Maybe once you've been around the block a few more times your goggles will have become crusted up to the point where you have a similar perspective to those already far ahead of you.

If you think people who are criticising the lack of progress over 5 years are screaming "me me me me!" then you really haven't understood a word that these people have been writing for you to read.

It's now time for Nokia to begin making and delivering concrete changes that give this platform (devices, applications) a lifespan beyond that of the current device. pu55y footing around releasing devices that are only good for one version of Maemo OS is hardly going to tempt content publishers who want a long term relationship with the end consumer.

The iPad is a real feather in the cap of Apple and I am impressed with it, so far, given the totality of what has been demonstrated and promised for the very near future.

Disclaimer: I own a n800 and have been a big Nokia fan. I am typically not an early adopter, although "I want to believe" with respect to the n900 and supposed coming improvements.

Nokia should be learning from the iPhone/iPod Touch, and now to a lesser extent, the iPad, both the good and the bad lessons. They don't seem to be, however.

The good things to imitate:

- The bundled apps and interface have to be well polished, new-ish, mildly featureful, and very bug free.
- Dev process for custom apps needs to be well defined, well documented, and relatively static
- Content provider arrangements are A Good Thing. Even if that means appeasing or compromising with the providers who insist on some form of DRM.

The bad things to avoid:

- Apple as the Nazi app gatekeeper. Exhibit A: http://jwz.livejournal.com/1096401.html
- Closed platform dev standards. Nokia should establish the open standards of the platform as the centerpiece for attracting developers and new apps.

--

The track record of Nokia on all of these fronts so far has been dismal with Maemo. That needs to be acknowledged in some sort of official capacity and promises of "We hear you, we understand, we promise to do better in the future" are not going to be enough. Too much time has been wasted.

They supposedly learned the lesson of static standards and platform when they released the n800/n810 by the outcry from the n770 early adopters, and then they went and frakked it up by pulling the same trick with the n900. "Fool me once" and all that, I say.

"They've recognized it and are turning the ship around. It takes time." is simply a cop-out. They must do better.

Android and iPhone did more with less time. Why can't Nokia?

As I said, "I want to believe." Somebody give me a sign that's more substantial than pie-in-the-sky, please.

Where do you want to use iPad - at home? There are a lot of competing devices for this, you don't need a serious portability at home.

There was no alternative at that time (I still have Palm IIIc in my closet).

Yes, I want to use it at home. In bed, or on the couch.

Or at another home, which I visit.

Or at my office, in a meeting. Or on the bus/train on the way into work.

Sure, I could use a laptop or netbook, but as you say, "I don't need serious portability."

That is, I don't need a full fledged computer with keyboard attached for most of the light reading/screwing-around activity I plan to do in those situations.


I loved the old b&w Palms. And the Palm app store was perhaps a nascent guide to where a Maemo app store could go.

But the color Palms/Visors were absolutely dreadful to battery usage and viewability in sunlight.

Yet, the b&w Palms died out and the color models still took over. It took a while for the battery usage to approach acceptable duration. Those b&w Palms could run for three weeks on a single pair of AAAs. And, I'm still not convinced there's an acceptable color display PDA that is viewable in sunlight/bright-light.

It just goes to show that lack of supreme readability and usage in sunlight is probably not going to hold back a migration to iPad from other e-book readers.

I would gladly trade my n900 for 3 ipads that would be the deal of a lifetime.





of course I'd immediately sell 2 and tinker with the 3rd until I got tired of it. Then I'd make a video of me doing fun things with it like attaching it to a rocket and sending it on a flight, shooting it, blowing it up. I'm sure if I gave it some real thought I could come up with a way to torture all those who would view the youtube video.

freeze it burn it bury it for a week store it in pudding(yes pudding!) flush it in the toilet bake it grill it blend it and so on
Then I'd sit back and watch to see if nokia actually does anything with the n900 and wouldn't buy a new one unless they did.

Precisely and in any case the markets buy on rumour and sell on news so a correction in the stock price is hardly surprising.

The apple ipad will appeal to many a consumer who just wants to follow the trend. Remember that the marketing counts more than technology sometimes...

i remember that I still have on those and a dial up modem. and the handwriting recognition was pretty decent, palm graffiti was faster but took a bit to get use to.

Hahaha, I saw that too.

another thing could be ram availability. I suspect this device have about as much real ram as the N900, via the same kind of PoP layering of chips.

and rather then dedicate some internal storage to swap, like has been done in maemo since someone tried it on the 770, they basically limit multitasking. End result is that the max amount of ram can be dedicated to any one app at any given time.

this becomes especially critical when your dealing with a larger screen, as it needs a larger ram space to write the image to (i would guess that apple employs as much double, or even triple, buffering and such that they can get away with to maximize smoothness of presentation) once the elements have been rendered.

... expensive, not anybody could follow you. Kindle is cheaper.


May be, but what do you want to do with it in your office and your meeting? Do you have a desktop... and are you bored to death on meeting ?



No way, at least in California (sunlight).

Sorry, I stopped my confidence in Palm after they dropped off a WiFi for SD slot in Palm m500... because of energy, they said. But real problem was their misunderstanding what is needed for me and other Palm users. But that is a long story, let's stop it.