Scott’s Weblog

Thinking about OpenMoko

January 30th, 2007

The best thing about the OpenMoko platform is the fact that it’s open. Don’t like something about your phone? Well, change it! It also means that someone can have an idea for a feature and see it come to fruition very quickly. As well as that, we can integrate right into the phone’s UI and core functionality, rather than being restricted to being a separate Java (or whatever) applet.

So I was thinking about some of the things I’d like my phone to do. One of those things would be timed profile activation, but with a twist. You’ve got a smartphone, so it syncs with iCal, Evolution, Exchange, whatever, so it knows when your meetings/lectures/appointments are already. So why not automatically switch the phone to it’s “meeting” profile when you’re in a meeting? You’re not explicitly telling the phone to go silent from 3-4pm, it just “knows” that when you’re in a meeting (which you have with Bob today at 3, by the way - would you like me to send him an SMS reminder?) you’d like it to be quiet. Wouldn’t that be nice. Maybe modern smartphones already do this… who knows.

Location-based profile activation via GPS came to mind as well, but without coverage indoors and GPS’s relatively low fix resolution it might not be completely feasible. You could of course say “When I’m at work do this, and when I’m at home do that”, but you wouldn’t be able to say, “When I’m in the tearoom do something else”.

I’m sure there are plenty of other interesting things that could be done. I think I need to go find something to do or I’m going to be up all night thinking about it

Entry Filed under: General