Notices

I"m more excited about the future ... on the one hand, any Linux app is potentially a Maemo app ... on the other hand, there won't be much commercial development on a platform that only runs on one phone, but when Nokia starts putting it on a LOT of phones, that'll be a different story. But I don't see a lot of commercial possibilities in the short run.

My take on 'commercial grade'.

The biggest difference, with regard to polish, is that commercial apps are made by a purposefully assembled team. You have designers, UI experience folks, coders, QA, etc. With Open Source, the skills of people in a project is (nearly) random and that's why it's such a gamble how it turns out. It is also the reason why bigger projects often look better - they simply have a bigger skill base to draw on, with better chances of someone filling a gap. After a point, this turns into a loopback - good software draws more people, which again means more potential contributors/skills. Also, a super-important point is that you people remember SUCCESSFUL companies/apps, not the (lot larger number of) those that went under or never produced a decent piece of software. We had plenty of commercial applications on Maemo that were utter cr@p. Maybe just 0.1% of applications on the iPhone falls under what you call 'quality apps', but these are those you remember and equate with the iPhone 'experience', forgetting the remaining 99.9% that is useless.

PS. And sure, you might say trinket class software and simple games are often one man shows, but that does not influence skills. If one guy can do all the aspects of software publishing (which is pretty rare), he'll be just as good in whatever approach he takes - commercial or open source.

Just a quick reminder. 3GS runs games made to run on 3G so the GPU benefit of 3GS over 3G is... NONE.

that will not always be the case.

According to 3D Benchmark programs on the 3GS (which do NOT depend on the 3G's hardware), its GPU is already underclocked to half of the N900's speed. Sure, the hardware is there, but what's the use of it? And why pay for something you won't be able to use?

Here are some raw spec numbers that I've in my head right now, which might vary slightly in the reality:

OMAP3430/N900 GPU: PowerVR SGX 530 14 MPolys/s (clocked @ 14 MPolys/s)
Iphone 3GS/Itouch 3G* GPU: PowerVR SGX 535 28 MPolys/s (clocked @ 7 MPolys/s)
OMAP2420/N95 GPU: PowerVR MBX lite 1 MPolys/s (clocked @ 1 MPolys/s)
Iphone 3G/Itouch 2G GPU: PowerVR MBX lite 1 MPolys/s (clocked @ 1 MPolys/s)

*Does not include the Itouch 3G 8GB, which has the same hardware as the Itouch 2G 8GB.

Do it Emma! Please. You will be welcomed with open arms. Bring whatever our gifts are to the table and someone will find a use for them. (Can you draw clover leaves?)

Small warning - this community latches onto people willing to jump in and collaborate and you will never get away. Of course, you won't want to, either.

iPhone apps are good when it comes to games.. i have played all iphone games and none of them crashed once.... but still im an N900 Lover...

Haha I know one of them..

Shazam. >.>

I was really curious what DOOM 3 will turn out to be...
I'm extremely disappointed! The character almost moves by himself all the time, there is no strafing, there is no aiming either since the crosshair moves like a humpty dumpty if you have two enemies on the screen...

Bwah... if this is what FPS have become, the whole genre should be canceled... as they weren't repetitive enough already...

GFX doesn't make the game but I would love to see some commercial 3D games on the N900 - RPGs if possible