As a Windows Media Center user, I thought that it would be really great if my Android phone could control my TV. It’s the perfect remote. It has a responsive touch screen that could be used like a track pad. It has a hard keyboard, and the ability for a soft keyboard for typing in search words into Netflix. And, it has Bluetooth, which could allow it to connect to my, already Bluetooth enabled, computer over HID.

The application would have three states. The states would be mouse/trackpad, keyboard, and remote. There would be a hard control on the top, letting you know what state you’re currently in.

The mouse/trackpad would operate the mouse. Sliding your finger over the screen would move the mouse some distance in the same direction. Tapping the screen would result in a click. Long-pressing the screen would result in a right click.

The keyboard could work two ways. The first, would be to submit each keystroke as they are typed out. The other would be to buffer what the user types in some way, and send it perhaps when the space is struck, or a state is changed. That way, you could take advantage of Android’s type correction.

The last state, the remote, would simply be a series of buttons. The windows logo button would launch, or return the user to the Media Center home screen. The rest of the button are pretty self explanatory.

It’s clear that I need to give the remote more thought. The highly used “back” button isn’t displayed. Also, I’m not loving the location of the record button in relation to the other playback buttons. Still, I think it’s a successful application idea, which fulfills my guidelines for one of the 52.

This is the first application I dreamed up, and I meant to post it Monday.

On of the problems with the Google Voice application for Android, is that the only way you can toggle when Google Voice gets used, is either the Home screen short cut (Fig. 1), or by launching the application and opening it’s settings.

The Home screen shortcut is inherently a bad UI. It’s a single button that toggles between four states. There’s no indication of the current state the button is in. When you click the button, the only way you know what new state the application has entered is by a “toast” notification at the bottom of the screen. This notification is often wordy, and vanishes before it can be fully read.

The Google Voice Widget would solve these issues (Fig. 2). Here, we have a Home screen widget that displays the current state. The radio buttons indicate that there is only one choice. It’s large, and easily hittable (Fitts Law). And, it visibly displays what the new state becomes when pressed.

There are caveats to this UI of course. The icon that indicates what the widget is for, isn’t as understandable than text would be. You’re also loosing a lot of screen real estate with such a large widget. Last, the text for each state is abbreviated, and may not be as clear as the full text found in the application’s settings.

I’ve learned that I’m incredibly poor at blogging. I constantly find other things to occupy my time, other than think of meaningful thoughts about interaction to put on my blog. This has not been helping me practice my craft.

A few months ago, I discovered Rachel Hinman’s, “90 Mobiles In 90 Days” blog. I like this idea very much. It’s an ambitious goal, forcing a lot of creativity, and an uncertain outcome. It also has a clear set of rules, and a simple goal.

So, starting Monday, I am going to start a post series called, “52 Apps 52 Weeks.” I plan to blog one phone application idea every week for a year. I’m constantly thinking of them, and have a few in the bag already, which I plan to share, but no where near 52 of them. I’m sure this will be hard, but my goal is set.

Hope I do well.