Peter Skillman
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The Engadget Interview: Design Head Peter Skillman on Nokia Here
We just had the opportunity to sit down with Design Head Peter Skillman here in San Francisco and get the lowdown on all things Nokia Here. A lot has changed since we interviewed him at Nokia World last year, including the launch of Windows Phone 8 and new Lumia devices. We talked about what Nokia Here brings to the table including LiveSight (a whole suite of applications including Drive, Walk and Public Transportation), the here.com full 3D WebGL experience and the Earthmine acquisition. Still, it's the cross-platform aspects of Nokia Here -- Android, iOS and Firefox OS support -- that intrigued us the most, so we asked how this affects the company's Windows Phone strategy (if at all). Join us for the full interview above.
The Engadget Interview: Nokia's Peter Skillman talks design (video)
Peter Skillman knows a thing or two about making beautiful devices. He's Palm's former VP of design, and he's the man behind Nokia's glorious N9 -- its look, feel and user experience. We bumped into him at Nokia World here today and asked him what went into the N9's -- and by association the Lumia 800's -- design. He shared quite a few interesting details with us, including tidbits about the "curvature continuous form" of MeeGo's icons, Nokia's Pure font and the nuances of the N9's sinuous taper. We even discussed the Play 360 Bluetooth / NFC speaker, which follows the same aesthetic principles. Take a look at our exclusive video interview after the break.
Nokia's Peter Skillman talks design priorities, gives us hope for a sunny MeeGo future
A day before jetting off to London to commence his role as MeeGo's head of User Experience and Services, Peter Skillman was kind enough to sit down with the design junkies at ZURB and dish out his thoughts on what makes for good mobile design and where it is that most companies trip up. Lest you forget, this is the dude that was in charge of putting the Palm Pre together, so he's not exactly without credence in these circles. Which is a good thing, because he doesn't bother with pulling any punches. Peter namedrops Motorola's Motoblur as an unnecessary layer on top of Android, criticizes the failure of different groups within companies to communicate effectively, and finishes off his treatise with a list of priorities for successful design: consistency, emotional content, and a paranoid fear of mediocrity. Inspiring stuff, we're sure you'll agree. Other tidbits of import include the fact that Pete had to withstand nine days of interviews before getting the Nokia job, and also this memorable quote on the topic of smartphones: "if you're not succeeding at the high end, then you're absolutely doomed to failure." We've been saying the same thing for ages and it's encouraging to know that Nokia now has an exec with his finger on the market's pulse. Now let's see him deliver on those words. You'll find the full interview at the source link below.
Nokia hires Peter Skillman, former Palm Design VP, as MeeGo user experience chief (update: confirmed)
Now this, this is what we call exciting. Nokia has managed to scoop up Peter Skillman from the wreckage of the HP/Palm merger. One of the many senior VPs to leave Palm upon its assimilation into the HP empire, Peter spent 11 years with his previous employer and was in charge of the design team that produced the deliciously curvaceous Palm Pre. Now at Nokia, he'll be heading up the user experience and services division for MeeGo, which means that if you weren't excited for the platform already, you've now got a very good reason to be. Update: We met with Marko Ahtisaari, Senior Vice President of Design at Nokia, to get comment on this story. His response? "Right, I just hired him." So why not announce it, we asked, this is pretty big news? According to Marko, "We have products today, products are more interesting. Peter is looking after the user experience design of MeeGo and services and is a great new addition to the team." Marko's team, to be specific. To us this seems like another component that could help Nokia break into the US market with MeeGo. [Thanks, Dave]
Engadget Podcast 208 - 08.13.2010
