TabletBlog.com by ThoughtFix

Retiring from TabletBlog

2009-10-12T10:52:00.002-07:00

First, I want to congratulate Nokia and the Maemo team on the excellent progression of Maemo over the years. It looks amazing.

Maemo has taken on a totally different direction with the recent release. What started as a hacker-friendly, reasonably priced mobile computer has grown into a high-performance, luxury phone. Maemo tablets have gone from "having no competition in the class" to "taking on the big smartphone market." The Maemo team is proud of what they have created and they should be. From what I have seen and read, the N900 looks like a fantastic phone.

With that, I am retiring from TabletBlog.com. I don't have the time, energy, or money to keep up with the world of luxury smartphone competition. I am seeking new ownership for the TabletBlog.com domain name and will find some way to archive and mirror the content as it is under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

N900 and bundled apps

2009-09-10T12:19:00.001-07:00

I haven't played with the N900 yet so I do not know this answer - but will the N900 come with any community-created apps? What's bundled inside?

N900 - Sticker shock (updated by readers)

2009-09-02T11:42:00.004-07:00

**UPDATE** Read the comments for better perspective!

All the posts about the N900 are swirling around. It is indeed a VERY sexy device and I am proud maemo development team for producing such an amazing piece of technology.

The price ... What can I say? 500 British pounds = 812.5 U.S. dollars

What's the target market for the N900 at that rate? This may be status quo for luxury devices in some parts of the world, but Nseries phones never took off in the US. My guess: Wealthy hackers who aren't already fascinated by iPhones or Android phones. I am sure both of them will be thrilled to buy it. For perspective, here is some more stuff you can buy for US $800:

Electronics: (prices as of today from bestbuy.com)
A Dell Studio Core2Duo T6500, 4GB, DVDRW, 17" Widescreen, 320GB HDD.
An LG 42" 1080p LCD HDTV
Three Asus Eee 900 netbooks

I suppose cutting-edge technology deserves a cutting-edge price, but the US consumer luxury device is lower than it has been in a long time. It's a good thing for Nokia that they don't focus on the US for their success.

Nokia N900 - Beyond the Specs

2009-08-27T10:26:00.005-07:00

In this first impression post, I'll be talking about the hardware changes only. I have yet to use Maemo 5, so I cannot really comment on it yet.

The release announcement of the Nokia N900 has been reported by just about every blog already. The spec page shows plenty of changes - but what do they all mean? Let's break it down:

3.5" touchscreen, 800x480 resolution. The screen shrinks from the N810's 4.13" but keeps the same resolution. Software won't take a big hit on this since the resolution is the same, but applications that rely on very precise touchscreen use may be more difficult.
TI OMAP 3430 ARM Cortex-A8 CPU at 600 MHz. This is a massive upgrade over the TI OMAP 2420 at 400 MHz. Faster faster!
Up to 1GB Application Memory. This is a plus but not as big as it looks. There's only 256 MB of "real" RAM and the rest is attributed to swap. Still - the RAM amount is doubled over the N810 and the usable swap is six times the size.
32 GB storage. Wow. That's massive. This puts the N900 squarely in the "multimedia computer" space and even has more storage than some SSD netbooks. The N810 had only 2GB internal. Both support MicroSD (through a MiniSD adapter on the N810)
Size: About 113 cubic centimeters and 181 grams. That's down from about 129 cubic centimeters and 228 grams. it will feel better in your hand as a phone.
3-row Keyboard. This part took the biggest hit. The large D-pad and four-row keyboard was replaced by a three row keyboard with a squashed spacebar and arrow keys that can't easily be used for gaming (not that the N810 ever did much of that.)
Wireless connectivity: This is the first Maemo tablet that is actually a PHONE. With that, we get 3.5G HSPA, GPRS, EDGE,WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1. That's a major boost over the WiFi/Bluetooth that the N810 gave us.
Additional Communication: The N900 now includes TV out, an FM transmitter, a real A-GPS receiver (hopefully destroying the long lock times that the N810 suffered) and a micro-USB connector. The N810 had micro-USB and a GPS. The new features are fun toys, but won't be massive selling points.
Last but not least: CAMERA: The new camera features represent a massive shift from the previous generation tablets. The N800 had a cute pop-out rotating webcam that worked badly. The N810 had a front-facing webcam that worked badly. The N900 has a 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with a digital zoom, dual-LED flash, macro mode, and MPEG4 recording up to 848x480 at up to 25FPS. The Maemo tablets are now on par with high-end Nokia Nseries devices and soundly beat the pants off iPhones and Blackberries.

