From the horses mouth!!
 

Ok fellow Maemolites, I finally managed to meet up with our Nokia rep today for the first time since I got my N900 in December, and I threw some questions at him that I thought I'd share, I didn't manage to ask much as he only dropped by to give us a demo Nokia X6 (which are awesome by the way), plus this is all from memory, but is pretty much what was said, so here goe's.

Q/ What's the deal with the new Nokia Media Transfer Concept http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aWFnQT_AZE

A/ The N900 used in the demo was a 'modded' version housing a new high-speed wireless transfer chip, gonna be similar to Bluetooth V4.0

Q/ V4.0?? already, what happened to V3.0??

A/ its just a proof of concept at the mo, but real damn cool

Q/ Ovi maps? when do we get free services?

A/ Not to sure yet, but development is going strong, if we don't get it in the PR 1.1.1 update most likely the following version.

Q/ Speaking of updates why was the UK missed out in the latest firmware??

A/ I'm not entirely sure??

Q/ Why is my media player struggling with Chapter support in H.264 files??

A/ mine does it also, Its a known bug that will be fixed in the next update

Q/ The OVI store is kinda slow at the moment, any reasons??

A/ The merge with Meego has slowed development as Nokia want s all APPs to be compatible with both Maemo and Meego, but Ive seen some really impressive games and demos recently so the wait will be worth it.

Q/ Meego!! Yessssssss :) N900 bound??

A/ Hmmmm, from what vie been told is that the technical requirements for Meego fit the N900, so as long as the development goes well and all the features pegged for Meego work on the N900 then yes, it should get it. BUT!! there has been no official word yet, from what I know.

Q/ But you just said APPs are slow to release because Nokia wants them to work on Maemo and Meego, but if the N900 gets Meego, thats pointless right??

A/ True, but other devices are in the pipeline line.

Q/Other devices?? Share some info??

A/ No.. wink!!

Q/ haha, answered in true Rep style.




So that its, not the greatest questions on my behalf but I was working and he's visit was brief, If I'd known he was due in today I'd prepared better.

:)

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

Thanks for posting! :)

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

good stuff man, not fussed about getting meego but i hope we get all the apps since its running on same base :D

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

Why would Nokia want to develop new devices when they are unable to support devices released just few months properly? I am puzzled ...

Any user who is having usb port trouble with this high end N900 and is experiencing Nokia's response to this disaster will not touch any Nokia devices with a foot long pole.

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

Thanks for the speculative update.

I hope your horse is worth betting on.

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

So that's cool.. According to your source, Ovi maps will be available in PR1.2? I mean that sounds reasonable since PR1.2 is going to have QT4.6 and Ovi Maps is going to be entirely QT.. Hmmmm..

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

my source? hahahah you make me sound like a dodgy rat who's grassing out the mafia hahahah lol

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

the source also says " if we don't get it in the PR 1.1.1 update" - but 1.1.1 is already out. so... i dont know.

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

yeah, i sorta mentioned that to him, he just brushed if off, i think he confused himself with the firmware names :)

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

Maps thing sounds really promising. That's something that definately is needed to make the N900 popular. I hope it's all true.

Who was the Nokia rep anyway?

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

http://i49.tinypic.com/jr644z.jpg

Continued support? Nokia cares about moving units not giving you "something for nothing". Want Meego? Buy the new Nokia M1000 Cellular Internet Tablet :p

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

I bloody hope you are right

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

not on the UK firmware yet, and he was a uk rep :) - but obviously not gonna happen....

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

I think it is highly unlikely we'll see an official release of MeeGo on the n900.
I'm afraid the community will have to step-up and try to implement it.

Also, depending how things develop, it will show that Nokia just don't get the smartphone market and will eventually lose it completely.

Considering the problems with the USB socket and Nokia's response would you buy another Nokia device?

Most older google phones can have the OS upgraded to latest version.
New Microsoft Windows mobile will have 6.5 "compatibilty layer" and version 7.
Even Apple upgrade thier OS on iPhone devices.

These companies know how important consistency matters on mobile devices.

Why?

Apps, apps, more apps, a generous sprinkling of apps with apps on the side!.

This is what drives sales of these type of devices.

If I was a commercial developer I would be thinking "WTF?" with Nokia's current performance.

Nobody outside Nokia has any idea what Nokia's startegy is. We only get information from third parties and rumours from the internet

We have no official announcement of the "future" of the n900. It's the only current tangible maemo device (from Nokia's prespective - I know there are older devices out there!).

The next upgrade will be 1.2 including QT. This is fine and extremely helpful but how "compatible" will it be with MeeGo.
Are we talking minor tweaks and re-compile? This has an associated cost.

A commerical developer who wants to make a profit will automatically look at iPhone, android & Windows Mobile.

If you want developers to write for your platform then you had better offer some compelling reasons to do so.

At the moment Nokia have none.
If maemo was a closed and/or proprietory platform then it would have tanked. For me the only compelling reason to develop for the platforms is because it is open-source but that in itself is not enough.

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

Thanks for posting this, bt for some reason there's no "Thanks!" button next to your first post!

Re: From the horses mouth!!
 

@johnel The way Samsung treat their users with the Galaxy would make me wary of buying another of their products (keeping a 'premium' product at Android 1.5 when most of these people are locked into 2 year contracts is stupid). Nokia, yeah they aren't being great with the USB port thing, and to tell you the truth, my connecting and disconnecting of the Micro B cable has become really careful and slower now, but I do feel like a beta tester with this phone (in a good way this time).

I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Nokia Maemo/Meego handset in 12-15months time.