So Microsoft and Nokia decided to get married and develop a new ecosystem to combat Apple and Android. However, I firmly believe they are too late, but not just that - they no longer have a position on the market to take.

Let's presume that Nokia can make hardware good enough to combat iPhone, y'know, something slick, fast, responsive, with nice responsive screen. And let's presume Microsoft can back this up with good software, good platform for developers, even good marketing (something Microsoft is very good at /sarcasm).

What they will face is what I (and others) call "The Opera problem". Opera is a good browser, it really is. Almost all of us here have it installed. We have it installed just so we can start it once a month to see if our work still holds water in Opera, and then we shut it off. Opera is just not excelling at anything, it is just good at everything. If you want something to customize and beat the living hell out of it: you will get Firefox. If you want something lightning fast with minimal interface distractions: you will get Chrome. There is no third option necessary for the users. Oh, I'm sorry, yes there is, the option "this crap came preinstalled so I am using it".

This is, in my super humble opinion, what will happen to the child this Microsoft and Nokia marriage will produce. It will just sit there not knowing what it is. It will be good, do not get me wrong, but it will not excel in anything, because both Nokia and Microsoft will aim to please everybody and in that way produce standard-level-of-quality product.

If you want something super customizable, you will get Android.

If you want something sleek, fast, and use it out-of-the-box, you will get iPhone.

Edit, I forgot:
If you want something super safe for enterprise level, you will get Blackberry

Microkia's child will be Internet Explorer or Opera of mobile phones: you will get it from someone (on your work, your mom will buy it by accident for your birthday, ...) so you will use it just because you got it. And if you buy it on your own, you will not love it. There won't be a single lovable feature about it, it will just be an OK phone.

But, let's see what will happen.

We have just launched a small humanitarian project "Banka Krvi" (Blood Bank). The purpose of this bank is to collect phone numbers of willing blood donors so that in crisis situations The Red Cross can dispatch SMS messages directly to the donors. The Croatian hospitals have a steady influx of fresh blood, but in case of any dramatic accident involving lots of wounded - there will be problems.

Hence we have helped with our donation of website. Check it out at www.bankakrvi.hr

I recently had white iPhone in my hands and just for test I wanted to put white background on Homescreen. Just to see how would an all-white device look like.

Check this out, this is a screenshot (reduced to 50% pixel size) of pure white wallpaper set as background.

Crazy stuff, eh?

So, what iOS adds is this:

1. hard drop shadow on icons
2. hard drop shadow on App name
3. super smooth and very blurred drop shadow behind each icon
4. gradient over whole background with light gray at the top (look carefully above icons, it is not white, it is light gray)
5. leaves middle part unchanged
6. hard gradient at the bottom, I guess to emphasize the bottom 4 icons
7. of course, reflection of bottom 4 icons

This is not so visible when you are using your everyday wallpaper as it is most likely dark, but even in those dark wallpapers (unless they are completely black) you can notice these additions. Try scrolling between screens slowly and you will see the blurry big shadow behind each icon move. And this pretty visible bottom gradient becomes more obvious now that you know it is there.

It is pretty neat that Apple tries to increase visibility and architecture of interface as much as possible no matter what wallpaper you use. The icons will always stand out, and the bottom row will always be emphasized.

(But, yes, I have to agree that it would be cool if you could turn off this overlay somehow.)

Update:

Here is the full list of images that interface overlays on elements. Found it here.

WallpaperGradientLandscapeBottom - The shadows at the side of the wallpaper.
WallpaperGradientLandscapeTop - The shadows at the side of the wallpaper.
WallpaperGradientPortraitBottom - The shadows at the side of the wallpaper.
WallpaperGradientPortraitTop - The shadows at the side of the wallpaper.
FolderShadowBottom.png - The shadow present at the bottom of the folders
FolderShadowTop.png - The shadow present at the top of the folder.
FolderShadowBottomNotch.png - The shadow that is inside the bottom arrow of the folder you opened
FolderShadowTopNotch.png - The shadow that is inside the top arrow of the folder you opened
SBBadgeBGMask.png - When you open a app, the notification is pushed.
SBDockMask.png - Reflective dock
spotlight-full.png - The shadow that appears whenever a notification is received.
spotlight-keyboard.png - Similar to spotlight-full, but happens when you use the keyboard.
SwitcherIconShadow.png - Shadows present underneath the icons in the Multitasking switcher
SwitcherShadowTop.png - Shadows present underneath the icons in the Multitasking switcher
WallpaperIconDockShadow.png - Shadows under the dock when Homescreen wallpapers are enabled
WallpaperIconShadow.png - Shadows under the icon when Homescreen wallpapers are enabled

That is just scary. The amount of graphics which you do not even notice, but they are here to make sure everything is neat-o.