Software isn't the only thing. When ever someone comes up with something really innovative for iPhone, Apple throws a patent at it.
iControlPad is one of the more innovative hardware addons I've come across. They too are talking to a lawyer because of Apple blatantly patented their design.
It is exactly for reasons like this we should support truly open platforms for mobiles instead of "open" like android.
I am really happy with my N900 and I hope MeeGo will be a huge success.
You should have just gotten new one using warranty. Since droid seems to get the same sort of bug, it is quite possible there is simply a bad batch of omap 3 processors going around.
My N900 has been very stable. I've had it for over 5 weeks now and I've so far gotten a single reboot. That was when I was trying to open unsupported file with development version of KMplayer. Even then the phone just autobooted and everything was back to normal.
I would have to say N900 is surprisingly stable for something so new and groundbreaking.
The biggest problem with old games on mobiles is definitely the controls. If you have seen Duke Nukem 3D on iPhone you would have to agree the controls make it nearly unplayable. I remember playing through couple of levels on my N810 and the keyboard makes it more playable but it can still be tiresome experience for your fingers. Connecting Wiimote to N900 gives good controls but the Wiimote is too big to carry around.
On positive side, porting games like these to n900 is pretty easy. So far I've seen Star Control 2, Quake 3, Jagged Alliance 2, Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior. All were ported by someone for free. If you connect Wiimote to N900 and N900 to your TV, it's almost as good as cheap console.
BTW, Quake 3 would probably have made a more impressive headline =)
MP counts say nothing. I have used a 1.3MP digital camera from the early 00's that takes better pictures than every camera phone I ever used. Unless you get a phone with optical zoom you can almost be guaranteed the quality will be crap.
1 good megapixel is better than 8 crap ones
I've had a bit different experience, although I do agree that the MP count is mostly meaningless. High MP actually seriously drops the quality because of the tiny sensors can't get enough light.
Nokia seems to have the upper hand in mobile cameras and once again these phones are not something most americans end up seeing. Most of their top of the line phones have had Carl Zeiss optics for a while now. The tiny sensor is still a problem so any low light situation creates ugly grainy images. However with proper lighting (or with Xenon flash like in the old Nokia N82) you can get some really good pics. Nokia pretty much stopped increasing the sensor size a few years ago at 5 MP and has been trying to improve the quality since.
The N900 is NOT very expensive (well not cheap either), it's about the same as any other top of the line smartphone. The reason it may seem like that is because in US you cannot get it subsidized.
Here is a copy paste of an earlier post I made....
Here are some prices from one of the cheaper web stores in Finland. Please note that these have taxes included and probably the "europeans are idiots" bonus (1 dollar = 1 euro)
iPhone 3GS 32GB - 528 euro (+ 12 month contract with "normal" prices)
iPhone 3G 8GB - 396 euro (+12 month contract with "normal" prices)
HTC Hero - 489.90 euro (no contract)
Motorola Milestone - 549.90 euro (no contract + 50 euro more for localized keyboard)
Nokia N900 - 569.00 euro (no contract)
Samsung Galaxy i7500 - 489.90 euro( no contract)
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Android - 749.90 euro (no contract)
Based on these it would seem that most top of the line phones actually cost around 500 - 600 euro (that is probably 500$-600$ in US) and even correlates pretty nicely with release schedule. Don't get the price on the Sony Ericsson, though it isn't actually out yet I think.
BTW: People were able to get it as cheap as $442 from Dell a while back. Don't know what is the cheapest now (nor would I buy anything from Dell:)
So many news and comments that seem to think this is real that I can't really form an opinion myself. If google does do this, it is a bit of a slap on the face for it's Android allies. Google is suddenly a competitor with a clear advantage.
I also love my N900. Too bad most americans probably won't be seeing it. There is no way any carrier will subsidize N900.
Why?
Tethering (usb/bluetooth) - Bluetooth makes this too easy, No need for extra software, no need to even take the phone out of pocket
Loads of free apps with stuff like Star Control 2 (includes 130 Mb voice & music pack) - lots of network traffic with no slice for the carrier
torrent client (Transmission) - carriers will love this;)
When you try calling someone, N900 opens a list with GSM / Skype / SMS/Email/IM for the person - Guess whether people will choose GSM or SMS if they have choice...
