What is a smartphone?
 

Interesting read.

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/featu..._not_a_sma.php

Re: What is a smartphone?
 

So, What is a smartphone?....A phone that is smart.
Sorry couldn't help myself. Nice article :D.

Re: What is a smartphone?
 

The N900 is the smartest smartphone that has ever existed.

That is all.

Re: What is a smartphone?
 

N900 is the smallest and smartest mini computer (internet tablet) with phone functions. (Just for the records... N900 is as smart as the programming skills of its owner or the friends on maemo.org.)

Re: What is a smartphone?
 

I think you hit the nail on the head, Chemist. I have said before to others, but I'll say again here that I bought the N900 as a netbook/laptop replacement that can be held in your hand. After having it some 3 weeks, I can say it doesn't quite make it there, but that's mostly due to the form factor (tiny screens and today's web sites and fonts don't mix that great, especially at the N900's resolution); I do think that, after OTG/USB Host Mode is finally perfected that I'll be able to finally do this for most things by attaching a real keyboard and trackball (I hate mice) and a TV for a monitor. The only main catch I've found in software is with Flash: it's simply too much of a hog for a standard-clocked N900 to play flash games like Mech Quest (http://mechquest.com).

Now compare that, and the general open-ness, to jailbreak-a-week iPhone or n! different version of Android (which is mostly embedded like Symbian) and the N900, to me, goes beyond the definition of smart phone. As someone else here in TMO said, "It's a computer with a phone, not a phone that computes." I think the new tablets coming out, if they can be loaded with Maemo or MeeGo instead of Android, could extend that by a lot just because of more space inside for more ports, memory, and--most importantly--screen real-estate.

Mike

P.S. Now that pr1.3 has come out, I'll finally start loading all the apps on, especially Easy Debian. Now if I could just find an Easy Slackware (port Armed Slack http://www.armedslack.org to the N900 the same way), I'd be in tablet heaven.

Re: What is a smartphone?
 

My thoughts too :) Steve, the author, is a very camera-centric dude, so the N8 is right up his alley. The N900 converges a desent camera, good multimedia, FM receiver, FM Transmitter, phone, web etc with a linux box. It is awsome when you think about it.

The other thing in the article is that Nokia has to start deliver quality software. They are several thousand software engineers, and didn't manage to deliver a good browser on the N8. They have had an excellent browser on Maemo for years now. That is unbelievable. There must be something very wrong with the software department at Nokia, I mean totally insanely wrong. I really hope those dudes from MS and Palm clean up real good, and it seems they are doing just that.

Re: What is a smartphone?
 

My wife has the N8 so I've spent a lot of time playing with it. The native browser is the only thing that disappoints really. Opera picks up the slack there though. We've been taking tons of pics and videos with the camera and it is REALLY good. My kids have been playing angry birds through HDMI-out as well. Much better quality than on the N900's tv-out :)

I'm glad Elop is kicking *** right now. Some people became too comfortable. It's unacceptable that they spend so much money on software development and what they've been delivered in return is still unfinished. They do seem to be making all the right moves now.