maemo.org - Talk - Kate Alhola's Maemo Presentation

maemo.org - Talk (https://talk.maemo.org/index.php)

- Maemo 5 / Fremantle (https://talk.maemo.org/forumdisplay.php?f=40)

- - Kate Alhola's Maemo Presentation (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=28171)

Re: Kate Alhola's Maemo Presentation

Quote:

Originally Posted by ragnar (Post 279333)

Sorry, I cannot discuss exact details about future products. Product announcements are done the official way. But you don't need to wait too long anymore. :)

Awesome

Quote:

Ultimately the future isn't about any single product. What Maemo does and what kind of devices run Maemo are separate questions.

That's great, but I didn't ask about software. I asked 3 hardware questions.

Re: Kate Alhola's Maemo Presentation

Quote:

Originally Posted by benny1967 (Post 279324)

because you don't need to sell devices to customers who use them. you need to sell devices to so called journalists. they have no idea what they're writing about, but to make up for this, they agreed on judging products by certain buzzwords they find on the box. these buzzwords change over time, but for now, we have to live with the fact that one of these buzzwords is "touchscreen". (another one is "intuitive". nobody knows what it actually means in regard to an electronic device, but it has to be printed on the box.)

not just touchscreen, thats been around for a while, the current one is capacitive touchscreen...

i fear both the bloggers/journalists and us here on the fan forum is somewhat distant from the joe customer (if such a being exist).

thing is, it seems its easier to make a device with a narrow set of functions, and have the customer adapt his use pattern, then it is to make a open device where anything can be done, in theory.

hell, one can even have the developers adapt, by requiring that they use tools and libs that only expose a set collection of features and abilities. no touching the hardware or os directly...

Re: Kate Alhola's Maemo Presentation

Quote:

Originally Posted by daperl (Post 279337)

That's great, but I didn't ask about software. I asked 3 hardware questions.

And this is why ragnar said

Quote:

Sorry, I cannot discuss exact details about future products. Product announcements are done the official way.

Re: Kate Alhola's Maemo Presentation

Quote:

Originally Posted by ragnar (Post 279331)

Well. It's the sum of the total device, of course. The touch screen technology, the physical screen itself (material etc.), and the hardware and software that interprets the signals from the touch screen (the quality of the original signal, how the drivers possibly filter the signal to get something more reasonable etc.).

Out of the mobile devices that are publicly available that I've tried (and I've tried many, for understandable reasons), the latest Apple iPhone for me provides the most comfortable total touch screen user experience, and by some considerable margin. The capacitive screen isn't of course the only piece of the question, but it is an important part nonetheless.

Believe me, I really tried hard, but I cannot disagree on that. ;)

If you set up yourself according to the needs of the hardware (=your fingertips aren't covered), it's by far the best experience as far as the touch screen is concerned. It imposes restrictions, though, on the software. Applications have to adapt to the finger-based UI. Apart from Apple's business modell around all of their products, that's what keeps me from actually using such a thing. (That and their keyboard. Man, I really hate the N800's thumb keyboard, but I'm unable to type even a text message on the Apple VKB...) - I'm not interested in software that's so much restricted by physical UI limitations.

Re: Kate Alhola's Maemo Presentation

Quote:

Originally Posted by qgil (Post 279342)

And this is why ragnar said

No big deal, but you're reading out of context.

Re: Kate Alhola's Maemo Presentation

Quote:

Originally Posted by daperl (Post 279358)

No big deal, but you're reading out of context.

Maybe. I basically see that you are asking Nokia to disclose details about future products (aka hardware) in this thread, and you have two Nokia employees telling you that this won't happen here but in official announcements.

Re: Kate Alhola's Maemo Presentation

@qgil

Sorry, I'll try not to be rude by explaining myself better.

Here are some things I'm assuming based on the presentation, Maemo 5 Alpha SDK's,* and forum/IRC rumors:

Fremantle will not have a stylus keyboard
RX-51 will be OMAP3 based and have a resistive touchscreen that is at least 800x480
Fremantle will have a compositing window manager

If all those things are correct, it will be very likey that some form of optionally semi-transparent stylus keyboard could be integrated into the platform. Then this would lead to details about such a keyboard and if it could be ready for product launch. To be fair, I haven't looked that deeply into the Alpha SDK's. But you can bet your a*s I'll be all over the Beta.

If there will be no resistive screen, I can turn my thoughts elsewhere.

I don't think it's too much to ask to know this simple little thing in advance. I actually can, and sometimes do, plan ahead.

*EDIT:

Quote:

Originally Posted by qgil (Post 279361)

Well, there I have it.

Re: Kate Alhola's Maemo Presentation

Watching Kate's presentation, I kept wondering,

What is a compositing window manager?

Re: Kate Alhola's Maemo Presentation

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bundyo (Post 279371)

Compiz for example.

Sounds like practically everything is a compositing window manager these days, from my ignorant reading of the Wikipedia article. Isn't the current Maemo a compositing window manager, too?