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2009-09-30
, 03:44
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Posts: 739 |
Thanked: 242 times |
Joined on Sep 2007
@ Montreal
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#72
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Originally Posted by GeneralAntilles
Sure, how ext3 work for it's journaling is by writing a log of its filesystem transaction to disk every 5 seconds so to be able to recover if the power is cut, there is a crash or whatever...
Can you provide some background on this issue?
ext2 doesn't have such feature but then need a full fsck scan in case of a crash which might be painful for a portable device... On the other hand writing every 5 seconds on flash media isn't the best of ideas considering that's over 6M writes a year if the cell is always on (and it will).
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2009-09-30
, 04:08
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Posts: 26 |
Thanked: 0 times |
Joined on Sep 2009
@ São Paulo (Brazil)
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#73
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Originally Posted by R-R
Curious about this too...
Sure, how ext3 work for it's journaling is by writing a log of its filesystem transaction to disk every 5 seconds so to be able to recover if the power is cut, there is a crash or whatever...
ext2 doesn't have such feature but then need a full fsck scan in case of a crash which might be painful for a portable device... On the other hand writing every 5 seconds on flash media isn't the best of ideas considering that's over 6M writes a year if the cell is always on (and it will).
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2009-09-30
, 04:16
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Posts: 5,478 |
Thanked: 5,222 times |
Joined on Jan 2006
@ St. Petersburg, FL
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#74
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Originally Posted by R-R
Ah, I see your point. Will the journaling cause noticeable flash wear? Well, anecdotal evidence from N8x0 owners booting from their flash cards leads me to believe that no, it wont.
ext2 doesn't have such feature but then need a full fsck scan in case of a crash which might be painful for a portable device... On the other hand writing every 5 seconds on flash media isn't the best of ideas considering that's over 6M writes a year if the cell is always on (and it will).
For the most part, modern flash memory seems perfectly capable of standing up to the rigors of usage for more than its usable life span.
__________________
Ryan Abel
Ryan Abel
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2009-09-30
, 04:18
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Posts: 32 |
Thanked: 176 times |
Joined on Sep 2009
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#75
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The MySymbian review is far too lenient ! Nokia may well have written it. I will take this review with a pinch of salt however thorough it seems. It appears Nokia has dropped the ball here - lousy keyboard with no Dpad, fragile screen which appears a fingerprint magnet, lack of basic features eg MMS, limited potrait mode etc.
I've just counted the PROs and CONs listed in the summary of the preview and it's a 16:14 ratio, so I think the preview is acceptably well balanced. But if you think that Nokia would list almost as many drawbacks as advantages if they wrote the preview themselves, then be my guest :-)
While I wrote that the screen seems to be more fragile than touchscreens of other devices I've used, I definitely do not think that it is a "fingerprint magnet". At least not more than any other touchscreen device.
The keyboard definitely isn't lousy. It's smaller but actually better when it comes to tactile feedback and operation than most of other devices I compared it to.
And "lack of basic features like MMS", well... it's actually JUST the MMS (and maybe also Voice dialling), other than that I can't think of any "basic feature" or even an advanced one that's missing. On the contrary, the device offers A LOT of features most of other phones do not have. How fantastically well VoIP/Skype is integrated or how the multitasking works on this machine are the best examples.
Finally, the portrait mode isn't "limited". It is actually FULLY supported, just not used by built-in applications, simply because virtually all of them are much more usable in landscape, maybe except for the PDF reader that would be quite useful in portrait for reading ebooks. But the portrait mode can be used without any problems by any third party application if only a developer finds it useful and suitable for what his app is going to do, so you should not worry about scarcity of 3rd party software taking advantage of it...
Just to make some things clear...
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2009-09-30
, 06:49
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Posts: 48 |
Thanked: 37 times |
Joined on Sep 2009
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#76
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Originally Posted by My-Symbian.com
ok maybe I went over the top there. I will try the N900 for myself before passing further judgement.I just think the N810 is near perfect so Nokia should have just speeded it up and added a GSM chip.
I knew someone would say that :-) Running my site for 10 years now, each time I wrote a generally positive review of something, I was always accused by someone of being sponsored or bribed by Nokia, or a hidden employee of Sony Ericsson, or - in the best case - a person that praises Symbian phones in order to attract more people to getting one and then buying software via my site :-) And vice versa: when I criticized something, I was accused of being bribed by the competitors :-) So I got used to it :-)
I've just counted the PROs and CONs listed in the summary of the preview and it's a 16:14 ratio, so I think the preview is acceptably well balanced. But if you think that Nokia would list almost as many drawbacks as advantages if they wrote the preview themselves, then be my guest :-)
While I wrote that the screen seems to be more fragile than touchscreens of other devices I've used, I definitely do not think that it is a "fingerprint magnet". At least not more than any other touchscreen device.
