Au revoir Detective Carter

Whether life imitates art or art imitates life, one thing is evident: some of us fail to learn from our costly mistakes.

While Finch's genius and intelligence are unquestionable, he has failed to learn from a costly mistake he made earlier. His ego got in the way of sound reasoning and it resulted in the death of his best friend, Nathan Ingram.

One would have thought that he had learnt from that mistake. Alas, his ego prevented him from acknowledging the obvious truth. Had he listened to Root's logical suggestion, Detective Carter would still be with us today.

On the other hand, it's only realistic that one of the main characters would buy the farm at some point. The team has had one too many close shaves to keep getting away. That being said, I'm glad it wasn't Fusco. I love his character. Who would have guessed that Det. Carter would be joining Officer Lasky and Agent Donnelly pretty soon!

Quick Thoughts on Android 4.4 KitKat

Android 4.4 had been unveiled and released. Let's get right to first impressions. All in all, I would call it an iterative update. Though there's a lot of new stuff going on under the hood, visually, it mostly a collection of tweaks; many of which have been available for years from third party developers and custom ROMs.

The iPad is a Tablet

Before any premature conclusions are formed, understand that this is not an appraisal of the iPad. The title above is as literal as it gets; the iPad is a tablet. So why am I stating the obvious? Well, in some circles, it would seem the obvious is not so obvious. This is about many online retailers that choose to categorise the iPad differently from all other tablets. I have observed this trend for quite some time now and it is upsetting to see more stores emulate this folly. 

 

Choosing a Name for the Upcoming Nexus Tablet

With the world waiting on the refresh of Google's Nexus 7 tablet, what will this refresh be called?

Names like Nexus 7 2 are just as foolish a name as Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0

Nexus 7 HD is a superfluous name seeing as the original is also HD albeit 720p HD.

Christening it The New Nexus 7 will be repeating the foolishness of Apple with the iPad 3.


Using Nexus 7.2 will just confuse people into thinking that the screen is 7.2 inches.

So what will it be called? Here's a thought: The Nexus 8. I think this makes the most sense. But then again, a name like the Nexus 8 is not without its pitfalls.

+Joss Benyon suggested the name Nexus 7+. That seems to be the best name so far. I think it's quite brilliant.

+Hau Tran has also asked the important question of what the Nexus phones would be called after the sixth iteration?

As for the real name, we'll find out soon enough.

Update
Alas, it's  the New Nexus 7. Not the best and wisest naming/branding.

Don't Get Excited About Activation Lock

I should point out that I am yet to use iOS 7 beta. Therefore, this article is partly speculative but rest assured that some concrete facts are included as well.

Apple’s new anti-theft feature in iOS 7, Activation Lock, is being hailed as the absolute deterrent to phone theft. As mentioned earlier, I am yet to try iOS 7 out but from what I can surmise, Activation Lock is anything but perfect.

A Shortage of Perfect Trilogies

Hollywood has become infatuated with trilogies. Once a movie or a movie character shows a cult following, the studios almost always turn it into a franchise. The reason behind this is not far-fetched. They get to give fans more of the first movie and their characters and of course, they get to make more money from the budding franchise. There are those times when the decision to make a trilogy is not motivated by the above reasons but by the source material. That is, if a novel is adapted for the big screen, it follows that subsequent sequel novels will also be adapted except if the first movie failed to perform at the box office. That being said, it seems delivering the perfect trilogy has for the most part, eluded Hollywood.

This Cartoon is Better Than The Dark Knight Rises

There is a cartoon; a brief animation clip. It is actually the trailer for a video game. It is just five minutes long. A little under five minutes actually. This cartoon is the trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins. And it is better than The Dark Knight Rises in many ways. How could a five minute cartoon possibly be better than a movie? Well, it is everything the movie wasn't: dark, gritty, sensible and awesome. Not to rehash, but that travesty called The Dark Knight Rises was not the sequel / conclusion that we deserved neither was it the one that we needed. And it has good sound editing too.

Enjoy.

Abuse of the Flashback Technique

The flashback is a literary plot device that allows the depiction of events that occurred before the beginning of the narrative. Its primary purpose is to clarify a hitherto unexplained part of the plot and its secondary purpose is to add a bit of suspense and mystery to the literary work. Over time, it has been employed for other purposes such as depicting a false account of events as narrated by one of the characters. In the very recent movie, Vantage Point (2008), it was used to depict accurate but different perspectives of the same event thereby creating a sense of mystery. It has also been used in many TV series but of late, I feel the technique is being over-used, abused and excessively relied upon.

