After a few comments it was corrected in the next podcast but it just shows how some American bloggers are a bit funny when it comes to Nokia for some reason.
Well, like BMW, it is a German corporation after all...
Nokia simply has far less market share and brand recognition in the USA as in the rest of the world. In the USA they are just one of the major players instead of being market leader for many, many years, like in EU.
I can hold the G1 in the curl of my fingers. Lay the phone across you fingers. Flex your fingers so that the sides of the phone are firmly held by your finger tips and the pad of your palm that is at the base of your fingers. Easy easy (though, the problem with doing this on the N900 wont be its size, it will be the fact that its surface is probably going to be smooth, like other Nokia devices... instead of having a rubberized surface like the G1).
It's secure, and leaves my thumb free to access the entire screen. If I'm holding the phone one handed, that's how I told it. Portrait vs landscape is the same (in terms of how I hold the phone one handed). The only difference, there, is a twist of the wrist.
I only hold "the handle"/chin if I'm using the phone two handed.
Hmm.. well, yes that kind of work, but for me it's less natural\intuitive than just gripping the phone in portrait mode (which is much more secure too). The thumb movements & reach can comfortably cover more areas too in portrait mode..
Anyhoo, I'm sure Nokia has done their usability tests on this Just a matter of finding out how close their usecases are with mine..
Something should be noted, and only because I think a lot of the expectations and assumptions of this device are being made on the basis of the semantcs of words and previous tech, not necesarly what the device (N900) has promised.
The N900 is being pitched as a mobile computer that does some telephony tasks.
Its foundations aren't in being a mobile phone, its in being a tablet-computer with constant wireless connectivity streams. Everything from how the user interface is built, to how you are being asked to interact with applications comes from this frame-of-use.
Though there are telephony UX elements here, they have been designed first aronud that idea of a mobile computer, and then refined to work best in the mindset of a phone user. Its not really an issue about the UI being smart, its about designing an applicaiton for this device around the task that works best - and with a phone, you think of it in portrait, not landscape use. This is smarter us of UI, before asking technologies like an accelerometer to be put in.
In this view, I would say that all who are asking for telephon-like functionality ask if its really the N900 that they are looking for. Not to say that Nokia wouldn't want your money, but both you and them would be better served to use a device that better fits your methodology of communication, than revolting that a device that's not designed for you be adapted to you.
FYI: The N97 is pitched as a smarter-than-normal-smartphone that does some mobile computing tasks. For what many of you are asking for, this fits the bill for a device - whether you like Symbian or not is another story.
First of all, the "pitching" has barely started yet. I do think at least T-Mobile US is going to be advertising this device as a 3G cellphone. MMS is part of the functionality of a 3G cellphone (IMNSHO).
People are here because they want to examine the device, and are right to do so and to discuss it. I do wonder if MMS would have been left out if it had not been left out of the iphone as well. The development history is interesting, but not particularly relevant if and when the device is advertised and sold as a 3G cell phone. There will be some people who buy the device and then realize it doesn't support MMS.
A possible explanation is iPhone developers left it out of iPhoneOS for same reason but I cannot back that up.
Quite possibly. I guess another aspect of my comments is that the iphone was a reference point for development of the N900. If MMS was in iPhoneOS, then perhaps Maemo 5 developers would have tried harder to include it.
Just a matter of finding out how close their usecases are with mine..