Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

I'm here in Copenhagen, DK at the the Maemo/Mozilla Danish weekend ( http://wiki.maemo.org/Mozilla_Maemo_Danish_Weekend ). It's been great to get together with some of the other Maemo/Mer people and talk face to face, but that's a story for another post.

Yesterday, Nokia actually brought out ten of the devices that the Nokia developers are using to test Maemo 5 on. They were in big black plastic cases and obviously weren't production hardware, so don't get all excited about what this means in terms of the RX-51 or even the RX-71. What I was told is that the machine was designed to have all of the features that might possibly be on any future Maemo device. It was a rather hectic weekend and I only got to play with the device briefly, so, keep that in mind as I'm describing this thing.

The basic form factor is a touchscreen device with a sliding keyboard. The main features worth talking about:

-a very accurate touchscreen. It seems to be much more sensitive than the N800/N810 and it is resistive. There was a stylus/stylus slot in the side of the device. I got to see someone demo a drawing app, and the line tracking the cursor was totally smooth and instantaneous.

-The keys on the keyboard were a little smaller than the N810 but were easier to type on. Somehow they seemed a little bit easier to push, but at the same time more "clicky."

-The LCD was very bright and clear, and I had no problem reading on it. I was later told that the screen is 3.5" but I wouldn't have guessed without someone telling me.

-I believe it had a 500MHz ARMv7 CPU and 256MB of RAM

-In terms of software they were running the code from the Beta SDK. The new X terminal can switch modes between hilighting text and kinetic scrolling. It was very nice to use.

-I got a chance to play with fennec on the device a little bit: Even when loading heavy sites it was responsive and fast. It loads engadget.com many times faster than fennec on the N810 I had sitting next to it on the same WiFi network.

They wouldn't let anyone take a photo of it (ha! imagine that) so you'll just have to trust me. Also, keep in mind, this is a device used for testing development builds of Maemo 5. It is not now or ever will be a shipping device, however the features of this device do obviously represent technologies that Nokia is interested in.

I am willing to answer a couple more questions as long as people keep their heads about them and don't overreact. If this thread gets out of hand with flames or usless comments I don't think there will be any more info forthcoming about the device.

-John

Updates: I thought I would repost my answers from later in the thread in this first post to make it easy for people finding this later.

(People were asking about whether there were any new features that I saw on the development device.)

"The software running on it was basically a slightly newer version of the beta SDK. So there's nothing new compared to what you can already play with."

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Thanks for this post John. This is pretty much what I would have written. :-)

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

So if someone would have asked you about the screen size before you were told it was 3.5", what would you have said? That it was the same as the previous tablets? That you noticed it wasn't quite the same but didn't realize it was that small? That you were so enthralled with playing with the device that you weren't really paying attention to screen size?

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

If I'd had to guess before someone told me I probably would have said it felt like 4" or so. If someone told me that it was actually the same size I probably would have believed them.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Heh. 654 posts about how a 3.5" screen would be "too small" and a "dealbreaker", and in use, you didn't notice it was smaller.

Thanks for the wonderful report, Johnx.

(Is nobody going to ask about the d-pad? ;) )

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Thanks, Johnx.

Do you know if the leaked device that we saw and discussed in the "N900 specs revealed" thread is, in fact, called the N900 or is there another device slated for that name/ product line, (meaning tablet form)? I realize you may have no way of knowing since you were handling an experimental (or at least non-production) model, but we don't know a thing about that leaked device vis. the tablet line.

And, since qole mentioned the d-pad, and given that,

how was the d-pad (or lack thereof) handled?

Thanks,

Joe.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

JustJoe: So far, the device that was revealed is going to be the n900, but it's a phone, not a tablet.

To the OP: Thanks for the link, but I want to see the actual development device! :P :D

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

John, thanks for the report! Also, many thanks for the posting guidelines, hopefully they are effective! Did you see anything related to the phone/dialing features, for instance a soft-dialpad? Anything related to the innovative task switcher supposedly on Maemo 5?

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Sort like on the E71 ? How many rows of keys ? Was there a TAB key ?...:-)

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

quote JOHNX -I believe it had a 500MHz ARMv7 CPU and 256MB of RAM

what processor is this compared to the N810? and the ram size is it the same size with the current?
is there a time frame for the release of the first devices?