Coming soon (as soon as I can see it in action) - Impressions of Maemo 5!

TabletBlog content licensing opened

2009-08-24T14:09:00.003-07:00

In addition to removing all ads from TabletBlog.com -

Except where specifically noted, all content created for TabletBlog.com and UltraMobileGeek.com are now covered by the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0. This includes all videos hosted under the ThoughtFix YouTube channel and all images hosted under ThoughtFix accounts on Picasa and Flickr linked from these blogs.

All advertising removed from TabletBlog.com

2009-08-24T13:02:00.002-07:00

Since this blog isn't even passing payout thresholds for AdSense and Chitika anymore, I've decided to simply remove both advertising elements from the site. The future of the actual TabletBlog content will be determined by mid-September.

Nokia: Taking a stand on usability and freedom

2009-08-19T10:08:00.003-07:00

Early September. That's when all the cards hit the table.

Nokia is the #1 global smartphone provider, but Apple's chipping away at them. Nokia makes superior hardware, technological leaps ahead, and open software platforms. Apple makes "pretty" hardware and an all-in-one solution for hardware, software, music/video management, and applications.

iPhone users have a hard time using Nokia products due to the lack of a cohesive management interface. Users feel like the Nokia PC Suite and Ovi suite apps are far behind iTunes in music/video management, music/media store, app store, and interface cohesion. In my personal experience, the N97 software is about as stable as an egg. On a flag pole. During an earthquake.

Nokia users have a hard time using Apple products because the hardware is inferior, has fewer features, and has no opportunity for homebrew applications. Nokia users are accustomed to using any application they can find and download instead of just those approved by the application store. They're used to 5 megapixel images with video and flash. They have options for keyboards, touchscreens, candybar phones, sliders, and more.

Maemo is cut from a different cloth than Symbian. It started out as a proof-of-concept project for Nokia on the 770 Internet Tablet and grew into a global collaboration of some of the brightest people on the planet. From this "fresh start," the Maemo 5 tablet (phone!) has to capitalize on all the strengths of other Nokia devices, compensate for all shortcomings, and smack Apple head-on. If it were just up to the developers, I'd have no doubt that it would carve up the iPhone fans. However, a successful smartphone/media phone/Internet device relies on developers as well as business partnerships, lifestyle integration, and finding the right key points for market penetration.

What happens now?

Two things will happen in early September:
Nokia World 2009. Given how many "leaked" shots of the Maemo 5 tablet have already surfaced, the sensible press date for official release will be at this September 2-3 event. That gives the media and developers plenty of time past the NDA to properly discuss the tablet openly before the 2009 Maemo Summit a month later. Announcing at the Maemo summit will be too late as developers would have no time to properly present their latest attractions on the new platform.

Apple's special event on Sept 9. If there's an Apple tablet incoming (as often rumored) the Sept 9 event may be just in time to get the thing out by Christmas. It seems a little late to announce such a thing, but it's certainly possible. At the very least, it will give the competition something to play against during the upcoming holiday season.

Pardon me. I'm going to go hold my breath for a few weeks.

LJPRX-51 shows up on FCC site. Next tablet incoming!

2009-08-07T15:27:00.004-07:00

As usual, the FCC knows about Internet Tablets first. The only thing interesting in the filing articles are requests for confidentiality (filed Jul 14) and a silhouette of the device. It was initially submitted for testing on Jun 8.

It is a phone - showing tests on GSM 850, GSM 1900, and WCDMA 1700 ranges. The published documents show "Slide closed" indicating that it may have a similar form factor to the current N810.

Tested modes were:
2-slot GPRS50
WCDMA 1700/2100
3-slot GPRS1900
WLAN 2450
2-slot GPRS850+WLAN2450
WCDMA 1700/2100 + WLAN2450
3-slot GPRS1900 + WLAN2450

The 1700/2100 band confirms T-Mobile as the target US market.

Of course the designation of LJPRX-51 is not news to the maemo community: they've been talking about it since December.

On Qt, Android, Maemo, and Symbian

2009-07-06T11:08:00.004-07:00

By now, all readers of this blog have heard that Nokia announced that Qt (instead of GTK+) will be the base of the next development platform for Maemo Harmattan. What does this mean to the non-developer? First: the next generation of Maemo WILL NOT have this change yet. Fremantle is still on track to be more GTK+ based than Qt based. Second: Qt has a long history of attracting developers to make coding life easier across platforms. Qt based apps will be easier to port across tablets, phones, and PCs. While it's not exactly "Code once, run everywhere" it will be much closer than it has ever been before. To the consumer - it means more available apps.

