Re: Big-time Rant of the N800
 

OK... my $.02:

The *biggest* problem I've seen with the platform has been Nokia's strategy to try to provide everything without refining first. That would be the crux of why they themselves say it's not a consumer product yet, because many things are partially-implemented and many things require community solutions to complement what Nokia provides (e.g., a camera that only works with tablet-to-tablet calls). That's very different than if Nokia didn't provide these partially-implemented features at all, BTW, because it perpetuates a feeling of brokenness and incompleteness that wouldn't be there if Nokia had focused on a few, key applications and had slowly rolled in extra functionality later. Every point of incompleteness becomes what Henry Dreyfuss would call a "point of friction" where the experience is bad -- and since people remember bad experiences more than good ones (scientifically proven!), you end up with an unsatisfying product. [In case you don't recognize the argument, this is Apple's approach -- don't implement unless it's complete -- and it's been ridiculously successful in the last decade.]

The prime example: I don't complain about it being a bad PDA because there are no PIM apps. There's a philosophy that if I want those features, I use a web service, I install 3rd party software, or I buy something else. Done. And I'm cool with that.

Every time I find something exciting with it (e.g., reading reviews from Pitchfork and then downloading tracks from eMusic directly to the device) I face extremely basic features missing (e.g., no album art, files sorted out of order, song titles jumbled) that other devices have had solved for years. It makes the tablet the most extreme love/hate relationship I've ever had with a gadget. It's the saying "jack of all trades, master of none" made corporeal.

But seeing the course this device has held since the 770 (which I've also owned; e.g., that damn RSS reader) up until this OS2008 release, I don't have the confidence that Nokia is going to be able to take this where it needs to be anymore. It's still the best for what it is right now, which sadly says more about how others are failing than how Nokia is succeeding, and what it's really doing is making me extremely hungry to jump ship the moment a proper competitor appears.

It's not unsolvable, but 2008 *is* going to be the year of the MID, and they are going to be up in their armpits with direct competitors (e.g., the mylo 2 has touch/Skype/Flash for YouTube/etc.). I would certainly like Nokia & Maemo to survive it.

P.S. I too have the SD unmount problem, and it's something that never happened in OS2007 but did appear after flashing-without-restore.

Re: Big-time Rant of the N800
 

It would be better if portrait mode was doen at the os-level, instead of each application duplicating that.

Re: Big-time Rant of the N800
 

On the whole portrait thing.

I think it is important that Portrait mode be introduced at OS level. That way, it will more naturally get integrated into new/new version apps rather than simply being a nice to have.

As a very general rule I think I read somewhere, users tend to gain mostly from portrait for read only and landscape for edit.

Now with the N8xx having a 480 wide screen, Portrait really would be a grat addition.

Still not used the command prompt for anything (other than to see it's there) and still loving the N810 experiance (warts and all).

Zuber

Re: Big-time Rant of the N800
 

Fyi, with Gizmo (which is pre-installed in OS2008, or at least shows up by default in the menus) you can easily make PC-to-Tablet (and vice versa) video calls.

Here's my demo video: http://www.tablet-guru.com/2007/11/g...video-calling/

And I did it routinely when I was in Amsterdam last month for Nokia World.

Just helping you get the most out of your tablet.

Re: Big-time Rant of the N800
 

There are 2 basic approaches to experimentation:

1) Construct a hypothesis based on an observation, gather data, design an experiment incorporating all likely contributers and then start testing.

2) Follow up a random brain fart with chaotic flinging of related items to the wall and see what sticks.

Then there's #3, which is a hybrid: start with #1 and, thanks to serendipity, jump tracks to #2.

The first approach is that employed by most experimenters. The second is that employed by artists and mad scientists. :D

The third leads to quantum leaps like Post-It notes.

Nokia is known for religiously sticking to #1 in product development. However, it appears that while this is true hardware-wise for the tablets, software is following option 2 with occasional strikes of #3.

This needs to be better defined. IMO the best approach for a novel product like the tablets is use #1 as much as possible BUT allocate, say, 10% to 20% of your effort to #2. If option 2 efforts don't pan out or show promise quickly, kill them, absorb the lessons learned, and move on. Such efforts should always be tangential to the main effort, ie, #1 activity.

