Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

True, but that's with a finalized build and finalized firmware on release. Then all gloves are off when it comes to reviews.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

True... You know it would take a truly incompetent company to take a rock-solid linux kernel and turning into a crashing mess. I don't think Eldar is lying though, more likely he's got an obscure hardware problem

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

That is why I insist on always testing it myself before I spend the money. Reviews will only tell me if it worth my time to go and test the device.

Reviewers can be pertinent if, and only if, you have been following the writer for a long time and know for sure that he/she has taste similar to yours. In any other case you are risking big.

Will you go buy an iPhone after reading a review made by a fan ? Really ?

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Shouldn't the title of this thread be "infamous mobile reviewer throws N900 under the bus..."?

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

I agree, reviews for me are helpful in finding out about the device. But I always try to test-drive the device myself before making the final purchase. Or I buy it somewhere, where I could return it for store credit if I'm not satisfed (I think Costco has this).


I don't think it's as much the kernel that is crashing, than it is Nokia's GUI and everything on top of the kernel that's iffy. I don't think Eldar is lying either, but given that we don't fully know what firmware and what hardware he is running it on we can't really make say if what he says about the n900 will match up with say what someone experiences with a more up to date firmware and actual n900 hardware. Therefore my point that if reviewers review products before they are finalized then they should point that out in their review. It's just simple honesty.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

I just read the translated review. Where did he say anything overly bad about the n900?

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

...much like the RIAA going after individuals for music theft to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars most don't have.

But then, there's this: http://www.geek.com/articles/law/ria...suit-20080819/

/OT in a blatant attempt to defuse subject

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

...and as a former N800 QA engineer I can assure you they happen. We encountered the occasional hardware glitch on some units that didn't show up on the vast majority, and all in preproduction and early release. But then, that only serves to underscore the points about eldar's "preview" being disingenuous; his reported troubles induce a concern disproportionate to the reality.

You know, capacitors are notorious for causing issues with electronics devices. One need only be a bit out of spec or improperly sealed and you start off with decent behavior that degrades dramatically. Not insinuating this is at issue here, just offering an example.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

That is, sir, exactly on target. Why one "malfunctioning" prototype would suddenly represents what we will get in October. If, say, you read 5 reviews and one of them got a "faulty" device, will everybody imply that 20% of the manufactured final devices will be like that ? I don't think so.

Edit : typo

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Thanks Mandor.

And as for firmware-- I was testing updated Diablo builds on a weekly basis. There was a noticeable steady rise toward improved functionality and stability. Yes, there were occasional regressions and new glitches but they did not represent the trend and were outliers. The same is no doubt true of Fremantle.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Even though I've followed this thread, I might have missed if there are any reviews from 3rd parties other than this individual out there on more recent firmware.

Thanks in advance.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

That's also how I choose to view the world... like a story. Characters don't exist until they are introduced to the protagonist (me, in this case).



;)

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Zerojay, you ignorant slut. :)

First, the movie he DOWNLOADED ILLEGALLY OFF THE INTERNET to review was 'Wolverine'.

Secondly, he got canned for publishing a SELF-INCRIMINATING ARTICLE where he admitted to ILLEGALLY DOWNLOADING A COPY OF THE MOVIE OFF THE INTERNET. Not, as you attempted to allude, for pointing out that the effects were missing.

ref:
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/20...ata-center.ars
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/17471.cfm
http://www.getthebigpicture.net/blog...ne-piracy.html
yawn... I'm sure you could google up more sites that clarify the point.

There were plenty of opportunities for you to site as examples of poor reviews getting people canned--but that wasn't one of them.

[vapid smile as he shuffles his papers]

(Note: ZJ, no personal assault intended, I was parodying the style of Saturday Night Live's editorial 'he said, she said' debate segments) ^.^;

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Brothers, sisters: love, peace and prosperity.

