

Amazing Community-driven Mobile Phone Concept by Mozilla [video] - patrickaljord
http://mozillalabs.com/conceptseries/2010/09/23/seabird/

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rb2k_
Just because somebody can make a 3D animation of something doesn't mean that
they can build it. I know it's a "concept", but so is this:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE4Wn0cjrO4> (German, but video speaks for
itself)

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wriq
I hate concept videos. They solely exist to raise everyones expectations to
unattainable levels. Should the product ever get released people will be
disappointed by realities like battery capacity and a pico projector only
working in a very dark room. I wish others would adopt Apple's strategy of
announcing a product with a live demo and a release date within months of that
showing.

* I get this is a Mozilla 'vision' but watching videos of the MS Courier left me bitter concept videos </rant>

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eob
I remain surprised that people thought the MS Courier concept videos were
anything but.

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jasonwatkinspdx
It's a decent video, but it's also just a dream with nothing restraining it in
terms of feasibility.

The challenge of good design is making the best of what's possible. Concepts
that are only on paper or in image don't present that challenge, and so it's
hard for me to get excited by them. After all, we should have flying cars and
jetpacks by now right?

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jsankey
If (like me) you normally skip video links, give this one a go. It's brief and
all visual, so a video really makes sense in this case. And, practical or
otherwise, it's creative and thought provoking!

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Zak
The UI on the phone appears to be Android, while the UI projected on the
screen looks an awful lot like Windows 7. Running Win7 in a VM on a phone
seems like it would be pushing the hardware a bit.

A bit more seriously, how production-ready are IR-based input devices and pico
projectors? I get the impression that this is more sci-fi than a design study
for a practical product based on current technology.

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elblanco
[http://www.gsmarena.com/samsungs_first_projector_phone_sees_...](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsungs_first_projector_phone_sees_daylight_at_ces_2009-news-732.php)

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aresant
Wow, don't miss this.

I'm ready for a combo IR touchpad, keyboard, and PICO projector right now.

Brilliant work.

~~~
guywithabike
What's brilliant about just making up a bunch of stuff?

"This phone has a 50mp camera, built in cinema-quality projector, Blu-Ray
player, and 1TB storage. As well as an insulin monitor, sink, and magic pony."

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InclinedPlane
This.

Sure, they integrated all of these unicorns and faerie dust together very well
and very convincingly, but ultimately it's still just fantasy.

The advantage of a design concept predicated on technology that's not. quite.
there. yet. is that you can save embarrassment from failing to make it a
reality by being dependent on technologies that may not even make it to
market. Ultimately that's a form of design cowardice.

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ZeroGravitas
They should have made the projected keyboard more Swype-y.

I think though that in the existing IR keyboards there's one beam for
"drawing" the keyboard, and a second invisible beam parallel with the surface
which actually detects where your fingers are pressing. It's not clear where
that second beam is coming from in this video. You could probably do the
touchpad with just that single invisible beam, though of course iPhone and
Android aren't made for touchpads and cursor arrows, but rather for direct
finger interaction.

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Tichy
The pomegranate is way better: <http://www.pomegranatephone.com/>

~~~
elblanco
The funny thing is...some of this tech really exists. I have voice to voice
translation out of my Android phone, and Samsung sells a phone with a
projector. And <http://apps.absolutelyandroid.com/harmonica-iphone-1537/app>

Some things, like the translater aren't too hot first generation type deals, I
wouldn't conduct a business meeting with it. But I might haggle over the price
of some clothes in a border town market in Mexico.

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liamk
Amazing phone + high quality video. Could something like this actually work
with today's batteries?

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nitrogen
I've been waiting for a pico-projector-enabled phone since I saw The Island.

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elblanco
Yes please!

(actually I'm surprised in their pseudo desktop mode while docked they didn't
try and use the display as a touchpad like interface.

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jamalah
brilliant, thats my next phone!

phone?? wtf!

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J3L2404
Bloody seabird flavor!

Implementation is the albatross.

