2007 Update

The designs above are old (and dated) prototypes and ideas Michael and I developed and then promoted to various (unnamed) companies in 2000-2002. The cellular business was -- and is -- still tough because nobody owns the whole customer experience The "warring" parties are: the hardware manufacturers, the carriers, the device software providers (Brew/J2ME), and any web software providers (carriers and others). Maybe the iPhone and Google Phone will break that cycle, but obviously Palm and Danger have tried and only partially succeeded. Reluctantly, I do know two guys "in a garage" couldn't change things, but maybe Apple and Google -- and the passage of time -- will.

A lot of the ideas are lame or seem passe, but many of them have yet to be done. To place this in perspective, the iPod, the Danger Device, and My Space didn't publicly exist when these ideas were developed.

The overriding themes are:
• a minimalist user-interface (scroll up/down, go/do, and back)
• dynamic themes pushed to devices
• people-centric rather than app-centric
• ephemeral communication rather than work production
• seamless integration with the web

Most of these prototypes were designed only to work in IE5 on Windows with activeX and javascript enabled. They have atrophied a little bit so please understand when they throw errors. They also are meant to be demonstrated, not used, so they will seem weird, act inconsistently and have many unimplemented corners.