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Posts: 589 | Thanked: 54 times | Joined on Dec 2009 @ london
#11
wow thanks for this ;; jeas i have been *****ing about you guys for ages.

i havent used any user giuide whatso ever- i have just come on here to deal with everythng tbh.

i think printed guides should die- its a waste of trees, lets be honest- you dont buy a phone like this and not know how to use google or use a pdf/html/whatever help. perhaps the phone should have an specific app pre installed that updates over interent with a help search.

i think the community at maemo allready do a better job than you guys tbh, and your lucky they are here. if it wasnt for them you would have had alot more sent back units.
 
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Moderator | Posts: 7,109 | Thanked: 8,820 times | Joined on Oct 2007 @ Vancouver, BC, Canada
#12
Thank you for posting here!

Originally Posted by HSuhonen View Post
3. Maemo 5 doesn't have a help framework. What’s your opinion, should there be one for Maemo 6? What would an ideal help system be in your opinion?
I think it would be amazing to have a way to link to a community-maintained wiki from the applications. That is, a help-key press launches the browser and takes the user to the maemo.org wiki page associated with that app.

Maemo devices are supposed to be always-online devices, this would be directly in line with that belief, and also the link to the wiki would be in-line with the open-source belief.

Originally Posted by HSuhonen View Post
4. And finally, how do you see the role of the Maemo community in providing end-user support? Do you think the community could be more involved in the process of making the User guides (for example, as a content reviewer)? What would, in your opinion, be a good solution for the community to get involved?
I've said it before and I'll say it again; put your content online (in the wiki) and give us a chance to edit it for a while before you publish it. You'll see; it will work!

The added benefit of putting it in the wiki ahead of time to let the community edit it for you is that you can then just use that online content as your online help (see above).
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#13
Hi,

Thank you all for the feedback given so far. Here are some comments from me for some of the issues raised in this thread (I'll keep checking this thread anyway to gather all the feedback given):

Originally Posted by benny1967 View Post
Have translations checked. Nokia and translations don't go together well.
Other than that, I'm not sure. It would be cool if, say, somebody who recently got the device and remembers what wasn't clear to him in the beginning could check and tell you if this one topic is sufficiently explained in the manual - nice idea, but then it's too late. You should have your documentation ready before this user buys his device.
No, I really don't have a good idea here.
If you have any examples of the translation quality not being good enough in some products, please let me know and I'll forward your feedback to the localisation team. If you find language bugs in the N900 User guides, please report them in Bugzilla (grammatical errors etc.) Please do keep in mind that some language issues are matters of taste, so we should really focus on the language errors that really make it more difficult for the user to actually understand the instructions in the guide (such as wrong word choices).

As to writing the User guides, it's good to keep in mind that the User guides have to be ready well before the actual sales start, and this is what makes writing the guides particularly challenging. The content has to be translated and the guides printed and published, and so on, and this takes time.

Originally Posted by reviver View Post
Second is simply by reviewing manuals if they are made available before hand. It certainly isn't the strong point of most opensource communities, but you could give it a try
This is an idea that's well worth investigating. Of course, there are confidentiality issues when giving out material before the product is on sale but I'll keep this idea in mind and find out if something like this could be achieved.

Originally Posted by mysticrokks View Post
i think printed guides should die- its a waste of trees, lets be honest- you dont buy a phone like this and not know how to use google or use a pdf/html/whatever help. perhaps the phone should have an specific app pre installed that updates over interent with a help search.
The overall trend in recent years has been cutting down the number of pages in the printed guide, and as you say, it's more eco-friendly also. However, whether a printed guide is needed also depends on the local legislation in any given country, as well as the consumer protection laws that in many countries require a printed manual in the sales box.

Originally Posted by qole View Post
I think it would be amazing to have a way to link to a community-maintained wiki from the applications. That is, a help-key press launches the browser and takes the user to the maemo.org wiki page associated with that app.
This is a good idea. However, we need to keep in mind that the device is not intended for English-speaking users only, so the users whose native language is not English should be given the opportunity to get support primarily in their own language, in my opinion. So this aspect needs to be carefully thought, but I do see potential in your idea

Many of you have also brought up the idea of Nokia Wikis, and also having more content on the web and in-device (eg. tutorials, videos, web-browsable content). These are very good points, and I'll see what could be done to further extend the Nokia support offering.

Thank you!

Best regards,

Harri Suhonen
Nokia Care
 

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Posts: 22 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on Dec 2009 @ Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
#14
Hey everyone
I live in India and one of my friend is currently in New York. I wanted to purchase a N900 and that too real fast as my friend will return to India in a day or two.
I just wanted to know whether my friend can purchase the phone instantly from the NY flagship store or they would take some time. In other words will my friend be able to just walk in the flagship store and come out with a N900 in his hand? If not then what is the probable waiting period at flagship stores.

