Originally Posted by eyn

I know people are going to flame me for this, but have to ask though.

I'm a gadget junky in general, so I'm very impressed and happy with the N900. But after a few weeks on this forum, I find more or less the same throw backs for most of the issues raised.

When somebody complains about the BT being all crap, folks jump on them saying N900 is not a phone, go get an iPhone.

When one complains about that the media player is so basic, again people say o! this is not a music player, go get an iPod

Then I see, somebody complain about all the Nintendo emulators being pulled out, again its, this is not for playing games, go get a PSP.

So I'm wondering, what N900 supposed to do? I know, I know... internet tablet. but it still doesn't run v10 and most of the heavy flash stuff is non-usable. I'm sure, for this people would say get a laptop.

When do I get the N900?

Again, I love my N900, just wondering out loud.

Originally Posted by RevdKathy

I guess that's partly about how and where you look.

When people complain about the bluetooth being glitchy, I see a bug filed for that.

When people complain about the phone functionality being thin, I see a brainstorm on improving it.

When people complain about the music player, I see several alternate music players under development.

And when people complain about missing emulators I see requests for patience while the lawyers sort it out and files hosted somewhere other than maemo.org.

I could post links for all of these but I'm duvet surfing on n900 and it's too fiddly.

I think it comes down to whether your ear is tuned for noise or signal.

Originally Posted by CrashandDie

(When using "you", I'm being general, not specifically *you*, eyn)

You buy an N900 when you want to be challenged, when you don't complain about small missing features, when you want to help build, test and complete an amazing device.

People don't charge money for apps on the N900, which means they will never make a living out of it (for 98% of the developers out there). Yes, Nokia helps a lot by developing the base applications, but that's just what they are, base apps. There are a lot of things we can improve upon, and one of those things is motivating developers into making their applications 100% complete, 100% usable and 100% polished. I really do believe (and this dates back quite a bit) that a lot of developers use the excuse "It's Open Source, so as long as it works for me, sod it", but sadly it really hurts the platform.

At some point, I really liked Canola, because it was extremely polished, it showed a few very interesting concepts in terms of user experience, and it worked very nicely (although being slow, talking about early versions). I think this really sums up most of the issues people are having.

The iPhone set a standard where people just download something, pay a buck or two, and can use the applications fully. Even the free apps are pretty well finished, because if they're not, they don't get through the App Store. This doesn't happen in Maemo, people get access to applications which aren't finished. Yes, they work for people who share the same mindset as the developer, or who are happy to use just a couple of features that are already developed, but overall, someone who's just downloading it for fun will be lost.

What I'm trying to say, is that you get an N900 when you don't have the expectations of an iPhone user. You get an N900 when what you want is a device which will allow you to do a lot of stuff, absolutely amazing things, but you know how to be constructive in your reactions and your feedback -- in other words, you are helpful, and understanding that the people who write the stuff aren't at your service. This is a platform that allows sharing, I have more friends in this Community than anywhere else online (you guys are my only friends!), and given a bit of patience, we will have a feature set to be proud of and amazed by -- if you aren't already.

By the way, this post completely deserves to be in Community.

Originally Posted by CrashandDie

(When using "you", I'm being general, not specifically *you*, eyn)

You buy an N900 when you want to be challenged, when you don't complain about small missing features, when you want to help build, test and complete an amazing device.

People don't charge money for apps on the N900, which means they will never make a living out of it (for 98% of the developers out there). Yes, Nokia helps a lot by developing the base applications, but that's just what they are, base apps. There are a lot of things we can improve upon, and one of those things is motivating developers into making their applications 100% complete, 100% usable and 100% polished. I really do believe (and this dates back quite a bit) that a lot of developers use the excuse "It's Open Source, so as long as it works for me, sod it", but sadly it really hurts the platform.

At some point, I really liked Canola, because it was extremely polished, it showed a few very interesting concepts in terms of user experience, and it worked very nicely (although being slow, talking about early versions). I think this really sums up most of the issues people are having.

The iPhone set a standard where people just download something, pay a buck or two, and can use the applications fully. Even the free apps are pretty well finished, because if they're not, they don't get through the App Store. This doesn't happen in Maemo, people get access to applications which aren't finished. Yes, they work for people who share the same mindset as the developer, or who are happy to use just a couple of features that are already developed, but overall, someone who's just downloading it for fun will be lost.

What I'm trying to say, is that you get an N900 when you don't have the expectations of an iPhone user. You get an N900 when what you want is a device which will allow you to do a lot of stuff, absolutely amazing things, but you know how to be constructive in your reactions and your feedback -- in other words, you are helpful, and understanding that the people who write the stuff aren't at your service. This is a platform that allows sharing, I have more friends in this Community than anywhere else online (you guys are my only friends!), and given a bit of patience, we will have a feature set to be proud of and amazed by -- if you aren't already.

By the way, this post completely deserves to be in Community.