Re: Dr. Ari Jaaksi on Maemo 5
 

Well, they told us straight out that the beta SDK won't be released until March 2009. Would they really release a new piece of hardware at the same time as the beta SDK?

Re: Dr. Ari Jaaksi on Maemo 5
 

He was there. I watched him give his part of a presentation. I believe you were sitting in on the multimedia presentation at the time.

Re: Dr. Ari Jaaksi on Maemo 5
 

You're kidding. Oh well. He didn't have any hardware to show, did he?

And I might have been in the front room chatting with developers, too. It seemed like there was someone there who could answer any of my questions. Not all the same person, of course. But wow.

Off topic a bit here, but...

It was fun to be at c-base, and look at my link-local list of contacts and see the name "rob taylor" show up. "Please wave your hand," I type, and this guy at a nearby table looks around and starts waving. I'm surprised, of course, because he's using an IBM laptop, not the usual Mac laptop that most link local users have. "How come you're on link local?" I ask, and he says, "Oh I'm the guy behind the telepathy suite; I'm running Empathy on my laptop."

I hope the collabora guys get Bonjour / link-local fixed for Diablo. It is very cool.

Re: Dr. Ari Jaaksi on Maemo 5
 

Resistive, "normal" touchscreen only; this senses pressure (actually closer to force).

I have an HP tx2000; it has a dual-tech screen with a resistive touchscreen (fingers and plain stylii) and a Wacom digitizer with a passive (but special) stylus. The stylus takes no batteries, but distinguishes tip vs. eraser, has pressure sensitivity, a side button, and moves the cursor around when hovering up to ~0.5" over the screen. (Also, when it's within this range, the computer ignores input from the touchscreen, allowing you to rest your hand on the screen while writing. There's no reason I know why a capacitive multi-touch sensor can't be similarly combined with a digitizer, though I'd bet the digitizer uses substantial power.

I'd really like to see such a dual screen in the N9xx, with the digitizer shut down by a switch in the silo.


As for what multi-touch is good for anyway... finger-tracking!

When you're using one finger (or stylus) on the display, touching it with another finger doesn't have to drag the pointer over to the centroid, but can keep it with the present finger. This could also make two-thumb on-screen keyboarding go a lot faster, as you wouldn't have to guarantee you lift before your other thumb hits. To say nothing of Pyano.

Even if you only use one cursor, and no gestures, a good finger-tracking (and switching, when appropriate) algorithm can make a multi-touch display a lot less glitchy. I'd be thrilled to see this much, although gestures and such are cool, too...

Re: Dr. Ari Jaaksi on Maemo 5
 

The problem with "cool" things is you get tired of them very quickly (as other things are becoming "cool"). Better stay with technologies that aren't the cool stuff du jour but will remain useful tomorrow.

Re: Dr. Ari Jaaksi on Maemo 5
 

thats what i see when i see multi-touch, not those demo friendly gestures, but being able to control multiple things on the screen at the same time. or have a shift key in software.

hell, give me bomberman with multi-touch :D

who needs hardware gamepads ;)

Re: Dr. Ari Jaaksi on Maemo 5
 

i cant even do this in my brain, why would i want to do it on a screen? ;)

Re: Dr. Ari Jaaksi on Maemo 5
 

Ah, you poor souls without ADHD. :D

Re: Dr. Ari Jaaksi on Maemo 5
 

This is what I did, isn't it?


The Zaurus was also a new platform (QT). The Zaurus had an adequate browser at the times. Opera and even Netfront worked fairly well. Flash was not a big thing at the time.
I still have a few zauruses (zaurii?). The main problem is that they do not support wpa (I know they can with a different wifi card) or bluetooth (and yes: I have an adapter).

Still: I see the 770 as the only successor to the Zaurus. Sharp tried to bring a linux palmtop to the market, and quickly backed out (I had to import the second one from Japan). Nokia started where they left.


It's my job to read legal stuff and spot the errors and I like being sarcastic. ;)


The masses are losing already. Telcos make their main profits from sms, ringtones and premium services. The telcos are only interested in keeping this situation running. They don't care if 10 linux geeks find a way to run voip as long as the masses keep buying pre-configured branded phones.

You seem to forget that it is a number game. The telcos don't care about anything as long as it is not conveniently packaged in a preconfigured phone. Then they get nasty.

For the future N900, this means that it will not be designed to be a voip over hsdpa only device. Nokia knows how nasty the telcos can be, telcos are their main customers. Of course, it could be that Nokia decides for a frontal attack, but I seriously doubt that. Still: they went for a frontal attack with music sales, so maybe I will be surprised...

Re: Dr. Ari Jaaksi on Maemo 5
 

As I pointed out, the mobile network providers already have taken steps to prevent that from happening.