maemo.org - Talk - N900: The Great "It's a phone!" vs. "It's not a phone; it's a mobile computer!" Debate

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- Nokia N900 (https://talk.maemo.org/forumdisplay.php?f=44)

Re: N900: The Great "It's a phone!" vs. "It's not a phone; it's a mobile computer!" Debate

Quote:

Originally Posted by twigleaf1976 (Post 880982)

My pocket computer is Dell Axim x50 Pocket PC from 6 years ago, was half the price of the N900, is more powerful at computing. Came with a 624 MHz chip and had a word processor that worked. Contacts worked. I turn it on and it works, I load software and they run, I plug it in and it charges, I play games and they don't crash. There are games, I can go online and buy games and software for it. (even today) and it multitasks.

I think you should sell your n900 lmao. Joke

Seriously though, maybe if you kept you phone bog standard. Stock settings and stick to the ovi store. You might fine a lot of them problem would go away.

Re: N900: The Great "It's a phone!" vs. "It's not a phone; it's a mobile computer!" Debate

I think my N900's a little confused itself, not knowing what it is..
Cellphone, internet tablet, Debian computer, navigation device, flashlight, digital DVD player, mp3 player, coding tool, GBA, SNES, N64, USB flash drive, contactbook, E-reader, agenda, FM-transmitter, remote, camera, BL5J battery charger, stylus-holder and occasionally a brick :)

Re: N900: The Great "It's a phone!" vs. "It's not a phone; it's a mobile computer!" Debate

I used to have a very basic nokia phone(1100) and an decent laptop(Dell Inspiron 6000) before. Once N900 arrived I sold them both.

Re: N900: The Great "It's a phone!" vs. "It's not a phone; it's a mobile computer!" Debate

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen (Post 880937)

In theory the only reason why pople call it a phone and a smart phone and a mobile computer blah blah. Is because they look at 2 things, what the OS is and then the screen size. (Some people take into acount a full qwerty keyboard too)

Honestly though it is more of a mobile computer if it has to catogery. I mean you'd think most people would be happy with the the "product" and not need to debate what the hell it is. Although I strongly do agree with a lot of you that it is not (Just a phone)

The reason why it put it in that catogery is because it can do all the things the Nokia Booklet 3G can. Except for run Win7 and do all the processing. Simply because if the N900 was made to do all that it would have a bigger screen and the battery would be the same size as the device lol

So there is my take on things.

You tell me a "phone" that can run Maemo, Android, Meego, Ubuntu, Windows 95. Most of them on a multiboot configuration.

Also you tell me a phone that you can make and receive calls not using any credit, if you insert a mobile broadband sim card you can with this via all the voice services intergrated with the device... Better still, no sim card just connected to a wirless network. In town or at home.

& remember "Mobile" does not mean its a phone. Mobile meand it's smaller and easier to move around, more efficient.

Mobile CPUs, Mobile Homes, Mobile Missiles, Mobile Phones, Mobile Netbooks, but yes Most of those are related to "Mobile Tecnology"

Keyboard is bs...
There's been numerous phones with 'phone-only OS' sporting keyboard way before the n900.

Screen size is bs...
There are phones with smaller and larger screen compared to n900. Both with lower and higher pixel density.

Multiboot is bs...
Due to the limited number of popular chipsets for smartphones, 'porting' one 'mobilized embedded OS' from one 'smartphone' to another is not that uncommon. See also: xda dev

VOIP is bs...
Any smartphones (and many feature phones) have access to voip clients..

Now, OS is the only single valid point that I think people can/should debate on, on n900's categorization. BUT even then:

1. Lineage: The competitors also make use of existing available technology from desktop/server OS (linux kernel, *bsd core) for their mobile OS. The degree of modifications and bastardizations differ, but more on that.

2. Features and capabilities: From the (non technical) 'features and capabilities' checklist, between smartphones and the n900 have probably 80-90% overlap. Neither is a complete superset of the other.

3. .... what am I doing.

At the end of the day, all current mobile phones are 'computers'. Whether they're 'more like' the x86 commodity desktop 'scene' or not, and in what ways; that's another story. Very subjective and there are too many parameters to make it a conclusive categorization.

Ironically, i personally think Android and iOS are the ones truly shifting the perception of what 'mobile computers' should be like. We will be seeing so many more simplified 'computers' like Android tablets and Apple's iPad in the hands of everyday Joes.

And they will think those are what computers should be like.

And that's not really a bad thing either.

Re: N900: The Great "It's a phone!" vs. "It's not a phone; it's a mobile computer!" Debate

it's a mobile computer capable of making phone calls :D

Re: N900: The Great "It's a phone!" vs. "It's not a phone; it's a mobile computer!" Debate

Quote:

Originally Posted by ysss (Post 881159)

Ironically, i personally think Android and iOS are the ones truly shifting the perception of what 'mobile computers' should be like. We will be seeing so many more simplified 'computers' like Android tablets and Apple's iPad in the hands of everyday Joes.

And they will think those are what computers should be like.

And that's not really a bad thing either.

I agree that it is probable that some people (everyday Joes) prefer their computers to run and work without tinkering with configuration files, to install paid and polished applications instead of free and beta/alpha ones....

But I don't consider it to be a good thing, and I hope that everybody, even everyday Joe, wants to own his device fully and tinker with it, rather than lease it from Nokia and conform to all its rules and limitations until a next device comes out to replace the old one.

Re: N900: The Great "It's a phone!" vs. "It's not a phone; it's a mobile computer!" Debate

neither. since its a nokia, it's an evolved communicator.

some say it's a "developer's" phone, but then again, can't any phone be used for development and testing for it's own content consumption?

though it was surely advertised as a smartphone. i remember the video where the intro was the n900 parts magically coming together, middle is camera capabilities and ends with a phonecall. it's responsible for me buying my n900. LOL

very tricky too. who would have known that it's portrait capabilities were limited to selected apps? i for one only discovered that not until i have taken it home. LOL. so that was why the video only showed portrait on the phonecall part in the end.

Re: N900: The Great "It's a phone!" vs. "It's not a phone; it's a mobile computer!" Debate

Quote:

Originally Posted by p900 (Post 881179)

it's a mobile computer capable of making phone calls :D

At whirlpool forums we have referred to it many times as a Phoputer. :)

Re: N900: The Great "It's a phone!" vs. "It's not a phone; it's a mobile computer!" Debate

Quote:

Originally Posted by shazosbourne (Post 881626)

At whirlpool forums we have referred to it many times as a Phoputer. :)

How about a Cone?