Hisense Sero 7 Pro: The Best 7-inch Tablet

The best 7-inch Android tablet has been the Google Nexus 7 retailing for $200. Indeed, the Nexus 7 deserves its pride of place in the tablet market as Asus and Google proved that it was possible to deliver top-spec hardware and good build quality at a low price. The Nexus 7 is not without its faults though. Its major sore point is the lack of expandable storage. But its absence has more to do with the idiosyncrasies of Google and its Nexus devices than it has to do with cost. Regardless, no other 7 inch Android tablet has been able to offer a perfect mix of performance and price. Many have come close but miss the mark. That is no longer the case though. There is a new King of the Hill and its name is the Sero 7 Pro.

BBM on iPhone & Android: Could this be BlackBerry’s Waterloo?

I should start by saying pun intended. BlackBerry has announced that their instant messaging service, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) will be available on Apple’s iPhone and Google Android in a few months. On the face of it, making a service available on multiple platforms is a good move as it ensures cross-compatibility and helps to grow its user base. There is however an exception to every rule and in this case, I think Blackberry is that exception.

2014 S Class: First Impressions

The all new Mercedes Benz S Class (Model W222) was unveiled yesterday and there was nothing new to see in terms of styling; no thanks to several spy shots. In retrospect, Mercedes shouldn’t have released those teaser images of the interior. The numerous leaks didn’t help either. So what’s new? Honestly, not very much. In fact, I think we've seen this car before.

Person of Interest: The Machine (from a tech perspective)

This is a tech version of an earlier article. I should start by saying this: if you do not watch Person of Interest, then this article is not for you. It will make little or no sense to you. However, if you are one of the fortunate people that watch this show but are not a techie, then please read on. I theorized that Finch could still control the machine.  My primary concern here is The Machine’s command set/command structure.

A Word On iOS 7

This seems to be a popular opinion that the primary objective of the on-going redesign of iOS that will culminate in iOS 7 is to get rid of the skeuomorphic illustrations. Many even go on to imply that skeuomorphism is the major problem with iOS today. Though we are yet to see any glimpse of iOS 7, I think the suggestion that skeuomorphism is its bane is nothing but a fallacy. Yes, iOS in its present form is outdated and is a bit of a mishmash but suggesting that skeuomorphism is the reason behind its almost archaic nature will onlyserve to portray a lack of understanding of user interfaces and user experience. Unfortunately, many others have also adopted this reasoning.

So You Want a C Class?

A colleague mentioned that one of his superiors at work was in the market for a small-size luxury sedan. As expected, he was considering the usual suspects: the Mercedes C Class and the BMW 3 Series and it seemed he was angling towards the C Class. I convinced my colleague to let me speak to Mr. X. An appointment was made and I was invited to his home the following weekend. When I arrived, I observed a 2010 Mercedes E Class parked adjacent to the front door and just as I rung the bell, a woman (whom I later found to be Mr. X’s wife) drive up in a Mercedes M Class. At that point, I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy task. To be fair, Mr. X was under the impression that I had come to advise him on which of the two cars he should buy. He had no idea what I had in store for him.

Finding The Perfect 7-inch Tablet

To say that there are many 7 inch tablets in the market would be an understatement. This is because the 7 inch category of the tablet market is burgeoning with many different and diverse models. This is understandable considering that the main advantages of a 7 incher are its small size and ease of portability. There is something for everyone from the ultra-budget end of the price spectrum to the premium and top-end models. So when I was asked to suggest a good 7 inch tablet a few weeks ago, I had just one requirement: a tablet hat strikes the right balance between price, performance and features. And of course, it has to run Android. How hard could it be?

Just How bad is Plastic?

Consumer electronics come in all shapes and sizes but the material used for their enclosures (housing or shell if you prefer) are not so varied. Generally, these enclosures are either made of plastic, glass, metal or wood. Sometimes, a combination of some or all of these materials is used. In recent times, plastic enclosures have been derided and labelled as inferior but is there any merit to this argument?

Google's Inactive Account Manager: Allowing Alteration of History

Google's new Inactive Account Manager, the tool/setting that allows a user's Google Account to be deleted after a set period of inactivity is not a very good idea considering it allows a user's Google account to be deleted in its entirety. This includes an entire blog, youtube videos, Google + posts, etc. Of course, the tool has more useful features such as alerting certain specified persons of your inactivity. It is the complete account deletion option that has me worried.

