Concept Phone Both Amazing and Unbelievable

I really want to like Billy May?s ambitious concept for a browser-centric, open-web-standards-based phone
But it?s hopelessly unfettered from what?s actually buildable, usable or marketable.
Mozilla Labs has highlighted the phone, which May called Project Seabird, in its ?Concept Series,? a showcase for community-created visions of the web?s future.
May, who is a talented industrial designer, has crammed a lot of interesting ideas into his two-and-a-half-minute video:
a pop-out Bluetooth headset that doubles as an infrared pointer
dual pico projectors that can project both a full-size display as well as a virtual keyboard
wireless charging
a standard mini USB connector
a 3.5mm audio jack
enough processing power to render 3-D spacescapes in real time or display YouTube videos at full resolution.
Because there are two pico projectors, May imagines that one could be used to display a keyboard while the other displays a larger screen. Or, you could place the phone on your desk and have one projector display the left half of an ergonomic split keyboard, while the other projector displays the right half.
Based on the icons May?s painted into his impressive video, it?s running some version of Windows and the browser is Firefox, of course.
The trouble is that current pico projectors fall short in both brightness and clarity: You need to use them in a darkened room, like the one May?s rendering takes place in. Virtual keyboards of the type shown in the video are difficult if not impossible to use. And if netbook processors like the Intel Atom series can barely handle Windows, just imagine how sluggish it will be running on an ARM-based cellphone CPU.
One thing?s for sure: The open-source browser community is going to love this phone.
Those of us in the reality-based community, however, are shaking our heads in disbelief.


Image credit: Billy May
See Also:
Beautiful Concept Phone for HTC Should Be Built
Windows Phone 7 Series Tablet Concept
Concept Phone Mashup: Blackberry vs Optimus Maximus
Squeeze, Grip and Tilt to Control Synaptics? Concept Phone ?
Concept Specs Add 50� to Your Angle of View
Hat tip: Webmonkey
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