To lam in post# 309:

I agree with everything you've said except the part about not calling people insane.

All the food that you eat has a barcode on it?

Honestly that application sounds pretty cool but I doubt it would work for me.

On that level, I think it would be a successful formula. As I've said, I've already come to this conclusion for my own device needs.

My doubts are about the design of the exact device that was leaked. The smaller screen doesn't seem like a necessary choice, but it's probably not a killer. The 3 row keyboard, however, is a real turn off for me. Incredibly so. The lack of a dpad is a major annoyance as well. And the "just a brick" design doesn't help.

Put Maemo on the Mako, and I'd be happier, and more confident in the device's success in that formula. Try to give the Mako a 5 row keyboard, I'll be a LOT happier/confident. Make the Mako into a 4.1" screen device, and I'd LOVE it.

Mako + Maemo + 5 row keyboard + 4.1" screen = my dollars

Did I say that? No.

I also eat out some (their data base has a ton of common restaurants in it; so if I decide I'm going to get a sandwich or salad from Subway or Quiznos, no problem).

You can also create your own "meals" from more basic ingredients, altering the portions by grams, oz's, cups, etc.

But, I don't have to restrict myself to known foods (made from scratch, where I have had the time to enter in all of the details myself ; or at a listed restaurant). I can scan a bar code and have that food automatically, or I can enter new foods (and share the info with other users, growing the database) from just entering data from the food label (or from a restaurant that publishes their nutritional info). And, if I have a bar code for whatever food data I have just entered (depending on whether it's a recipe or a purchased food item), I can then scan the bar code and associate it with that data.

Like I said, 99% of it I can do without the bar code scanner, just using any random website. But, that 1% of bar code reading, turns out to be AMAZINGLY convenient. Amazingly convenient enough that it made a huge difference in how easy this diet is going (compared to other diets I've been on), and I'm unsure how much it will or wont matter as time moves forward.

However, we're going way off topic here :-}

As for the stylus... I actually really like the guitar-pick-on-lanyard stylus on the Tube. I wouldn't mind seeing that become the stylus design for the Maemo devices as well (since we can't really call them "NIT"s anymore).

If it's a capacitive screen with a hardware keyboard, why would you really need a stylus? Same for a dpad. It's effectively how I use my n810 now. The only time I need the stylus or dpad are for ui elements that weren't developed for a finger.

Lotta venom here. Some valid points: i.e. how far ahead of its time the n800 truly was, but the truth is a company doesn't stay in business being ahead of its time. So what strategy do you use if you have an idea where you want to take a platform? Open source it and watch what people fix and develop for you for free, then include that in a shipping unit that's had more polish and is consumer ready.

The release of a new product doesn't render the previous one defunct.

Just keep it open for me, so I can get ssh, gnumeric, and ati85 on it, and I'm good. Honestly, wolfram alpha could replace ati85 but for nostalgia.

So, I realize that some of my "it's too small" vs "it's a lot like what I use now" comments might be confusing here, and over in the poll. So I thought I'd clear up my position:

The more I've thought about it today, the more I think that, as a phone, this would be a fine device for its size (not for its design, just for its size). It's comparable to the G1, which I think does just fine for a pocketable. I even do _most_ of the same things on it, that I used to do on my NIT.

The things I would NOT do on this device:

• full movie, maybe even full tv show, viewing (wouldn't do it on the N810 either)
• detailed note taking (also didn't do that on the NIT)
• VNC (did it on the NIT, but don't on the G1)
• PDF/Document/E-Book reading (I didn't enjoy that on the NIT, either)

But, just about everything else I did on the NIT, or on my G1, I'd still feel fine doing on this device's screen. Those above things are things I decided really belong on my netbook or netbook-sized-tablet. VNC would be a cute novelty on my phone, but just a novelty. Somewhere in these two threads I said I'd do light video on it, and that meant something like youtube video, or other embedded news story clips. Not movies, TV shows, and probably not 15-20+ minute clips of any sort. I'd probably be pleased as punch with a Maemo device the size of a netbook (clamshell or tablet), though.


The things I find really negative about this device are:

• 3 row keyboard (just about a deal breaker for me ... may in fact be a deal breaker for me, I'm still trying to digest that)
• lack of dpad (probably not a deal breaker, but the finger GUI better be DAMN impressive for me to be ok with that)
• Flat brick look (not a deal breaker, but a BIG disappointment, given the sexy look of the Mako).

And to give credit where credit is due:

• I'm ECSTATIC about it being a full blown phone!
• While I'm a T-Mobile customer, and enjoy the fact that it's a T-Mobile phone, I think I would have also been happy to use this as an AT&T Go-Phone (on the $1/day or $3/day options).
• 32GB of internal storage! THAT is amazingly good news.
• The camera sounds OUTSTANDING.

But, still no word, that I've heard, about SyncML for contacts and calendar (or at least syncing with Google, but SyncML would be a bigger deal for me, as I have some SyncML-but-not-Google resources out there too, and I can use GooSync to use SyncML with Google). That could be a huge one for me. Maybe even a deal breaker.

If it has a stylus, why would you really need a capacitive screen with a hardware keyboard?

Stylus: Ever try to make a non-fuzzy/fat-line drawing with your finger?

I agree that a stylus should be OPTIONAL for the general use of the device ... but, it should be available/compatible for those apps that need a finer point than a finger.

As for the dpad ... since it's an open application ecosystem, those UI elements will always exist, on some apps. And even without that, depending on the exact layout, a Dpad can actually be faster, or more precise, than a finger. The G1 has a finger designed GUI, but I still find myself reaching for the trackball some times (and annoyed that I can't reach for a dpad instead).

Just having 1 input method isn't going to cover all cases. I think having all 4 available is pretty ideal (dpad, stylus, finger, keyboard).

Because soft keyboards suck ***, and because there are plenty of cases where pulling out a stylus breaks your train of though/operation/etc., and is just a plain pain in the ***.

None of the 5 input elements (touch screen, stylus, finger, physical keyboard, dpad) is a complete replacement for the others, not even in combinations. If you're missing one, you're missing valuable pieces of user interaction.