2 Guns Trailer: 2 Much Revealed

I just watched the trailer for 2 Guns, the movie starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. And I have to say: it looks promising. Think of Bad Boys (not the rubbish sequel). What I don't get is why many trailers decide to give the whole movie away. Too much has been revealed. I ignored many trailers of The Dark Knight Rises because of this. 


With the 2 Guns trailer, I already know too much of the plot as well as a major part of the denoument. What do you think? Do you think it reveals too much?

System Modules Should be Differentiated From Apps

The difference between system modules and apps is inherent in their respective definitions. In a strict sense, system modules and apps are both application software. There is however a subtle difference. System modules are a core, native and integral part of a system while apps in the loose sense are third party apps. Another less subtle way of distinguishing between the two is thus: system modules cannot be uninstalled by the user while apps can be uninstalled. I say less subtle because some OEMs and carriers install bloatware that cannot ordinarily be removed.

What’s the Purpose of a Wallpaper?

Wallpapers certainly add colour, life and pizzazz to any screen. Some wallpapers comprise of repeating patterns. Others are photographs of famous places; buildings; cars or people. So naturally, I find it very miffing anytime I come across any person who has used a photograph of say, his child or famous landscape and then proceeds to have parts of or the whole photograph covered up with icons.

On Using a Phone as a Remote Control

The recently unveiled Samsung Galaxy S4 and LG Optimus G Pro have infra-red transmitters that allow them to act as remote controls for several home electronics like TVs, stereos and air conditioners. While I appreciate the ability to use a phone as a ‘universal’ remote, I think the feature is of limited utility.

Can Finch Still Control the Machine?

I should start by saying this: if you do not watch Person of Interest, the TV series starring Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson, then this article is not for you. It will make little or no sense to you. If however, you are one of the fortunate people watching this show, then by all means keep reading.

The Machine. The omniscient and omnipresent Machine. I have used a capital M for the Machine for two reasons. First, I consider it a major character in the show much like Finch, Reese et al. The second reason it deserves such respect is because of its abilities. Not so much its computational abilities but its conscious abilities. When the Machine becomes common place, then it will be called the machine. Remember back in the day when the internet was called the Internet.

The Adverse Economics of 3D Printing

Most articles on 3D printing have focused on the creative opportunities afforded by the revolutionary technology. Others have pointed out its darker prospects such as being able to print firearms in one’s home. One thing’s for certain; 3D printing is here to stay and the technology will get better and better over time though there are some who are convinced it is nothing but a passing fancy that is doomed to failure or obscurity like 3D TV and 3D movies.

The purpose of this article is to briefly discuss the disruptive economic effects of the technology. History lends credence to the fact that every revolutionary technology usually renders other established industries obsolete. The digital music player and mp3s continues to reduce sales of the music CD market. The advent of ebooks had pretty much done the same thing to physical books. Email has caused a reduction in the use of postal services. The photo film manufacturing and development industries were done in by the advent of the digital photography. Remember Kodak, Agfa and Jessops. So which industries are threatened by 3D printing?

Letter to the Writers & Producers of Touch

Season 1 of Touch was top notch and devoid of sappy writing. The second season started on a high but I have begun to notice changes right from the fifth episode. The writers are beginning to resort to cheap tricks to prolong move the plot forward. Last week’s episode was going rather well right until the point at which Amelia was on the pier waiting for her mother only for Mrs. Norborg to arrive just in time to abduct her again. This was all too convenient for the Norborgs. It’s the kind of cheap writing that was prevalent in Passions; remember when Chad was trying to find his mother.

If I Were In Charge of the Oscars

Now that the dust from the recently held 85^th Oscar Awards has settled, I would like to point out what I believe to be flaws in the selection and eligibility process. 

HP Gets It Wrong Again

Our favourite PC manufacturer, HP, has once again dipped its toes into the tablet market. Their latest offering, named Slate 7 is as its name suggests, a 7 incher. Now for a bit of history if you please.

Lincoln De Jure

Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, starring Daniel Day Lewis as the titular character (if I may use the word character) has been critically acclaimed. It has received several nominations and won several awards in several categories. But is the movie that good?

Is MMS Still Needed?

