Thursday, March 31, 2011

Matchstick Message #39: Mutation!


fromTara Raffi
toStudent Information Requests
dateWed, Mar 30, 2011 at 6:08 PM
subjectMatchstick Message #39: Mutation!



We all know the experience of awe when we come across nature's beautiful mutations: four-leaf clovers, people with one blue eye and one green, pink stretch Mini's, etc. Well I experienced a similar phenomenon a few weeks ago while texting my friend Jack.


It happened like this:

I typed my message. Then I pressed Send. The text appeared on my screen... but with a red exclamation point next to the "Sent" checkmark!!! It was just out of nowhere!! For no apparent reason at all, BlackBerry had produced for me a unique and rare appendage to my text message. Not only have I never seen this in any menu (which would be more helpful than most of what we have there now), but I've never even received a text marked like that! Since when had SMS ever given us the capability of marking messages as "Important"?? (You're as awed by this as I am, right?)





As cool as this is, the problem is that I have no idea how it happened. Was it a malfunction? Did I hit some random combination of keys that triggered it? Did BlackBerry know that my message was typed with intense passion? Or perhaps, like in a video game, I had sent enough text messages that I had unlocked a new level with cool new weapons?


In the weeks since this earth-shattering experience, I have still not solved the mystery of the exclamation mark. So, do you mind telling us how to mark our text messages as Important? Likewise, if there are other hidden tricks, a manual (n., a book of instructions, esp. for operating a machine or learning a subject) would be useful. If the human genome is been mapped, certainly this could be possible too.



Sincerely,




Tara Raffi

Mutation Enthusiast


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Sunday, March 27, 2011

Matchstick Message #38: Hairbrushes and kitchen knives are great, but a hairbrush with a kitchen knife handle wouldn't be.


fromTara Raffi
toStudent Information Requests
dateSun, Mar 27, 2011 at 11:56 PM
subjectMatchstick Message #38: Hairbrushes and kitchen knives are great, but a hairbrush with a kitchen knife handle wouldn't be.



Dear RIM,


The last installment in our March guest idea series is again from Mr. Reuben--it's not for nothing he's my favorite entrepreneur.


So, imagine on your camera that button that you press to take a picture also serves as a super-sernsitive touchpad that controls the zoom. Wait--no need to imagine! It can now be yours on the new BlackBerry Bold!! ( or Curve or Torch or Pearl)


The only problem is this: nobody would ever want that. The frame of the image is pretty much the only thing you can control with a point-and-shoot camera; to have it involuntarily shift every time you are about to grasp the masterfully selected borders of your image is pretty frustrating (but maybe funny for the people who designed it?)


So lets separate these two essential, but independent tasks. It may make more sense to move the zoom to the volume keys for example, because even though we have volume in the camera, unfortunately, there probably isn't much use in adjusting it and those keys can be put to more important use.



Sincerely,




Tara Raffi

Separation Enthusiast


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Jason really wanted to capture Gautam's collar for a dramatic contrast effect, but alas, not an easily attainable wish.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Matchstick Message #37: Trivia: What Does Alt+Delete Do?



fromTara Raffi
toStudent Information Requests
dateSun, Mar 13, 2011 at 8:08 PM
subjectMatchstick Message #37: Trivia: What Does Alt+Delete Do?



Tonight's Matchstick was brought to our attention by Jon Dahan over shabbat dinner a few weeks ago. This only happens on the AT&T Bold (as far as I can tell by my sample study of other people at the table).





So let's say he is quickly typing a long text message and presses Alt, but then presses delete. What happens? The whole text field is gone! Now, why would we need that? Well, we don't. Alt + up-scroll highlights the whole field, and then you KNOW that pressing delete will erase your hard work. So there's no need for the random surprise wipe-out.



Sincerely,




Tara Raffi

Surprise Enthusiast, except when I'm typing text messages


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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Matchstick Message #36: Indicating a Problem


fromTara Raffi
toStudent Information Requests
dateThu, Mar 10, 2011 at 2:57 AM
subjectMatchstick Message #36: Indicating a Problem



Dear RIM,


Sometimes when we get missed calls, after we check our call long, the red light keeps flashing. This only happens with call notifications. You have to restart your phone or wait a really really long time in order for it to go away. Its just annoying.


Please fix this. because the only thing its indicating right now is a problem.



