Care to give examples? For each app I've tried, I didn't encounter crashes on Android.

But then again, I haven't seen a crash - outside of the browser - on the N900 either. To write off a full OS based on a couple of problematic apps is ridiculous no matter what the OS happens to be.

I've had several Force Closes in android. Usually it's from phone to phone.. but is often fixed in most serious apps.

Admittedly, I went for a Hero after deliberating long and hard over the N900 - but Android is not making N900 look bad at all. Whilst I went for the Hero primarily for the better software support, there are things I miss ; a half decent media player, a decent email client, the ability to play WMV, much less Xvid and divX, Skype (not skype lite), a keyboard, a decent camera, camera flash and (at least on the Hero) more colour depth and better resolution. I can't even sync my Microsoft notes and tasks...
On the other hand, the Hero just looks better. The trackball is a great idea, deffo prefer the capacitive screen, I use the compass a lot (Dishpointer), and google maps with street view in compass mode is genius.
Neither format is perfect, and frankly why can't someone can't take the best points from the Palm pre (Synergy), Nokia (call quality and open sourced Maemo), Androids and Iphones software, and an UI and OS merged from all three. Now that I'd pay for...

Ha- more N900 fanboys not facing reality. The N900 is a tablet so that makes it OK not to have these features. It could if it really wanted to, but it doesn't because, you know, well, it doesn't.

This "it's a tablet" stuff needs to get dropped. Nokia is NOT marketing it as a tablet. Nokia is marketing it as a phone. It is being reviewed as a phone and is being bought as a phone. The majority of features and specs on Nokia's site are those that most looking at phones look for. AND, the phone/tablet convergence happened years ago - Nokia is just catching up. The ONLY thing you can do with the N900 you can't easily do with others is grab root.

Or, perhaps Nokia should quit making phones. Oh, wait, that's 99.9% of their revenue - that'd be a bad idea I think.

"Android has been around for a while" - um, yeah, just over a year. I think it was ~6 or 7 months for a major update to cupcake, donut was viewed as minor but had a lot in it - that was a few months later and huge strides to 2.0 all w/in a year.

I'm not saying Nokia/Maemo can't, but they haven't in 4-years and what I'm seeing them do with tickets I'm making an inference is don't hold your breath for anything major in the next 6-12 months. The words "it's too complex" used by Maemo/Nokia is not uncommon. More common are the WONTFIXs and "this can be perfectly handled by the community" (two of these I watched, I haven't seen anything being done in the "community") - if they want to rely on others to do their work and introduce basic functionality - and some of what you may have installed to do this already is 3P - they had better be prepared to be torn apart in this hugely competitive market and for someone to get out their big, fat, rubber, red FAIL stamp and put it on their forehead.

@twoboxen makes some very good points and it's funny how everyone quickly jumps in to defend a not-so-good device that rates low out there.

Maemo is over 4-years old and has move very little - very little. Android has made tremendous steps in 1 year. And, he is right, they knowingly released a phone without something as basic as working bluetooth and almost 2-months later from release (again, they knew about it at least a month before release), I haven't seen an update to fix that among many other bugs.

I'm guessing few have called in for warranty repairs. Try it. I have and seen many other postings around, Nokia asks you to return for a refund.

That's what you call damage control.

That's too bad! I'll be looking into this closely, as VoIP is must-have for me and a new device and the headset is a very nice option. I sincerely hope that this is fixed in short order.

It would also be nice to have something in addition to G.711 alaw. It is bandwidth heavy, and the android media API supposedly supports other codecs (including ulaw, though it's not included -- still trying to figure this move out). I'd love to see the free iLBC implemented though am not sure if this is part of the android media API (doubt it).

Something tells me that VoIP for the nexus one will be improved in short order, but I'm not going to make a move until I hear positive reports.

}:^)~

BTW - I've owned nearly every Android device that's been released with my Nexus One on the way. I have used it since v1. Android is simply much more usable than the N900/Maemo and the apps for it. Something as simple as a decent weather widget escapes Maemo. Android 1 at birth was more usable and better than Fremantle from a work/problems perspective. Sure, took a while to grab root, but that wasn't (and isn't) my biggest concern.

Android has its issues too, but not nearly as many as the N900. I suspect after the first update (whenever that'll be released), it'll still trail far behind.

Though, Androids biggest problem is going to be the very benefit Google/people saw in Android: making it available for anyone. It'll become hugely fragmented and people writing apps will get frustrated keeping up, updates will fall behind, one phone will be on 2.1, one on 2.0 one on 1.5 another on 1.6. "hey, do this..." - "mine doesn't have that" - "Android isn't it?" "yeah, but I don't have an update yet". I see it becoming a big mess just as Maemo would be if it was thrown out there.

that's cool man, good for you! thumbs up!

so what are you doing here exactly?

He seems to be sharing a balanced opinion.

[QUOTE=twoboxen;454349]The nexus one reveal is also showing a lot of new features in Android 2.1. Every version Google is throwing some really useful new features in.

My favorites from 2.0? REAL navigation software... OVI maps looks RIDICULOUS next to that. Also, the voice command is so useful.
My favorite from 2.1? Voice entry in any field! Real email dictation. The 3D integrated into the core OS is really nice, too.
QUOTE]

Is that voice navigation worldwide or just US (i.e. is that a server based service with only certain carriers)? Does it do voice dialing with BT headset?

Likely just the US. But as that is where I live, that is my primary concern.

I don't know if you can voice dial with bluetooth, but I don't see why not. That would be a nice, clean solution when you have it paired to your car.