For what purpose was this Poll put on the official Blog?

[Commander]

Hello,

i think everyone remember this Poll (http://conversations.nokia.com/2009/10/08/what-extra-functionality-would-you-most-like-to-see-in-the-nokia-n900/) on the official Nokia Blog.

And the Winner is :"Ability to run everything on N900 in portrait mode"

...so in the meantime after almost 5 Months...we have the Browser in Portrait Mode.
In my eyes its not enough, we need Portrait mode for everything in the right aspect ratio and all their functionality.

And I mean its on Nokia to get that working as soon as it gets.

Why they ask the User something and nothing happens?

I can not understand this proceeding :( They just give a f**k about, and I think because
they want the new "MeeGo" Phone to have this "extraordinary" Feature.

[bonerp]

Jolly good

[etuoyo]

I don't even want portrait mode at all. I disable it in all apps that have it like gpodder and conboy and turn to launch phone cause the device gets mixed up at times.

Apart from not switching to portrait mode correctly I don't want it cause portrait's real use is one handed operation but I find the device too fat to use with one hand especially with the resistive screen meaning I have to use my nails. For me it is just impossible or burdensome to operate with one hand.

[Haus3r]

Hello,

i think everyone remember this Poll (http://conversations.nokia.com/2009/10/08/what-extra-functionality-would-you-most-like-to-see-in-the-nokia-n900/) on the official Nokia Blog.

And the Winner is :"Ability to run everything on N900 in portrait mode"

...so in the meantime after almost 5 Months...we have the Browser in Portrait Mode.
In my eyes its not enough, we need Portrait mode for everything in the right aspect ratio and all their functionality.

And I mean its on Nokia to get that working as soon as it gets.

Why they ask the User something and nothing happens?

I can not understand this proceeding :( They just give a f**k about, and I think because
they want the new "MeeGo" Phone to have this "extraordinary" Feature.

Yeah I have to agree, it looks a bit suspicious and I doubt the voted for features will still be developed for the n900. Let's hope for the best ;)

[Commander]

but I find the device too fat to use with one hand especially with the resistive screen meaning I have to use my nails

First of all you can use the stylus and you are free to use the whole Phone in landscape mode! The majority vote for this Feature.

[Apoc]

In the VERY LEAST I want portrait support for the keyboard, when using the web browser in portrait, if I want to write something in(google buzz or facebook usually) then I have to switch back to landscape mode. Now I wouldn't mind if I was typing out a paragraph, but when it's a couple words, I don't like having to switch back to landscape and then switch back when I'm done typing. *Annoying*

[Kingsley]

I don't really need portrait mode either. i'm not sure why everyone is so obsessed with it.. voice dialing would be much handier.. oh an mms.. and 3g video.. etc... portrait should be low on the list.. everything works better in landscape! how many portrait PC monitors do you see? just because a layout is tradional doesn't mean it's best..

[Commander]

voice dialing would be much handier.. oh an mms.. and 3g video.. etc... portrait should be low on the list.. everything works better in landscapeThats your opinion. I dont need mms and 3g video. For example typing SMS with one Hand is very comfortable and its totaly normal for nearly every Mobilephone. But not for the N900.

[Commander]

In the VERY LEAST I want portrait support for the keyboard, when using the web browser in portrait, if I want to write something in(google buzz or facebook usually) then I have to switch back to landscape mode. Now I wouldn't mind if I was typing out a paragraph, but when it's a couple words, I don't like having to switch back to landscape and then switch back when I'm done typing. *Annoying*

Nothing more to say, totally agree.

[TA-t3]

I too don't care whatsoever about voice dialling, I never use it even when available. MMS is not important to me (importance level: Zero), 3G video ditto. Portrait mode is useful for one-handed operation, and when browsing column-based web pages like slashdot.org.

In other words, what's important isn't universal to everyone.

[Alan_Peery]

Why they ask the User something and nothing happens?

Because it's not easy and they're still working on it, I suspect.

If the screen was much higher resolution (like the 1400x1050 on my tablet PC), you can just let the automatic layout policies of the toolkit handle appearance. EG, the logical nesting of


Window
menubar
file menu
edit menu
toolbar area
toolbar1
toolbar2 (not active)
toolbar3
content pane
scrolling pane | scrolling pane
message list | active message
status bar


is good enough.

To fit a UI into 800x480 and give the level of polish we've come to expect, you'll have to have two heirarchies like that above. And when you switch from landscape to portrait, you'll change the parent of (for example) the message list and the active message GUI components so that they render correctly. You may do fancier optimizations, like laying out the message list in a completely different way and redrawing it.

Now that's for one application. Full portrait mode will mean doing this for the phone app, calendar, contacts, settings, app manager, browser, etc.

[afaq]

I think proper portrait mode for the browser is key. Put in a portrait keyboard and im happy. At the moment when Im in portrait mode I cannot open my bookmarks or edit the URL (the address bar disappears) and I need to turn it back to landscape to use those functions.

I also dont understand why its so difficult to render the screens for portrait - for 3rd party apps that were developed for landscape only - yes I get it - but for native apps like calender, mssgs etc why? The N97, though symbian, could switch between any orientation on ALL its native apps. Why is the N900 more difficult? (geniunely curious).

[[DarkGUNMAN]]

I'd also suggest a virtual nokia d-pad and buttons to aid navigating the device one-handed. The pad could auto-hide or go translucent.

[Alan_Peery]

The N97, though symbian, could switch between any orientation on ALL its native apps. Why is the N900 more difficult? (geniunely curious).

It's not. It's just that all this work was done for the N97 before you ever saw it, so that it looked easy.

Yes, Nokia could have done this all off-camera for the N900 as well, but they didn't. There have been many threads discussing why, but it all boils down to the old triangle: time, resources, and functionality.

There's also the fact that adding more resources to a project to get one aspect done may slow down the project overall. This is a well-known phenomenon, best discussed in a classic of the software industry called The Mythical Man Month. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month, and the book is well worth reading.

[Fargus]

Thats your opinion. I dont need mms and 3g video. For example typing SMS with one Hand is very comfortable and its totaly normal for nearly every Mobilephone. But not for the N900.

That would maybe be becuase it's a mobile computing platform that makes calls not primarily a phone!

[Fargus]

...
I also dont understand why its so difficult to render the screens for portrait - for 3rd party apps that were developed for landscape only - yes I get it - but for native apps like calender, mssgs etc why? The N97, though symbian, could switch between any orientation on ALL its native apps. Why is the N900 more difficult? (geniunely curious).

For a start the N900 is less restrictive in how things can be placed, e.g. the desktop. There is also the issue of what rules are applied for rearranging controls etceteras when changing orientation? The OS supports the application making a decision on orientation change but implimenting that when there is a hardware keyboard in landscape mode adds some other interesting issues into the equation.

Finally - have you seen the difference in resources available to the Maemo team compared to the Symbian one? The Symbian team also had a starting point of an OS which had all the basics in so had time to play with the pretty eye candy - Maemo team are going to be busy with the basics of the OS and cellular stack before eye candy.