PhoneThemes.com - This is gonna be huge

[Jerry Raia]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.coolsmartphone.com/index.php' target='_blank'>http://www.coolsmartphone.com/index.php</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Unless I'm going mad, I'm certain that GIF plugins (which allow animations on the homescreen of your phone) have been tried before, but they always had one major drawback - they'd suck your battery life. However, the guys at <a href="http://www.phonethemes.com/">PhoneThemes.com</a> have nailed this problem.. and then they've gone on to make the whole idea a million times better."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/PrettyGirl.gif" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/aquarium.gif" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/><br /><br />Now this might be something interesting if in fact they have solved the battery life problem. Would you want a screen saver for your phone?

[MS Mobiles]

I see no download link for software for GIF displaying for MS Smartphone there. I see there only list of GIFs.

Do they have this software really or is it just vapourware? If yes, where I can download it from?

[Jerry Raia]

Looks like they are asking for people to participate in a beta at this point.

[Mike Temporale]

Yup, it's beta right now
Would you like to take part in the first Beta release of the PhoneThemes technology? If you have a Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Smartphone then contact us here.

I don't mind having animations on my homescreen but nothing like the ones that they are showing. It would have to be something a little smaller and it has to be a valuable animation. Not just something wiggliing for the sake of having something wiggle!

[Jerry Raia]

Not just something wiggliing for the sake of having something wiggle!

I was gonna run with that but I won't :lol:
I do agree though, it needs to be more than fish swimming across the screen.

[Mike Temporale]

Oh, here's a good idea, for a weather application, I would like to see the little pictures that show you the forcast be animated. Something like this -- http://www.bluerocket.ca/images/sunnywithclouds.gif Only better. :wink:

[encece]

That depends if they are showing gifs or flash. I believe the previous.
And it looks like it's in it's own plugin, not behind other plugins...so I doubt other data may be possible within that same plugin. But I may be wrong if you go by the ONE example that shows data and animation on the same line and that's the cowgirl chick!

[Mike Temporale]

For an introduction and overview of PhoneThemes technology including: Content player, tools and SDKs
Back-end server processes (including security and provisioning)
Content delivery and charging mechanisms...

I just noticed this quote on the PhoneThemes.com and it changes things a little. It sounds like they're selling content and a service. Maybe the animation is controlled by a third party content provider. :?

[Santa Fe]

At least "cowgirl chick" got me to look :)

[Kris Kumar]

Did you guys notice the Nokia N-Gage with the Windows Media screen (on their homepage). :P

Not that's cool! Hopefully it will happen someday.

[Kris Kumar]

Here's the scoop:

Media Player Platform
PhoneThemes offers a proprietary media player designed to render short video clips and animations in a continuous loop, in conjunction with the device's current theme or skin setup.

The media player is embedded in the normal day-to-day operation of the phone and is transparent to the end-user. The PhoneThemes player is capable of running 24/7 with minimum impact to the device's efficiency, speed and, importantly, battery life.

http://www.phonethemes.com/tech.html

So basically it is a special media player control. And not animated GIFs.

And looks like PhoneThemes is thinking big. With the server based model, they want to push content down to the users, sounds like they can do weather clips or other interesting clips. I would like to see news clips. :-)