Hi.
I was thinking about Ubuntu TV after seeing Alan Bells thoughts.
1) The TV is also a Big Screen.
I disagree with the idea that Ubuntu TV should only be TV. What I
would
like, is to have one TV-mode for actually watching TV, and another
for an
extra desktop thing. I think it would be nice if the "show desktop"
feature
was used for this. When you show the desktop, then your normal Unity
becomes
visible with the desktop Unity, etc. Hit the button again, and the
screen
fades back into TV mode.
2) User management.
Ubuntu TV should support multiple users, for multiple reasons. One
good
reason is permissions. Parents should be able to choose which sites
and
channels their kids are allowed to watch and when. Kids of different
ages
should be able to watch different things. Some wives might want to
control
their husbands as well. ;)
Another thing is obviously favorite channels, bookmarks (which we
need
to come up with a better name for), personal applications and
settings. You
would also configure your personal devices, which would be recognized
automatically. (I'll get back to that)
When you "start" the TV, you should be presented with a login screen
which should be remote controllable using a standard remote (and
other
things). The default option would be to log in as Guest (perhaps
Viewer, or
something like that would be better). This account would have
restricted
access.
2) Controlling Ubuntu TV.
When you start the TV, you choose a user using a normal remote
control
or your phone using bluetooth. You would then be able to choose which
devices to use. For instance, I would bring my netbook and phone and
sit
down on my couch. I then pick up the remote control on the table (or
start
an app on my phone) and press the on-button. That displays a welcome
screen:
1) Guest
2) Jo-Erlend
3) Ima Nother
I press 2 to choose "Jo-Erlend" and then I'm displayed with a second
screen:
1) Enter your PIN using the remote control.
2) Activate joe-netbook and joe-phone
3) Only use joe-netbook
4) Only use joe-phone
This is where it gets interesting. I can log in using the remote
control, entering a PIN number I've chosen. This only provides access
to
watch TV and not other parts of the system, since a PIN doesn't
provide much
security, but sufficient to watch TV.
However, that's boring. Instead, I choose to activate my netbook and
phone. These are discovered on the WLAN. If I activate my phone, then
a
remote control app is run on the phone which is then used as an input
device
and I can login using an onscreen keyboard. I can then use my real
password,
providing full access to my user account on the big screen. I would
use my
phone as a dynamic, touchbased remote control, with play controls and
lenses
to easily access content, but also get webfeed updates on it -- from
the TV
system, etc. I should be able to switch to desktop mode, and then the
phone
can be used as a mouse and an onboard keyboard.
Activating my netbook means the TV connects to it, and I can then use
my
laptops keyboard and touchpad as input units for the TV, providing me
with a
very big screen to do any kind of work, like a big spreadsheet or
anything.
This solution is already readily available in Synergy, which is
available
for OS X, Windows, GNU/Linux, meaning that any laptop can easily be
used for
this as long as Synergy is running on it.
It would be nice if you could use tablets for this as well, at least
as
a mouse and keyboard for the TV, but the TV should also be able to
display
things on the tablet in that case.
What do you think?
Jo-Erlend Schinstad
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