The N900 hasn't even been released yet, and it's already outdated (not that that's going to stop me from buying one...). It's one of the first smartphones to play in-browser Flash video halfway decently, but what about when Youtube switches to H264 only... what about when the next technology after AJAX/CSS/Javascript comes out?
Sure, the browsers on new smartphones are great, but they're still a long way away from being able to display pages the same way as a desktop or laptop... mostly because of CPU constraints, as far as I can tell.
That's just it though - I want my phone to replace my computer when I'm out and about, and I'll take a few missed phone calls (provided they'll show up in my missed calls list a few seconds later so that I can actually call back) over the restrictions of something like iPhone OS any day.
Clock rates aren't everything. Whether Tegra actually makes such a big difference (supposedly 1080p playback is possible on the ZuneHD?) remains to be seen...
"And I have yet to have a phone call NOT pop up the dialer, regardless of what I was doing - even when watching a movie, or answering e-mails."
I have (HTC Prophet... 195MHz OMAP 850, I think). Some of the older devices just don't have enough free RAM to run newer applications (Opera 9.7 is problematic, for instance), and the device scrolls down to a crawl when you do - if I'm, say, loading a web page like Slashdot, and a phone call comes in, it can take 10 seconds from starting to vibrate to actually showing that someone's calling on the screen...
Of course, this shouldn't be a problem with newer models... not to mention I'm trying to run software that was written for devices with 10x the RAM and 3x the processor power.
To be fair, AFAIK iTunes has switched to DRM-free files as well... however, the stunt they pulled with not unlocking already sold DRM'd files (you would've had to upgrade them or buy them again, IIRC) was just insane. I don't understand why iTunes users continue to take it up the ass and like it...
"These devices are not 'drag and drop raw mp3 files and then listen" like so many cheap Chinese players."
You say that like it's a bad thing... I was pretty apalled when I first tried to put music on an iPod (IIRC that was an iPod Classic back before they were called "Classic") and it never showed up. When I realized I'd have to install proprietary software just to get the music on the player, the whole iPod hype thing died for me.
Not everyone is a complete idiot who can't handle a 3-layer-deep directory structure or media file tagging themselves...
If you read closely, you'll notice that I never said that you should get rid of _all_ the third party software - just the stuff that's causing crashes...
Get rid of the third-party software that causes the instability and you'll be fine.
I had the same problem with BatteryStatusExt on WM 5.0, 6.0, 6.1 and 6.5... as soon as I took that off, no more freezes, no more standby-of-deaths (which, for people who don't know, is when the device refuses to wake up from standby), nothing. The damned thing's uncrashable:D
I'm now looking forward to my next HTC device (probably the Leo AKA Touch HD2)...
Obviously widescreen just exacerbates this problem... however, my reply is still valid, even for hi-res 4:3 or 5:4 screens... just use the extra space for something else;)
Why does that bother you? It's not like you need to run your browser in full screen all the time...
Don't get me wrong - I'm not a widescreen advocate and I'd go back to my 2048x1536 CRTs if my eyes could still take it, but 16:10 isn't as bad as it sounds.
Even on 1680x1050 (which is perfect for me on 15.4" laptops in terms of pixel density, I've found), I've got enough room for a 1050x1050 browser window/Word/PDF and 630x1050 left for E-Mail, IM, widgets or whatever. Being able to view two full A4 PDFs side by side is also very useful...
As sad as it is, I don't think 4:3 or, God forbid, 5:4 displays are coming back - learn to make use of the benefits of 16:10 screens and you might realize that they're actually not as bad as they're made out to be...
Hmmm, I just checked, and there are R500 models available for 200 LESS (600 + shipping) than I paid for my SL500 (which has only gone down in price by a few measly Euros in the mean time). Of course, that's with WXGA screen res and a 35W processor (but still a 2GHz Core2Duo, 2GB of RAM, FPR), but it is dirt cheap.
I'm guessing that the same model probably sells for around $600-$800 in the US. Can't really believe that they go for $1000, considering that everyone here raves about how cheap Thinkpads are in the US;-)
I hate them because they've killed cheap R-series variants.
Have they really? About a month after I bought mine, I realized that I could've gotten an R-Series Thinkpad with the same specs (okay, minus the WWAN card) for about 10% more:-(
My experience regarding the customer service has been largely the same (although my Thinkpad is a cheap SL500 consumer series model), but for the price, I'm relatively satisfied with the hardware. The casing is feels cheap, the keyboard flexes a little, and there were a few internal mechanical problems (mainly cables not placed in the proper channels causing PCB stress+flex, and other stuff like that) that I had to fix myself before deciding to keep the machine, but in terms of build quality and important features (decent keyboard, awesome pointing device, wsxga+ on a 15.4" TFT) it's still better than anything else I've found at this price point ($800)...
