TouchUI Enhancements

[Patrick Wilson]

With the hardware all but settled,  I feel it is time to focus on some software requests,  and some TouchUI enhancements.  Obviously software is something that can be changed even after the product is in the hands of customers,  so while I definitely do not expect everything to be available at "launch",  I wanted to start a thread specific to the TouchUI of the Router. 

I confess that when I first got my original Almond,  my expectations for the TouchUI were pretty low.  To be honest,  as I'd never owned a device that used TouchUI before so I honesty figured it was simply a "marketing gimmick".    This of course has proven to be a completely flawed concept on my part.  Historically my Routers and Wireless Access Points,  have generally been "hidden",  with as much of the CAT5e/6/7 wiring hidden as possible as well.  (To keep the peace with my girlfriend who dislikes wires everywhere). 

My Almond changed all that,  as I keep it prominently displayed on my desk.  (The TouchUI runs the Weather App most of the time, when I'm not using it for configuration duties).   I've spent a lot of time thinking about ways of enhancing it's functionality.  (Not bad for a guy who initially assumed it was a gimmick  ). 

I'm not going to post something to this thread immediately,  but I wanted to use this initial message in this thread to discuss why I opened this thread,  and to explain what I hope this thread will develop into.   I hope other people with share their views in this thread too.  I've been playing with computers since the 1970's,  and I entered the Router realm in 1991 when I "built" my own Router out of an old 80386DX40 PC,  that I had recently retired in favour of a new 80486 PC.  (This initial Router used a "leased-line" and a good old fashioned 9600bps Modem to connect to our local University in order to have 24/7 Internet in my Home a full 5 years before Broadband Internet became a reality in my area).  I was paying $600.00CAD per month for my Internet back then.  Thankfully Broadband internet is both faster and cheaper than it was in the early 1990's.   

Disclaimer:  My posts in this message thread will reflect my personal views only.  I hope Securifi will listen to some of my ideas.  I am not  a part of the development team,  so my musings in this thread do not reflect the design plans of Securifi,  they are merely my personal views as to what I would like to see added to NUTS OS,  and the TouchUI of the Almond and/or Almond+ Router products.   

I sincerely hope that other people will participate in this thread, particularly those that are already using Almond Routers.  I think the present TouchUI is great,  but I also think that there is possible room for improvement.  I respectfully ask other participants to limit discussion to the "Subject" of this thread,  so that we can hopefully provide many TouchUI Enhancement ideas for our Development Team to consider. 

As the Almond+ is not quite out yet, I expect this message thread will be slow at first,  but hopefully activity in this thread will increase as our Kickstarter Backers and Developers start receiving their Almond+ devices in the next few months.  (Thanks to Lars for keeping us up to date on developments in this area,  with his Kickstarter Updates).  I am excited about our Router products,  and I hope to share my passion with others. 

Thanks in advance to any and all participants in this thread.  Expect several posts from me in this thread in the next few days.   

Patrick.

[eldaria]

Well, I'm not sure how good the screen quality is on the Almond+.
But my thought was to have it as a picture frame, like those that one can buy that shows photos, basically as a "screen saver" when not using it, it could rotate through an album, perhaps even connecting to a web album like Picasa or similar and show pictures when not in use.  Of course I would not have minded if the screen was edge to edge for this, as it is quite an ugly bezel for a picture frame. Maybe Almond++ will have this? (hint hint) :-D

You could even combine it with an overlay in the corner of the pictures showing things like Weather, Stock ticker, Facebook/Twitter or other data sources of information. And when touching the screen it would bring you to the Home Control screen to control thing like lights, heating, alarm or other Home Automation tools that one could define.

[Patrick Wilson]

Toggle Tiles:

I envision a feature to toggle the Wi-Fi Radio ON/OFF,  (as well as show the Radio status).   

I would like the tile to be different depending on whether the Radio is active or not.  Consider the following images:

Radio-ON Tile:
  Radio is "ON"

Radio-OFF Tile:
  Radio is "OFF"

If the user "clicks" the Radio-ON Tile,  when the Radio is "ON".  the router should turn the Radio "OFF",  and change the tile to the Radio-OFF Tile. 
If the user "clicks" the Radio-OFF Tile,  when the Radio is "OFF".  the router should turn the Radio "ON", and change the tile to the Radio-ON Tile. 

Basically a Toggle,  that by it's colour tells the operator what status the Radio is in,  and allows them to "toggle"  the status by pressing it. 
(When the Almond+ is released,  please provide separate "toggles" for both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios).

Similar "toggle tiles" could be implemented for turning DHCP On/Off,  WAN On/Off,  etc. 

Perhaps a Tri-state Toggle-Tile could be implemented to toggle between "Router",  "Range Extender",  or "Access Point" modes.  (The existing menu of having separate Tiles for "Range Extender" and "Access Point" is confusing to new owners,  and less than intuitive to use).