MMS, short for Multimedia Messaging Service, can be thought of as enhanced SMS i.e. multimedia SMS. In other words, SMS with pictures, audio and video. 

MMS as a messaging medium has been very useful in previous years; it allowed mostly users of budget phones to send and receive multimedia content. But I feel the relevance and utility of MMS in today’s mobile landscape should be questioned.

Why Skyfall Is Not the Best Bond Movie

It is imperative for me to begin this piece by declaring that I have watched every Bond movie; official, unofficial and spoofs. That is my bona fides that allows me to ponder the question of whether Skyfall is indeed the best James Bond movie ever made.

The 3000 New Parts of the 2013 Lexus LS

Much like the update from the iPhone 4 to the 4S, the 2013 LS, Lexus’s flagship sedan, is not an all-new model. Generally, when a manufacturer says a model has 3000 new parts, you should know you are getting more of the same. So much so that the model names of the previous generation, (LS460, LS 460 L and LS 600 hl) have been retained. This is not to say there haven’t been some changes. There are quite many of them.

A Quick Look at the Fringe Finale

Fringe, everyone’s favourite sci-fi show has ended. So how was the finale? In one word, functional. However, looking at the whole season makes it obvious that the show’s writers and creator didn’t really have anywhere to go at the end of the fourth season. All season 5 was about was avoiding the observers and trying to defeat them. All the weekly fringe cases and events that were the mainstay of the series were absent from the final season.

Analysing the Rolls-Royce Phantom Series 2

The Rolls Royce Phantom Series 2 is out. And after watching the official release video, it’s hard to see the changes.. Rolls Royce did not even bother to address any of the design flaws of the original renaissance. It has the same V12 engine and the same suspension and I imagine it will offer the same supple and impeccable ride to its passengers. Up front, the changes are single strip LED fog lights replacing the previous circular design. The grille also has supposedly been changed to a single piece unit as opposed to the previous three-piece unit. I say supposedly because I have compared it with that of the previous car and I can’t see any difference. At the rear end, there is a restyled bumper. The cars bold and sharp lines have also been slightly smoothed to given the car a sleeker appearance. Those are the major changes.

Apple After Seventeen Months of Tim Cook

You already know what this is. An assessment of Tim Cook as CEO of Apple. So how has he fared? Well that’s the point of this article. His suitability for the role of CEO has always been debated and popular opinion is that he is no Steve Jobs. While this is true in both good and bad ways, I think it is unfair to compare him to his predecessor at the slightest opportunity. Some say he is doing extremely well on account on the company’s balance sheet. Others say he just hasn’t had enough time to mess things up yet. And where do I stand? Well it’s a 50-50 situation but recent events have me leaning towards the latter view.

Rules of Interface Design and their Application to Mobile Platforms

Rules for Interface Design

For a user interface to qualify as truly well designed, it must satisfy all the following conditions viz:

a)	It must employ the same design paradigms and methods across all device types and form factors.
b)	Its functions and features must be intuitively laid out in such a way that they would suggest themselves to a new user of the platform.
c)	Any function or feature can be accessed in the barest minimum of steps.
d)	No gesture or control should have multiple functions or multiple contextual functions.
e)	It must ensure the same standard layout to all users regardless of user customizations.
f)	It should offer a very efficient method of multitasking.
g)	It should avoid the use of unintuitive and unnatural gestures.
h)	Its iconography must use symbols that have a universal connotation.
i)	It must display system status at all times.
j)	It must have robust app management.
k)	It must have good multimedia compatibility.
l)	It must have its own unique appearance and methods from other UIs.

  

We shall look at how the above rules apply to the major platforms. The platforms to be covered are:

i	Google Android	vi	Jolla Sailfish
ii	Apple iOS	vii	Ubuntu for Phones
iii	Microsoft Windows Phone	viii	Blackberry 10
iv	Nokia Belle	ix	Amazon Kindle Fire OS
v	Firefox OS

Google Android

Android has moved leaps and bounds since its release in 2007. Though some would argue about its somewhat fragmented nature, it is in terms of usability and flexibility, the best mobile OS out there. In my honest opinion,  in today’s age, you are not short-changed if your device stills runs on version 2.3 aka Gingerbread. The current version v4.2 aka Jelly Bean is a very mature OS. However there are some problems.

i) Split Status Bar

The split status bar is not very good design as it has two swipe areas which are not obvious. Swipe down on the left part to access notifications and swipe down on the right part to access quick settings and toggles. The toggles pane itself requires users to swipe/scroll sideways to access other toggles (GPS, etc).