Never having seen a modern T-, W- or R-Series model myself (I've only used older ones like the T4x and T60/61) I can't offer an opinion regarding those, but just extrapolating from my experiences with the SL500 (which is, as I mentioned above, the cheapest entry-level Thinkpad line - not even considered a real Thinkpad by most long-time Thinkpad users), I'd expect them to be better than other devices in their price range in terms of durability and input options.
You forgot to mention a low latency sound solution that works more or less across the board... JACK/ALSA and the like were completely hit-'n-miss when I tried 'em.
Let's see... every single tabbed program I've ever used (and that includes Visual Studio) uses CTRL+Tab to switch between tabs. CTRL+Shift+Tab for switching in the other direction...
I was actually surprised that Security Essentials found two trojans that both AVG Free and Avast! missed - so I suppose a single free scanner probably isn't going to be enough.
I don't get what the big deal is either. How about just making systems more stable, so you don't HAVE to reboot? Hell, other than the occasional bluescreen because the unsanctioned nVidia driver is acting up, or mandatory reboot after a driver update, I don't think I've rebooted my laptop since I got it (going on 5 months now). It was the same with my previous system - as soon as I got working drivers installed for everything, crashes disappeared and the thing would run for months on end... all on XP, mind you.
Even faster resume-from-suspend times wouldn't really be interesting at all - even on XP (supposedly they're faster already on Vista and Win7 - didn't notice much of a difference, TBH) they're already so fast that the amount of time I spend waiting for the system is lower than the amount of time I spend typing my 20 character password - and I'm a pretty fast typer.
Slashdot Mirror
Tell me about it... Opera 9.7 on my WinMo 6.1 phone has a heart attack every time I even think about Slashdot :(
The N900 hasn't even been released yet, and it's already outdated (not that that's going to stop me from buying one...). It's one of the first smartphones to play in-browser Flash video halfway decently, but what about when Youtube switches to H264 only... what about when the next technology after AJAX/CSS/Javascript comes out?
Sure, the browsers on new smartphones are great, but they're still a long way away from being able to display pages the same way as a desktop or laptop... mostly because of CPU constraints, as far as I can tell.
That's just it though - I want my phone to replace my computer when I'm out and about, and I'll take a few missed phone calls (provided they'll show up in my missed calls list a few seconds later so that I can actually call back) over the restrictions of something like iPhone OS any day.
So you're saying the reason they didn't unlock previously DRM'd files is that they gained user-base by starting to sell unlocked files?
I strongly suspect I'm just understanding you wrong... care to explain?
You do realize they're doing this for heating and electricity, right? Not much middle-aged about that...
Not to mention that with a few more wind turbines or solar panels you could switch from horses to electric tractors or something like that :)
God I hope you're right...
http://gizmodo.com/5293404/zune-hd-packs-nvidia-tegra-better-video-and-better-battery-life
Clock rates aren't everything. Whether Tegra actually makes such a big difference (supposedly 1080p playback is possible on the ZuneHD?) remains to be seen...
"And I have yet to have a phone call NOT pop up the dialer, regardless of what I was doing - even when watching a movie, or answering e-mails."
I have (HTC Prophet... 195MHz OMAP 850, I think). Some of the older devices just don't have enough free RAM to run newer applications (Opera 9.7 is problematic, for instance), and the device scrolls down to a crawl when you do - if I'm, say, loading a web page like Slashdot, and a phone call comes in, it can take 10 seconds from starting to vibrate to actually showing that someone's calling on the screen...
Of course, this shouldn't be a problem with newer models... not to mention I'm trying to run software that was written for devices with 10x the RAM and 3x the processor power.
To be fair, AFAIK iTunes has switched to DRM-free files as well... however, the stunt they pulled with not unlocking already sold DRM'd files (you would've had to upgrade them or buy them again, IIRC) was just insane. I don't understand why iTunes users continue to take it up the ass and like it...
"These devices are not 'drag and drop raw mp3 files and then listen" like so many cheap Chinese players."
You say that like it's a bad thing... I was pretty apalled when I first tried to put music on an iPod (IIRC that was an iPod Classic back before they were called "Classic") and it never showed up. When I realized I'd have to install proprietary software just to get the music on the player, the whole iPod hype thing died for me.
Not everyone is a complete idiot who can't handle a 3-layer-deep directory structure or media file tagging themselves...
