DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT

Frog Design is a
global consulting firm headquartered in Palo Alto, California, that works with
clients to define global
product strategies. Founded in 1969 by Hartmut Esslinger in his native Germany, Frog sparked a design revolution through a unique emotional and cultural style. Frog has defined the modern consumer aesthetic and been part of some of the market's most significant success stories, including global design strategies for Sony, Louis Vuitton, Apple Computer, Disney, and Microsoft.
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THE ORIGINAL IDEA

Motorola One
Submitted by: Doggonit

"A 1.5-by-4-inch OLED borderless screen, about 1/8-inch thick that is actually a 1xEV-DV mobile with Bluetooth 1.2 and/or wireless USB running on fuel-cell batteries (40-hour talk time, replaceable at any convenience store near you); can play MP3s, AAC (DRMed too!), AAC+, OGG, WMA, and WAV audio, and has a 3-megapixel camera built in with a 3X liquid optical zoom lens. It should have at least 1GB if not 2GB of flash memory. Last but not least: voice-to-text v.2.0 (that actually works). Oh yeah, make mine matte black and include a black suede leather case."

WHAT IS IT?

Frog Design envisions a phone that not only delivers unsurpassed technology but becomes an essential extension of the user--ubiquitous to the modern user's life and connection to the world. Presenting...Ubik.

Ubik is a sleek, thin, tour-de-force of a phone no bigger than a 3-by-3-inch Post-it Note. Ubik can be opened in two ways. Open it one way to access your communications: phone, e-mail, and instant messaging. Open it the other way to put media at your fingertips: gaming, MP3s, photo sharing, and Web surfing. The unique dual design eliminates the need to scroll through long text menus; just open the phone, and you're there.

Ubik doesn't look like an iPod or an MP3 player. In fact, Ubik eschews minimalism and embraces maximalism through its layers of functionality, intricate designs, and virtually endless customization features.

The heart of Ubik is its flexible, borderless, and foldable high-resolution screen. The screen brings a fluidity and warmth that sharply contrasts with the stark, small displays in many of today's gadgets.

The casing is made of two hard shells that are OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screens. These displays can light up any image, providing users with seemingly endless possibilities for customizing their Ubik. On the inside, the OLED screens display the phone keypad, gaming controls, and other components specific to the function being accessed.

Perhaps the most compelling feature of Ubik is the ambient light cue, located on the side of the shell and visible when the phone's closed. This soothing, glowing light provides information to the user's peripheral senses and maintains a subtle visual cue of being connected without intrusive text or scrolling messages. The ambient light can be programmed to monitor the weather, the stock market, incoming phone calls, or any number of functions; the color of the glowing light changes accordingly.

The built-in optical scanner ensures that you are the only one who can access your Ubik. The phone is designed to be used with a wireless earpiece, but it also can be spoken into directly like a conventional phone.

CNET community's
DREAM GADGET

WHY YOU WANT IT

Ubik is the title of a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, which is fitting; the sleek, futurist Ubik feels like a living, breathing extension of the user, an indelible companion to the well-connected human of the future.

CNET readers want the phone of the future to encompass unsurpassed technologies: a borderless OLED display that bust down the walls of conventional tiny handheld screens, state-of-the-art mobile access, readily available power, the ability to play music and games in countless formats, and an impressive built-in camera with liquid optical zoom lens.

WHEN IT MIGHT BE AVAILABLE

The technology featured in Ubik is currently in development but probably won't be commercially available for another 5 to 10 years.