maemo.org - Talk - View Single Post - What woud you realistically like to see in the N900?

	Capt'n Corrupt	2007-12-04 , 12:09
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#225

Originally Posted by slim

I could not agree more. When evaluating N810 against competitors, two things stuck out:

-- N810 is a great piece of hardware
-- N810 really lags in software

In my opinion, the hardware makes the N810 a potentially great PIM, media viewer/player, GPS, and eMail client. These are all well-established "killer apps" with large markets. The only thing preventing the N810 from competing in (and possibly leading) these markets is the software.

Agreed, and very well put. This is especially puzzling when one considers that many of the apps are available, high quality, and open source. For example, were Nokia to pack Canola, or canola 2 as part of the Internet Tablet stock applications, it would be considered a POWERFUL and complete PMP (personal media player) replacement, capable of taking advantage of almost all types of media with its optimized Mplayer backend.

Originally Posted by slim

I know there is 3rd party software, which is certainly useful. However for such important applications there should be a much better out-of-box experience. I wonder what Blackberry's market would be like if they had suggested people find and install their own email client, or if Palm suggested people wait until someone else developed a PIM application.

Amazingly put. Nokia is providing a less than stellar user experience in a number of areas:

1) shoddy software
2) less-than-stellar user interfaces
3) difficult to find/manage software
4) missing key applications

The thing is, many of these things exist! Rather than wasting time writing yet another media player, include Canola! The extra time can be spent porting PIM software or the like.

At the very least, stick a 'get latest software' button on the menu, to automatically grab a select list of OSS hand picked by very capable people.

As for the 3rd party apps:

Nokia could really benefit from hiring one or two people, dedicated to maintaining a website for 3rd party apps. At the present moment, the maemo site does a pretty good job of delineating the existing applications, but with non-intuative names, and often shoddy websites, it's VERY difficult to know what the program is prior to installing it. This problem could be wholly eliminated if one (or two) people, was committed to making comprehensive writeups for an applications on a standard page, with screen shots and install links.

The user-friendly software site would not only help existing users find software that's easily installable (only the standard repository!), but understand what is actually available to be installed. Future tablet owners will have the luxury of knowing what the tablet can do before the purchase. Lastly, the user site will easily point out the lacking areas of the current software base, and site statistics analysis, will determine how the masses are using the tablet.

Originally Posted by slim

The ROI for Nokia here must be huge. I really can't get my head around why they haven't done it.

Sometimes these obvious things to us (the users), are not obvious to executives reading charts. Someone should mail this thread to thread to the key individuals responsible for the Tablet Series.

I'll draft an open source letter

and post it here for the scrutiny of all. Hopefully, once mailed, it'll be read, and have an impact on the direction of Internet Tablet development.

To all: Get your ideas in!

}:^)~
YARR!

Capt'n Corrupt

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