Re: Arrington on TechCrunch - Wants A Touch Screen Web Tablet Built
 

Yeah. I never was able to make the PDA thing work for me. Too much hassle. And I *tried*, man, I really, really tried. I bought the first Palm. The second Palm. An iPaq. A Newton. I wanted it to work.

And then I realized just how stupid and complicated it made everything, so for years now I've just used a paper calendar I make myself and manually put stuff into Google Calendar.

But yeah. The Newt is useless for anything internet related. But that doesn't mean it's useless! ;)

Re: Arrington on TechCrunch - Wants A Touch Screen Web Tablet Built
 

Odd... the N800 is exactly the right size for me. In fact, I just checked... it's even the exact size they claim in their ads.

Yep, checked again... they never claimed it was a phone. They never touted it as a camera. In fact I don't even see where they claim it is intended to be used as a substitute for a computer.

You know, now that you bring it up, this IS very strange... apparently, the internet tablets do exactly what the ads for them claim they do... and are the same size as claimed. Odder still, the size is perfect for what I use the tablet for. This is like a Twilight Zone episode or something...

And how dare they not even be a phone... heck even an iPhone is a phone... my free phone I got from my cell provider's even a phone, as were the last 3 phones I got for free, without being locked into a contract... Nokia... what evil is afoot here?

What a devious and underhanded thing for Nokia to do... to build a too small device and trick us into thinking it was a phone and a camera and can do things just like a regular computer... how did they even do it? Jedi mind trick I'm guessing...

Ah, no matter, they will certainly fail in this dastardly plan anyway due to their "too small" size and "un-computerness", just like the iPhone will.

Re: Arrington on TechCrunch - Wants A Touch Screen Web Tablet Built
 

Um, ok. I never claimed that Nokia advertised it that way, nor did I claim that there was any nefariousness and I certainly wasn't complaining about my 770 or my 800—the latter of which has almost replaced my 12" powerbook.

My point is that the n-series is currently wedded to a phone-sized/PDA-sized form factor that I hope might be rethought down the road now that traditional size and form factor of laptops is being rethought.

Re: Arrington on TechCrunch - Wants A Touch Screen Web Tablet Built
 

I was just playing around (a bit).

Different strokes for different folks. I like the N8xx form factor, and if it was bigger I wouldn't own it. To complain about the size (or negatively remark upon, or note as a negative aspect) seems like you really just want a different device... which is fine. We all knew what the size was when we bought these devices.

Anyway, doesn't seem like Nokia is in the laptop business as far as I can tell, and I don't know what their reasoning would be to try to 'compete' in an already crowded and frankly fairly middling and unimpressive market.

Re: Arrington on TechCrunch - Wants A Touch Screen Web Tablet Built
 

Right, but that's precisely my point. Nokia's not in the laptop business. They're in some other business, and the form factor is currently being worked out. My n800 runs Abiword and Gnumeric and chats and does the web and email and all that stuff. It plays movies and podcasts and things like that. I have a keyboard for it. I can plug in a flash drive. It does, in other words, 95% of what I do with my laptop, but it's in the form factor of a PDA/phone.

What if it weren't? What if it were in the form factor of a medium-sized paperback book? Once LCD sizes got sorted out, laptops were roughly the size of a pad of paper. Then they got huge. Now laptops that are the size of a paperback are all the rage (I will likely replace my 12" powerbook with an MSI Wind). What happens if someone makes a tablet without worrying about it fitting in a pocket? Sure, you say you won't buy it. But you're in the market for something phone-sized, I would imagine. How many people who are in the market for something laptop-sized might buy it, though? Who woulda thunk that the Eee would take off like it did? At a time when laptops were getting bigger and bigger, ASUS made something small and simple and good at the few things it does. Now we've got a market for web tablets like the n8x0 series. Conventional wisdom says that people want small, pocketable devices. But conventional wisdom also said people wanted 15" and 17" laptops. Look at the Kindle or the Sony Reader. That's the form factor of the future: the size of a paperback.

Re: Arrington on TechCrunch - Wants A Touch Screen Web Tablet Built
 

My Sony Ericsson P910i has been my PDA now for almost four years. It's not as good as my Psions were before it (UIQ has some Palm-like quirks), but I replaced the default character scribbler (Jot) with Decuma Alphabetic, which is pretty decent for short entries, and all has been well enough.

Symbian has this in common with EPOC: It's extremely robust, handles tough loads intelligently and allows for very lightweight applications. I largely like it.

Re: Arrington on TechCrunch - Wants A Touch Screen Web Tablet Built
 

Yeah, I remember when that phone came out. Always thought it was neat. Like I said, I've just never been able to make the PDA thing work for me. 5x8" note cards and a Levenger Circa paper calendar it is for me!

Cheers

Re: Arrington on TechCrunch - Wants A Touch Screen Web Tablet Built
 

I wouldn't buy it, as it wouldn't have any use for me.

A form factor, but as you've already pointed out, there are lots of people who don't want anything of the sort, so is something lots of people don't want really the "form factor of the future"?

Really, what you want is called a "UMPC" buy that, move on, and stop trying to ruin my platform.

Re: Arrington on TechCrunch - Wants A Touch Screen Web Tablet Built
 

Didn't realize this was a zero-sum game. Apologies for trying to ruin your platform.

Re: Arrington on TechCrunch - Wants A Touch Screen Web Tablet Built
 

I like the size of the N8x0 series.
True, but it does have the ability. The on-board camera, for example, is on the front of the N8x0. Together with the low MP of 0,3 one cannot expect it to work well as real camera. Its clearly meant as video camera. OTOH, the GPS should work well. It was one reasons I bought the device. Well, IMO the GPS system doesn't work well for both hardware and software related reasons. Now, take SIP. It does have SIP, but you cannot expect a NIT to be always-on because it doesn't have 2G, 2,5G, 3G, nor 4G. So while you are able to phone with the device, using the Internet (a good thing) you aren't always on with the device because of lack of connectivity (a bad thing). This is a short coming. It also means the functionality of a lot of software dependant on the Internet (like the weather applet) is lower. It makes the device less worth. WiMAX might be nice, sure, but it isn't rolled out well yet in Europe whereas 3G is.

Although I came from a world where it was even worse (previously owned a Sharp Zaurus C1000) the NIT still has some resource problems. A faster CPU would make a big difference. However, the fact of the current resources available means programs have to be slimmed down while some of these programs are still buggy (Modest being a prime example).

Besides that, some functionality I expect from a small tablet, like PIM, is seriously lacking. I don't know about you guys but I want one small computer with me which is able to take photographs, phone, surf, navigation, music, PIM, e-mail, IM. If you add all this functionality up, the device might cost for sure more than 200 or 300 USD but its worth that due to its features. For the serious stuff I'd use a laptop. However, for such, I'd want my laptop be synchronized with the NIT and vice versa.

..however the Iphone has various serious shortcomings too. Vendor lock-in, doesn't support tethering, expensive.

Its all about customer satisfaction, and being worth the money paid for.

Besides all these points maemo has some serious shortcomings on a usability point of view. For example, there are tons of multimedia players, but which one should I install for what reason? I have no clue.

All these points stated, I believe there is room for competition even if it means the device will be a MID. The differences between PDA, phone, MID, DAP, and so on are becoming more vague because devices try to be more than merely 1 thing. Customers don't want to carry around 8 devices for 8 purposes.