Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

It would be nice if the N900 had a slightly separated keys with defined edges and a small 'bump' or different texture on the 'f' and 'j' keys so that they could be found without without looking.

I can 'almost' use the keypad without staring at the keys, but I'm not at that point yet!

I'm thinking a fifth row of number keys will put the device too off-balance when using its stand. I would rather the keys be shrunk and a small numeric keypad be placed to the right of the alphabet keyboard! This would probably require that the Dpad/menu-key be moved.


YARR!
}:^)
(^P7'N

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

And require less pressure to press... and have a definitely "click" feeling when you successfully press them. The E71's key feel is MUCH better than the N810's. And, IMO, the G1 is a perfect example of how a small device can have a great key feel, and a great 5 row layout (it could fit in the same area as the N810's, I'm pretty sure).

That'd be an interesting idea. Almost like the layout of the stylus keyboard, in a way.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

A number pad would be nice but you're right, it would spell the end of the d-pad. A decent compromise would be to be re-label the keyboard to have the numbers in a group on the right side keys laptop style rather then along the top. The fn actions already there are traditionally above the top row anyway so moving them isn't going to be a huge shock. And with double tap fn locking it to number entry you basically have a dedicated numberpad without losing existing functions.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

No, it wouldn't. You'd just have to put the d-pad back where it belongs: on the face of the device.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Hey ,

How about a number keypad that doubles as a d-pad ?
It would have to be toggled somehow.
The "5" key (and perhaps 8,4,6,2) would have to be a bit bigger.

7 8 9
4 5 6
1 2 3

8<>up , 4<>left , etc , 5<>OK

( 7 , 9 , 1 , 3 might be used for diagonal movement )

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Only if you're clumsy or an idiot.

Flush bezels on countless other products out there and having a hole in your screen is not a main byproduct of said feature.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Hmm, sounds too fiddly for quick use. With the d-pad, you know that there are only four directions, and it's practically impossible to click it wrong. Also, when typing numbers and you go back, you'd have to keep switching number lock on and off. Johnkzin has the right idea; put the d-pad and back/menu/home back on the face where it belongs!

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

That would increase device size, though :( How about dual slider, qwerty + dpad on one (big) slide, dpad + numpad on the other (small) ? And then the small slide becomes the most convenient way of (un)locking the NIT as well.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

If you're talking about re-locating the Dpad, it doesn't necessarily mean that the device must get bigger. Just shift the screen to the right to make more room on the left (or vice-versa). Many mobile devices feature an asymmetrical layout.

Of course, some individuals may have an issue with the units styling, but I think it could look quite regal if done right.

YARR!
}:^)~
select * from capt\'n order by corrupt;

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Yup. If you look at the Nokia N97, it wouldn't be too hard to move the D-pad to between the red and green buttons on the face (you'd need to make the diagonal button less diagonal, though). Which, IMO, is where it belongs :-)

You could use a dpad the size of the ones on the E61i or E71, as well. In fact, if you directly stole the ones from the E61i, you'd be able to put it in the same side-rail space that's on the N810, and you'd have a 5way dpad PLUS 8 other buttons (IMO: menu, escape, home, zoom in, zoom out, full screen toggle, and then maybe two soft buttons). Or you could use fewer buttons and make it more elegant. But, my point is, you can easily put a smaller dpad on there, and Nokia already has those smaller dpads in their parts inventory.

(or, the E71's button group, which then also incorporates the throbbing status light into the space between the dpad ring and select button)

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

<off topic>
Good gracious, the N97 is injection-molded super sex. I just learned today that this thing has TV out via the 3.5mm headphone jack; not HDMI, but it's still something. This is arguably more useful (though likely not more preferred) than HDMI as only modern sets use this. When it's likely to be used (on the road, hotel rooms, etc), you may not have the option of an HDMI set.

<off topic>
It would be perfect to have both HDMI and composite, but I fear this is quickly drifting from the realm of 'realistic'.
</off topic>

As far as I can tell, the jury's still out on determining if it is using an OMAP 3 CPU. But one can almost forgive these shortcomings with the luscious 5MP camera attached to the device WITH LED flash! Talk about a convergence device!

Imagine taking a picture and having a laptop capable photo-editing suite to edit the shot, and mail it out right after? All without leaving the old-folks-home! Oh my!

For those that don't know, hit up the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-6YcXoRDG0
</off topic>

With the specs of an N97 upgraded to, a higher resolution 800x480, HDMI-out, and and an OMAP 3 (which has more or less been confirmed) the N900 would be so hot, I'd have to drop it.

I think this is a good indication of what's in store for the N900... and I'm excited!


