Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

hello guys,
how many of us,the nokia n900 users feel that maemo 5 has raised the bar
http://maemo.nokia.com/img/maemo-raised-the-bar.png
lets look at the features,claims,my views if it is really the best/unique and the utility it provides for the economic value we put in

1.Panoroma desktop: freedom to personalise and slide smoothly
must agree it really slides smooth but definitely not the first one to provide multiple and customisable desktops. My old windows mobile allowed multiple desktops and customisations(in a different way) at half the cost of this phone
utility of multiple desktops-for mere shortcuts, i dont see the need but for widgets/applets,yes.... now how many widgets do we have,the half cooked calendar,the buggy media player,facebook,weather,ovi,location(didnt know how it helps with the GPS taking ever to lock in).....no portrait mode for the desktop complicates the multiple screen scrolling when used with single hand....some of you may claim,it would be possible but wouldnt risk it for a drop would incurr a $540 loss.......so would rank it poor...........................(to be contd)

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

i think your expectations were very different.

it has some quirks and problems but its a beast no other phone can take on. my brother just recently bought the xperia x10 with android 1.6. it is very fast and flashy but guess what? you cant close an app once its opened. it runs in the background forever. you need to download an app to kill the app. thats what you call epic fail.

sorry you dont feel you got value for your money. one phone isnt for all.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

The others are still not even getting close to the bar. Root access out of the box, X11, apt-get, community repos by default, etc. What other platforms are even promising to beat this? None.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

so, freedom to personalize and you think there should be less options for personalization?

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

2.Phone:rotate to access,tap to call,contact integration,search and skype integration.
Yes rotate to access is a new feature in the accelorometer enabled devices...would certianly give it to nokia....tap to call....old feature already available on most phones....contact integration&skype....hasnt nokia heard abt fring...fring a free software provides the same feature on most phones.....search for contacts is quite old and I believe nokia's cheaper phones do provide the feature....quite interestingly....some of the basic phone fuctions are missing when compared to an entry level phone...for eg call duration,USSD(offcourse it might b fixed with a dev intervention)mms(spare fMMS still in extras-dev). Best part is the nokia developers justifying themselves by saying its made as a computer than a phone .....sorry guys, nokia marketing doesnt say so nor their website.would dare such guysto put the same explanation they posted on various forums on to the nokia main page.....so doesnt provide me any utility compared to a basic phone.....so again $540 down the drain...to be contd

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

maybe maemo has not delivered out of the box what you expected .. but it definitely has delivered in the introduction of openness and community driven development in the field of mobile computing ..

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

No, I don't think so. who cares about the bar, as long as you happy with it.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

I think this is actually new out of the 1,000-or-so threads like it: a serialized rant.

:p

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

thats my worry....so what does a root access provide to a non developer.......does it infer that this phone is stereotyped to b meant for a community only?....were any of the points you mentioned used as USPs by nokia?

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

Its OrangeBox. notice how he registers, and puts a different location on his tag, just to sure. But the tone gives him away

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

Sorry.. this is just a minor pet peeve of mine. I don't think it comes with root "out of the box".. you have install "an app for that" (although it's not really an "app" so much as a script that modifies the phone.. but anyway..) I would love for it to come with root "out of the box".. that would be epic.. but sadly - everything I've read said "no, install rootsh first."


Anyhoo... please continue the pointless fanboi flamewar thread. Just consider my post another pro-Nokia fanboi* one. I don't have an N900 merely because I can't afford the money.. not because I don't think it's worth the money. Its the coolest phone I've witnessed yet.

*Just so I don't try to sound too sane, an impossibility for anyone to claim responding to a thread like this, I need to insert some silly fanboyishness that is totally irrelevant to anyone or anything.. otherwise I run the risk of being off topic. "Nokia Rules, You Drool!"

There we go.. I think I'm in the clear now....

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

er....not to bring this in here but which other phones have portrait and landscape support for the desktop/homescreen?

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

Erm.. android has both for the home screen and all the 5 desktops? At least.. my rooted one does.. I haven't had a vanilla android in ages :D.

Unless I didn't understand the question... entirely a probability.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

well i guess i am mistaken. the nexus one i played with couldn't do this. the droid only did it when the keyboard was slid out. the pre and iphone definitely don't do it

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

Yeah mine will actually rotate with or without the keyboard in/out just by tilting it.

And in fact (and I am positive this is *only* rooted versions do this one) - It will go landscape both ways. If I have the phone one way, flip it upside down, the screen flips rightside up again.

Portrait doesn't do this though.