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

As mentioned previously, it's an OMAP3430 (that should be running at 600MHz in the production model). The N810 has an OMAP2420 and 128MB of RAM.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Maybe it will be downclocked ;) Again.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Potentially, but apparently the dev unit is basically a Beagle Board in a case. The Beagle is currently running at 500MHz (and using an OMAP3530), but TI lists the OMAP3430 at 600MHz (and the Archos 5 is running at that).

Really, though, there'd be little advantage to underclocking (and potentially a bit of disadvantage) with race-to-idle and all that. Fremantle's powersaving features are quite a bit more advanced than even Diablo's.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Any feedback related to the UI and taskswitcher magic we have been hearing about?

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

I also want to know about the UI. Do icons and task switching take up room on that 3.5 inch screen?

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

(posting from my n800 in a youth hostel so this will have to be quick)

The software running on it was basically a slightly newer version of the beta SDK. So there's nothing new compared to what you can already play with. I'll post more later.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Were there any hints that that the spatial HW support includes an electronic compass ?

Maybe a heavily modded one, if it really is a feature superset, it'd need to have GPS, accelerometers, the camera, etc. Also, it seems the 'real' BeagleBoard has some issues with the currently distributed beta...

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Hmm.. Much less chatter than normal. I think everyone here is behaving in hopes that JohnX spills more dirt...


YARR!
}:^)~
Capt'nX

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Right, take that metaphorically - it's a developer board. If you were a company and you want to test your software, you'll have development devices that has HW features your software needs and can optionally use.

Hence, it's a 'beagleboard' (the OMAP3 board), with a touchscreen, keyboard and other things. But they are not the intended devices the software might run on eventually which may or may not have a specific subset of the hardware features.

But hell, even with a subset of these, I'd be happy with even a development device with the funny looking shell, just to have a hackable device with those components I can try my applications on before the actual devices are out.

Maybe it's worth considering in the future. If it is somewhat known what type of HW a OS would support, developers outside Nokia could easily use half-baked devices like these (apologies to the designers of them) to test things on and be ready for actual device launches. The devices being "Maemo Hacker Devices". They would be even more useful than Beagleboards as you don't have to get a touchscreen, keyboard, etc separately.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Yeah. I was pretty surprised too. I didn't really mean that people shouldn't comment or discuss, I just wanted to head off flames, arguments, negativity, and "me too" posts. Or maybe everyone is totally satisfied now? :)

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

I don't think this is the thread on which you want to post that question!

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

People may just be away from computers having fun. After all, it IS the weekend! :cool:

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

I don't think there's anything new that we haven't already heard before. As Johnx says its running software that we already have seen on hardware that we can look at now (maybe not the touch screen) so that's maybe why there isn't the deluge of questions one may expect for someone who has seen the 'new' device.

What I want to know is who got severely drunk and spilled some juicy beans ;)

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

John, silence is the calm before the storm. Cough up the goods or else... :). This would be a good time for you to get diarrhea of the fingers.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Well if they have a 3.5" screen on such a device i seriously dont expect any tablet size devices from nokia. I think people have started understanding and digesting the fact that nokia is going towards maemo phones and leaving the tablets. That is why there has been more interest in the competitors like the moses smart Q and the mer platform.
I hardly think anyone is satisfied. The disappointment has sunk in and we have started to move on.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

John, can you say the internet browsing experience on the tablet was fast as is like on a laptop/netbook, and what about flash heavy web sites or java embedded pages, did they load, if they did the page was still accessible ?

I know you probably didn't get much time to play around with it that much, but if you get a second chance, test the browser further.
Thanks

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Here's a question that is sigting on my mind a bit: did any of the devices have a form factor that do not look like currently announed or selling Nokia mobile devices? This is just a yes or no question; I'm quite aware that more that that is too much.

Another question (if you want to get playful): you speak of not even noticng the screen size, which is obviously a shot towards recent comments. Can you go into some of the unique things that you noticed such as the polish of the UI or even if the software felt better tied to the hardware as you sed those devices?

Lastly; did any devices have more than one camera?

I've got an inkling on things. A small one. But I've got thoughts and Nokia just might have tipped their hand some.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

As was mentioned in the first post, these devices were only running a slightly newer release of the beta SDK—which does not include MicroB.

From what I hear, however, Fennec runs quite smoothly.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

So, is it an actual beagleboard? If so, that brings to mind questions like "how hard will it be to run Maemo5 on an Always Innovating Touchbook?" ... sure, you have to find out what the resolution issues might be, but, that was one of my first questions when I first saw that.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

I know it isn't the same, but there is a photo of some developers working on beagle boards (as well as some other unidentified hardware) at the hackfest... There may be some interesting details in this picture.