The same internet/video traffic that iPhone has plus then some from using apps like Google maps, other Flash stuff etc.
I haven't said anything about making more money. That is not the point. What I am saying is that when comparing prices of software or electronics 1 euro in EU usually means 1 dollar in US.
Couple more examples...
Windows 7 Ultimate edition - Finnish web store 289.90 Euros - Amazon.com 285.50$
Apple iPod classic 160GB - Finnish web store 248.90 Euros - Amazon.com 229.95$
I am perfectly aware of current EURUSD conversion rate. What I am trying to say is, most electronics and software in EU is priced like the conversion rate would be 1 dollar = 1 euro. For example computer games on steam are priced about 50 dollars in US and about 50 euros in EU (I am talking about english version in both cases). I do not think anyone could explain the current difference based on actual expenses.
I know the rates wary from case to case, but while the actual value of dollar has gone down and euro has gone up, the actual prices in US haven't risen at the same rate and prices in EU certainly haven't gone down. Most big companies seem to charge what ever the market can take.
Most americans seem to have quite a hard time comparing prices simply because most of the time your carriers subsidize so much of the actual price.
Here are some prices from one of the cheaper web stores in Finland. Please note that these have taxes included and probably the "europeans are idiots" bonus (1 dollar = 1 euro)
iPhone 3GS 32GB - 528 euro (+ 12 month contract with "normal" prices)
iPhone 3G 8GB - 396 euro (+12 month contract with "normal" prices)
HTC Hero - 489.90 euro (no contract)
Motorola Milestone - 549.90 euro (no contract + 50 euro for localized keyboard)
Nokia N900 - 569.00 euro (no contract)
Samsung Galaxy i7500 - 489.90 euro( no contract)
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Android - 749.90 euro (no contract)
Based on these it would seem that most top of the line phones actually cost around 500 - 600 euro (that is probably 500$-600$ in US) and even correlates pretty nicely with release schedule. Don't get the price on the Sony Ericsson, though it isn't actually out yet I think.
I think the breakthrough sector for Linux could very well be mobile phones/computers. This is an area where there simply isn't enough processing power to run Windows and even when there is, Linux will win hands down on battery life, ease of interface customization, support for non-desktop hardware(ARM) etc.
Platforms like Android, Maemo and Bada could very well start a landslide where most people end up using Linux daily. Once people get used to apps like mplayer and evince on their phones, moving to Linux on desktop will be that much easier. The increasing support for software development from major companies can be a huge boon. I also think that at least with Maemo we will see software designed for phones ported to the direction of Linux desktop.
Disclaimer: I've been using Maemo based N900 for three weeks now and the potential of the hardware & software stack makes me giddy. Every Linux geek should definitely try it =)
I went through these patents earlier and I also thought the list was surprisingly weak.
Only one of these patents seems to be an actual "iPhone patent".
No. 7,469,381, B2: List scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touch-screen display
I understood this one to be basically scrolling a document with your finger on touchscreen (instead of hand cursor and mouse). It was applied for in december 2007 so I would be surprised if it didn't also have prior art.
Apple's rhetoric seems to try to imply that Nokia is simply copying iPhone, and yet in the brief there isn't all that much about iPhone related accusations. In fact they are even going after something like Carbide.C++ that is a Symbian development platform running on Windows.
Hadn't heard of JooJoo aka Crunchpad before so did some googling.
For those who are as clueless as me, it seems to be a tablet pc with a 12 inch touchscreen. Runs a custom version of Ubuntu on Intel Atom.
Sounds a bit like a bigger version of N810. Sounds a bit interesting, but it's all up to implementation.
Does anyone know whether you could bluetooth tether this to use internet through something like N900?
If I can run ssh, VNC and NX on it that is. And Firefox, Thunderbird and evince. And Cisco VPN. That's my basic set of tools.
If it's a full featured phone too I'd spend maybe $500 on it.
Maybe you should keep an eye out for Nokia N900.
Ssh, Vnc and firefox work pretty nicely already.
Evince and vpnc (if that is ok for cisco VPN) were ported for N810 so I think those will also be available soon. Don't know what is the probability for NX or Thunderbird though.