Kindly help me out folks
 
Posts: 2 | Thanked: 1 time | Joined on Jul 2008 @ Christchurch, NZ
#15
Originally Posted by HSuhonen View Post

What’s your opinion on the current concept of providing end user documentation, that is, a short, printed get started guide in the sales box, and the longer guides available on the web and in-device? Do you expect Nokia to provide a longer User guide in the sales box, or is the Get started guide enough?
Printed start guide in the box is enough.

Maemo 5 doesn't have a help framework. What’s your opinion, should there be one for Maemo 6? What would an ideal help system be in your opinion?
Built-in platform Help never seems to be good enough. Electronic of the full DOCs on the device might be helpful though when offline - make it an app so that it gets updated automatically.

And finally, how do you see the role of the Maemo community in providing end-user support? Do you think the community could be more involved in the process of making the User guides (for example, as a content reviewer)? What would, in your opinion, be a good solution for the community to get involved?
Put the full Nokia documentation in a wiki and let the community add to it. There needs to be an editor to keep the quality up. Pay attention to structure and SEO so the search engines do a good job of finding the material.
 
Posts: 3,841 | Thanked: 1,079 times | Joined on Nov 2006
#16
I think there should be a section in the manual about reflashing the device, from Windows and from Linux (at least), and covering all aspects and pitfalls. There's a description on the wiki, but in my opinion that's not good enough (and the version there isn't complete enough).
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Posts: 263 | Thanked: 679 times | Joined on Apr 2008 @ Lyon, France
#17
Originally Posted by TA-t3 View Post
There's a description on the wiki, but in my opinion that's not good enough (and the version there isn't complete enough).
Psst... don't tell anyone, but it is a wiki.

What are you missing from the wiki article? I assume you're talking about this one?

Dave.
 
Posts: 3,841 | Thanked: 1,079 times | Joined on Nov 2006
#18
Originally Posted by dneary View Post
Psst... don't tell anyone, but it is a wiki.
I know. The wiki can be updated. That was not the point at all of course: The point is that essential information should be in the USER MANUAL, not just online.

What are you missing from the wiki article? I assume you're talking about this one?
Yes. That procedure doesn't work if the system is corrupted, i.e. the boot loader (or whatever) isn't working. If it is, then the device will not go into flashing mode (heck, it won't even produce an USB event), and it must be cold-flashed.

Cold-flashing is described in http://wiki.maemo.org/Flasher, but unfortunately it's not entirely correct and won't work as described.

I wrote about my experience (and how I dealt with it) in http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...5&postcount=51
and I can update the wiki next week (more time then..), but of course someone else could do it in the meantime.

Again: This should be in the printed user manual.
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Posts: 263 | Thanked: 679 times | Joined on Apr 2008 @ Lyon, France
#19
Originally Posted by TA-t3 View Post
Yes. That procedure doesn't work if the system is corrupted, i.e. the boot loader (or whatever) isn't working. If it is, then the device will not go into flashing mode (heck, it won't even produce an USB event), and it must be cold-flashed.

Cold-flashing is described in http://wiki.maemo.org/Flasher, but unfortunately it's not entirely correct and won't work as described.

I wrote about my experience (and how I dealt with it) in http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...5&postcount=51
and I can update the wiki next week (more time then..), but of course someone else could do it in the meantime.

Again: This should be in the printed user manual.
I disagree about putting this in the user manual - concretely, the N900 is the first phone I've ever owned where reflashing was an option.

For flashing, thanks for the information - there should definitely be links to Flasher (or the page it points to) from Flashoing (or the page it points to).

If you can update Flasher with more accurate information, that would be great!

Cheers,
Dave.
 
Posts: 3 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on Jan 2010
#20
How would you rate the current support offering for N900, in your own words? Please give your evaluation separately for a) the printed Get started guide, b) the in-device User guide (you can access it through File manager > Documents > User guides), and c) the User guide PDF on the Nokia Support site.
What get started guide? I don't remember having seen one. It certainly wasn't on the top of the box, where it ought to be.

The user guide is hidden well. The "Getting started" video is kinda OK, but...

I will read the PDF later.
What’s your opinion on the current concept of providing end user documentation, that is, a short, printed get started guide in the sales box, and the longer guides available on the web and in-device? Do you expect Nokia to provide a longer User guide in the sales box, or is the Get started guide enough?
no-one reads manuals, least of all geeks. And, let's face it, this is a geek / nerd portable computer with some phone functionality attached. Documentation is essential, but manuals would not really help and only drive the price up. Don't need.

Maemo 5 doesn't have a help framework. What’s your opinion, should there be one for Maemo 6? What would an ideal help system be in your opinion?
The connectivity of the phone implies an on-line help system. Basic information locally, further info online - much like MSOffice 2007 does.

And finally, how do you see the role of the Maemo community in providing end-user support? Do you think the community could be more involved in the process of making the User guides (for example, as a content reviewer)? What would, in your opinion, be a good solution for the community to get involved?
I like the idea, but who is authoritative? And how are they "encouraged" to find all the issues?
Nokia's own docs in a usable format online would be great. I would also strongly suggest running multiple language versions in parallel and including something like the "these applications are in the QA queue" ... implying that these articles are waiting for review from someone.

Bret
 
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