going to reach Mars? Are they going to discover the skeletton of the previous astronauts they left 10 years ago?
Are we going to see the first human being born in space?
Etc.

That’s how it works and 2001: Space Odyssey did not only show people what life could be in a spaceship, it engaged emotionally people in this pathway. And being engaged, having a goal, clearly change everything. You don’t learn anymore the same way.

But enough talk, for all picture junkies who already skipped the text above, here the tutorials you’re waiting for (click on the images to see them bigger):

Tutorial to access a pod in the Antares spaceship

And because schizophrenia seems to be a strong pattern in a spaceship, you need to know how to open outer door by despair or by mistake:

Outer door open tutorial

As you can see we don’t open doors in a spaceship like we would do in a normal home.

Well.. with all those doors opened let’s go for a ride, shall we?

That’s Defying Gravity.. naked.
Elle va attrapper la mort là, c’est sûr.

Formats: AAC | OGG
~·~
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What if Amazon open a retail store?

What would it look like?

How could they keep their brand? The user experience?

Here’s my vision about this (made to illustrate forthcoming Ofer’s blog article).

[See it bigger]

A shop with a welcoming context using sofas, plants, aquarium, changing colors walls and lot of space.

The shop is fully automatic and open 24/7.

The staff is there when needed. No hard sales through a legion of agressive and bored salesperson.

The store is not anonymous: you log in to enter. Yes it’s a barrier.

The Main Area

The real size avatar on screen helps you to select, browse and discuss the products presented on mechanical shelves dynamically populated on a lower floor.

There is several of those one-to-one selling units across the store.

The customer can then manipulate his/her selection of products with or without the help of a sale assistant (virtual or not).

The Customer Review Area

Since the beginning Amazon tried to publish trustworthy customer reviews by using reputation scores, moderation etc.
Additionally Amazon was one of the first e-commerce brand to launch viral affiliate program.

This area welcomes trusted reviewers who can explain, discuss the products to other customers and being remunerated at the same time when a sale occurs.

At least it’s a space where people can express their opinions on a one-to-one basis about the product they’ve bought or plan to buy.

The Lounge Area

Are those two women waiting their partners to decide what they want to buy?
Are they waiting their turn to have the dynamic shelves populated with shoes and clothes?
Or is it simply a good meeting point?
You decide.
But we all agree we couldn’t have done this concept without drawing women on it

Check out area

Not represented on this picture but simply a collection area with a standard till.
The customer can pay easily using the financial details from his/her account.

~·~
Yes! It’s a Creative Common licence (the one that give you the right to do anything with it (e.g. making money by printing it on a T-shirt, using it in your teaching lessons, etc.) without paying me. You just need to say somehow that your work as been based by this one (aka I’m the original author).

Download the 300 dpi color version (2MB)…

This version has been created using Photoshop CS4 and the layered file is available on demand.

Buy fine prints, coaster, greeting cards, magnet, mouse pad, postcard, puzzle, etc. of this image on DeviantART…
~·~
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My dear friend Ofer started his blog Can I use it? and posted an article saying he uses various cameras for his ethnography studies.
http://caniuseit.com/photography/

I felt inspired to take some pictures (which looked like waste of time from my beloved around me).

So here’s my call to you Ofer. Look at this:

How am I supposed to cook my chicken now? I can’t read the instructions!

The chicken was on the freezer and I left it outside all night. It’s ready to be cooked now but how?

I’m going to find a recipe somewhere…

Anyways I think  instead of this unreliable “peel here” label, maybe a little booklet like an handtag printed on waterfproof material, would have been better.

Update: We did enjoy that chicken at the end!

Thanks for reading.

Related posts (Automatically generated):

1. Ipod shuffle 3rd – Drawings for Ofer Deshe

Add explosion, plane and buildings

Pistols to go there

Keep retro style

Smooth cut out of the chopper

Laser beam goes here and destroy that thing

Remove wires, dots and add some wowfully sparks

Smoother cut out please and shiner reflections

Add blades and wowfully sparks, remove wires and their shadow

See? There is no secrets.
No truth either.

Snoopynaute and the flag of Earth

<employment>
You need to be :
self-motivated ;
well-organised ;
have excellent written communication skills ;
have excellent verbal communication skills ;
be used to working to set targets ;
be used to delivering on time ;
be able to keep a clear head under pressure ;
be able to deal with complex issues ;
be able to deal with complex problems.
</end_of_employment>