ii) Multiple Homescreens

There is truly no need for multiple homescreens. Their presence only serves to allow alteration/adulteration the specific user experience that the OEM has tailored for the user. It also causes disorganization. I believe multiple homescreens exist primarily to provide a space for widgets; the majority of which are useless and unnecessary. There are only two widgets (or mini apps as they are sometimes called) that are needed: Weather and Music. Every other app should be controlled when it's in the foreground. Any info from it should be posted in Notifications.

iii) No Unified Notifications Centre

The Notifications pane in Android is not system wide. Some third party apps still handle their own in-app notifications. Another problem of this is that the Title bar is cluttered with different notification icons such as that for Google Play, Gmail and on-going downloads. All of this should be in notifications.

iv) No Robust/Integrated App Management

The app grid/drawer simply displays installed apps and allows deletion (uninstalling). You have to go to settings to see how much storage space an app is using.

v) Sideways App Grid

Apps icons are displayed/laid out in a sideways (page turning) fashion. You swipe/scroll sideways to access/display more app icons. While this is space efficient, it is of limited utility when trying to design a robust and integrated app manager. Another hidden/less obvious flaw of this style/layout is a limit on the number of apps that it can display. With this layout, the largest phone screens can display 35 app icons per page (7 rows of 5 icons each). The number of pages the layout allows is 9. This creates a theoretical maximum of 315 icons that can be displayed/installed. When this page limit is reached on iOS devices, the user is then left with no choice but to start grouping each app into folders. This contravenes the rule of ensuring the same standardised layout to all users regardless of user customizations or user events.

Apple iOS

iOS (formerly iPhone OS) revolutionised user interface design by bringing touch based interfaces to the mainstream when it was released back in 2007. Five years later, the UI is beginning to look archaic as it has stayed mostly the same. It has failed or refused to keep up with proven trends. Today, iOS's layout is beginning to look as archaic as Nokia's Symbian S60v3 looked when the iPhone OS debutted. These are some of its shortcomings.

i) Multi-nested Settings Menu

The Settings menu in iOS is a pure reflection of Nokia's Symbian. An example is changing app notifications or messaging settings or access point settings. Changing any of these requires drilling into the settings menu. iOS has too many sub settings/sub screens.

ii) Long Winded Process to Accomplish Simple Tasks

This is one of the aspects in which iOS has lagged behind proven trends. Changing something as casual as screen brightness requires a long winded trip to the Settings menu. The same applies to activating bluetooth and Wi-Fi. This add unnecessary steps to the process of navigating the UI. A good UI should allow access to any feature or function in the barest minimum of steps/gestures.

iii) Lacklustre Task Manager

A good UI should be intuitively laid out. Features should naturally suggest themselves to a new user. This design rule was not applied to the layout of iOS's task manager. A user unfamiliar with iOS will be at a loss when trying to multitask or switch apps. An unfamiliar user will be inclined to first return to the home screen and then navigate to the icon of the app he wants to switch to. Activating the task manager involves double-tapping the home button. The layout itself is lacklustre. Running apps are represented by their launcher icons. This is behind the current trend of displaying live representations of what the app is doing. Even Nokia Belle does its better by displaying a static screenshot of every running app's present status.

iv) Multiple Functions for the Home Button

A good UI should eschew acsrubing multiple functions to a control or gesture. This often leads to a confusing UI. A single press of home button returns the user to the homescreen. A long press brings up Siri. A double tap brings up the task manager. Pressing it in combination with the power button takes a screenshot.  Double-tapping it in the lockscreen brings up music controls. Only the first function is self evident. All the others are not.

v) No Robust App Manager

There is no fully integrated app-manager. Sure you can delete or rearrange apps in the App store icon is. But there is no way to know how much space an app is using neither is there any way to set app permissions from here. If you want to do either of these, you must first go to the home screen, and then go to Settings and then drill down to apps permissions section. All this round tripping is completely unnecessary by current standards and practices.

vi) Poor Multimedia Compatibility

iOS has very poor compatibility with codecs and containers. It doesn’t support DivX or the ubiquitous MKV or FLV. This is really obtuse of Apple. Any mkv must first be converted to a compatible format before it can be watched on any iDevice. This is one major reason why I abhor iOS devices. Converting is a thing of the past. A true multimedia device must support all the major and popular codecs. Apple’s refusal to support all codecs is just obtuse. Video conversion is now something meant only for video production professionals. 