It's the Engadget Podcast....to go! Would you like a little Joanna Stern with that? Easy on the Ziegler, buddy - and 86 the Paul, please. All that plus a special toy for kids ten and under that manage to listen all the way to the end. Update: If you've been unable to download the podcast in iTunes or Zune, it's because we had a naming issue -- it's since been fixed and should download properly once the cache breaks. Sorry for the inconvenience! Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel Guests: Joanna Stern, Chris Ziegler Producer: Trent Wolbe Music: California Gurls 00:01:30 - The Engadget Show - 011: Peter Molyneux, Fable III, Milo, BlackBerry Torch, Windows Phone 7 00:01:40 - BlackBerry Torch review 00:12:48 - Exclusive: Sony Ericsson to introduce Android 3.0 gaming platform and PSP Go-like smartphone 00:18:38 - Microsoft to open mobile games studio, develop and incubate Windows Phone 7 titles 00:24:42 - Exclusive: Upcoming Apple TV loses 1080p playback, gains apps... and will be renamed iTV 00:36:10 - iPod touch coming in a 'few weeks' with dual cameras and Retina Display, suggests John Gruber 00:39:49 - CDMA iPhone in engineering tests, may arrive in January, says John Gruber 00:43:05 - Plastic Logic kills QUE, 'shifts focus' to second-generation ProReader 00:43:56 - Notion Ink Adam delayed, this time investors are to blame (updated!) 01:47:00 - Notion Ink Adam priced at $498, lives up to promise of being below $499 00:50:20 - Dell Streak on sale August 13 for $300 on AT&T contract, $550 without 00:51:14 - Off-contract Dell Streak is still SIM-locked to AT&T, wrongs still being done in the world 00:52:40 - Exclusive: Dell Thunder prototype rumbles into the wild (video) 00:57:05 - Motorola Droid 2 (and R2-D2 edition!) finally official: Android 2.2, Swype, $200 on contract 00:57:50 - Droid 2 R2-D2 edition spied in the wild, ready to repair your X-wing 00:58:30 - Motorola's Droid 2 in the wild, looking as blue as ever 01:04:18 - Motorola's Jha says MOTOBLUR brand will fade from view 01:05:22 - Epic 4G coming August 31st for $249.99 on contract (updated) 01:06:14 - HP CEO Mark Hurd resigns over sexual harassment investigation (updated with liveblog!) 01:07:35 - Former HP CEO Mark Hurd rewarded with a $40m severance after being forced to resign over fraudulent expense reports 01:09:42 - HP tells employees webOS tablet coming Q1 2011 01:11:20 - Pre designer Peter Skillman latest to leave Palm, entire senior staff now in exodus 01:14:56 - Google and Verizon announcing something policy-related at 1:30PM ET -- we're liveblogging right here 01:16:00 - Google and Verizon publish joint policy proposal for 'an open internet' 01:17:00 - Google and Verizon's net neutrality proposal explained Hear the podcast Subscribe to the podcast [iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC). [RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator. [Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace Download the podcast LISTEN (MP3) LISTEN (AAC) LISTEN (OGG) Contact the podcast 1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com. Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @reckless @engadget @zpower @joannastern
Pre designer Peter Skillman latest to leave Palm, entire senior staff now in exodus
Sure, the Mark Hurd departure has given HP quite an interesting (if not tumultuous) place in the news cycle, but here's one that's gotta sting pretty bad on its own. TechCrunch reports -- and independent sources confirm with us -- that Peter Skillman, the man with 11 years tenure and the reported designer of the Pre, has left HP / Palm. He joins... sorry, we need to catch our breath here... Michael Abbot, Mike Bell, Lynn Fox, Matias Duarte, Rich Dellinger, and Caitlin Spaan. That's all the Senior VPs (and almost all the VPs) now gone. We hope CEO Jon Rubinstein isn't feeling too lonely with most of his one-time dream team having defected en masse. [Photo Credit]
Another Pre hands-on video with Palm's VP of design
Man, we can't get enough Peter Skillman -- check out this 25-minute Pre hands-on demo Palm's VP of design did at CES. Sure, there's some overlap with what we saw Matias Duarte demo during the announcement and the shorter Skillman video we saw yesterday, but there's also some stuff that slipped under the radar -- like the Touchstone's "gecko feet" in action at 1:48, a kinda-sorta unboxing at 2:29, an impressive email / IM / SMS multitasking demo at 12:10, and a peek at the video player at 20:09. Skillman also confirms that the Pre will do MMS, but video recording capability and Touchstone pricing remain a mystery. There are also some friendly iPhone and BlackBerry comparisons -- amusingly, he asks for a phone from the audience so he can show off the comparatively higher quality of the Pre's screen and gets a little flustered when handed the super-high-density BlackBerry Bold. Whoops! Overall, though, it's interesting to see Petey Skillz basically just use the Pre for so long -- he throws quite a bit at it, and it never seems to hiccup or slow down, which is definitely encouraging. Video after the break.
