Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

It *could* be true, but there's really no way of officially verifying the information, so I wouldn't hold your breath!

Of course, having the option to go cellular with this device would completely devastate practically all other hand-held devices out there; one device that can do it all, rather than a bag full of gadgets.

Lets hope that it has some form of mobile internet technology built in!


I'm also interested in the button on the side. Does the patent state that it is indeed a dpad? If this is the case, the unit would have to be quite thick to be usable. A scroll wheel, or up down arrows would probably be nicer in that space.

I like it to. To be honest, I think the fewer moving parts, the better, but the increase in functionality of this camera arrangement over the current tablet outweighs the extra moving part (IMO). I hope it has some type of lock mechanism, as it would be annoying if the camera rotated when you were trying to hold the tablet. Pulling out to rotate it would be acceptable, or better yet, a release button.

It's a patent drawing (think sketch) so it's not a correct representation of the final device. It's a drawing designed to illustrate the working components of the invention.

I agree with you. I think it's a novel approach. My only hope is that it's sturdy given all of the moving parts and easy to keep clean! I wouldn't like it if I heard the crunching of sand every time I closed my tablet!


}:^)~
YARR!

Capt'n Corrupt

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Why is this thread on Page 19, when threads talking about the n810 which came out last Saturday are neglected. Isn't everyone's best interest being served in figuring out how to best use the n810 and improve it right now.

That being said: USB charging, and 2 card slots again.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Exactly! The ITT should leave out the power-hungry and proprietary cell modem and use BT to talk to whatever phone you have. Especially in the US where cell providers routinely cripple and lock down devices; I don't want my n900 (or whatever) to stop working if I cancel my plan with Sprint.

Re: Buttons vs. a screen that occupies the entire front of the device (ala iPhone)
Please don't get rid of the buttons on the face of the ITT. The iPhone is terribly handicapped by this choice and hack after hack is appearing, trying to get around the fact that there are no hardware buttons to use for input. It just isn't worth the compromise; I'd rather see the entire device get bigger than lose the buttons, and I believe we could use some buttons on the right side of the screen as well to allow shortcuts to applications. I really miss that from the Palm days where you could instantly jump to the core applications using those magic four buttons, and they were great for input in other apps.
I vote strongly in favor of a side-mounted scroll wheel too; there really is no other answer for quickly paging through sites and books without getting out the stylus to drag around instead (bleh!).

Larry

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Why are they being neglected? That's an easy one - all the power users who were accepted into the device programme haven't got N810s yet. Anyone outside the US, hasn't got an N810 yet.

Nokia's announcement that sales have started in the US, isn't particularly joined up with the device programme; and lots of people around the world are still twiddling your thumbs.

You N810-owners will have to be as (im)patient as us not-yet-N810-owners ;-)

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Because we're all technophiles, and technophiles like to brainstorm about better and better techie-toys. It doesn't matter what thing is out NOW, we're still going to want to throw in an idea here or there about what would be better.

It is entirely independent of why the n810 threads are or aren't being as heavily monitored. Even if they were in high gear, this thread (which has been out a LOT longer than just last saturday) would still be on page 19.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

I saw that too. I wonder if that's a reference to the WiMAX version. Maybe the poster got it wrong (and it wont be a SIM card based device?).

But, if they're generally right, does this mean that the next gen will be usable as a full fledged phone? Or is this just a reference to WiMAX+skype (which, could sort of fulfill the statement).


Part of me likes the specialized tool approach.... it is, after all, the Unix way (do one thing, do it well, integrate with other things that do their job well). In that regard, wifi and bluetooth are good enough for being built into the NIT. We don't really need WiMAX, GSM, nor CDMA WWAN versions of the NIT. And staying with wifi&bt, the WWAN functionality is modular.

On the otherhand, there is something to be said about integration. Why carry 3 devices (NIT, Phone, bluetooth HD)? That's a little inconvenient.


That said, I don't really mind one way or the other if the NIT gets a WWAN radio. As long as it keeps bluetooth DUN, some reasonably current Wifi support, adds bluetooth PAN, doesn't _require_ me to pay for a WWAN service, and they don't undermine the battery life. In fact, my only "stomp my foot" with regard to adding WWAN to the NIT is: add bluetooth PAN first. The lack of bluetooth PAN is, IMO, a huge hole in this device.

