I clearly understand that there is one potential caveat to adopting Maemo: the possible abandonment of all things S60 in regards to apps I had become accustomed to using. This is absolutely frightening after having experienced the benefits of previous S60-compatible apps such as Nokia Sport Tracker, Gravity, Facebook widget, Nokia Messaging and the crucial Missing Sync for Symbian. Of these few listed, Missing Sync may be the hardest one to let go since it has been present throughout my years as a smartphone user of multiple OS platforms. Syncing with a Mac is not necessarily a popular endeavor amidst non-Apple devices, yet Missing Sync has made that possible for every smartphone OS I have encountered (including the Windows Mobile of my current Touch Pro 2). However, I am wondering if taking advantage of this new Maemo smartphone OS platform combined with Nokia's typical multimedia feature set would make it worthwhile to bid farewell to S60. Now that I'm thinking of it, another potential problem could be the screen orientation of the interface being primarily horizontal. Some people may find themselves missing the vertical access to interface navigation that has been such a mainstay in smartphones and feature phones alike. While this may not seem to be of much importance amidst the excitement of the N900's arrival, this could potentially take away from an efficient user experience...thus, taking away from the overall impression of the device itself.
While the Touch Pro 2 is definitely worth every penny I spent for it, there is a slight boredom in regards to my daily use of its features. The TouchFLO 3D interface remains to be one of the most innovative implementations of the Windows Mobile OS, but I sometimes find myself wanting a refreshed sense of the typical smartphone experience. Using the touchscreen for quick navigation along with a great qwerty for text input has been reliable for the most part, but the multimedia still seems to be lacking. An average-grade camera that has no flash only becomes an object of little interest to me. This proved to be true during my nights in school when I needed to take pictures of circuit board components for lab report assignments, and I never had this problem with my E71.
The N97 was not meant to meet my needs in the same manner as an ESeries device, but the N900 does seem to be a perfect combination of qualities from both the ESeries and NSeries product lines. A touchscreen of ample size with a suitable camera and tactile qwerty keypad all seem to complement the 600MHz processor on the inside. I have read on the My-Symbian preview article about a chance of the internal storage RAM not being enough for downloaded apps, but I hold firm to most of my faith in the N900. With all of that said, I am still a bit worried that I may end up realizing the documented N900 specs were nothing short of duplicitous. I wholeheartedly wish that this will not be the case, but I can only wait and see in the meantime.
Adopting Maemo as a new smartphone OS on a Nokia device is truly worth all of the suspense. Since I had last used the N810 tablet and wished for inclusion of GSM services, I never thought the opportunity would actually arrive. Now that it is here, I cannot help but find myself eager to take part in becoming a Maemo end-user. In the heyday of the N810, there seemed to be VERY little attention given to Maemo and its potential and I was soon bored of the tablet. I believe that the N900 may be able to turn that around for a positive outcome. It is unfortunate that Nokia appears to be stuck in using the same interface implementation with typical fonts and graphics, but this could be overlooked with much improved performance that is expected. Despite the pitfalls looming over every early adopter, there is still an excitement that comes from being one of the first in public domain to partake in the N900. Perhaps this manner of notoriety is completely conjured in my own mind, but I cannot help being a fan of mobile gadgets! As each day goes by with my taking advantage of what mobile gadgetry has to offer, I feel privileged to be a part of this modern culture.
Trent Smith
Sent from my Nokia E71
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TRENT SENSE blogger/netcast host
trentsense.com
YouTube.com/absolon3
6 comments:
I'm with you, exciting stuff.. keep in mind Michael's n900 had early firmware, and a few of the issues have been fixed or improved. As far as RAM goes, 1gb is avail when including the virtual memory. And as far application installation, they've already said it will ship with 2gb of space reserved for that. Portrait mode for the browser is supposedly coming before end of the year.
as for your sports tracker, n900 will have e-coach http://maemo.nokia.com/maemo-select/applications/ecoach/
There's a facebook widget, at least to see current wall posts. http://maemo.nokia.com/maemo-select/applications/facebook-widget/
The things I'm going to miss are: Google Maps w/ Latitude, Gravity.
I believe the n900's email app is better than nokia messaging, and it's built-in IM/SMS is really cool with it's threaded view.
I hope in the future the multi-calendar will be able to sync with my multiple google calendars. As of now it's only supporting exchange sync, and google is only allowing one calendar sync at a time.. but I know some open source programmer will work it out.
Other cool stuff you can't do on other phones but can do on n900:
- view/edit Google Docs
- view full Google Maps web page
- watch Hulu
and I know on the n810, they were able to dual boot into Android. If they can get that to work with n900's fast processor, it will be 2 phones in one.
thats it for now.
I'm pretty sure this is the famous Nokia beta wersion like N95-1, but while i didn't buy N97 or N95 when they came out this time i'm happy to be the beta tester and get the device. With Nokia and help of community Maemo could grow something amazing.
Looking Maemo select and maemo.org and seeing how much apps there is and coming already before even release i feel that with fraction of market share compared to S60 Maemo would already destroy Symbians app catalogue.
I've been away for awhile, but I have some advice for you, Trent. Unless you're an experienced Linux user, you won't ever REALLY understand just how great the N900 will be.
Go to LinuxMint.com and download the Mint7 OS, burn it to a disc, and then boot from your optical drive and realize just how great Linux is. I've actually installed it on my PC in dual boot mode, and haven't seen Windows in a week! It has millions of apps for FREE, and pushes updates and program dependencies to you as needed. Maemo 5 is the same OS, just with a finger friendly UI.
You won't be disappointed. Trust me. I was a Windows lover, and Linux changed me overnight. NOW I'm a Linux lover, and Maemo is Linux in your pocket. That simple.
...and the N900's browser eliminates the need for alot of the apps and widgets we're used to. I'm not even sure I want a Twitter app unless its Digsby or Tweetdeck, since I can just use the site itself! Real web rules, brother...
I live in Australia and is very much anxiously waiting on the release details for this device, which i it seems to be early 2010. Currently I'm rocking a e71 and love it, but really feel that the interface feels dated as we are now in the touch generation of mobile computing.
I really wish nokia come out with N900 ATT 3g version. I cant wait to get one in my hand. Currently own one e71 and feel like time to move on to touch screen phone.
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