Adding the telephone switching function, so a PC can recognize whether the extension is off hook or not, and being able to route the call to the appropriate mail box or destination, is a straightforward set of tasks for a powerful PC with a handful of telephone interface cards.
But despite my preconceived notions, and despite the tendency for some in the community to respond to inquires with dumb jokes or snark, and despite a handful of minor user interface complaints, I think Jelly has…well, something.
The Astonishing Tribe, the same group that developed Android's user interface, just published a handful of what-could-have-beens, mockups and in-progress alternative Android user interfaces.
String players continue to play on Stradivarius and Guarneri instruments from the 18th century; but no self-respecting electronic musician would lug a stack of 30-year-old modules into a concert hall when a laptop, a sampler, a keyboard or a drum pad interface, and a handful of compact sound processing devices can do much more.
Shoptiques solves these problems for boutiques, giving them an easy interface and a handful of resources to put their products up for sale on the web.
Gestures like a forward and backward swipe on the main video let you quickly rewind and fast forward, while a handful of simple buttons in the main interface direct to you to the various areas of the app, like the friend list or inbox, for example.
Surprisingly, however, the new search engine was not widely adopted; in fact, only a handful of analysts expressed interest in getting the interface installed on their desktop machines.
They've just announced v2.1 at the 2009 Intel Developer forum, showing a brand new minimalist interface for mobiles, a handful of social networking widgets, and how background processing/app switching is handled.
Windows Phone 7.5, a newcomer, is available on just a handful of devices but it delivers a surprisingly attractive interface and satisfying finesse.
Excite at Home, the Web portal, runs a handful of skunkworks projects, including one aimed at creating three-dimensional Web interfaces.