YARR!
}:^)~
Shiny, Capt'n

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Yeah, an N97 scaled up to the size of an N810, with a 5-row keyboard, E71 button group on the face, some form of video out (I'd prefer apple's new micro display port, personally), USB Host/OTG, USB client for charging/data syncing, GPRS/EDGE/HSPA, gobs of battery life, and a few software things (SyncML compatible PIM suite, compatibility with Google Voice, compatible with Redfly (for displaying on a Mac/PC/etc.), and Dalvik for Android apps) ... that would be a major dream come true :-}

But even if just the "N900 is a scaled up N97" part is true, that'd be a damn good start.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

N810 is 14mm thick. N97 varies from 15.9mm to 18.3mm thick.

So by all means let's scale up the height and width to fit a 4.x inch screen, but expect a thicker device to accommodate the better camera.

Regards,
Roger

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

That's a great point Eiffel, and one I hadn't considered. Of course, considering that the N810 is wider than the N97, a compromise may not have to be made in the thickness of the unit (excluding the camera 'bulge' of course) with a clever redistribution of the system's guts.

I have a few questions that some genious here may be able to answer:

1) Does anyone know if the N97 has a removable battery? In the interest of the N900 possibly following this form factor, this is relevant. I love that the N810 has a removable battery, but I don't think I'd trade it for all of these features, if I had to choose.

2) Does anyone know if the sources of the built-in N810 apps are open? I really quite like the N810 built in apps, but there is much room for improvement for the N900 (no images in mail kills me -- at least make it an option). I know, I know, I haven't searched, but I figured it would be interesting conversation nonetheless.


YARR!
}:^)~
'Big Bear' Corrupt

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Not a problem. I can definitely live with that (my wallet is in that thickness range, about 15-18mm thick). If that thickness is the price of having an N900 which has the format of a N97, but the length and width of an N810 (and screen size to go with it), I'm game. Especially if I get everything else on that list.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Most of the important ones are, yes.

http://mxr.maemo.org/

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Does a hard-to-get-to option count? Half points, perhaps?

In any case, to find it you'll need to install gconf-editor. Then, use that application to investigate apps->modest->fetch_external_images.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Don't know 100% for sure but I would be very, VERY surprised if it didn't. Nokia is a cell phone manufacturer after all... they get huge benefits from having modular batteries that are used across multiple devices in terms of manufacturing/design costs, etc. As far as I'm aware Apple's the only one who insists on giving you non-removable batteries and that's almost entirely because of marketing (sexy "seamless design" coupled with when the thing fails, buy a new device mentality). Anyways I won't get into the big "Nokia VS Apple mentality" discussion, but...

It depends which apps you're talking about as "built-in". Modest, the email client, I'm pretty sure is open source (the built-in email app has changed two or three times with OS releases and things, and I'm pretty sure one of the biggest moves with putting modest in there, other than ticking people off initially because of some bugs, was to make it more open). You've also got a slew of alternatives for different purposes too don't forget... I know a lot of people swear by Claws for email, though it's not quite as "finger friendly" apparently it's very stable and functional. Same story with the browsers... I'm not sure exactly where MicroB stands, in that it's based on Mozilla, but I don't know how much of the actual Maemo implementation has source floating out there; but alternatives such as Tear are full out open. Some things are definitely still closed (though the list is tiny compared to even a year ago and Fermantle looks to be targetted at making this point even stronger)... the alarmD/clock apps, for example I know are definitely closed still. I'm sure there are other prevalent examples too...

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

MicroB engine SVN location: https://garage.maemo.org/svn/browser...microb-engine/

Build instructions: http://browser.garage.maemo.org/docs/build_howto.html

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

The built-in email application has changed exactly once. From osso-email (which was closed) to Modest (which is open).

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Three amazing answers!

@jolouis
That analysis regarding the batteries is certainly encouraging! It'll be interesting to see how it's pulled off.

@GA
Thanks for the tip on mxr.maemo.org. It certainly is useful to be able to look at the code!

@sjgadsby
This information was tremendously helpful! It was one of my major gripes regarding the mail program. I now primarily use it over my web-mail client as it is certainly more finger-friendly, light weight, and well integrated (contacts et al).

Honestly, I love the integration between between the built-in apps (which is what the strategy that the pre seems to be capitalizing on). With a couple of intelligent decisions, some fixes, and of course additions (calendar? where are you?), this could be quite a good suite of apps.

@all
To add to the 'realistic' wishes for the N900. I wish there was a larger community rally on the built-in applications. It seems that there are far to few updates to the built-ins which is a shame, because they seem to provide a good starting point and integrate well with one another. Improvements could include:
1) better indexing in the media player (long song lists take much longer). SQLITE?
2) better organising with the media player (forming playlists is painful)
3) an integrated calendar. I know there are a few options (I use GPE), but something that integrates well would be lovely (does this exist?)
4) inertial scrolling on many apps (mail/media/contact). And for the love of god, please put a selection button to the right of each list object. There's nothing worse than 'inertial scrolling' and accidentally selecting an item.
5) A call log on RTCOMM and some other useful features
6) More than one incoming channel for RTCOMM (useful for 'call-waiting')
*(if you're interested, see the open-source SIP app twinkle for some very useful features).
7) A better file manager (something with tagging and app association) as an alternative to the desktop metaphor.