If you notice it, everybody is trying to do their job as good as they can. The Maemo team is working on a great product. Eldar makes reviews based on what he has and no matter what his intentions are it's clear that he puts his best skills into it. All you are great smart dudes that could be just wathing TV and instead you are here squeezing your brain and skills as well.

It's not worth discussing about appreciations that will be obsoleted as soon as the N900 starts selling, no matter how positive or negative such appreciations are. Pre-order, wait, support, critize... Do as you want, what matters is this common interest of making something great with this Maemo 5.

Respect is more important than any bug or any piece of silicon, and ultimately we are all here for the fun of it.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Aren't we all missing two important points here, as far as I understand it...(which I could be completely wrong [again])

1) As far as I am aware there are no other comprehensive reviews of the n900
2) The release date is at least one or two months away

So I for one am glad for his reviews, if nothing else at least we have something to keep us entertained for the next few months.
;)

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

+1 to qgil.

Naturally he is not reviewing the final SW, i.e. it will still improve. (I personally noticed some very nice improvements just yesterday, for instance.)

If the SW would be final, you would have it in your hands. :)

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

And copyright infringement is neither of those.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

eldar twitte..

"After current update of fw I could check standby time (at least now). Before wasnt very impressive figures, now i believe it will be better"

is he talking about N900?

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Could be the Samsung 2011 device!



;)

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Hehe.. no, I wasn't alluding to him being fired for pointing out the special effects were missing. I was pointing out that his copy of the movie was missing them, that's all.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

first off hello to this forum ;)

re battery life. I agree this will be important to most. As a heavy user of the N95 (joikuspot) I am used to batteries getting drained pretty quickly but thank god we can change it and carry multiple ones. Re the review. I don't really care about this one and am waiting for the phone to be released and see the overall reaction of the testers (not the techcrunch guys or OM Malik obviously)

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

I'd like to remark that on one of the screenshots he shows he's installed two of my apps from extras-devel.

Well, the issue is that neither did fully work by the time he probably did the review - I've since gotten some useful feedback and at least one of them should work a bit better now. :)
Of course, that's the reason they were in extras-devel in the first place and not -testing, but I can imagine that deciding to install a few apps and seeing them not doing what they were supposed to do would only bias him in a negative way.

Hopefully he understood what extras-devel means and the fact I do not have a N900 and thus have to do "blind testing".

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Psst, maybe this ***** was referring to N900 prototype...

..and we know Nokia had to sacrifice for priorities because of bugs found. Like with USB.

Also, do not neglect possibility the user (Eldar in this case) operated the device wrong.

I'm not aware of that reputation but I am aware that when a product is released to masses it is entirely possible these people are going to use the device in ways internal testing did not.

You cannot fully test a piece of electronics in a store in such a limited amount of time, and some hardware like a HDD you cannot extensively test as customer.

If I'll want to test Nokia N900 I will have to travel 2x 1,5-2 hours for that. I rather buy Nokia N900, and if I do not like it use my EU rights to send it back.

Likewise, I bought an iPod touch partly to review iPhoneOS. Yes, I needed a new flash-based DAP too. I combined these 2 'needs' (luxaries, rather).

As posted earlier in this thread:

Michal Jerz from My-Symbian.com has used a prototype since 20090903 and has not experienced a single crash.

Perhaps Eldar upgraded to newer firmware which introduced regressions. We'll never know.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

its really not the fact of getting at the complainers i understand why but what I'm saying is we giving to much into this topic people will do what they want to nonetheless. I understand that people look at his reviews for guidance but there will be even more million reviews, hands on, and buyers when the device drops .
[edit]..
just read what qgil said and agree 100%, basically the same thing I'm saying.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Well, at least we know he's a man of taste and culture.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Yes, I was about to point that out too. It looks like he crammed the device with unstable software, who knows what consequences that has on the device's overall stability (let alone battery life). Hopefully that's just for screenshots and not what he is basing his comments on.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

I wouldn't go that far -- few apps will affect overall stability.
But otherwise, your point is valid. If he lets any of the apps in extras-devel unfavor his opinion about the device in any way I'd consider the review invalid -- because of people like me :rolleyes: (who use extras-devel for what I think it is: a testground for experimental apps, which may or may not have enough quality yet to be promoted to -testing).
Of course, this does not apply for apps in extras(-stable).

