The Rover specs on Mobile Crunch indicate that there is a Live Dashboard which "allows all open tasks and unread messages to be displayed in one view".

And those Harmattan screen shots from last week or so also show some sort of 'latest activity' widget as seen below:



Are we sure those leaked Harmattan shots are not really Fremantle ones?

If you read all the posts on this thread by Ragnar, Peter@MaemoMarketing, and qgil, you have to conclude that there is no greater-than-3.5" non-phone-option device in the Nokia pipeline; that is, as far as Nokia is concerned, the Tablet is dead and there is not another Tablet in the Nokia pipeline. They say that they aren't going to tell us what new hardware Nokia plans to release, but they have been relentless in telling us that people don't want to carry two devices and that their research shows that most people do not want anything larger than a smartphone. What's-her-name's (can't remember her name -- no disrespect intended) presentation of the stylus-less Maemo 5 pointed in the same direction.

I agree with them that the Tablet is not the sweet-spot in the market that is addressed by the iPhone and the N97 and the rumored N900.

But that doesn't mean that the Tablet format (4"+ screen and no phone capability) is not a large niche, just not as huge a niche as the smartphone's niche.

Furthermore, that niche is obviously there; Nokia has just done a poor job exploiting it on the software end. And they have never really tried to market it (which would have been impossible anyway, due to the software).

We know the market is there because the iPod touch sells well. Yes, the iPod touch is also pocketable in a way that the N8x0 series isn't. But the people I know who opted for the touch over the Tablet made that choice because the interface was smoother, it had the apps they wanted, and browsing seemed much quicker. They made the choice despite feeling they were sacrificing a more desirable screen size (and better resolution). Yes, some people would want the pocketability, but others would want the larger screen.

For me, the N800 hardware was near-perfect for the then-current state of the technology. I am not a Linux user nor a programmer, and I had to work hard to make it act like I wanted. I'm convinced that it would have sold much better if Nokia had made it more consumer-friendly.

The problem was not the hardware, it was the software. Read any of the reviews from when it came out. Review after review said the interface made it of interest "only to hobbyists." In this long review, the reviewer starts out the subsection on User Interface with: "I mentioned in an earlier post that the N800 isn't very user-friendly out of the box and that the average consumer and/or tech newbie would be pretty dumbfounded. I still stand by these words and would like to add that the reason for my original assessment is the device's user interface. ... There's no denying that this is not user-friendly." (Underlining supplied not by me but by the original reviewer.)

At this point, hardware capability has progressed to the point where the N800-successor could do great all the things that it now does well enough. With minor updates, it could, for example, play movies smoothly and browse quicker, and it could sport a transreflective screen. It would be, for many people, perfect for what its uses are. And these are uses that are irreparably impaired by shrinking it. It’s especially disappointing to abandon the Tablet when Nokia may finally have a consumer-friendly interface.

I don't get Nokia's apparent decision (for at least the near-term) to abandon the Tablet niche. How many models of phones does Nokia make? It seems to be thousands! Why walk away from a unique niche, especially when you could finally do it really well? If Nokia gets enough return on all these different phone models, why won’t it also make a Tablet, especially since it is developing the software anyway and hardware-wise could just follow the N800 as a prototype?

If Nokia does not soon come out with another Tablet, their support of this community will be darn ironic. I, for one, will be using the forum as a springboard to install Mer on something like a successor to the Moses Smart Q5, as soon as it offers processor/RAM specs like the rumored N900. And here I’d thought Nokia was in the business of selling hardware.

Excellent summary of the problems with the alternatives. From cruising the web, the best I've seen so far is the Moses Smart Q5, which ought to be Mer-capable. I'm looking forward to its successor (for now, the specs don't provide reason to upgrade from my N800).

Ok, let throw some ideas around. We can be fairly certain there will be more than one device. This assumption is made due to the whole rx-51, rx-71 keyboard layout thing in the SDK. At the time (I just checked) there was a little speculation about the number jump between 51 and 71. How about, and please dont shoot me, this as a scenario: rx-51 is the phone we are seeing rx-71 is an n810 style tablet and there is another tablet the rx-61 which is n800 like i.e. no harware keyboard so it wasnt mentioned in the keylayout files.

If anything here is blatantly wrong I apologise, but I'm just trying to be optimistic...