Apple came to the phone market doing what they do best, interface & usability. Sure others have some catching up to do in this segment.
However Apple is standing on the shoulders of giants with iPhone. If you look at GSM standards for example, Nokia owns 67 of the 158 patents considered "essential" for GSM. Apple owns 0. And that is just a tiny part of the tech that goes into a modern phone.
People give Apple way too much credit for the shiny package. When it comes to actual tech, Apple is simply using the inventions of other manufacturers and I highly doubt that will change.
This really needs to be illegal. The possibilities of blackmailing software providers and harming users is pretty much endless when the carrier gets to decide the firewall settings.
That said, luckily they can't pull this shit with my N900. Anyone could make a new copy of the software repository, use proxy or simply go through WiFi if the 3g is blocked.
From my personal opinion Android simply doesn't stand a chance. While Android does run Linux kernel it doesn't have X Window etc. It's glorified java platform that doesn't even support full java spec. You can do anything with it, but things will take a lot of work.
Maemo on the other hand is what I see as a 'real' Linux platform running software stack which makes it pretty trivial to port existing apps to it.
Stuff I currently run on my N810: -Real browser looking firefox with flash support -MPlayer for playing nearly any format I can throw at it... -Gnumeric for spreadsheets -Battle for Wesnoth, Beneath the steel sky, Duke Nukem 3D when I feel like playing something -Vnc server & client -Gjiten for translating stuff to Japanese. Japanese symbols display nicely etc.
Only thing I'm really missing is the phone functionality. Even if the only improvement to N900 would be adding that, I would be happy. Adding processing power etc. makes it a must buy for me.
Too little, too late.
Now with Android showing the way, they realize how closed development put them behind. I enjoyed my Nokia phones, but I got frustrated with the lack of development.
Too little? Too late?
You mean full linux platform where you can simply type "sudo gainroot" to get root access?
Platform to which it will be almost trivial to port a huge library of current linux apps?
Personally I really don't like Androids "open". The under the hood it's a closed platform that gives you a Java interface that you can use for most things. No easy porting, not even full Java libraries and carriers can prevent tethering etc. While Android is "open", it's not the same thing as real linux platform in your pocket. Maemo in my mind is something completely different. Something the other manufacturers will have to start catching up.
Nokias hardware has always been great quality, the software has just been dragging behind because Symbian platform just plain sucks. Buying QT and going linux seems like a real killer move to me. Now they just need to dump Symbian and really start spending time and money on Maemo. Hopefully rest of the linux community will gain something from Nokias enormous resources too.
So let me get this straight:
While Nokia is afraid that their N900 won't sell because they don't allow ANY carrier customization, Apple is patenting ways to actually cripple your device if the carriers so desire?
Slashdot Mirror
Software isn't the only thing. When ever someone comes up with something really innovative for iPhone, Apple throws a patent at it.
iControlPad is one of the more innovative hardware addons I've come across. They too are talking to a lawyer because of Apple blatantly patented their design.
It was also on slashdot few months ago.
One more reason for me to not touch Apple products.
It is exactly for reasons like this we should support truly open platforms for mobiles instead of "open" like android. I am really happy with my N900 and I hope MeeGo will be a huge success.
Ah, but then the ESRB and PEGI would need to update their game rating systems. They only have stuff like bad language.
On the other hand, I can already think of a very descriptive new icon for PEGI.
Sounds a lot more like you would like to see Maemo.
You should have just gotten new one using warranty. Since droid seems to get the same sort of bug, it is quite possible there is simply a bad batch of omap 3 processors going around.
My N900 has been very stable. I've had it for over 5 weeks now and I've so far gotten a single reboot. That was when I was trying to open unsupported file with development version of KMplayer. Even then the phone just autobooted and everything was back to normal.
I would have to say N900 is surprisingly stable for something so new and groundbreaking.
The biggest problem with old games on mobiles is definitely the controls. If you have seen Duke Nukem 3D on iPhone you would have to agree the controls make it nearly unplayable. I remember playing through couple of levels on my N810 and the keyboard makes it more playable but it can still be tiresome experience for your fingers. Connecting Wiimote to N900 gives good controls but the Wiimote is too big to carry around.