For a more in-depth look, check out Quim Gil's presentation (slides and audio) as he goes into great detail on the subject.

Also in the news: There are rampaging rumors that Nokia will be turning to Android for phones. Nokia officially denied this. I can see why, too. Nokia spent a lot of time and money first creating the Maemo platform, then buying Trolltech for the Qt experience and finally buying Symbian to reformulate it as open-source. In each of those platforms, they have a far more mature code base and developer reach.

The problem, however, is that Nokia has some catching up to do. The N810 is in the 21st month and the interface has not changed much since release. While it was exceptional at the time, competitors like Palm, Apple, and Google have cropped up. Each of those competitors have worked hard to make their OS intuitive, fast-responding, and pretty. The demonstrations I've seen of Fremantle and Harmattan are far closer, but those are not in a product yet. The longer we wait for them, the less traction Nokia has on competition.

On a related note: The Nokia N97 is the finest piece of mobile hardware I've used - but the software needs some serious help. Old dogs in Symbian make the phone less intuitive (thus less desirable) to use. Examples:

The system defines every potential Internet connection as an "access point" and applications ask which one to use. It should be improved to have applications automatically use WiFi when recognized hotspots are available and fail back to the carrier's data network.
The 32GB of storage is fantastic, but the "phone memory" (of which there is only 74MB) is segmented from the 32GB "Mass Storage" memory. Applications store data in the 74MB "drive" and it fills fast. The phone should instead present itself as one large 32GB volume and save the confusion.
There just aren't enough applications for S60v5 yet. The "touch" version of Symbian needs more supported applications to be desirable in face of competition.

Nokia is aware of ALL of these. They just need to accept that they have the best hardware and focus more time and money on code.

Survey: Mobile device usage

2009-07-01T13:43:00.002-07:00

I am going to collect data for the idea I had for a maemo summit presentation even if it is not presented in Amsterdam. My first step is a generic survey posted here. Please help me understand tablet users more by taking this survey.

Compelling

2009-07-01T10:09:00.003-07:00

The presentation that I had hoped to show at the maemo summit has been declined. I hope someone can take the idea and make something better out of it - so here's the abstract:

Attracting the Masses

Intended audience: Developers - but other parties may be interested
Abstract/description

Tablets have hundreds of applications now - but who are they for? If the Internet Tablets are intended to attract a more mainstream mobile market, the maemo community needs to get in touch with the needs of the target market.

The first part of this presentation will give an overview of the most popular applications on competing platforms. This information will be collected through app store sales/download counts, direct communication with a sampling of mobile consumers, and communication with some other high-profile mobile technology journalists. This will include actual applications, connectivity options, peripherals, interface (touch/keyboard/icon/etc) preferences, and related consumer desires.

The second part of this presentation will give an overview of the state of the existing maemoplatform including commercial partners, independent contributors, and ports of more popular Linux software.

The conclusion will analyze mobile consumer desires compared to maemo offerings and, hopefully, give developers ideas on what they can write to make the platform more appealing.

The feedback from the Dave, Jamie, and Valerio is (in part) as follows:

Thanks for your submission for the Maemo summit, we appreciate the effort.
However, we don't think the content is compelling enough for the summit
as is. And certainly "reaching the masses" will be covered by Nokia
during the Nokia day. So we are sorry to inform you that we are not
accepting the presentation.

Since I'm more of a "put the tablets in others' hands and get a reaction" type and not a "developer" type, I figured that's the only topic on which I am qualified to talk. I'm open to ideas, though. I'm still looking forward to seeing what comes out of the summit.

Maemo events upcoming

2009-06-25T15:20:00.003-07:00

At first, I was confused by the Maemo presence at the upcoming Gran Canaria Desktop summit. Now, with the Intel/Nokia Linux partnership going on, it makes much more sense to me. Could this be a weekend when they announce the next generation maemo device? I don't know if the Desktop Summit is the right crowd for that - but I take nothing for granted now.

Also coming up: Maemo Summit 2009! Last year's event was simply fantastic. As a non-developer, I spent most of my time listening to developers trade ideas, improve each others' understanding, and consider what they want for the future. It was an honor. Since then, we have not yet seen a new major OS release or hardware device but we have seen new partnerships form and ideas take shape. If you're involved in the maemo community and think you have something to share at the event, go ahead and submit it in the "Call for Content." I already posted my idea but I am sure there are more good developer-centric speakers out there with good ideas to contribute.

