After reading this entire thread, again, I do wonder how a newer Maemo device would fare to this audience if it goes further down the path of crafting new UX experiences rather than relying on older ones (by which I mean device form factor, UI, gestures, addition/subtracted/morphed hardware, etc.). From just the activity here, such a change seems on one part wanted, but on another part feared greatly. I think both of Eldar's reviews as discussed here have exposed this.

I had a question in another thread asking if this community could provide relevance to carriers for what Maemo brings as a benefit to them. After reading this, I fear that this community just doesn't know how to answer that relevance/beneft question beyond small-but-loud niches. Which feels like more of a reason to be concerned about a platform than a reviewer/analyst taking a differentiated stance on a device the smae community niches have openly pined for. If you will, the fanboy tipping point might have happened, and that's going to be something Nokia and the Council will want to address before next steps within this platform.

I'm almost saddened to feel that majority of this forum seems to think that N900 is US only device. The carriers appear on way too many threads and mostly they are US carriers. Please bear in mind that N900 is not US-only device.

But yeah, N900 is uniting NIT people and "phone only" people so it is no wonder how much controversy this device brings to a forum that previously has been in effect dedicated to NIT people.

For me, coming from E90, I feel I am inbetween of the majorities here that seems to be conflicting with their opinions.

Why do you call Eldar a journalist? Journalism is a profession. A journalist researches a topic and writes about this accurately while not holding back relevant information. If he cannot provide certain vital information (e.g. to protect source) then such is clearly stated. Full disclosure.

A journalist indeed protects his informants. Fully agreed. But the relevance of that differs. As I stated previously I do have respect for whistleblowers, and gave Deep Throat as example. But come on. Lets not compare this event to whistleblowing. Impact and purpose are totally different! A whistleblower has no primary financial/commercial gain; primary reasons are of ethical substance. Such is not the case here. Speaking of Java here an examples where such was the case: Willem Oltmans; career destroyed by Dutch government, Paul van Buitenen; EU example of whistleblowing. Compare does not even come close!!

Assuming we can call Eldar a journalist (I don't know his profession) that'd mean he wouldn't describe from who he got the device whereas what happens is that he withholds vital information such as firmware version. There is also something as collaborating to a crime. For example, if your friend robs a bank, and you wait for him and you drive him in your taxi around you are going to be suspected of a crime too. As with here you cannot simply say "didn't know where he got that from". You know full well it is not possible to get such device via official channels, and you knew full well nobody reviewed the device because it isn't allowed to do so.

Now, why are we not allowed to clearly state and warn such vital information is missing in each and every case it potentially matters? Nowhere do i see him state that when he speaks of the device. This gives me the impression he doesn't care much for accuracy. I just read his Twitter today where he says "no voice recognition or java, forget about it". The latter is inaccurate. Am I then not allowed to point to the inaccuracy? You can praise the deeds of the alleged journalist. I don't because I don't feel his contribution is as positive as it could've been, and I don't endorse this behaviour. The most interesting tidbits (screenshots) would have come out anyway, just later, and officially in a whitehat manner. With patience more credible sources will arrive. This guy behaves like he is an oracle, cleverly taking advantage of the current state of affairs (lack of other sources which is used in his advantage, and used to draw attention away from valid concerns). Yes, I said oracle, because too often I read "Eldar tweeted [...]" while I was wondering who this person even was. Instead, anxiously waiting for more eyes with different backgrounds on the horizon. Eyes from people I know the background of more than this mysterious person. Knowing their background allows me to put things in perspective. E.g. there are certain community members whoknow a lot about engineering, hardware, electronics while there are also members who are UX designer, understand social networking, more 'normal user'-like.

OS2007 had a special version of Opera optimized. Basically a Linux/ARM port with touchscreen support. I wonder why nobody ever made a .deb of it.

Opera Mobile runs only on WM, S60, UIQ. The 9.x tree seems only for touchscreen WM.

Opera Mini requires Java ME (formerly J2ME). Java ME won't allow you to run Java applets.

Neither will have touchscreen support. Therefore you'd have to use some kind of dpad. Both are optimized for T9. As a Nokia E71 I do not have T9, and applications which are optimized for T9 are therefore difficult to us. (Examples: Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, Skyfire, Sygic McGuider.) For occasional use, no problem, but its not ergonomic for serious usage.

I can, till some degree, empathize but must experience the device and software in its full glory for a while to put into proportions.

Not only that, we'll also have to see how well Java SE or OpenJRE or MicroEmulator) work. But even if that all works stable with acceptable memory footprint for above reasons I would not put my money on a good working Opera Mobile or Opera Mini on your N900.

If the way to be better than your competitors is to have more features than your competitors, then Symbian is the best mobile OS in the world.

(... Of course in some ways it is.)

But I also think recent competitors have shown that it is more about the quality of the features than the quantity of them. For instance, you can sell really a great deal of devices, even if it has a closed ecosystem, no MMS, no ASR etc. Do certain things a lot better than others rather than trying to match everything that is already available.

You can vote and propose ideas about the Equalizer in the Brainstorm: http://maemo.org/community/brainstor..._enhancements/

Nobody has filed a proposal about MMS yet.

Re: Eldar's issues

I'm not against anilyone speaking out their mind here, but it seems futile to write long tirades against him here. Like i've said earlier, if there's anyone that should be pi$$ed at him at this point from all the reasons mentioned in this thread, it should be Nokia.

And given Eldar's platform (website/blog) and the community's (not united in this matter, part of maemo community's forum), i don't see any direct course to take to settle this matter.

The best way is probably to write about it in your own blogs or create a wiki page of some sort to address the factual inaccuracies WITHOUT ATTACKING HIM. else it would only paint yourself as the a-hole in this matter and you won't change anyone's mind, cept for making new enemies.

@Jay: By all means :P

just forcing a sooner self-destruction...

Mythical post 500.....one step closer

Who is this Eldar and where are the articles and what is the fuss about?
;-) [That should take us easily above 500]