The keyboard definitely isn't lousy. It's smaller but actually better when it comes to tactile feedback and operation than most of other devices I compared it to.
And "lack of basic features like MMS", well... it's actually JUST the MMS (and maybe also Voice dialling), other than that I can't think of any "basic feature" or even an advanced one that's missing. On the contrary, the device offers A LOT of features most of other phones do not have. How fantastically well VoIP/Skype is integrated or how the multitasking works on this machine are the best examples.
Finally, the portrait mode isn't "limited". It is actually FULLY supported, just not used by built-in applications, simply because virtually all of them are much more usable in landscape, maybe except for the PDF reader that would be quite useful in portrait for reading ebooks. But the portrait mode can be used without any problems by any third party application if only a developer finds it useful and suitable for what his app is going to do, so you should not worry about scarcity of 3rd party software taking advantage of it...
Just to make some things clear...
Very good review though. Thanks and keep up the good work.
Last edited by franklinn; 2009-09-30 at 06:52. Reason: grammar
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2009-09-30
, 08:34
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Posts: 95 |
Thanked: 47 times |
Joined on Sep 2009
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#77
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Hi
I have two questions for those who use the device:
- Is there "smart dial" when dialing a number in portrait mode? You use the "T9" keypad to tap the first letters of the name (the 3 letters under each number, but you tap only once), and the phone proposes you the corresponding contacts. I found this really useful on my HTC, because you don't need to open "contacts" anymore. it misses a lot on the iphone too.
It seems to be present in landscape mode, but in portrait?
- About the week view of the calendar, can you adjust the "scale" of the hours, so that for example you can see from 8am to 6pm without scrolling?
Thanks for your answers!
I have two questions for those who use the device:
- Is there "smart dial" when dialing a number in portrait mode? You use the "T9" keypad to tap the first letters of the name (the 3 letters under each number, but you tap only once), and the phone proposes you the corresponding contacts. I found this really useful on my HTC, because you don't need to open "contacts" anymore. it misses a lot on the iphone too.
It seems to be present in landscape mode, but in portrait?
- About the week view of the calendar, can you adjust the "scale" of the hours, so that for example you can see from 8am to 6pm without scrolling?
Thanks for your answers!
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2009-09-30
, 09:43
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Posts: 31 |
Thanked: 14 times |
Joined on Feb 2009
@ Sarajevo, Bosnia
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#78
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one correction: N900 and iphone 3gs don't have same gpu.
N900 has SGX530
Iphone 3gs has SGX535
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerVR
Last edited by manda; 2009-09-30 at 09:44. Reason: typo
N900 has SGX530
Iphone 3gs has SGX535
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerVR
Last edited by manda; 2009-09-30 at 09:44. Reason: typo
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2009-09-30
, 10:34
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Posts: 341 |
Thanked: 64 times |
Joined on May 2009
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#79
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cheers, didn't know that.
a shame, the more commonality between the platforms the better, as far as hoping for lots of cross platform game ports.
other than having twice the fill-rate, any other notable differences between the two GPU's?
a shame, the more commonality between the platforms the better, as far as hoping for lots of cross platform game ports.
other than having twice the fill-rate, any other notable differences between the two GPU's?
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2009-09-30
, 11:07
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Posts: 1,743 |
Thanked: 1,231 times |
Joined on Jul 2006
@ Twickenham, UK
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#80
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Originally Posted by bugelrex
Nope, is not.
For those people with the n900 unit and an NDA. Do we assume the NDA has now expired since the My-Symbian.com is out and Nokia gave him the unit to review?
The "fragile screen that is a fingerprint magnet" comment is totally out of line too. Unless you actually own a device and have broken the screen, how can you make such a bold claim?
When I saw photos of the iPod touch I thought it was a fingerprint magnet. When I tried it out in the store I thought it was a fragile screen. But in actual use you can't see the fingerprints except when holding against the light or flash photography, which 99% of the photos of the N900 are. I have also had a few "oh crap" moment where I dropped something accidentally on the screen or knocked it against something in my pocket, but it doesn't even have a mark on it. So you really cannot tell except in real-world use how good a screen is with regards to these things.