However, don't forget to give him the benefit of doubt. Probably, he did know what to expect from extras-devel.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Haha that would be the equivilent of jailbreaking the iPhone, installing a bunch of unstable apps and then saying the iPhone sucks because of that.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

No it wouldn't.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Thou dost protest too much, methinks....

Do you have anything to gain here? Is this about gaining traffic on a certain website?

hmmm.....;)

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Copying for yourself is SUPPOSED to generally fall under 'fair use' provisions in our laws--it's, in fact, a right granted by the Constitution. Illegally distributing, publicly performing, and making money off of someone else's production, while illegal, no... NONE of that is STEALING and it's boggling logic to equate any of that with robbing a person of one's possession when you've simply duplicated a possession and left the original copy intact. Illegal, maybe.. but it's not 'stealing.' Let's try and illegally COPY that guy's television or microwave, over there, before we start equating them.

Well, shoot.. now you're nice longer fun to insult. :)

I agree with kopte3, it is not the same. Come back later with a better example.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

I thought the phrase was, "a man of wealth and taste"?

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Mind elaborating why it wouldn't be?

In both instances you are installing software from unstable sources (extras-devel) or in the iPhone's case (Cydia).

And Nokia nor Apple has supported people installing applications from those sources. I think Nokia even gives you a warning about it when you try installing them.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

That's like asking someone to prove something false. You need to prove something is TRUE, not the other way around.

At any rate jailbreaking an iphone is something they go out of their way to prevent. Come back later with a better example.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

I did prove why something is true (see above post that you quoted). So now it's up to them to prove it false. Though you are right in that Nokia doesn't try to block it. But it seems rather stupid to install expermental software and then if your device is unstable because of it, blame the device rather than the expermental software.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

LOL! What an argument. How old are you? five?

Just kidding :p

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Yes they do. Nokia asks "you do this on your own risk, we don't take any responsibility for it. Are you fine with that?", Apple says "you're a criminal if you do that!".

I find it disingenuous to claim that this is not the same, as that would be indirectly justifying Apple's no-go policy.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

That's the warning given with extras(-stable) apps.

Extras-devel apps cannot even be installed without knowing what an APT repository is. That's a quite a difference. The repo is designed for hosting unstable apps; stable apps would be promoted to extras(-stable).

Thus the issue at hand.

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

To that end, I absolutely agree with your sentiment.

[mockingly] "How old are you? five?" myeah :D

Re: well respected reviewer "eldar" throwing caution to N900
 

Any software besides the official software is unsupported and completely at your own risk whether that is on iPhoneOS or Maemo does not matter.

However, Extras is tested by this community and found stable, whereas the App Store is reviewed (but not tested in sense of QA!) by Apple and found stable, whereas Cydia is tested by community and found stable. One problem Cydia has is that with the scattered repositories you run a combination of repositories probably not well tested or taking each other into account.

Now, Extras-Devel is explicitly for development purposes. We now know that Eldar has installed software from Extras-Devel on the same device he is using to publicly judge stability of the N900 firmware. I question this behaviour. Extras-Devel is like installing an alpha/beta/rc firmware or OS. Much of the software has not been tested on the final product. Its like running Windows XP software on Windows Vista. Anything can happen.

I have seen iPhoneOS applications being reviewed by an iPhoneOS enthusiast news site, and they're usually a sneak preview. The reviewers are honest and informative in telling their experience both positive and negative wise without remarks like 'oh this sucks donkey' while also underlining they're not using the final version. Ie. "this bug was reported and confirmed" or "the bug is fixed in the final version currently pending reviewal". AFAIK Eldar does not commence such communication.