Wax On, Wax Off.. or is it Whacks On, Whacks Off

Having read some of the responses here, it seems like I'm being misunderstood a little.

1. It's not my intention to compare the N900 to the iPhone. The iPhone Mail app got compared here because I was trying to make a point that "A simple feature was missed by Apple in version 1, which then later got implemented into newer version of the iPhone OS. How could Nokia not see this? Nokia is making the same mistake in its mail app on the N900. Doesn't Nokia learn from other competitions' mistakes"

2. I don't have any issue with the built-in web browser. I stated the web browser's full-screen / escape from full-screen icon as "an indication" that the user experience does not match the Maps application. The lack of icon standardization is also an indication that the N900 is not a well polished production.

3. I am not asking for a "finished" product as I understand in computing, industry standards (QT, for example) gets newer versions and are always on a path of constant changes and improvements. What I need is a well "polished", well "thought out", well "executed" product from Nokia, and stop selling some garage hack jobs, prototypes, in-house mix-n-match products out the door.

4. I UNDERSTAND that it's a mobile computing device, and use it as such. It's a mobile computing device with GSM, 3/3.5G "communication" (voice, text, MMS, e-mails, Facebook, MSN...etc) capabilities.

5. I don't really care about which / what transitions are used, but the point is WHY on earth when we have the technologies and the means to avoid screen flicker when switching between full-screens, the N900 still does so? I'll answer this, it's because Nokia treats the N900 NOT seriously, uncommitted. My point is NOT to do with "How to I get ride of the flicker", but to do with "WHY is it happening, from a product design view point (not technical (i.e. frame buffer crap) view point)".

6. The points made here (including app manager) really comes down to the N900 "Can" be "better". Why is it not? I know there's a point in time when a product becomes "good enough". But if Nokia thinks the current state of the N900 is "good enough" for them to market this as their top of the line "mobile computer" (quoted from Nokia's site)...then I seriously question Nokia's commitment to the N900, question Nokia's understanding of the mobile computing market, question Nokia's background in understanding user experience, and what a polished product should be like.

So are you saying that you're OK with "It's fine to have Nokia's end-users to fix, address the issues because Maemo is an open platform" (Not exactly certain what you mean by "open", open source? Open apps eco-system? Open APIs? All of the above?)

Companies these days are selling crappy products to customers very early in a product's life cycle, and in turn, saves a little on in-house testing, plus they start to see a return sooner the sooner they start selling. This, to me, up to an extent is unacceptable.

That wouldn't make sense on Maemo, either. Try finding the source for things like the USB status menu applet, Phone, Conversations. Oh, wait, you can't!

Do you mean polished like iphone and HTC desire with things opening and running smoothly? Then of course not. Is the current Nokia even capabe of making such a product? I do not see much evidence of that. On top of that Nokia has from the very early life of the N900 shown it does not have much interest in supporting the N900.

If you are looking for a polished product with Nokia involvement then your best best is to pray meego is so amazing that HTC release a meego mobile device.

Yeah, I've been trying to find those....it's just not open enough.

And now we can probably conclude "Nokia sucks" in regards to N900.

What OP has stated are some of genuine concerns. Theres nothing trolling in his post. As far as I can see, he isn't a secret iphone fan lol

Why do some of us treat every such posts as this or criticism of nokia towards N900 as troll? I am a great fan of this device and I have it since March.

However, it doesn't mean we cant expect more or better service from Nokia after all they have charged so much for this device.

As far as I know, Nokia never marketed this as a smartphone anywhere, but I just realised yesterday that some of the retailers do, sadly.

Amazon.com at least calls it a "Nokia N900 Unlocked Phone/Mobile Computer", but Amazon.de claims it is a "Nokia N900 Smartphone". BAD marketing strategy (which clearly shows in the rapidly sinking price ), but this time it's not even Nokia's fault.

Mark this day in your calendars, Gentleman...

(Disclaimer: Don't take this the wrong way - I know this may sound harsh at times, but it's not meant to be.)

What I'm about to say applies to most of your issues, but this is the one that was most prominent.

You've been repeatedly told that this is not a smartphone, but rather a mobile computer, and you claimed to already have realised that. But you still seem to lack the deeper meaning of this fact.

Boot a Windows PC. Open ANY application. Open any OTHER application. Compare their icons.

Computer programs simply are not uniform, sometimes not even when they're from the same company. They don't have to be, as long as their controls don't stray too far from what the average user is used to. And neither do the programs in your mobile computer have to be uniform in order to be useful.

Though, unlike with most PC icons, with Maemo at least you have a good chance of "fixing" this "problem" yourself. Many applications on the Maemo store icons as plain graphic files in /usr/share/icons, so if their non-uniformity peeves you that much, you have the choice of overwriting them with any icon set you choose.

(Doesn't work with all applications, as some use library files, but I think the vanilla Nokia ones work that way.)

So, really - you'll come to enjoy your N900 much more if you don't compare it to the smartphones (who force you to use THEIR standard phone/mail/calendar applications, so they HAVE to be more polished), but rather compare it to your PC (where you have free choice to simply sack that sub-par Win7 eMail application in favour of installing any of the hundreds of alternatives out there).