The Nokbook N9000? Plot thickens with OEM orders

2009-06-24T10:19:00.003-07:00

Bloomberg is reporting that Nokia ordered Quanta and Compal netbooks for distribution in Q3 of this year. Without any supporting sources, we don't know any more about this. However -- What if?

Two years ago, Palm announced a device that would be a "smartphone extension." The 10" screen, laptop form factor, 2 pound device would give users a larger window into all the things their smartphone does: Calendars, address book, email, web, and light media consumption. The price tag was $599. This sad little Palm Foleo was so universally panned that it never even made it to the market.

If Nokia and Intel are going for an "in-between device," they need to do far better than Palm did. It's good that they're starting with Maemo and Moblin as core development models as third-party app developers are familiar with those ystems. The big hurdle here is one that was never properly addressed with the Nokia Internet Tablets: Why do I need one?

Maemo, Nokia, Intel, and the community

2009-06-23T14:12:00.003-07:00

The community is weighing in and discussing this morning's news. Here are some highlights:

Peter@Maemo says: "Let me remind you what we have said about Maemo 5: Maemo 5 will support OMAP3 processors i.e. ARM Cortex A8 technology, not more, not less."
He goes on to say: Maemo and Moblin will continue to exist as software platforms, no change to current situation but we will align more of what is underneath the UI framework and APIs.

There's more discussion in the whole thread on talk.maemo.org. I don't think many mobile tech blogs understand exactly what this all means (myself included) but I THINK this is what will happen:

Facts: Intel and Nokia combined have a broad understanding of mobile computing - both development and marketing. Nokia has had vast success in handsets, feature phones, and smartphones and Intel is enjoying many years as the top mobile CPU for laptops and now netbooks and ultra-portables. As these two types of platforms converge into a "middle device," it makes sense to bring the power-players in each together to develop some standards.

Through the success of the iPhone and Android, the whole mobile market has learned that platforms MUST have a strong third party developer base. Intel and Nokia will work very hard to make Moblin and Maemo cooperate with each other even though they will have different styles and hardware platforms. This will make it easier for third party developers to write applications that can be released on both platforms without major rewrites. This will encourage developers to adopt both Maemo and Moblin on their respective platforms.

I could be totally wrong, though. What does everyone else think?

Nokia and Intel team up - promise to kick butt on mobile Linux

2009-06-23T10:16:00.002-07:00

Today was the wrong day to sleep in a little: Nokia posted a press release with Intel promising several very important things to the mobile space:

Open source collaboration, including cooperation between Moblin and Maemo.
Intel licensing Nokia 3G technology
Increased focus on standards-based pocketable devices.

Wow. I love the Intel Atom. I love the Maemo tablets. I am swimming in excitement for the future right now.

AT&T Fails at the Internet

2009-06-17T11:18:00.003-07:00

AT&T managed to dampen my joy of using an N97 and finding my N810 where it hid in my apartment. The DSL router above has a center light that should stay green but is instead blinking red. Apparently - for no reason - my DSL service decided to no longer work and AT&T can't figure it out so are dispatching a tech to my apartment. FRIDAY MORNING.

I'd use my N97 to get online but I can barely get phone reception at home - much less 3G. Who is my carrier? AT&T.

A blogger with a full-time job and no home internet is a slow blogger.

Here's some advice: Don't give AT&T money for anything unless you have no other choice.

Happy Day!

2009-06-16T13:41:00.001-07:00

I found my N810!

N97 coverage?

2009-06-15T08:56:00.003-07:00

I am borrowing a Nokia N97 (thanks to a friend who isn't migrating to it just yet) and have had my share of "this is awesome" and "Wow this sucks" moments with it in just a couple days. With the N810 getting a little "old" in the long view and with no sight of a Maemo 5 device yet, would tabletblog.com readers be interested in some coverage here?

What I CAN say about the N97 so far - If I can work out a few little bugs and still see no sight of a Fremantle Maemo tablet, I'm going to buy myself one. A white one. I miss a couple little applications of the iPhone (like Yelp and my bank's portal) but the added features of the N97 are worth those losses.

Maemo and Ovi?

2009-06-11T18:09:00.003-07:00

I dug up my Nokia PC Suite application and updated it as part of my attempt to migrate off the iPhone. I realized that the PC Suite is being deprecated as part of Ovi branding push. This makes me wonder - will Maemo devices get Ovi integration as well?

