Who is going to make a geek phone? - Page 5 - maemo.org

Daneel | # 41 | 2011-06-22, 18:05 | Report

Originally Posted by Creamy Goodness View Post

who is going to compromise and buy an imperfect device?
EVERYONE
what manufacturer is going to make a phone that has every possible feature?
...
try to choose a device that exists rather than complaining forever.

Firstly, most of us here are consumers. I don't about you but when it comes to electronics i buy the stuff i need, clothes and fashion are a totally different subject.
Right now, there is nothing on the market the suits my needs.

Voicing your opinion about a subject is not whining, its voicing your opinion.

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cfh11 | # 42 | 2011-06-22, 18:18 | Report

Originally Posted by Daneel View Post

- UX is mostly closed source, even more then the N900 was.
- Lacks gimmick features like FM that most geeks enjoy and like to fiddle with.
- Lacks major features like hardware keyboard, hdmi, a precision screen(note i did not say resistive).

everything except the part about the hardware kbd and the hdmi (which still might be possible via USB adapter) appears to be completely speculative and not based in fact

Ken-Young | # 43 | 2011-06-22, 18:39 | Report

Originally Posted by kyllerbuzcut View Post

One small step for Nokia, one giant step backwards for maemo kind.
[...]
Anyway what I really wanted to say/ask was that with the dissapointing hardware of the n9, what about turning an already existing device into a 'geek phone'. A good start might be the SE xperia pro, which my wife has decided she wants. It's got better specs, a hw keyboard. Comes with android. I've been reading about alien dalvik and what it could do for meego, BUT what could it do in reverse? Is that even possible- i.e to put alien dalvik on an android phone, and get it to run maemo/meego stuff, or actually achieve what may be the holy grail of allowing boot of maemo 5 or meego. So instead of using an n900 to dual boot NITdroid or maemo, you could use whatever adroid phone to dual boot adroid or maemo etc.
THEN it could be like having a new geek phone available to choose from every few months, every time an adroid hw keyboard device is released. Everyone could potentially have maemo/meego put on it.

Does anyone know more info about that possibility?

Well, I think it is unrealistic for end users to turn an Android phone into a Maemo/Meego/Openmoko phone. There will be too many closed components that we'll never get the sources for. We'd end up managing to get Maemo or Meego to boot, but with no GSM, GPS, DSP support, etc., etc. The old Openmoko users tried to get their software running on the Palm Pre, for example, and that project just fizzled. But maybe we could convince manufacturers to release Meego versions of exisiting Android phones. The manufacturers shouldn't have to do much with drivers, etc, since they would already have targetted the Linux kernel. Perhaps they could use this as a way to clear out obsolete inventory. I would be happy to buy last year's slick Android phone with Meego installed on it. The manufacturer would have to spend some money to get Meego running, but they could clear out their old inventory of last year's sexy phone by selling them to geeks who would be happy to get *something* running gnu/linux. Perhaps they could sell the units with no warranty, at least where that's legal.

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Texrat | # 44 | 2011-06-22, 18:55 | Report

Originally Posted by IsaacDFP View Post

I cannot believe the N900 did not bring ANY profit to Nokia. Is there any actual sales number published anymore?? The least I could believe is that they got it at cost lol, to me that would still make it worth it. You might not won any money but you didn't lose any, and you made a lot of people happy.

Return rates were high, repair rates were high, not many sold (compared to similar devices) and many given away free. Put that up against the internal overhead, and I doubt Nokia cleared much if anything on the N900.

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Texrat | # 45 | 2011-06-22, 18:58 | Report

Originally Posted by gerbick View Post

Outside of this group of geeks... I seriously cannot think of anybody that's used FM transmitter in their N900. I think it's a waste.

This geek would have loved to have used the N900's FM transmitter, but in my area there was too much interference on available bands. Sounded like crap.

So, yeah, this is a feature that IMO could be safely dropped. Cars are increasingly equipped with bluetooth anyway.

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gerbick | # 46 | 2011-06-22, 19:19 | Report

Originally Posted by daperl View Post

Hi, I'm daperl, an actual Maemo 5, Maemo 4, former iOS and just-starting Harmattan developer. You're spreading FUD. Please don't.

Eh? How is it FUD when there's truth in it? In the absolute idea of what's open and what's not, Maemo was not "open". I know it's not binary, but to the group of folks around here, it somehow became binary.

Or... it became "it's more open than <insert anything else including your toaster>" which, while more correct, is just a circular argument waiting to happen.

FUD my arse. It's not entirely open, but it's more open than most - that last part was implicit.

Originally Posted by

Open isn't binary (that's kinda geek funny), it's a spectrum. You can't talk about the "openness" or "closedness" of Diablo/Fremantle/Harmattan and iOS in the same sentence and still be credible.

Because you say so? Regardless, I disagree. I can do so because I was a Diablo user, lover and developer (not a good one, admittedly). Then Maemo 5 came, ripped that from under my feet, so I went back to Adobe Flex - which has an open SDK.

Originally Posted by

When us developers and hackers finish going through the APIs, we'll let you know how open or closed Harmattan is. Thanks.

I'm not the one asking, truth be told - I tend to do my own research. And I doubt you'll tell me anything more than what's been said thus far... it's as open as Maemo 5.

kyllerbuzcut | # 47 | 2011-06-22, 19:24 | Report

KenYoung. What an excellent idea. I bet manufacturers could even go for that. They'd rather sell old stock for SOMETHING than have to fork out money to bin or recycle them.It may take a little initial outlay to install maemo on there but but they'd still make money and shift stock that they'd otherwise have to get rid of some other way.

SD69 | # 48 | 2011-06-22, 19:36 | Report

Originally Posted by cfh11 View Post

everything except the part about the hardware kbd and the hdmi (which still might be possible via USB adapter) appears to be completely speculative and not based in fact

It has been confirmed that the UX is mostly closed source, even more then the N900 was.

Creamy Goodness | # 49 | 2011-06-22, 19:58 | Report

closed source doesn't mean there is no API to interact with these things...

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LTman | # 50 | 2011-06-22, 20:01 | Report

lets hope the lg meego device is a geek phone and that it is in the stores before the n9
i wouldnt mind a motorola meego device along the lines of the atrix specs, dock and all ps the atrix packs a 1930 battery blus dual core cpu in 11mm thic body