Sounds promising. Feedback appreciated...

Anyway, I don't think I'll be abandoning the N810 any time soon. I've still got 2.5 years of Wayfinder subscription to get through.

Zuber

Whew, that was close. I'm glad it worked out the way it did. I've said many times that the N800 was the device I've been waiting for for decades, and one of the reasons it took me so long to stumble across it (other than the fact that there really was nobody selling it in Canada) is that it came from Nokia. That's one of the last places I would have expected the tablet to come from!

Well, this may be counter-intuitive, but I'm extremely glad that Nokia released something that isn't "mainstream," since I'm starting to believe that most of the stuff I love is not what the general public wants.

I had a Palm Tungsten C. Remember that? It was the first Wifi Palm with a built-in keypad. I loved it! But, open wifi was hard to find on the open road, and I had no desire to pay every time I wanted to check email. The lack of bluetooth meant I had to use a clipboard to line the phone IR with the Palm to use wireless. Bah. I sold it.

I got me a Treo! Ahhh...true wireless everywhere! Too bad the screen is too small for fully web-browsing, yet the phone was too big to easily carry as a phone (batman belt required). Oh...and let's talk about battery life and slow connection! I sold it.

N800! Now we're talking! Fast Wifi when it's available, and easy one-click access bluetooth access to my slim cellphone when I need 3G (Nokia 6555, 3 days of battery life, durable, and small). Full-fledge web-browser, email, and instant messenger. What's better, I can stuff it full of documents, games, media, etc. It doesn't sync easily, but that's what my phone is for.

So, what was the critical difference: SEPARATE DEVICES! A device that's good at full-scale web-browsing, movie-viewing, email managing, doc-writing, etc is going to be too big to be a convenient cellphone. A cellphone that is conveniently small, have proper battery life, and perfectly reliable is NOT going to have a big enough screen or a strong enough processor to do all the other stuff. I need my phone all of them time for contacts, calendar, and communication. I only need the tablet-oriented stuff when I'm travelling or riding on the bus.

However, separate devices are "out" this day and age. Everyone is determined to merge everything into one, give it a pretty face, and then make the consumers believe that battery life is no big deal and that they DO need to have their movies, documents, and web-browser in their pocket for every waking moment.

The iTouch is actually not that popular. It's inability to use a BT connection to a phone or keyboard is a pretty annoying limitation (apparently some customers discover this AFTER they bought it). The iPhone, however, is taking the world by storm, it seems. My bus-ride to work is full of iPhones, yet there are only two of us with N8X0 tablets. The iPhone is sexy and ALL-IN-ONE. That is what a customer sees and understands in the 10 minutes they hold it. The N800 or N810 can't possibly pass the "10-minute test" for sexy and integration. It won't...which is why I'm grateful that Nokia sells it nonetheless. The tablet is still revolutionary, it's just that it holds features and attributes that most of the population doesn't care about. I've given up trying to understand why the average consumer doesn't even think to ask about how "open" the platform is, how many applications are available, and what the average cost of those applications are. They're obvious questions to me....but not to most.

So, here is the cranky geek's closing remark: I'm not interested in Nokia making the tablet more "mainstream" because my wants and desires are very different from the mushy-minded "mainstream" consumer population.

- Jim

One thing is certain but not discussed:

Nokia staff (the ones who work on the tablets) are very quiet lately. It's almost eerie. However, the maemo bugzilla seems to be knocking out issues at a record pace. Watch the change logs. Wow. To me, that means everyone over there is heads-down into their work in preparation for something new.

They do read the blogs and watch the forums, though. I'm sure of that. Let's hope the feedback here is rolled into the product they're making.

fremantle is coming up iirc. no timeframe given tho.

now if fremantle will join a new device or not is anyones guess...

Well, that mostly has to do with Andre's hard work (and for that, in bugzilla and elsewhere, we thank him), and, unfortunately, not a whole lot of direct involvement from Nokia engineers.

You can. No problem here.


I don't quite understand this part: It was more successful than people at Nokia thought it would be, and still not successful enough for them to build a business around? If they'd expected it to be even less successful, why did they launch it at all?

I'm sure you can tell...

First, note that it's some people; maybe they weren't the ones who started the project, or had changed their minds. Second, I've heard that VCs expect 9 of 10 investments to fall completely flat; while this isn't as bad as that, research projects have to be expected to sometimes be dead-ends. Finally, it was stage 2/5; could be the platform was simply growing faster than they'd expected, but not ready for the plans they had for some higher step...

I don't know anything, of course, but I am completely free to talk.

I am just tired of the N8x0 being compared to the iPhone. I don't want a @#$%@ iphone, I just want my tablet (which I love) upgraded and polished. It already does everything I want, for the most part, it just does it really sllloowww (or choppy when referring to video).

I can play with an iPhone, but I can WORK on my tablet (slowly). I would gladly pay $500 bucks if they just put a decent processor in this sucker.

Also - take the credit you deserve, Antilles. The maemo wikipedia page looks fantastic with your (and others') help.