Microsoft Windows Phone

Windows Phone debuted a very clean and lean interface that employed pleasing and subtle animations and transitions. The live tiles are also a wonderful idea but Microsoft got carried away and got a few things wrongs.

i) Flawed Home/Start Screen

The Home screen allows customisation by allowing the rearrangement of all the icons/ tiles. And this is a problem. It allows a user to move the icons for phone, contacts (People) and messaging. I believe these are the core functions of a phone and as such should not be trifled with. To be fair, this is a problem common to all the other platforms. The design of Windows Phone allows these icons to be pushed further down in the home screen, and even out of view. The point of the homescreen is to provide shortcuts to your favourite/frequently used apps. However, there is no limit to the number of tiles you can pin to the homescreen and this becomes counterproductive. Proper interface design should be able to display all shortcuts in one page. But with Windows Phone, you can scroll downwards on the homescreen to get to your favourite tile. I think this defeats the purpose and takes the short out of shortcut. As all shortcuts should be displayed at once, the only limit to this should be screen size.

ii) Flawed App List

This one is a common problem with all the platforms. A good UI should be able to differentiate between system modules and apps. In WP, the Settings icon is listed in the apps list and it gets is pushed further down as more apps are installed. The location is already flawed as a good UI should provide quick access to system settings. Though the settings icon can be pinned to the homescreen, it just further pushes down other important tiles like phone, messaging and so on. 

iii) No Unified Notification Centre

This is something that still has not been fixed even in Windows Phone 8.

iv) Lack of a Robust App Management

To install an app, the user has to go back to the home screen or app list and then navigate to the Windows Store app. There is also no way to know which how much space an app is using.

v) Inconsistent Gestures and Task Management

Swiping from bottom to top is inconsistent. It minimizes some apps while it closes others.  And there is no definitive way of closing/exiting an app. Also, all the gestures are not self-evident.

vi) Lack of third party browsers

The only browser for Windows Phone is Internet Explorer (IE). This browser is very limited. It doesn’t even provide for saving web pages. And for some reason, Microsoft doesn’t allow third party browsers, not even Opera Mini. Their stance on browsers is even worse than Apple’s iOS which allows Opera Mini. The workaround for saving pages is to use services like Evernote.

vii) Poor Multimedia Compatibility

This is a just like Apple’s iOS. No native support for MKV, FLV and other popular codecs and containers. What’s most annoying about this situation is that the hardware can support it (most MKV files use the H264 or X264 codec). Microsoft and Apple just refuse to implement it in software. And let’s be honest, WMV (Windows Media Video) is useless. Only Microsoft uses it. However, the announced availability of VLC media player for the platform should fix all this.

Nokia Belle

Nokia Belle, more popularly known as Symbian Belle is one of the best things to come out of Nokia. This OS is a complete revamp of Symbian and represents a milestone because it finally delivered on Nokia’s promise of Symbian not needing very powerful hardware. I used a Nokia C7-01 (680 MHz processor with 256MB RAM) running Belle Refresh as my main phone for a month and I can tell you, it was very usable and not so anachronistic when compared to Android.

In many ways, Belle is better than iOS. Its multitasking was well implemented. I was constantly running the video player, app store, music player, Opera Mini and email and the phone switched seamlessly between all of them. This was a no-no on previous versions of Symbian with its frequent out of memory dialog box. What really hurt Belle was that the platform had already been deprecated before it was released and so developers had already moved on.  The phone also had partial support for mkv and flv. And this was all on a 680MHz processor with 256MB RAM. The last generation Symbian phones (700, 701, 808 Pureview) came with 512MB RAM and had their processor clockspeed increased to 1.3GHz from 1GHz with the Belle update. I can only imagine how much better than user experience must have been and what might have been had the platform survived.

i) No Unified Notification Centre

The only real flaw of Nokia Belle was the lack of unified notifications.  Only SMS and missed calls and alarms showed up in notifications. Email was mysteriously left out. Even WhatsApp was also not included.

Firefox OS

There’s not much to say about this platform as it has not been yet been released. However, all demos and hands-on videos show it to be nothing more than an iOS clone with a sprinkling of Android. The only thing it has going for it is that the whole OS is based on HTML 5.

