cfh11 | # 1 | 2011-05-16, 15:11 | Report

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/15/n...ng-with-windo/

thoughts?

I am intrigued by the idea of a "phone mode" for when you just need lots of standby/call time and don't necessarily need to full computer capabilities. Damn I wish the n900 could dual boot symbian....

oh and the 1,024 x 600 res sounds delicious

Mentalist Traceur | # 2 | 2011-05-16, 17:44 | Report

Somehow I think if you really didn't use the N900 for anything other than phone, you'd get very similar standby times as a device with symbian.

Disable or pause all the processes that aren't needed on a "phone" (pause the browser process, disable tracker, etc, etc); keep wifi radio completely off (driver modules unloaded), etc.

I'm sure you could code a status menu applet or something (or Queen Beecon Widget or whateter) to go into "phone only" mode where a bunch of non-phone processes are gutted.

cfh11 | # 3 | 2011-05-16, 18:35 | Report

Yeah I have done this before via the "hard sleep" queen beacon widget, but I just think symbian is much more battery efficient than maemo.

Capt'n Corrupt | # 4 | 2011-05-16, 18:49 | Report

Just out of curiosity (and it's just curiosity), what is the major draw to Symbian?

anonymous | # 5 | 2011-05-16, 18:56 | Report

Replace win7 with Meego.

cfh11 | # 6 | 2011-05-16, 18:57 | Report

i have fond memories of symbian from my n95 days... IMO symbian is the most battery efficient and capable "phone OS" out there. sucks as a "computer OS" though.

welcome capt'n.... i was wondering when you were going to show up

debernardis | # 7 | 2011-05-16, 19:02 | Report

Symbian is boring nowadays but is perfectly capable of doing a whole lot of things: apart from managing the phone, which is its specialty, it has good applications for everything. Just browse symbian forums.

ironm8 | # 8 | 2011-05-16, 19:02 | Report

Its Sexy!

Now seriously, how does it work? isnt symbian for ARM devices?! and atom is x86! strikes me as odd. maybe symbian runs on some kind of vm?

aligatro | # 9 | 2011-05-16, 19:06 | Report

What a Frankenstein... and Windows 7 on 32 GB flash drive ? I have 64GB SSD in my laptop and I start fighting for space shortly after I do clean install. Also, it says that frequency stays at 50%. So, does it mean that 1.2 Ghz is underclocked to 600mhz?? Although, if I didn't have n900 and had 800 bucks to spend on this thing, I would probably buy it. And then install some full x86 linux distro with a lightweight GUI. :P

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Last edited by aligatro; 2011-05-16 at 19:10.

Mentalist Traceur | # 10 | 2011-05-16, 19:13 | Report

*Shrug* How are you defining efficiency, exactly? Efficiency is getting a specific task or set of tasks or action(s) done with minimal wasteful expenditure.

Carrying a handgun around if all you want is to put bullets into soft human flesh things IS more efficient for that task and that task alone then driving around in an armored car with a mounted missile launcher and machine gun combo. But that armored car is going to do other things, that the handgun simply can't do - like protect you from bullets and fire missiles. At the end of the day, when you need to fire one bullet into one human-flesh thing, the car-mounted machine gun and the handgun will have very similar efficiency - firing pin hits bullet and the gun-powder goes boom.

But then that handgun is very inefficient if you want to use it for any other task, beyond a narrow range of functions.

Similarly, I don't think it's a matter of Maemo being more or less *efficient* then Symbian. It's just that Maemo does more, and thus has more stuff running in the background. Keep it to just the kernel and telephony, and whatever else symbian does, and it'll probably run you about the same energy consumption on the same hardware.

Of course, I'm not an expert, but so I suspect.