Re: Another N900 Review (übergizmo)
 

Does anyone know if anyone working on this (apologies if i missed the thread)?

Re: Another N900 Review (übergizmo)
 

This is a Flash 10 issue. Flash 9.x can't play the codec used by Hulu. It will be resolved when Adobe finally release it for ARM. As you mentioned, Nokia has no control over this.

I know popping off the back is a bit scary sounding, but the phone handles the removal of the microSD card just fine. I've done it a bunch of times myself. When I'm doing "extreme hacking" I often have to pull the battery to reboot the device :D

The built-in media player can struggle with some video files, because it uses the DSP to get fast playback. You can also install mplayer or VLC to play oddball formats, and a community member has just uploaded an ffmpeg plugin that should let the media player handle all of the oddball stuff, too.

I'm amazed... The device hasn't even been released yet... iPhone just doesn't have this kind of great community support...

EDIT: I can't get Hulu (I don't live in the States) and I was under the impression that it didn't work at all. I see that the article says that it doesn't work very well. So it is an optimisation issue, as you said. I can confirm that videos on ovi.com are not very watchable either.

Re: Another N900 Review (übergizmo)
 

Your right that opening the back isn't so bad, especially after you do it a few times, I still wouldn't want to do it out in the field though.

But my main point it that its very phoneish to hide the microsd card slot like that. :)

The advantage of using normal linux desktop technology.

Re: Another N900 Review (übergizmo)
 

I think people compare them because it has broad market appeal and unless there is a specific phone or network that someone is required to get for work or alike, most people will at least consider an iPhone if they are looking at getting a smartphone at all. Why do you say that they are targetting different markets? Perhaps one could argue that the N900 is essentially a release candidate maemo platform - step 4 of 5 - and thus for developers, but then certainly the N920 or whatever step 5 of 5 is will be reaching for the general smartphone market. Without resorting to calling iPhone users sheep or alike, really, what's different about the market?

Also, "just some apps that are useless"? Again, why are you being so dismissive of these? Yes, there are a lot of fart apps, but even having never owned an iPod, I can think of half a dozen apps off the top of my head that are of value to broad swaths of the market and which I haven't seen on any Maemo devices:

There is a check cashing program for Bank of America - take a picture of the check you want to cash, send it off, and the money is deposited in your account - no need to stop by a branch. There is an Amazon eBook/Kindle reader that can read Amazon's proprietary format. There is strong Google Maps integration. There is a tuning application (for instrument tuning). Nike put out a personal trainer application that chooses music with a beat to match the tempo of a workout, track your progress, and gradually pushes you harder. And yes, there are a lot of fun games.

And that's just looking at apps that have broad appeal - a lot of apps have niche appeal too. I have a friend at med school who said that her school required students to have an iPhone or iPod touch because that was the easiest way that they could get all the reference material.

There are definite problems with the iPhone - it's incredibly closed off and Apple seems to have a "my way or the Highway" attitude about it all that really turns me off. That's why I'm here, that's why I've preordered the N900. But Apple has launched a phone that is very attractive to many people, and when someone mentions it as a benchmark for smartphones or just "hey, this is pretty cool", covering your ears and shouting "NO NO NO NO" isn't really helpful.

Re: Another N900 Review (übergizmo)
 

For those who are choosing between DROID and N900, the same ubergizmo guy does the Droid review in the same style

http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives...id-review.html

his take on battery:

..."With my usage pattern, the Motorola Droid seems to do better than many phones. With a normal use (see context) the battery dies 22hrs to 24hrs down the line, which is better than the iPhone 3GS, the Motorola Cliq and largely better than the Nokia N900. Note that all needed to have the WiFi ON, because 3G reception wasn't great. That might seem to be an unfair advantage to the Droid"....

Re: Another N900 Review (übergizmo)
 

As far as Flash, Hulu is an absolute resource hog. It would be a minor miracle for a "phone" to run it efficiently.

Check Megavideo and other Flash sites. My guess is a lot of Flash video sites work well, but the more resource hungry will not.

Re: Another N900 Review (übergizmo)
 

Another take on battery (referring to the DROID here):


"Other letdowns include its poor battery life (compared to the N900 and the HD2) and its hard-to-type keyboard (Droid's keys are flat and shallow and difficult to muster)."

From a series of articles/shootout thing between HD2/n900/DROID

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/20...oid-four_2.htm

Re: Another N900 Review (übergizmo)
 

I think this is a moot point. Sure, the 3GS may have a better graphics processor than the N900 by a little, but generally all iPhone apps are made to be backwards compatible with the original released a couple of years ago. This will probably hold back developers trying to push higher performance graphics out of the phone due to the fear of reaching a much smaller audience.

Re: Another N900 Review (übergizmo)
 

Also we shouldn't forget the iPhone will appear to perform better (screen wise) in head to head comparisons because it pushes less than half the number of pixels to the screen as compared to it's modern counterparts. So even if the same processors were used it would appear faster.

Re: Another N900 Review (übergizmo)
 

I think the GPU difference is theoretical based on power output to crank the polycount up on the iPhone version. From a practical standpoint, the two GPU's should function very similarly. The offsetting factor would be the screen res. For the iPhone it is probably overkill (due to low res screen) but would actually have helped the N900 out to have the iPhone's GPU.

I suggest the GPU's are reverse of device need. N900 would benefit from the iPhone's GPU due to display, but iPhone is probably not seeing a benefit due to their display.