On positive side, porting games like these to n900 is pretty easy. So far I've seen Star Control 2, Quake 3, Jagged Alliance 2, Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior. All were ported by someone for free. If you connect Wiimote to N900 and N900 to your TV, it's almost as good as cheap console.
BTW, Quake 3 would probably have made a more impressive headline =)
MP counts say nothing. I have used a 1.3MP digital camera from the early 00's that takes better pictures than every camera phone I ever used. Unless you get a phone with optical zoom you can almost be guaranteed the quality will be crap.
1 good megapixel is better than 8 crap ones
I've had a bit different experience, although I do agree that the MP count is mostly meaningless. High MP actually seriously drops the quality because of the tiny sensors can't get enough light.
Nokia seems to have the upper hand in mobile cameras and once again these phones are not something most americans end up seeing. Most of their top of the line phones have had Carl Zeiss optics for a while now. The tiny sensor is still a problem so any low light situation creates ugly grainy images. However with proper lighting (or with Xenon flash like in the old Nokia N82) you can get some really good pics. Nokia pretty much stopped increasing the sensor size a few years ago at 5 MP and has been trying to improve the quality since.
Here is a copy paste of an earlier post I made....
Here are some prices from one of the cheaper web stores in Finland. Please note that these have taxes included and probably the "europeans are idiots" bonus (1 dollar = 1 euro)
Based on these it would seem that most top of the line phones actually cost around 500 - 600 euro (that is probably 500$-600$ in US) and even correlates pretty nicely with release schedule. Don't get the price on the Sony Ericsson, though it isn't actually out yet I think.
BTW: People were able to get it as cheap as $442 from Dell a while back. Don't know what is the cheapest now (nor would I buy anything from Dell :)
Is there any bit more official or trusted source that is actually confirming that google is bringing out its own phone?
Eldar Murtazin which I would consider a moderately trustworthy source regarding mobiles says that he has talked about it with a google employee and it's a fake.
So many news and comments that seem to think this is real that I can't really form an opinion myself. If google does do this, it is a bit of a slap on the face for it's Android allies. Google is suddenly a competitor with a clear advantage.
Why?
I haven't said anything about making more money. That is not the point. What I am saying is that when comparing prices of software or electronics 1 euro in EU usually means 1 dollar in US.
Couple more examples...
Windows 7 Ultimate edition - Finnish web store 289.90 Euros - Amazon.com 285.50$
Apple iPod classic 160GB - Finnish web store 248.90 Euros - Amazon.com 229.95$
I am perfectly aware of current EURUSD conversion rate. What I am trying to say is, most electronics and software in EU is priced like the conversion rate would be 1 dollar = 1 euro. For example computer games on steam are priced about 50 dollars in US and about 50 euros in EU (I am talking about english version in both cases). I do not think anyone could explain the current difference based on actual expenses.
I know the rates wary from case to case, but while the actual value of dollar has gone down and euro has gone up, the actual prices in US haven't risen at the same rate and prices in EU certainly haven't gone down. Most big companies seem to charge what ever the market can take.
Here are some prices from one of the cheaper web stores in Finland. Please note that these have taxes included and probably the "europeans are idiots" bonus (1 dollar = 1 euro)
Based on these it would seem that most top of the line phones actually cost around 500 - 600 euro (that is probably 500$-600$ in US) and even correlates pretty nicely with release schedule. Don't get the price on the Sony Ericsson, though it isn't actually out yet I think.
I think the breakthrough sector for Linux could very well be mobile phones/computers. This is an area where there simply isn't enough processing power to run Windows and even when there is, Linux will win hands down on battery life, ease of interface customization, support for non-desktop hardware(ARM) etc.
Platforms like Android, Maemo and Bada could very well start a landslide where most people end up using Linux daily. Once people get used to apps like mplayer and evince on their phones, moving to Linux on desktop will be that much easier. The increasing support for software development from major companies can be a huge boon. I also think that at least with Maemo we will see software designed for phones ported to the direction of Linux desktop.
Disclaimer: I've been using Maemo based N900 for three weeks now and the potential of the hardware & software stack makes me giddy. Every Linux geek should definitely try it =)
I went through these patents earlier and I also thought the list was surprisingly weak.