If you read closely, you'll notice that I never said that you should get rid of _all_ the third party software - just the stuff that's causing crashes...
Get rid of the third-party software that causes the instability and you'll be fine.
I had the same problem with BatteryStatusExt on WM 5.0, 6.0, 6.1 and 6.5... as soon as I took that off, no more freezes, no more standby-of-deaths (which, for people who don't know, is when the device refuses to wake up from standby), nothing. The damned thing's uncrashable :D
I'm now looking forward to my next HTC device (probably the Leo AKA Touch HD2)...
Obviously widescreen just exacerbates this problem... however, my reply is still valid, even for hi-res 4:3 or 5:4 screens... just use the extra space for something else ;)
Why does that bother you? It's not like you need to run your browser in full screen all the time...
Don't get me wrong - I'm not a widescreen advocate and I'd go back to my 2048x1536 CRTs if my eyes could still take it, but 16:10 isn't as bad as it sounds.
Even on 1680x1050 (which is perfect for me on 15.4" laptops in terms of pixel density, I've found), I've got enough room for a 1050x1050 browser window/Word/PDF and 630x1050 left for E-Mail, IM, widgets or whatever. Being able to view two full A4 PDFs side by side is also very useful...
As sad as it is, I don't think 4:3 or, God forbid, 5:4 displays are coming back - learn to make use of the benefits of 16:10 screens and you might realize that they're actually not as bad as they're made out to be...
Huh, I'm the same, but everyone still looks at me weird when I tell them I don't actually own a TV... :P
LOL, I guess "IIRC" wasn't a great choice for the acronym :D...
I don't get the transition from steak (beef) to human... IIRC people taste like pork, don't they? :P
Hmmm, I just checked, and there are R500 models available for 200 LESS (600 + shipping) than I paid for my SL500 (which has only gone down in price by a few measly Euros in the mean time). Of course, that's with WXGA screen res and a 35W processor (but still a 2GHz Core2Duo, 2GB of RAM, FPR), but it is dirt cheap.
I'm guessing that the same model probably sells for around $600-$800 in the US. Can't really believe that they go for $1000, considering that everyone here raves about how cheap Thinkpads are in the US ;-)
I hate them because they've killed cheap R-series variants.
Have they really? About a month after I bought mine, I realized that I could've gotten an R-Series Thinkpad with the same specs (okay, minus the WWAN card) for about 10% more :-(
My experience regarding the customer service has been largely the same (although my Thinkpad is a cheap SL500 consumer series model), but for the price, I'm relatively satisfied with the hardware. The casing is feels cheap, the keyboard flexes a little, and there were a few internal mechanical problems (mainly cables not placed in the proper channels causing PCB stress+flex, and other stuff like that) that I had to fix myself before deciding to keep the machine, but in terms of build quality and important features (decent keyboard, awesome pointing device, wsxga+ on a 15.4" TFT) it's still better than anything else I've found at this price point ($800)...
Never having seen a modern T-, W- or R-Series model myself (I've only used older ones like the T4x and T60/61) I can't offer an opinion regarding those, but just extrapolating from my experiences with the SL500 (which is, as I mentioned above, the cheapest entry-level Thinkpad line - not even considered a real Thinkpad by most long-time Thinkpad users), I'd expect them to be better than other devices in their price range in terms of durability and input options.
Hah, now there's one I didn't know :D
I'll be sure to try that if I find a program that doesn't support CTRL+Tab :)
You forgot to mention a low latency sound solution that works more or less across the board... JACK/ALSA and the like were completely hit-'n-miss when I tried 'em.
Let's see... every single tabbed program I've ever used (and that includes Visual Studio) uses CTRL+Tab to switch between tabs. CTRL+Shift+Tab for switching in the other direction...
Are you sure you've used a keyboard before? :D
I was actually surprised that Security Essentials found two trojans that both AVG Free and Avast! missed - so I suppose a single free scanner probably isn't going to be enough.
I don't get what the big deal is either. How about just making systems more stable, so you don't HAVE to reboot? Hell, other than the occasional bluescreen because the unsanctioned nVidia driver is acting up, or mandatory reboot after a driver update, I don't think I've rebooted my laptop since I got it (going on 5 months now). It was the same with my previous system - as soon as I got working drivers installed for everything, crashes disappeared and the thing would run for months on end... all on XP, mind you.
Even faster resume-from-suspend times wouldn't really be interesting at all - even on XP (supposedly they're faster already on Vista and Win7 - didn't notice much of a difference, TBH) they're already so fast that the amount of time I spend waiting for the system is lower than the amount of time I spend typing my 20 character password - and I'm a pretty fast typer.