Re: Now it's official: Maemo 5 and the N900 launch!
 

i found myself thinking, can one swap between cameras in a video call, or some other video stream? So that one can go from showing oneself to showing something else, without turning the phone around.

Re: Now it's official: Maemo 5 and the N900 launch!
 

Yep...runs on AT&T....however it runs EDGE not 3G.

Re: Now it's official: Maemo 5 and the N900 launch!
 

I also find the statement about kernel support for MMS very strange. The only thing that comes to mind that would require kernel support is the ability to wake up the system on incoming MMS messages. But then, how is that different from incoming SMSes?

Re: Now it's official: Maemo 5 and the N900 launch!
 

But, it's the exact same grasp, really. Just with your wrist rotated.

That said, I paid a LOT more attention to my use of my phone today, due to this morning's conversation. And ... I do a lot more in portrait mode than I thought I did (see, I admit when I'm actually wrong ;) ). And I slightly shift my hand a little when doing a one-handed landscape hold (pinky moves down to the end of the phone), which does slightly alter my thumb's reach on the phone.

Though, I also noted that even in portrait mode, I do a lot of 2 handed phone work (hold in one hand, point with index finger on the other hand)... and that's fairly comfortable no matter whether it's portrait or landscape.

But, while i think I can mostly get used to 99% of the phone interaction being landscape (I'm probably closer to 80% right now), it's going to be more awkward than I said earlier today. Certainly not optimal nor intuitive for that other 20% of tasks (I had to _make_ myself do them, when I realized I was doing portrait mode, today -- just to see if I _could_ get used to doing them that way).

Hopefully Nokia will make the UI more rotation-friendly before Maemo 6 rolls around.

Re: Now it's official: Maemo 5 and the N900 launch!
 

@johnkzin: hehe nice find.
yeah, i think that's about right for me as well. the 80% of the time I use my iphone\g1 are in relaxed settings where i can just sit back and have both hands freely to manipulate it however I want. But the times that I need to use it with 1 hand is when I have my other hand occupied (holding something) and usually I need to do things quicker while moving (that's why the phone balance is important, i'd want to have it really securely in my hand).

Re: Now it's official: Maemo 5 and the N900 launch!
 

I use my n810 only with one hand ... exceptfor coding ... this is why i didn't understand why you said that landscape mode require two hands ?

Re: Now it's official: Maemo 5 and the N900 launch!
 

You should be somehow special then :) The reason why the landscape mode requires two hands is because the landscape device is too wide to hold it in one hand, like this:
http://www.varologic.com/blog/Images...00_in_hand.jpg

Re: Now it's official: Maemo 5 and the N900 launch!
 

i have 1000 text messages, 1000 mms + data 384 kbit/s no quota (and multisim; total 5 sim-cards that all share that plan and number) 9,90 euros per month. plus free voip - account (with number similar to landline) and calls to couple operators 3000 minutes per month free.

A perfect package for me though I don't use the voip. It's a principle to sponsor the operator with calls with those rates ;)

I always thought that in Finland the gsm - systems are almost free. In germany I sent text messages with my cellphone to finland and it cost me about the same that german people pay for sms inland.

Re: Now it's official: Maemo 5 and the N900 launch!
 

Usually it's not rocket science to add portrait support for one application. The effort of course depends on the app and the widgets it uses, and it always increases the testing workload.

Adding portrait support system wide including all the applications is another story. And it's not even clear that Maemo 5 users will actually need all those portrait use cases. Do you really need portrait mode for the Camera app? I doubt it, and actually I'm not missing portrait mode in my personal use of the device.

Portrait mode and one hand operation is important in certain cases (yes, making & receiving calls) but what are you preferred uses cases? I'm curious about the real feedback we will get on this from real Maemo 5 users.

Please open a new thread if you want to discuss this topic in more detail. Thanks! If you find good isolated cases then I suggest you to propose them at http://maemo.org/community/brainstorm/

The same goes for MMS and any other feature you want to request officially. Having them exposed in the maemo.org Brainstorm with proposals and votes is at the end much more efficient and useful than here dilluted between posts #478 and #571, requested in several threads, etc.

Thanks!

Re: Now it's official: Maemo 5 and the N900 launch!
 

My guess is that at least the Media Player (audio part), Maps, and Messaging should have portrait interfaces as an option. The reason for selecting these three is that they are most likely to be used on the go, where you pull the device out of your pocket and hold it in one hand.