Only one of these patents seems to be an actual "iPhone patent".
No. 7,469,381, B2: List scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touch-screen display
I understood this one to be basically scrolling a document with your finger on touchscreen (instead of hand cursor and mouse). It was applied for in december 2007 so I would be surprised if it didn't also have prior art.
Apple's rhetoric seems to try to imply that Nokia is simply copying iPhone, and yet in the brief there isn't all that much about iPhone related accusations. In fact they are even going after something like Carbide.C++ that is a Symbian development platform running on Windows.
Hadn't heard of JooJoo aka Crunchpad before so did some googling.
For those who are as clueless as me, it seems to be a tablet pc with a 12 inch touchscreen. Runs a custom version of Ubuntu on Intel Atom.
Sounds a bit like a bigger version of N810. Sounds a bit interesting, but it's all up to implementation.
Does anyone know whether you could bluetooth tether this to use internet through something like N900?
Maybe you should keep an eye out for Nokia N900.
Ssh, Vnc and firefox work pretty nicely already.
Evince and vpnc (if that is ok for cisco VPN) were ported for N810 so I think those will also be available soon. Don't know what is the probability for NX or Thunderbird though.
Apple came to the phone market doing what they do best, interface & usability. Sure others have some catching up to do in this segment.
However Apple is standing on the shoulders of giants with iPhone. If you look at GSM standards for example, Nokia owns 67 of the 158 patents considered "essential" for GSM. Apple owns 0. And that is just a tiny part of the tech that goes into a modern phone.
People give Apple way too much credit for the shiny package. When it comes to actual tech, Apple is simply using the inventions of other manufacturers and I highly doubt that will change.
This really needs to be illegal. The possibilities of blackmailing software providers and harming users is pretty much endless when the carrier gets to decide the firewall settings.
That said, luckily they can't pull this shit with my N900. Anyone could make a new copy of the software repository, use proxy or simply go through WiFi if the 3g is blocked.
From my personal opinion Android simply doesn't stand a chance. While Android does run Linux kernel it doesn't have X Window etc. It's glorified java platform that doesn't even support full java spec. You can do anything with it, but things will take a lot of work.
Maemo on the other hand is what I see as a 'real' Linux platform running software stack which makes it pretty trivial to port existing apps to it.
Stuff I currently run on my N810:
-Real browser looking firefox with flash support
-MPlayer for playing nearly any format I can throw at it...
-Gnumeric for spreadsheets
-Battle for Wesnoth, Beneath the steel sky, Duke Nukem 3D when I feel like playing something
-Vnc server & client
-Gjiten for translating stuff to Japanese. Japanese symbols display nicely etc.
Only thing I'm really missing is the phone functionality. Even if the only improvement to N900 would be adding that, I would be happy. Adding processing power etc. makes it a must buy for me.
Too little? Too late?
You mean full linux platform where you can simply type "sudo gainroot" to get root access?
Platform to which it will be almost trivial to port a huge library of current linux apps?
Personally I really don't like Androids "open". The under the hood it's a closed platform that gives you a Java interface that you can use for most things. No easy porting, not even full Java libraries and carriers can prevent tethering etc. While Android is "open", it's not the same thing as real linux platform in your pocket. Maemo in my mind is something completely different. Something the other manufacturers will have to start catching up.
Nokias hardware has always been great quality, the software has just been dragging behind because Symbian platform just plain sucks. Buying QT and going linux seems like a real killer move to me. Now they just need to dump Symbian and really start spending time and money on Maemo. Hopefully rest of the linux community will gain something from Nokias enormous resources too.
So let me get this straight:
While Nokia is afraid that their N900 won't sell because they don't allow ANY carrier customization, Apple is patenting ways to actually cripple your device if the carriers so desire?
I know which phone I'm getting...
I just read the post and realized how sad it is that I understood that completely.
...and yes the name of the scrum development model comes from rugby.
Is there anyone, at all, anywhere, who's gonna carry a balance of even a megabuck?
6.2, really. That's all they needed.
Yes, because Visa doesn't do business in other currencies...
Besides, maybe this bug was introduced while Visa was preparing their system to match the estimate for coming inflation =)