I *think* the project is close to achieving that. It just took many trials and missteps (many expected in fact) to get here. I feel confident that for the most part the effort has found its way, and I believe the N810 proves it. For those who can afford to be patient and persistent, there will definitely be rewarding experiences along with the frustration of being early adopters. For those who can't resist the allure of competitor products, you will be missed, but you're still validating the concept. ;)

Re: Big-time Rant of the N800
 

Yes, you actually picked one I read daily. Generally using their RSS feeds to pick through articles though.

It sounds like your Palm might not be rendering the page width as a real browser (like Firefox, IE, etc) would. In portrait mode with a screen width of 320px or 480px, that center colum would squish down to be incrediably skinny. You simply wouldn't be able to "adjust it sideways until you have the articles screen filling the whole screen" if the browser was honoring that screen width when rendering. (That is unless Slashdot (specifically) just happed to have an article column width that came out to be 320px after a full crushing, which I guess is possible.) Either way, you can do something similar currenly:

http://www.pixelographer.com/slashdot.png

The point was that the central column on Slashdot is a variable width div, which proper broswers will crush down width-wise until Slashdot's forced minimum page width is reached. Go ahead, give it a shot in Firefox. Change your browser width to 480px and take a look at that central column. I think you'll get the idea. For most variable width sites like this, portrait mode won't help without additional browser options.

The type of behaviour you desire would only happen if you were in portrait mode and the browser was rendering pages with a viewport width larger then the actual screen width. Perhaps that's what your Palm is doing. Either that or slashdot just happens to crush down to the width you like on your Palm.

The point is portrait mode itself isn't some holy grail for page viewing, it takes more thought and optimization then that to make it useful for most sites. Sure I'd take the option (mainly for other apps) along with pretty much any enhancement, but I'd much rather see Nokia working on other items.

Re: Big-time Rant of the N800
 

if your sd cards disappear for no reason you may have a defective sd card or n800. you should change sd cards and if the problem persists you should return/exchange the n800.

all my n800 problems are software related.

Re: Big-time Rant of the N800
 

For me looks like someone in Nokia skipped extensive tests etap giving away "beta edition".

I am plagued with hardware/software problems: power enigma, decalibrating screen, remounting SD to ro mode.

Some thoughts after using N800+OS2007 for one month:

- one column menus should go away. scrolling menu is awkward in both modes: stylus and finger
- give option for interface: a) it should always behave as touched with stylus, b) as above but with finger, c) guess. The most infuriating thing about current behaviour (c in proposition) is that I never know which menu/keybord will pop up.

Give FM radio back! I remember from discussion several months ago on Slashdot about media-players. Devices targeted to USA are without FM radio because of Clear Channel domination thereee and total crap on airwaves there. But in Europe and other places FM radio still can give something interesting. Listening to my favorite stations on FM radio is my third option (after web-surfing and book-reading). Wi-Fi will never be popular enough to replace airwaves. Also listening to internet radio is burning battery like wildfire.

IMO with N810 Nokia hit formfactor perfectly. My N800 is just 1cm too big and this bump for camera/stylus is awkward. It's a pity big speakers had to go - during Christmas I saved the day with N800 because it played carols so much better then crappy laptop.

I *am* angry because some Nokia decisions/deeds were incredibly stupid - even suicidal. How many new users were disappointed with OS2008 Christmas debacle? How many don't even touch *any* Nokia product in future? But N8x0, and probably "N900" is just a stage. Exxx now is just investment for future. In two years it should be possible to buy really polished device. And it is highly possible it won't even be Nokia.

Re: Big-time Rant of the N800
 

I think the point of portrait mode is to gain vertical size when column width is less important. I occasionally use portrait mode in Xpdf, and while I can't see myself using it too often in the browser, I'd love to have the option!

Options are great :)

The X server has a -screen option which let's us specify rotation, I wonder if some kind of hackish workaround could make it possible to gain portrait mode in all applications without any serious modification.

Re: Big-time Rant of the N800
 

OS2008 on the N800:

1. FM radio is there, used it yesterday
2. Unfortunately, they DID choose a consistent option for the interface. The menus are always finger-friendly, but touching the screen gives you the stylus keyboard, while you can now press the center on the d-pad to get the finger-board. Bass ackwards, I know.