Since the Nokia 770, users have been asking for more desktop interoperability between the tablets and the PC. Simple things like contact sync, calendar sync, and bookmark sync have been requested. So far, the Internet Tablet developers have treated the Maemo platform as more of a "laptop alternative" than "laptop companion." With mobiles becoming more computer-like and laptop class systems becoming more "smartphone-like," it'd be nice if the tablets were offered the same desktop support software of the Ovi suite.

There are problems, though. Applications "available on Ovi" won't work on the Internet Tablets unless tablets and phones have two different application stores. Consumer confusion is a BAD thing, especially with the N series competing with Apple's "it just all works together" iPhone model.

Thoughts?

LJPRM-504 - Watch this space

2009-06-10T10:37:00.003-07:00

In my normal FCC filing cruising while stalking the next Internet Tablet, I saw the newly filed LJP-RM504. This is what I know so far:

Confidentiality filed for 45 days from June 3. The button configuration looks JUST like the 5800 XpressMusic, so it's not likely to be the next Internet Tablet. Still - worth watching.

GSM 850
GSM 1900
GPRS 850
GPRS 1900
EGPRS 850
EGPRS 1900
BT 2450
WLAN 2450

Great quote:
This device has Dual Transfer Mode capability for use at the ear. Therefore, SAR for multi slot GPRS mode was evaluated against the head profile of the phantom.

Bring in the Yelp?

2009-06-02T12:12:00.003-07:00

The iPhone application for Yelp is one of the finest non-mapping location aware applications I've seen. I find myself frequently using it around Silicon Valley as I am still unfamiliar with many things around here even after living here since October. Yelp provides an API. Think some creative developer can get into making it an application?

Question for Devs: Backward Compatibility?

2009-05-26T15:05:00.002-07:00

Here's a thought: With reports indicating that the 4th generation tablet may contain a regular GSM phone, it may steer another article series in a different direction. Initially, I had planned to write a series of articles on extracting a user from the iPhone "walled garden" and migrating to a Nokia N97 or Phone+Tablet combination. If the 4th generation tablet includes a phone, that would make it easier as the article series would be abou the migration from iTunes to maemo.

I can start on that now - but need to know a crucial question: Will existing maemo apps still work in the maemo 5 environment? If not, I'll have to wait until maemo 5 apps arrive to start writing about that migration experience.

Off-Topic: Leaks and Responsibility

2009-05-26T10:47:00.002-07:00

It's obvious that there is going to be a lot of fall-out and discussion about the "N900/Rover" phone/tablet reporting. If the leaked specs are fake, many blogs got taken for a ride and there will be both cheering and disappointment when the real device lands (depending on features.) If the specs are real, well...

What kind of person takes internal trade secrets and gives them to a blog without any level of confidentiality assured? It's nice to speculate and toss around wish-lists for new devices, but it's really quite rude and destructive to take internal specs and engineering samples and lay them out for the whole public to pick apart. There's also a huge difference between a leak through negligence (like FCC reports outside confidentiality or some partner company releasing advertising too early) and the active work of someone taking specs from confidential material and sending it off to a blog.

Anyhow - if someone did actively leak product documents, they will be found and fired I am sure. In the meantime, I'm pretty sure Nokia is working hard to lock down secrets again which - sadly - makes it harder on blogger relations.

Is this the N900?

2009-05-25T15:56:00.004-07:00

People are already talking at length about the supposed N900/Rover tablet of which MobileCrunch claims to have "exclusive knowledge." The mock-up above was included in their post over it.

The specs they report are no surprise: They're a combination of the existing N810, some features of the N97, and all the information we heard back in September of last year. What really throws me for a loop: TMO? Really? T-Mobile? One of the blessings of the Internet Tablets before were that they were carrier-agnostic and can be used with a tethered phone on any carrier supporting the service. This meant that the same tablet can be used globally. Adding a carrier means adding carrier restrictions and bending to the will of those carriers. There would be an advantage, though: It could be offered at a lower subsidized price. Still - I'm not sure about the placement of this one.

Thoughts?

Nokia redefines "openness" - allows others access to unused patents.

2009-05-21T17:07:00.002-07:00

From FastCompany:

In an effort to boost the local Finnish economy, they're throwing open their thousands of unused patents so that any company in Finland can pursue ideas that Nokia has abandoned.

This article (link for more) really raised my eyebrows. I don't know of any consumer electronics company who'd be willing to make such a move. In these troubled economic times (drink!) it would behoove more companies to foster way for others to make money too. More money = more customers with money = more sales. It's never that simple.

I raise my mug to you, Nokia. Hope all that works out.