EDIT: Sorry if I suggested that the picture below is of the prototype devices. I didn't believe that. But what is that thing in the middle, behind the laptop, facing away?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2454/...354db6c272.jpg

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

These are the toys of Till (OSM2Go) and Kees (pictured, Council member). Nothing to do with the Fremantle developer units brought by Nokia to help Danish Weekend developers get their software in better shape.

The picture is mine and I wasthe one asking people not to take pictures. The only reason for that was to avoid those pictures flying through the blogosphere out of context and being finally sentenced as the NEXT MAEMO DEVICE LEAKED BLA BLU BLI. The evnt had free entrance and the room where the units could be used had an open door as well. All what developers had to do to use the units was to put the name on a piece of paper (white paper just for the record, not any NDA).

This is quite unprecedented but we thought the Maemo and Mozilla communities are trustable and worth experimenting with. About why not using them more widely, one of the reasons is that they are quite expensive to produce and they are primarily targeted to the developers paid full time to have the software ready, better yesterday than next week. I'm happy we could borrow them for the weekend.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

I second this query.

Thanks

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Well, there are also voltages and thermal management to consider, plus whatever peculiarities the OMAP3 DSP clock brings into the equation this time.

Speaking of power management, Igor had previously hinted at some sort of power monitor - was there any mention of that? The Symbian folks have had that for a while now...

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

So how about my questions about the keyboard ? :-)

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Honestly don't remember how many rows :(

I think it was 4 - it was laid out as a straight grid though.
There were 2 shifted symbols per key, green and purple and these were used eg for \ and / pretty clear too.:)

There was a soft tab key on the screen that was pretty easy to use in the shell - clearly the symbol set wasn't designed with code hacking in mind.

Gossip over the weekend said that different locales would have different symbols on the screen - and not all would support 'arrows' - US developers beware!

The keys were nice to use and I found I could type quite quickly on them (and I'm an N800 owner who doesn't use tiny keyboards so not experienced with them). Overall they fit very well into the 'engineered' feel. :D

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

@qole.... I can assure you that nothing in that picture looks remotely like what we were given .... 'our' devices were (in my opinion) very close to things that could actually be sold.

Looking closely you could see a shiny smooth finish underneath - hardly any loose wires ;)

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

And we trusted you too... no-one turned over the flip-chart to see what it said on the back :eek:

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

To be clear: there were essentially no restrictions on what we say.

Pretty much just "if you take photos or go around saying that you saw the finished article then we won't do this again".

So anything *anyone* from the weekend says is about the prototypes; and to my mind there's no point in producing a prototype if you're not going to use it to fine tune the finished product. So there *will* be changes.... and they may be significant.

There are clearly things that were not shown... like the task switcher.

There was only one device...shown.
Did it not look like something else... err .... sorry.
I don't know the nokia range well enough.

Same here... and OK...

:cool:
see my next post

Err, no :)
Make no mistake .... they tipped their hand a *lot*
It's called marketing :)

But more importantly for us it is also called being incredibly open.

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

I have a question for anyone who played with those devices on the weekend.

Was there any feedback process (formal or informal) on either the hardware or the software back to Nokia/Maemo. And if so, can you give us a glimpse into what feedback was given?

Re: Some hands on time with Nokia's Maemo 5 Development Device
 

Let me explain the very basic and quite logical principles of this experiment:

If we can bring developer units to a developer event in order to allow developers to understand better new Maemo releases and test their software in better conditions... Great. If as a side effect those fortunate developers can bring some feedback to the community about certain hot and apparently troublesome topics... Well, fine.

Following this path we can improve our developer channel and, indirectly, our community channel.

If by doing so though these developers start being inquired about consumer relevant details, or they plainly start speculating about future products, pictures or 'photographic descriptions' start circulating, the IT blogs capture some of that, the buzz increases and the gadget noise-makers convert a developer exercise in some kind of 'leak' or 'soft launch' damaging the real marketing activities of whatever future products.... Then the owners of those developer units won't give again a permission for such experiment (and to start with we wouldn't even request it since we work hard for the success of our products and we wouldn't risk again).

As a community member and as a Maemo user I understand other community members and users have many questions. The answers you are looking for are not in these developer units nor have been shared with the participants of this developer event.