That's not true.
Everything they have on the iPhone comes from Mac OS X.
They simply just had to fix some issues related to the "embedded" word (better power manager, touch input and so on).
But everything else comes from Mac OS X.
And they are working on Mac OS X more than Nokia on Linux+GTK.
Moreover, they are for sure working, internally, on the iPhone a lot more earlier than one year.
Like they did for Mac OS X on Intel. They said, later, that they were working on it since 2000.
Last, Cocoa stems from Carbon. Carbon comes from NeXT (still Steve, but running a darker company).
Nokia likely worked on the 770 for a year or 2 before it was released as well, in addition to taking everything from linux and GTK. So we're 3 to 5 years into Tablet OS development too. Its still a mess!
internal 640x480 SRAM is used for additional video plane (why not when we have it) but this does not bring big benefits now as it also needs to be transferred to external chip (together with rest of normal 800x480 framebuffer in SDRAM).
This does not sound like much of a problem, more like an optimization. You can only transfer parts of the screen that you change and thus save memory bandwidth.
Originally Posted by
- as for 3D - maybe the video plane in SRAM would be a benefit but maybe not, I don't know if the (currently unused) 3D chip can draw to it or must draw to SDRAM and what is performance of both solutions (if both are possible). Maybe it doesn't matter much and this is not the main problem, see below
Taking into account that both PowerVR and the framebuffer are integrated into the same OMAP2 chip, the PowerVR should be usable to render directly into that framebuffer. You can then tell the hardware to transfer that framebuffer to the display.
Originally Posted by
- current video system is pretty complex even now so it is not surprise that nobody at Nokia pushed hard for making 3D acceleration working.
As far as I could tell from your information, it just adds an extra step before things show up at the display. Funnily, at least some (if not all) iPods use the same mechanism. It is not very complex, just a bit cumbersome.
I really don't know if I want to return my N800 and get a ipod touch or keep it. Im really leaning toward keeping it because I bought it to act as a small cheap laptop replacement for me and so far has been working great. I really Like how it has expandable memory and bluetooth for a keyboard, and the resolutions awesome. But then you have Apple offering 100,000,000 to any developer that has a great idea, plus a great distribution system. Even though the Maemo community is big, because of apple's fan base I would think that they would get much more developers flocking to there console. Plus, its hard to resist Steve Job's silver tongue, and even if he promises big things for the iPod touch, the finished SDK could suck.
Apple puts all kinds of restrictions on apps. For example Human Interface Guidelines say "Users can only run one application at a time, and if they leave an application it quits".
That really kills the whole iPhone SDK... I frequently run multiple apps at the same time. (Like use internet streaming radio, Skype, etc. in the background and browser on the foreground...) If the iPhone can not do that, I'm finding it hard to see any value for the whole iPhone SDK?