After they add bluetooth PAN, they can add whatever WWAN capability they want to.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

This is a very interesting analogy that I hadn't made before. Of course, unix commands weigh in at a few kilobytes and are tiny in comparison to the overall operating system. To compare a unix command to a mobile device, the unix command would likely be the size of a MicroSD card. In this case, integration would be a no-brainer: you could simply tape them to the device, slot them into the device, or carry them in your wallet, and presto, you have custom functionality.

But mobile devices are far bigger in comparison than unix command. They're harder to integrate, take up more space, must all be individually charged, just all be switched on, etc.

This is why I prefer convergence (at this stage) with hardware. I'd rather have one device that does a lot, than many smaller devices that do one thing well. I would rather have a phone, a point-and-shoot camera, a mobile media player, a GPS, and a laptop in one device than having to juggle five. Its smaller, lighter, and far easier.

Just to be clear: I'm not advocating cellular integration into the N900. I'm personally indifferent about this option. However, I would love the ability to surf/talk/IM in the park, or on the beach with my tablet and without another device.

Of course, wi-fi should NOT be removed. I believe if Nokia goes WiMAX, upcoming WiMAX radios are backwardly compatible with Wi-Fi radios. In fact, this should be true regardless of the upgrade.

Oh, and WWAN sounds so much better than 'mobile internet' :D



}:^)~
YARR!

Capt'n Corrupt

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Compact Flash cards were supposed to give us that ability. They had cameras, wifi cards, GSM data cards. And, they're electronically identical to a PCMCIA card, so functionality wise, anything you can do with PCMCIA (WiMAX, express cards via caddy, SD cards via caddy, etc.) you can, in theory, do with a CF card.

But, their popularity has waned. Too big, really, for putting in a cell phone ... and standalone PDAs are being replaced in the market by smartphone-PDAs. Though, a CF card slot on the back of a Nokia tablet, which blended right in, and allowed you to choose between Nokia manufactured camera, Wifi, WiMAX, GSM/EDGE/HSDPA/HSUPA, and CDMA/EVDO* cards would be rather nice. Then you can pick whichever one suits your personal taste/needs. (and the only one I would say HAS to be on the base integration is the bluetooth radio)

(* ok, nokia says they're out of the CDMA business, so maybe they just provide drivers for a known CDMA CF card vendor)

And there IS still a niche market for CF cards (someone made some industrial sensor cards for detecting chemicals, temperature, etc... sort of like a tri-corder on a library of CF cards) ... with the right drivers, Nokia could capture that market, as well (because the other cf card hosts are vanishing from the market).

I don't expect to see it happen, though. I think CF cards really are going to go the way of the Dodo.

I did recently see that someone made a wifi card that goes into a SD card slot. So, an SD card slot that has the functionality diversity of CF and PCMCIA cards (cameras (sony had one on a memory stick, so why not?), wifi, gsm, cdma, etc.) would be nice.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

I bought an SDIO wi-fi card for my Palm nearly 3 years ago, and they were available for PPC (the old pre-winmob PDAs) before that. SDIO never took off though, probably because it turned out too difficult to support compared to the physically larger CF. There were only ever a couple of types and very few makers of SDIO cards, unlike CF I/O cards where there were probably half a dozen types or more, and lots of makers.

Re: What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?
 

Interestingly enough, they're making WiFi Micro SD cards now.

This is semi good news. If they can fit a WiFi radio in a microSD, who's to say that they can't fit a GSM or WiMAX radio? Of course, because the current N810 has only one slot, and assuming that it can accept these MicroSD expansions, you would have to momentarily forgo your files to get access.

Here's to hoping that the N900 has at least two expansion slots ala the N800: full SD, if possible, or at the very least two Micro SD. If the trend remains the same, mini SD is not going very far, and the extra space would be gladly traded for an additional MicroSD slot.

In any case, I'm quite pleased with the direction the Tablet's are going. They just need a *little* bit more to be the ultimate handheld devices.


}:^)~
YARR!

Capt'n Corrupt