Re: Symbianites/Symbianation
 

Something I'm shocked no one has mentioned is one handed and portrait orientation operation. Its what makes having such powerful hardware in your pocket at all times useful on the go. Smartphones rule NITs in that respect. The NIT isn't much different than a laptop, since you still have to stop everything and use both hands when on the go. Imagine a spirited SMS conversation while you're walking the dog or feeding the baby...

Re: Symbianites/Symbianation
 

Again about this subject?!?!?! You make it seem as if portrait mode is the holy grail, while landscape mode is useless.

I suggest 2 things:

1) Learn Linux desktop so you'll be easier comfortable with Maemo 5. Its more useful than ranting here. :D
2) Try Nokia Communicator / Nokia E90 for a while so you learn to appreciate the advantages of using landscape mode.

The difference between a laptop in a backpack or a phone (e.g. Nokia E71 or Nokia N900) in pocket is quite huge. These 2 compared to a laptop: laptop much bigger size, laptop much more horsepower (bloated for SMS and such), much more weight, much longer to take out of backpack, cannot walk with it in hands or stand with it in hands. Supposedly, you can walk and SMS with a Nokia E71 while letting out the dog. Well, I can too, but my definition of comfort is different. Meanwhile having such a nice big screen in landscape mode is perfect for remote administration e.g. via SSH.

Re: Symbianites/Symbianation
 

as much as I love maemo and appreciate the new n900, in the small office of about 20 people that I run tech for, we are going to be using e71/e63/e72 and not N900, although I WILL personally have a n900 for sure.

N900 is still an experimental super-toy IMO while e-series has everything needed for work out of the box. Also, there is no t-mobile 3g anywhere near us and t-mobile coverage is far inferior to AT&T in our area anyway.

Re: Symbianites/Symbianation
 

Only in the baby scenario I could see using any device in portrait mode. Heck even with the n800 with rotation enabled so I read RSS feeds in portrait mode it's not that useful. I can't use it when walking outside because I will either bump into someone, walk into an object or the street, or trip due to the uneven pavement here. The only time I would see portrait mode useful would be on the Metro when I'm trying to use it standing up (while holding onto some railing). Not saying portrait mode isn't useful (see my Metro example) but I find the whole use the device in portrait mode while walking kind of exaggerated at times.

@nowave7

"For a lot of things, one still needs to open terminal and do things manually, which is something not acceptable for an ordinary user."

Hmm.. I might be wrong but I don't remember having to open up a terminal to use the n800 as Nokia had intended. Now if I wanted to install applications that developers didn't put in extras or needed to pull a dependency. Or to turn on swap or clone my disk then yes I would need the terminal. But again that's not within what Nokia originally intended the device to do.

You are going to have that problem no matter what Nokia does however. Because the people pushing the device to the limits don't care if you can easily follow them or not. If you want to follow them, then you will learn. If not, then just use the device as Nokia intended. And yes that's not user friendly, but not every developer cares to take out the time to make their installation or port user friendly for people.

But things like the user interface of say the n900 I do agree could be more user friendly.

Re: Symbianites/Symbianation
 

Ask a better question.
what can maemo do that symbian can't?

maemo is based on linux, and has a strong history of openness and collaboration and barn building.

our principle strengths include

we are open by default, it is the norm, not the exception to find open source applications.
we have strong free applications written by members of the thriving community
we can share code with desktop apps - this makes a difference in how development commences
we can ssh in and understand the console and run standard tools and apps
we have the ability to replace anything we don't like and mould this device to our tastes, upto and including replacing the operating system.
our community is large and varied, from app specific stuff like canola or conboy to entire frameworks like qt, we have emulators and games and a whole cosmos of applications built for you.
we are not exclusionary - its entirely possible for a user to have 4 different toolkits on their device for different usage cases and app requirements.
we do tend to listen to feedback.

the platform openness extends to the symbian crowd who have the freedom to create/maintain/discuss apps which do as they like, and whilst they can say a lot in many threads, actions speak louder than words - get stuck in and do some coding.
open up and port your apps and show us how it should be done!

I, for one have been creating my liqbase apps and trying to sculpture my dream, I could not do it in WinMo, I could not do it in iphone, I could not do it in Android, and I certainly could not do it in Symbian.

the whole device has been assembled based in part on the communities goals and wishes - most of the developers of the system have been or still are active as users in the community and the maemo stack uses an impressive array of upstream components.

that some folks now at the final hour hear "nokia phone" and expect it to behave exactly like their existing devices is wrong, we understand its different and we will try to being some of your suggestions on board.

help the community developers - test, suggest, encourage and most importantly donate.
a lot of the guys here do things based on the good will that exists and an awful lot of the great apps which exist here simply would not exist without that.


we are maemo.

Re: Symbianites/Symbianation
 

Its a relevant response to htis thead, especially from a Symbian perspective. 50% of the world's phones can't be wrong. One handed usage and the technologies that enable them can put Maemo in rare air that you may have overlooked.

I'm in the process of doing the first one, and I've had an E90 and every flagship Nseries and Eseries device ever made, not to mention countless midrange models. I appreciate landscape mode, and loved the E90, but didn't the E90 also support portrait and T9. I preferred the E71's one handed usage model much better, and the E90 was left on the wayside. And the E71 went on to be the third best selling Nokia smartphone of all time.

So please don't assume I'm inexperienced in research on these matters. I'm a longtime Nokia/Symbian promoter and S60 Ambassador. And guess what? I just attended an invitation only online conference a few days ago with Jussi Makinen, Maemo Marketing Manager (I think was his title) and several bloggers and media types, and guess what the biggest topic of conversation was? ASR and portrait mode support. So I'm just a prelude of things to come. It WILL be an issue for millions wanting to move from S60 to Maemo. It gets old, but having to use two hands to respond to an SMS does too.

But I guess you're just tired of hearing about it. I can understand that. Just remember it when reviews come out. I'll be one of the first there too.

Re: Symbianites/Symbianation
 

sorry double post. not sure how that happened...

Re: Symbianites/Symbianation
 

i agree with you on this. imagine being at a meeting and your boss talking about the usual crap that doesnt involve a pay increase. having to use 2 hands to use to hands to the message t he girl you met at the club. not exceptable. lol

Re: Symbianites/Symbianation
 

This boils down to personal preference. I would like ASR to be implemented but as a feature you can turn off if you want to. Never liked ASR on phone screen on the N97 expecially when you are about to receive a call and the screen keeps on rotating, wished I could turn it off.

Re: Symbianites/Symbianation
 

If they didn't intend the users to use the terminal, they should have left it out, like Android did, right?
On the other hand, it is true that most users are quite happy with the way things are now, and have no need to do anything with the terminal.