Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

Around the same time as the N900, looks like. I think that keypad is pretty thin and won't have good tactile response, but who knows? For a smartphone, it'll do well, but it has no business competing with a portable desktop device (Thanks for the designation, Wired.com). Two different genres.

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

Just for some more thoughts about Android and what it represents, this is a pretty amazing video of Lee Williams, the head of the Symbian Foundation, commenting on Google and it's strategy:

http://gigaom.com/2009/10/23/symbian...ogles-android/

It's pretty funny when he says, "Come on, when you have to say in your motto that, 'We're not evil,' right away the first question in my mind is, why do you have to tell me that?"

But anyway, he has a lot of much more substantive things to say that are pretty interesting, including discussing why Android is not as open of a platform as Google claims it is.

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

If you haven't seen it yet, here's one thing Android (Droid) will excel at:
http://www.google.com/mobile/navigation/#p=default

The announcement made Garmin and Tomtom's stocks drop today by 17% and 20% respectively.

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

Can I have some of what you're smoking? Or are you saying that Google is competitive? If i recall right, all Google products are about to lock out the competition... :(

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

Garmin and TomTom's gravy days are over. The Nuviphone won't save Garmin like they're hoping. It's a so-so design with yet another proprietary Linux-based OS. Too bad, 'cause Garmin is based here in Kansas City so soon some locals may loose jobs. Lotsa luck to 'em.

But the major flaw in Google Maps is no maps are stored on the phone so they don't work without a 'net connection. One of the things that will be great about the N900 is even when I'm way out in the sticks with no signal (which happens a lot) the GPS and maps will still work 'cause I can download and store map data on the phone. With my G1 I'm just still lost.

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

In what way do Google's products lock out the competition? I sync my N810 calendar with Google's because Google developed open APIs. There is an effort at Google to make all data that they store easily retrievable in open formats:

http://dataliberation.blogspot.com/2...ion-front.html

There may be many reasons to dislike Google but this is not one of them. Google dominates the competition, it doesn't lock it out.

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

This has been partially addressed in the version of GMaps shipping with Android 2.0. If you "get directions" the phone caches the maps necessary for your route, so that if you lose connection, you're still good. Does OVI Maps do something similar? (I'm not trolling! I really don't know). There also seems to be another level of integration with peripherals; mentioned was putting the Droid in a car "dock" automatically activates GPS mode, with larger icons, presumably to allow the driver to see (something that he's not supposed to be doing while he's driving anyways). Does anyone know of a desktop dock for the n900? Charging, USB syncing, TV-out, Audio out, anything out or in? And last question for the community mavens, any word on implementation of Project noBounds?

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

The new Google navigator is definitely a differentiate app. Real time traffic + google street view, simply sweet. More importantly, it can not be emulated by another company any time soon. If Apple is smart, they would not block this app from iphone. Unfortunately, it leaves the N900 in the cold. I don't see the app comes to maemo any time soon. Not to mention Java doesn't even work on maemo 5 yet. I would have a very hard to buying N900 over Droid now, especially since Droid will work in Canada and will likely be heavily subsidized.

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

Android is pretty cool. Really good there is more competition as I'm getting sick of the iPhone (iDont) hype.

Maemo though is a different thing altogether - its an animal !!. Strictly for big boys.

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

If your going include third party apps for Android then you should also include the possibility of third party apps on Maemo that do the same thing.

As for the GPS thing, I think TomTom has seen this coming for a while, that's what they're no longer banking on selling hardware but instead maps and navigation for phones. But even that may not be enough to stop Google.