Jolla Sailfish

Sailfish is another yet to be released platform. It is however made by a team of people who worked on the ill-fated MeeGo from Nokia and Intel. It too relies heavily on gesture control. However, it shares similarities with other platforms. For example, its lock screen is unlocked in the same way as Windows 8. It has a few flaws such as:

i) Inconsistency

From the homescreen, you can swipe from top to bottom to view notifications like in Android. However, you can also swipe sideways from right to left to get to notifications. You can also peek at notifications in a similar way to Blackberry 10 OS. Also, going back to the homescreen uses different gestures in different parts of the UI. In the app list/grid, you swipe up completely but in contact profile view, you swipe right to left to go back to the homescreen. 

ii) Hidden System Status

The Sailfish UI has a fundamental flaw in that you cannot see your network reception or battery level until you peek at notifications. The same applies to the time which you cannot see until you peek at notifications. This is a big fail in the sense that primary and critical information that should be displayed at all times is hidden from view and tucked away in notifications. Also the ambience feature seems to be an unnecessary and confusing gimmick.

Ubuntu for Phones

This is another yet to be released platform but it has been previewed quite extensively. It also relies on gesture control for everything and employs the 4 sides of the screen in what Ubuntu has termed ‘EdgeMagic’. Canonical also got carried away with excessive and unnatural gestures. That being said, it does offer quick access to system components such as network settings, alarms, etc.

i) Multiple Functions for a Single Gesture

A short swipe from the left displays shortcuts to your favourite apps while a long swipe from the same left side of the screen displays all our apps.

ii) Unnecessary Extra Steps

The menu controls for any app/module you are in are hidden by default. A short upward swipe from the bottom of the screen is needed to display them. While I understand the need to maximize screen real estate and provide a clean and lean appearance, this has inadvertently added an unnecessary extra step to the UI navigation process.

iii) Different Design Paradigms

Canonical, the firm behind Ubuntu has said it hopes to create the same user experience across all device types and form factors. This has turned out not to be the case. There are differences in how running apps are displayed between the desktop version and the phone version.

Blackberry OS 10

Also unreleased but the internet is saturated with several leaks and hands-on videos. Presently, Research in Motion (RIM) is in dire straits and needs BB OS 10 to be well received. It will definitely make some fans stick to the platform and it might also draw a few new users but it won’t do much on the long run. Why? What I’ve seen of BB OS 10 so far is a mishmash of features and functionality. The gesture control swiping is too heavy and unnatural and will likely confuse many people. The structure and layout of BB OS 10 can be described as amoebic. There are no real boundaries to any of the modules. From the notifications, you can jump to contacts and from there to the calendar.

Amazon Kindle Fire OS

This is a surprising entry considering it is a fork of Android. First off, I don’t find the scrolling ribbon to be very effective as it adds more unnecessary steps to the navigation process. However, I envisage a potential problem with this interface. Should Amazon decide to make a phone in the future, I suspect it will not be uniform with their tablet interface. The phone interface will have a few major differences. This is because Amazon’s interface or skin was designed for tablet screens and as such takes advantage of all the extra space a tablet screen offers; space that a phone screen would not have. Consequently, their interface might not scale too well on a smaller screen for a phone.

Conclusions

It is clear that gesture control is the next big thing in user interfaces. However, what many are calling gesture controls are nothing but swipe movements. Proper and authentic gesture control must be natural and self-evident and this is where Windows 8, BB 10 and Ubuntu get it wrong. As said in the beginning of this article, proper UI design must encourage consistency and its methods must be natural and self-evident. In Ubuntu for phone, there’s no indication of all the different swipes. Another problem I have with Ubuntu for phones and BB10 is their four sided swiping. Swipe from the left to do this, swipe from the right to do that. I suspect all of this will be at variance with the left and right swiping of photos to go to next and previous. In other words, how will the left to right and right to left gestures work when viewing pictures of playing music?

Another potential problem with all the gesture swiping is lack of uniformity across the various platforms. Swiping from the left or from bottom to top will accomplish very different things in different OSes. Contrast this with the various WIMP (Windows Menus, Pointers, Icons) model of desktop OSes. You click on an icon to select it regardless of OS. But with gesture control, UI designers are forgetting that proper gesture control must be a reflection and extension of natural human movement. This is part of what the concept of Human-Machine Interface is about. With all the different swipe based interfaces however, using each one will be like speaking a different language. A lot of confusion is on the horizon.

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