I came to this thread pretty late with a lot of commnets about a design I never knew - though I have been waiting expectantly for the N900. Many a time I considered selling off my N810.

Seeing this more-of-a-smartphone device (rendering) I havemixed feelings - firstly as a computer a 4"+ screen is needed - but again I would like to have my phone in one device as well - and for that a 3.5" screen is decent (holding the N810 to the ear seems a bit clunky - I know I can use a BT headset, but thats not a solution).

If this device (and its specs) is true, then I might buy this - as I was very tempted by the N97 - and having a Maemo phone - with all my Maemo software compatible is a better option - and I would like to have an all-in-one device.

Since the days of the Zaurus - I used to be against all-in-one devices, but have gradually become accepting of having one device to fit my needs - as carrying them all is a pain. I love having my instant-access camera on my N95 now - as a sign of my changing needs and tastes.

The lack of D-pad (if true) though is a bad thing - as well as a 3 row keyboard. Plus I want hardware buttons - at least minimal but NOT an iPhone like buttonless device.

My next though that came to mind was that I would in that case keep my N810 - and use that as a connected device thru the N900 (over BT) - at least for computer like functions - as the 4" screen is a must for that.
And maybe MER will fill in the gaps on my N810 -as well as making it a complimentary device to the N900 phone (if it is that) - both software wise and hardware wise.

Again the smaller screen size might not be a deal-breaker - depends on how the Fremantle UI really makes best use of the screen real-estate.

I couldn't let this go unanswered. I believe that's the case for you. But I live with an iPod touch as well as an N800 (I bought the touch for my live-in girlfriend), and I find the touch much less enjoyable for those activities, most notably for ebooks and movies.

Well, hopefully this is just one of the many Freemantle devices yet to come. If Nokia was surprised by the greater than expected sales of the N800, they underestimated the market for the device and not the OS.
I'm thinkin' we are all going to be surprised by the market for used N800's...

If this is in fact the one and only Freemantle device this forum founded by, and grown from device enthusiasts may dwindle.

IMHO, people don't like messing with their primary means of communication with the outside world and that's why the N800/10 grew this forum and ultimately maemo.org.

A device that is independent of the cell phone is what appealed to the N. American market. In 2 + years of owning mine, I have changed /upgraded phones 3 times and haven't missed a beat with any of my NIT apps...

Hell, you can forget/loose/drop/let the battery die on your cell phone and still connect to the net using a spouse or a friends phone. You can even just hang out in front of many stores and businesses to connect if you had to. This level of redundancy is a benefit that is now lost when the device is also a phone.

Because this and other benefits are lost (ironically with the addition of new features), I'm thinkin' the N800/10 may be the first handheld device that is recognized as having significant resale value… at least in N. America.

Hi,

1) Is this device a capacitive display (more friendly for finger touch) like iPhone or is a resistive display (more nail and stylus friendly) like 5800 XM and N97?

2) Is this device multi-touch?

If the device is capacitive with multi-touch then the lack of D-pad is ok, because the device can be controlled for directions from touching and multi - simultaneous touch on the screen. Still, a track-ball like G1 was good (and it does not need so much space like the D-pad).

Nokia should have a 5" to 7" tablet based on Maemo ASAP (Apple is preparing a 7" iPad) for a big segment of customers who want an Internet Tablet device in between the laptop and a smartphone as size. With a large 5"-7" screen, students and many people who use it badly for editing documents, video-editing, programming and even watching a video or TV (you know all protable DVD players have >7" screen size).

I don't understand....why cant they just say one word?

They have told us about far more strategic things like adding 3g, camera etc.... why cant they say that it has a bigger screen? What potential disadvantage will they have if they say that?

Forget the maemo summits and the community, why cant they confirm or deny the presence of an Internet tablet as we know them?
Just a simple yes or no would help us a lot.

Please nokia just let us know. If you don't plan to have an internet tablet with maemo 5 let us know. We don't have the time or resources to waste on something we don't want. And unlike you employees who get paid for doing whatever you do... we just follow our passions. The internet tablets mean a lot to us. I think it is cruel to play with our passions and drop it suddenly. I am really disappointed.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the video out in action. What's the resolution on that? A good video out might soothe some of my small-screen grumbles.