I picked up a Nokia Astound (aka C7 as a free upgrade from T-mobile) and have been playing with it for a couple of days.

It is a nice phone for someone looking for smartphone functions, but doesn't have the money or inclination to pay for and use something like the N900. After using the N900/Maemo for a number of years I can't believe how cumbersome Symbian is as an operating system. Even with that though there are a few things which were very nice to be able to have with the Astound, that hopefully get integrated with Maemo6/Meego.

Specifically things that I really missed from Symbian or were frustrated with on my N900 that the Astound did well were:

1. Portrait predictive text capabitlity with an alphanumeric keyboard, enabling quick one handed text messaging (seriously, who has 2 free hands all the time to text?) .

2. Bluetooth actually connects to car audio, I still don't understand how this bug in the bluetooth stack for the N900 was never fixed.

3. Ability to make and receive phone calls without wondering if the phone will wake up or switch tasks. We all know making and receving calls with the N900 was hit or miss.

4. No memory corrupt errors or indexing issues (specifically with the media player) for files located on the microsd card.

5. Battery life is more than a few hours. it felt weird using the Astound without it plugged in.

Anyone else think features like this from other operating systems should or will be integrated into Maemo6/Meego?

I also missed the ability to use the camera while on a call or listening to music. I used to do that with my N82.

Now, with my N8 and Astound, I take pictures and record videos while talking to my wife and kids or while listening to music.

I also missed the ability to play music or videos while on a call, therefore playing music for my wife while going down memory lane with her on the phone.

Symbian's core multitasking is fantastic, just the multitasking UI is beat hands down by Maemo5's UI.

I love the phonebook integration for business cards. For example, to send a number to someone, long press and choose send as business card, you can then choose how to send it, via messsage, email or bluetooth, the phone then formats it and opens a new text message, automatically attaching the new business card, then press the envelope send button and select a person to send to and then it sends it.

The other person then gets a neatly formatted message with the contact info. I sent one to my wife and vice versa and I didn't have to type not one letter. She sent me one and then I could click on options and chose save to contacts and it saved it as if I had manually added a number.

Small things, easy things are what make Symbian (Symbian^3) appealing though the masses would say there are too many options....

Just came back from 17 hour workshift listening to mp3s, podcasts, downloading podcasts, listening to streaming radio. 15% remaining. You need to manage your power budget to make 17 hours of use, but it's perfectly doable.

When my N900 was new I experimented with alot of kernel tuning and extras-devel crap (well, these days some crap has even made it into extras...) which causes spontaneous reboots.. And my non-original battery had a loose contact at first causing uncommanded shutdowns... That did eventually corrupt the fs once, after those events it never ever corrupted fs again.

Certainly, to make N900 more solid you'd have to build in shitload of safeguards to prevent users from shooting themselves in the foot.. Make filesystems synchronous (drop in performance factor 500), no swap (no multitasking)..But then you wouldn't be able to do anything fun either :P

check out fastsms for a T9 keyboard or a qwerty portrait keyboard

Can't believe how stupid Elop was. Previous ecosystem was a masterpiece. Unifying all of this OSs and having Qt at their disposal was an epic win.

Maemo/MeeGo + Symbian + S40 + Qt + Ovi Services

Elop knew the potential and killed it.

Here's a link of possible Carla/Donna:

http://mynokiablog.com/2011/12/06/sy...looking-sweet/

No difference with Maemo 6 whatsoever.

as one of symbian modder i know pretty well about symbian....its really a good platform only after you have modded it....un-modded symbian is bad....only a modded symbian you can install pretty much every cracked apps/games on your symbian device....un-modded symbian you can only install free/trial/pays apps/games...

i still modding my 5800...right now it use symbian belle base on C6-01 filmware....

@pusak

So, by your definition, Symbian is good only if you can install cracked apps? You are missing the whole point of the OS.

As much as I agree with you about missing stuff from Symbian (former 5800 user, to N900, and now with an N8) Symbian seems like a huge step back for me. Part of the problem is I have to flash it to get Anna but otherwise it certainly is handicapped in some regards.
I might try to flash Belle or I might just sell it. Thinking the N9 might be the only thing to satisfy me now.

the whole point of the OS have been missing since Elop take over!!!!

believe me once you have use modded symbian then you will understand the different....

why modded symbian better???
cause not all symbian user have credit card/paypal acct to buys app/games on their device...go to any symbian forum (be a member) then you can download any cracked apps/games & install it on your modded symbian device....

best example is 5800...its symbian v5....we manage to port symbian belle that is impossible to install/flash using normal method (NSU,JAF or Phoniex)...yes it might not be 100% belle but it is much better than normal symbian v5....

Details and/or link? I've got an old 5800 that would love some Belle-esque firmware.