I'm sure I can think of others, but this would be a nice start.


YARR!
}:^)~
app>capt'n>corrupt

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Here's another wish:

I recall a presentation done by intel (I think) regarding hand-offs between WAN and WiFi depending on AP proximity. This would be a tremendous feature of the upcoming N900 as 3G/4G/whatever is expensive in some areas -- *cough* Canada *wheeze*. Of course, I would imagine seamless hand-offs would provide some serious challenges with persistent TCP connections, and even software that uses UDP as you'll likely get a new IP with the hand-off.

On a side note:

I'm seriously considering Rogers' expensive $37 for 1GB service. I'm using my NIT increasingly for work and it's a legitimate business expense, but as I don't have a phone, nor am I looking to get a plan, at the moment it's too expensive a proposition to tether. When the N900 comes along as it's own 3G device, I'll likely make the purchase.

Quick question: how much bandwidth would you say you consume from your NIT in a month? I'm planning in the event that N900 hand-offs are an issue.


YARR!
}:^)~
{:^)~

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Well, Fremantle is using Tracker.

Fremantle has something called the Multimedia Application Framework, which, although it doesn't say anything about the Media Player UI, should significantly lower the overhead involved in writing and maintaining media playback applications on the platform, as well as making a user's media experience more cohesive from player to player (global playlists, etc.).

All scrolling areas should be finger draggable.

Anyway, I recommend you read over the Fremantle roadmap and pay attention to announcements as most of your existing, past and (I expect) future questions are answered there.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Maemo 5 will include an iCalendar (RFC 2445) calendar framework.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Unfortunately, neither the Wiki, Ars article nor the 50+ page pdf draft outlines clearly (at least I didn't notice) how the media will be discovered by the framework itself. I'm really really REALLY hoping that the people at Nokia came up with something less braindead than the metalayer-crawler approach.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Just had this thought, so I'm throwing it into this thread:


What if one of the next form factors for the IT were similar to the N800 in that it was all screen and small bezel. A few buttons for volume and power on the surrounding chrome and then speakers pointing up when held landscape. Resistive, multi-touch, and AMOLED would keep the profile pretty low, and allow for fancier power-management work on that end.

The included accessory would be a slip leather case that had a built in soft-touch keyboard and kickstand. The 'kicker' being that one could wrap the keyboard completly around the device and navigate the device as if the keyboard on the back were a part of the UI - something like a second screen + mouse.

From an engineering side that might be hard as all get out to program, but it would be kinda neat and definitely different.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Afaik, tracker has a central spot, is open and slighty less braindead than metalayer-crawler.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

That question is answered in the top of the post you're quoting, which I'll quote here for you. ;)

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

My gripe was that almost every of the builtin apps had a fatal flaw for my use-case scenario. I'm just hoping I'll not be jinxed with fremantle in the same way as to ending up almost *none* of the built-ins (except for the occasinal microb and rss reader sessions).

Even this wouldn't be such a problem if there was a 'civil' way of saying no-thanks, I'll stick with claws, pidgin, mplayer, tear, emelfm et al. I hope Fremantle will be more *user* friendly in this regard without (unintentionally, I'm certain) penalizing people who opt for third party apps.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Thanks, but it doesn't really answer just *HOW* it will be integrated. It says rather innoculously

Now, what I still want to now is if this can trawl (in the mafw context) is done like in metalayer-crawler, or do we have some more intelligence and/or user friendlyness behind it ?

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Let me rephrase. Will it be possible to configure, limit or disable trackerd activity per directories without recompiles or hardcore .conf-console-fu ?

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

But will it have SyncML so that you can sync that calendar with useful external calendars (Oracle Calendar, Google Calendar via GooSync, etc.)?

And then hopefully also support SyncML for things like contacts and bookmarks.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Try claws, it works really well

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Tracker isn't closed source or a Nokia-specific technology. You can get some sense of how the underlying bits may be controlled via a look at the trackerd man page. You can also look at the source and try Tracker out on a Linux desktop to provide bug reports and feedback now.

See the man page linked above.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

I didn't like claws at all. Horrible interface for a tiny screen.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Well, I even reduced the default font-size to see more messages at once, so I obviously disagree.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

I really appreciate the enlightening posts, but what I see in the referenced pages is what I called conf-console-fu in my previous post, not how it will be utilized by MAFW and whether any of it's configurability will be readily exposed to users by MAFW (or other elements of fremantle).

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

What does Tracker's configuration have to do with MAFW?

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

The question then, you should be asking, is "if my setup is $FOO, will Tracker eat my battery, kill my babies or run off with my significant other".

If Tracker does any of those things, it's a bug. If you don't want Tracker to index a particular directory, but you don't want to get into the low-level configuration details (and I'd be surprised if Nokia provided such a configuration UI through File Manager) then I have to ask why don't you want Tracker to index a particular directory?