Any case: Android itself is obviously capable.. but whether any phones out there do it by default (aside the N900 I guess?) or not is unknown to me.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

You may claim this to b a rant...but i believe i'm entitled to put forth my opinions.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

Who said you aren't?

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

Well, OBVIOUSLY you Tex. Because, saying anything about ranting (even something positive) totally means you think people should just shut up and color....

:D

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

Well it may have raised the bar for internet tablets.
The N900 is a developers device not a phone for general use.
It is not a multimedia device or even a smartphone yet...imo

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

internet tablet > smartphone.

The N900 is an awesome internet tablet. But it is the first internet tablet to include cellphone functionality. Considering this is the first time Nokia tried to put a cellphone in a MID, the functionality doesn't quite replace phone-centric devices like the N95 yet. But I trust it will get better soon. Or maybe later. Eventually.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

I sort of understand your peeve about the terminology, but for all practical purposes it's the same thing. You use Nokia's own tools to do it - it's basically another setup step.

On a normal distro you'd install as root and then set up a daily user account. Here it's the reverse. Big deal, as long as it's official.

Many people seem to think freedom of speech means others aren't allowed to be annoyed by their rants. It's disturbing.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

If the N900 had been the same size as the N810 or *gasp* bigger (5 inch screen 1024 pixels), it would have raised the bar much more. The unfortunate thing was the shrinking to a smartphone sized device which causes it to be compared to smartphones and we can all agree that the phone functionality leaves some to be desired.

As a MID I have no doubt maemo 5 is the best current OS for that niche.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

thnx buddy! Thats exactly what i'm saying.
so in conclusion:
the N900 is NOT a smartphone YET

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

agree with you abt the openness and community driven development....but isnt it the business model adopted by all OEMs today...certainly nokia isnt the initiator.

spare me for my ignorance, I'm always intrigued about openess particularly in software.Does openness means it sans commercial boundaries...for eg if you overclock the CPU and any issue arising after that, would nokia acknowledge to support the hardware assuming the openess of the platform supports tweaking the kernel.Ok..... it might be a core kernel level tweak but alternatively why is a disclaimer being run for all third party app installs.

the other interesting thing is nokia personnel boast on the same openness of the platform in upgrading to meego or maemo 6 but with a rider of dependancy on nokia's business decisions

the point is, the current business models of leveraging communities through SDK releases undermines any differences between an open and closed system.

correct me if i'm wrong

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

I'd say it has the most "smart" of them all, but is a little lacking in the "phone". That is compared to the current competition, the phone functionality still beats all of the phones from a year or three back.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

rcarlos, surely the sarcasm in fatalsaint's last post came through clearly... right?

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

Maybe, but I'm saying it a little differently.

The N900 is already better (more capable) than any smartphone. But it doesn't have a one-handed smartphone UI, because its not a smartphone.

Since so many people seem to want to use the N900 as a smartphone replacement, I expect the user interface will get some additional smartphone-like features. But that would be taking a step backward.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

ssshhhhhshhshhshshshhshs

You're totally killing my mojo here... ;)

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

its also disturbing when people get annoyed abt hearing others disappointments in a public forum

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

fatalsaint....the thanks was for the sarcasm....and dont hype the mojo

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

I'm digging it. With the ellipses, it gives the feel of reading horizontally scrolling text on an LED sign.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

i think nokia did raise the bar. its not about fring its about making a skype call direct from contacts,

3 of us at work got this phone, onlym one sold it and got an iphone! end of story.

just get on with it mate. its the first-ish of its kind give it time to develop. also the op uses big words but cant even see the point of this device and where it could end up.

forgive my ignorance, but can u just "shut up" tired of this bs. every phone i get......iphone; nokia etc theres always some jokers like u going off on 1 instead of helping to push this thing forward.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

I just simply do not like this post. The person who started this post is just so negative. Imagine that you bought a beautiful big screen TV home, and your neighbor come to your house and annoying compare yours with some other maybe a little bigger, a little cheaper big screens. And that just make you sick.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

I think I couldn't sleep well without these threads.
That said, good night everybody.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

Sounds like we have an escalation of annoyances here.

Is there where I grumble about how annoying it is that people can't just split into two consortiums based on Like/Dislike and get behind a single collective thread each?

:D

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

I am angry that you're angry. You are angry that i'm angry because you're angry.

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

hm ok...

nevermind

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

It's a circle of jerks..

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

Why? You and I don't :D :cool:

Re: Did maemo 5 really raise the bar?
 

Or a circlejerk.. I dunno about you but .. yeah.. right there.. ahhh.