Sincerely,




Tara Raffi

Indicator Enthusiast


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Monday, March 7, 2011

Matchstick Message #35: Sometimes Standing Still Is the Best Direction



fromTara Raffi
toStudent Information Requests
dateMon, Mar 7, 2011 at 2:05 AM
subjectMatchstick Message #35: Forward Is The Better Direction To Move




Dear RIM,


Its March! March is excellent, so in honor of this we are doing Guest Idea Sundays. A really great part of this blog is I get to hear a lot of other people's favorite BlackBerry non-favorites, so thank you to everybody who has shared with me! To kick off the festivities, I'll be writing about something Jason Reuben (like the sandwich) brought to my attention. Two points of notice: 1) I don't have the newest OS, which he is critiquing so 2) this is probably why I get so philosophical and rambly. Sorry. I tried to fix it but actually I don't really want to.


Anyway. Change is good. But bad change is bad. There is obviously a lot of competition in this space (we're winning in market share with 31.6% of smartphones, but Android is at 28.7% as of December and rapidly growing so who knows) and obviously something needs to be done to remain competitive. But to remove iconic, structurally sound design features in an (unsuccessful) attempt to incorporate the elements of rapidly growing alternatives in the market is just counter productive. Lets explore an example.


So yes, everybody was mesmerized by the horizontally scrollable "home screens" on the iPhone and Android. It feels more powerful to have all of the apps you want at the swipe of your finger, without having to press any buttons or enter any folders. I assume that this was realized during the development of the new OS, and that is good. But beyond this point of initial realization, two major mistakes were committed by making the formerly fixed icon bar on the bottom of the home screen into a scroll.
















This first one is this: why change something that works well (especially when there are more glaring problems to address)? There's nothing WRONG with the six fixed icons on the home screen. Its organized, its predictable, its intuitive. The Application key is clearly placed; the way we access applications is actually one of the few things I don't have a major issue with.


But it is the second issue that is really the problem--introducing a change that makes the phone LESS functional. There's really no excuse for this. The few icons on the home screen represent the main applications we access. The point of isolating a few icons is to make them shortcuts, which enables pattern-induced behavior and allows us to get closer to the desired state of complete mental integration with our electronics. To introduce a scroll works against this endeavor; not only must we now pay attention when navigating to what used to be the cornerstones of our screen, but we were not even given the courtesy of the little dots that track our progress. You have effectively led us backwards into the blinding abyss from which we have appealed to you to save us.


(Plainspeak for this Matchstick: when you scroll a million times to the left, you're taken away from your main six home screen icons.)


So basically, give us back the anchored home screen strip and please defer from all ideas that make it more difficult to text under your desk during class.



Sincerely,




Tara Raffi

Stability Enthusiast


--


For those of you who are interested, fascinating stats on OEM market share shifts over 2010 (via comscore):










See, BlackBerry market share growing at 1.3 %














Slight decline excusable... "everybodys doing it" (and Google has slow growth, which is their version of decline)












Google passes Microsoft!!! (a 7X increase in market share in a year does the trick)











Google passes Apple!!!! (Wait, do you see a trend forming here? No, not Microsoft passes Apple...)





Thursday, March 3, 2011

Matchstick Message #34: Darwinian Perspective on BlackBerry Keyboards

fromTara Raffi
toStudent Information Requests
dateThu, Mar 3, 2011 at 2:31 AM
subjectMatchstick Message #34: Darwinian Perspective on BlackBerry Keyboards





Dear RIM,


So we all know that the structure of things determine their abilities and characteristics; birds have wings that allow them to fly, tall trees can channel lightening, and bananas are shaped a particular way that makes them useful in high school sex-ed classes (is that just a stereotype? Not sure if I've actually seen that). Anyway, its the same with BlackBerrys: the unique structure of the keyboard destroys all of our relationships with people whose names begin with P.


I know its not just me. I have definitely had numerous conversations with people about how the P names get pocket-dialed most commonly by far, often to the point where embarrassed users have to delete those poor P people from their phone books. Darwin would definitely have a lot to say about this--pretty soon, we will work through all the Ps in our phone books, cut off our relations with them, stop making friends with people whose names start with P... eventually people will become subconsciously averse toward naming their children with P, and beautiful names such as Parth (sorry man, you really got it the worst) and Pablo and Paul will become extinct. All I'm saying is, this is sad.


I ask that P be provided a buffer key (put a caps lock there or something, we all need that one, the shortcut-combo is just too hard to engage or even remember). What about the other letters on the periphery, you ask? Well, the only others are Q and A, and Q (which takes the other corner hot-spot) is just rare to have for a name in the first place, and yeah, A is a problem too but its not as conspicuous, so we can just take first things first.



Sincerely,




Tara Raffi

P Enthusiast


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