@Rebski thanks!
+1 for your input.
Your one of the only people that appreciates my input.

Yes I think that's true. Or if they were to sell something like a flagship model as experimental, at least they should come out and officially say we will later apply what we learnt unto this experiment with official firmware. I mean MeeGo was announced roughly the same time N900 was released (needs reference/may not be true, however do note N900 has only just become available in Australia).

I mean it doesn't even help the majority when fanboys come out and say "You should've done your research!!!!!".
True, it is your money so it is your responsibility to see if the device fits your wants/needs. But how much better is it if the Company also took some responsibility, stood behind its product and made the effort to help those supporters (customers). This would not only instill confidence to customers, raise its reputation but also would give them experience in upgrading firmware. Otherwise, the support for the device (is jeopardized and) might be too little to make "the experiment" effective.

That is exactly true. Last gen's technology (eg HTC Dream) has now become affordable enough for knock-offs and they can meet our needs. Now coupled with good open OS (eg Android) it is a cheaper alternative worth considering. So the importance of an open OS is now paramount, Google now has much more sources for advertising ($$) and has some control over the electronics market ($$).

Thanks for that link
Agreed, but bare-in-mind these are "show off" models. So they are concepts made to life, but not polished for consumers. By the explanations it sounds like Android has just only been booted, it hasn't been optimized or the UI tweeked.

I mean the iPad's OS does well for the iPad (but could've added more functionality) although the screen's much larger than the iPod Touch. And you know how Apple's obsessed with polish/perfecting the experience (not functionality)

So ^ that was just a long way of saying that a smartphone OS can be made elegant for tablets/larger screens by tweeking the interface somewhat. And remmember the first Android was a Google phone (HTC Dream/G1), then the first advanced Android phone "successor" was also from Google (Nexus One). So it is highly likely that Google is working on a tweeked Android (probably 2.3 Gingerbread) to make it elegant for tablets right now. And it is almost certain that the first tablet to come with this OS will be from Google. The knock-offs will have half-baked regular Androids and will only apply this Android version once the Google Tablet is released.
However, I feel like Google should have announced this before the iPad was released and have aimed to release the G-tablet something like June '10, effectively stealing Apple's customers.

True, it didn't look so stupendous to me. More like Moblin 2.1 with a few pretty avatars. The biggest let down: zones.

I mean the concept of zones is good in theory, but not in practice. For example, why should a little calculator need its own dedicated screen/zone? Why can't you keep it in the corner to do quick calculations when your typing a word document. Alternating between like 8 Applications will take too long with Alt+Tab cycling and will be slow if you attempted to switch by entering the "zones" tab if all you needed was a quick peek/copy and paste/calculation.

So it slows you down for those "fast multitasking" periods but more importantly become a huge nuisance.
And perhaps you connected your netbook to a large screen. You now have enough screen estate to multitask efficiently but are unable to take advantage. This is why Windows7 Superbar works wonders.

@Rebski I've developed my own smartphone/tablet/netbook/home console OS concept and I've nearly finalized about 50% of the illustrations. Once I've finished 50% (soon), you will be one of the first to get a sneak peek, I'll PM you. [Constructive] Criticism is much appreciated

Yes and price it accordingly, i.e. low. It is not fair to price it as a premium product when it doesn't perform as such and leaves us high and dry shortly afterwards. That way we know where we stand and it avoids bad feeling.

They would of course have been correct in that and I walked into the SmartQ purchase with my eyes open so the lack of optimisation efforts over the past year are disappointing but that was on the cards from the outset and it was cheap too.

Nokia charged full price for the N800 and that implied much more. Not only the cost but the kudos I had wrongly attributed to the Nokia brand. And that really is at the heart of this. I simply gave Nokia more credit for customer care than it warranted. That might go some way to explaining why Apple is wiping the floor with Nokia.

Thank you I look forward to that.

[/QUOTE]

I think this underlines one of the basic issues in this market segment. On a smartphone spec page, generally the hardware components take up some 80-95% of the listing. Sometimes the software component only shows up in one line:

Operating System: ____

So it would be par for the course for Nokia to price the N900 as it is, due to the hardware specs on it. The software component (OS, core apps, etc) value on the N900 depends highly on who's judging it.

Look at what I found
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/02/t...medium=twitter

Telefonica is a pretty big deal

This thread from the MeeGo forum contains some announcements from Computex:
http://forum.meego.com/showthread.php?t=195
I didn't check to see which of them, if any, were new.

Indeed. Telefonica is the third largest mobile operator in the world.

Can a mod please change the title of this thread. The hyperbole in it keeps me from taking this thread serious.

@buurmas thanks for the vid (though I had seen it on engadget first). That vid had one aspect of my concept in its UI (de ja vu?), I'll let you guess what that is once I release it.
@Rebski and ysss I've had some progress on my UI.

But then I had an idea that this UI might be quite good on the N900, so I am slowly tweeking some areas to suit it so.

Remember that this concept is
a whole (eg similar to how iPhone's OS complete)
very intuitive (you find things at the first expected places) unlike Snow Leopard
everything is categorizes to you in the easiest form.

The first release will be a coarse release of flip images (ie slideshow) so their won't be any polishing/eye candy.
This is because I've created most of the icons by hand, so if someone with graphic experienced picked it up you will be WOWed.

Just to give you more info:
I've concluded that this UI will be aimed at MeeGo and should be adopt to the N900 nicely.
I am constructing it a complete and from scratch.
I've already finished the entire design by paper sketches and transferred these into wordpad.
I've finished drawing 50% of the concept with Paint to illustrate the concept.
I've just realized their is more things I need to add to my design:
for instance illustrating the interface when you hit the shortcut
and adding portrait view (a big challenge when there is emphasis on multitasking).

Instead of publishing the progress so far, I've decided to continue on these.

And just to clarify why I've concluded this will suit MeeGo primarily:

The concept is designed multi-finger friendly (but mouse/keyboard are very encouraged),
Multitasking is at its heart and is meshed around full-blown desktop Linux OS.
It's aimed at all devices with screens between 4" (854x480)* to larger touch devices like 12" (1366x768).
It scales beautifully to 50" TV screens for some video/gaming fun.

With following updates I might make it aimed between 3" (640x360 - half HD) to 12" (1280x720 - HD). But it will take some many optimizations until it can be finger friendly AND intuitive AND fitting on 3". It wont be specifically aimed at but it will again scale perfectly to large (>40") TVs with Full HD (1920x1080) but using same sizing placements as the 720p or the 480p since large TVs are viewed from a distance and sizig is about displaying information orderly instead of cramming alot of information into that screen^.

*It actually started on this pixel ratio and size for pocketable gaming PMP I designed for OPandora.

^Just to prove my point think; the iPhone displays 4x4 widgets. Now think how much more difficult/slow it would be to use/find Apps if the widgets were arranged in a 6x6 configure. See my point now?

Some pages I would leave only 12 Apps as it would make spotting them easy.

have just seen the unveiling of iphone 4...and I dont think any device is going to kill it

I agree, it looks very promising indeed.