Re: What's wrong with the USA?
 

I was talking about the USA. I've been talking about the USA this entire time. All of my links go back to the USA. And I'm glad that you can tether in your country; however I'm talking about something wholly different this entire time.

So allow me to clarify once more; I've been talking about USA, a country in North America. Tethering is an extra charge here. Disagree all you wish, expound upon how your country or system is better... I'll invariably agree. While living in Japan and Germany, while traveling in Europe... there are some issues, but the carrier system(s) there are easily better than the USA's anachronistic carrier system.

Not disputed.

No ****. Thus my anger.

Re: What's wrong with the USA?
 

That doesn't make you an ugly american, this does:
It is not clearly supposed to fail just because it isn't released in the US. It isn't released in minimal numbers either. Besides, what does failure mean in this case? If Nokia makes money on it, it clearly is not a failure, and probably will have a follow-up or two. In the long run WP will be the main smartphone OS for Nokia, but this doesn't mean that Harmattan is dead. It will continue as a niche OS as stated by Elop.

As I see it americans are in no way ready to put their money where their mouths are (quite literally), and this prevents them from getting the N9, and lots of similar devices.

Re: What's wrong with the USA?
 

At this point, I really don't care if the n9 is released.

At some point I would like to replace my N900. The N900 has been and continues to be an excellent experiment that has had many striking successes in bringing a linux desktop experience to small mobile devices and linking it to the touch screen interface. Its current short coming, for me, is that the HW needs upgrading in performance, especially as new devices are released with twice the CPU speed and 4 times the RAM. A bigger screen, 4+ inches is also needed. The N950 would have been sufficient as the N900 upgrade but that clearly is not going to happen.

While the N9 would provide the user with an excellent experience, managing photos, contacts, facebook related stuff with cute transitions basically -all the things a good candybar should do, I am still more interested in core Linux and the functionality it brings based on, for example, the great software in the Debian repositories (thanks to Qole and his cadre of helpers). Having such capability really makes the N900 unique.

So what are the alternatives? Take the Droid 3 for example. I test drove one for about two weeks. It has superior specs than the n900. Indeed, it felt like a little primed racecar in the palm of my hand as compared to the N900. It has a nice keyboard although it feels a little rubbery and is missing important keys like ctrl and F1... I'm not particularly interested with its motoblur, although it is probably not that bad from a candy bar perspective. All the bloatware verizon puts on it is also annoying. Of course you would need root to clean up and improve things but that has not been achieved as of yet by the XDA forum hackers. I tried some free apps that I had used on N900 like Documents to Go and it is just as bad (or good if you liked it on N900) on the Droid 3. An open office app is available but it is read only. So, for me, the challenge would be to bring the Debian functionality to this device. I'm not sure how possible it is or if there would be enough interest to get anywhere for this device and the particular processors it uses. Anyways, I returned the Droid 3 to verizon and paid the $35 dollar repackaging fee. It was worth the test drive. So where does that leave me? If root access is achieved with the Droid 3 I might still buy it as it would be fun to play with. I'm also excited about other devices in the pipeline like the SGH-I927. For now I will stick with the n900 until something better comes along. That is, something that I can retain, as best a possible, what I like and find useful on the N900 but with improved performance.

Re: What's wrong with the USA?
 

You "could" mask your tethering via quite a few means; some are detectable via serious scrutiny that tends to not be done by AT&T - trust me on this one, I know that part intimately.

But as it stands sooner than later, they "might" find you. Either way, I'm not worried about it... so far, 3 years later, so good.

Re: What's wrong with the USA?
 

Bla bla bla. What it boils down to is how much is continued open source OS, continued open source Qt on mobile phones, continuation of (real) Linux on mobile phones and a the worlds coolest free unlocked phone worth for you. 1$? 100$? 1000$?

Re: What's wrong with the USA?
 

droid 3 have an awful camera =_=

Re: Orly? N9 not coming to USA
 

I tether on T-mobile, but I have an unlimited data plan. No extra charges, but maybe its included.

Re: What's wrong with the USA?
 

Yea you're right. One problem was a funny blue tint when using flash. To be fair, an XDA developer said this could be fixed. Don't know for sure.

Re: What's wrong with the USA?
 

I was speaking in global terms. It has been announced that key areas other than just the US will be left out.

A very big if at this point. Even bigger if for any follow-up units.
Elop has given me no reason to believe anything he says.

I did. Android got it's start in the US. The iPhone, iPad. We'll buy good, innovative products. Even be willing early adopters. Thing is, in the US promotion and advertising is very important. Microsoft will make Nokia understand that. M$ will spend whatever it takes to make WP7 and by extension Nokia a force in the mobile market in the US and the world.

I see the release of the N9 (and the discontinuation of Sybian and seeming lack of interest in Qt) as Nokia's way of stepping completely away from MeeGo and open source projects altogether. But to do it as quietly as possible, with the least protest or backlash both externally the media and internally, within the company. With minimal promotion in the media to draw attention or help it succeed. The N9 will be their excuse - "Don't blame us - we tried MeeGo with the N9! There was no interest!"

Even if the N9/MeeGo kinda backfires on Elop and is hailed as truly amazing, generates monster buzz and sales in spite of everything, Nokia will still step away from MeeGo because then it becomes a legitimate threat to their WP7 strategy.

Either way MeeGo loses.

I DO see one possible positive scenario. A good thing is that with 1G+ dual-cores, 1G+ ram, better GPUs, etc. handset and tablet hardware is now catching up to the requirements of what's needed to really make MeeGo shine. Now suppose the N9/MeeGo is sensational, a revolution in mobile OS. So good that despite the best efforts of Elop/Ballmer/Nokia/M$ to quietly bury it, it gets monster buzz, reaches cult status, etc. So good that Samsung and/or HTC - other major manufacturers - pick it up and release MeeGo hardware. So good it makes WP7 a joke on someone's screensaver.

We can dream can't we?

Re: What's wrong with the USA?
 

IMHO in terms of openness the only question that matters is "can I fix the bugs that affect me?". For Harmattan the answer seems to be "No" (all user-facing apps, UI etc are closed, and aegis is going to fight you on the rest).

It's a whole different story if it turns out that the N9 can also run meego.com MeeGo, but that is unknown.