We aren't too sure where a number of outlets overheard that Nokia was
planning to pass on customizing its
Maemo-based devices, but one of two things has happened: either Nokia is lying to our faces and has secretly had a change of heart, or everyone was just misinformed from the get-go. Regardless of the hows and whys, Nokia has now come clean and stated that those very reports -- you know, the ones that "erroneously suggested that Nokia will not support operator customization for Maemo devices" -- are "simply incorrect." A long winded explanation follows, but the long and short of it is that the suits in Espoo are (at least now) very open to letting operators "tailor future Maemo devices to suit their needs," which may or
may not be a positive in your eyes depending on the carrier you're chained to. Now, aren't you glad we had this little talk?
[Thanks, Dallas]
posted Sep 11th 2009 1:36PM
Look at that multitasking goodness :)
Screw that, I would rather have my smuggy iPhone and 75,000 apps over a better performing, mulit-tasking jewel like this!
/sarcasm
Hmmm... Having actually used an N900, I can say it's definitely not better-performing than even the 3G, let alone the 3GS, and also what Apple say about the battery life hit when you leave background apps open is absolutely true.
But still, I'm not an idiot and I'd like to be able to choose when to close apps and when to leave them open, thank you very much, and Maemo 5 shows that it's absolutely possible to do in a really elegant way.
It's a cracking system and feels very open and customisable compared to iPhone OS.
@Fnuky
It's ridiculous that you're being voted down for giving constructive (and absolutely correct) criticism of this device. I am no Apple/iPhone fanboy but having watched every demo video I could find of this device, it's obvious that the UI lags, stutters and hesitates a lot. Having basically the same hardware as the 3GS, it should not be happening. (Also, it happens without any applications open so it isn't related to the multi-tasking thing.)
That said, I'm very excited about the promise of this device. There are just plenty of wrinkles to iron out first.
Having actually used N900, I can say that saying that it doesn't perform as well as iPhone 3GS is arguable and saying that it doesn't perform as well as iPhone 3G is just idiotic.
I meant using N900 prototype, nobody has of course used the final N900 yet.
Also, I wish that Engadget would add an edit option to this comment system.
I played with a recent build, its very nice and polished now.
I popped into the Apple store after to compare and the capacitive screen is sweet as always but compared to the N900 it felt like a toy.
@rauha - Dude, performance is a difficult thing to look at. A device that's way better in some respects can be way worse in others. Especially, as you say, one that's still a prototype!!!
I'm not an iPhone owner; I've barely even used one but I do have an iPod touch. All I can say is that in look and feel, my 2G touch seemed better in most ways performance-wise, but the N900 was a more interesting and open platform. I hope you didn't miss my first post lusting after its awesome multi-tasking prowess!
The issue seems to be that Maemo is still very desktop Linux-based and doesn't use the hardware acceleration as much as the iPhone does, which was invented from the beginning only for mobile chips that supported OpenGL. That seems to make up for the fact that the Touch 2G has a slower CPU and 3D processor. I don't think things will stay like this though and Maemo will become a very serious competitor.
But, just so you know I'm not just basing this on feelings... I've literally just benchmarked the N900 using SunSpider (now I know it's only a prototype, so will get better before launch)
Results: overall, N900 was 16% slower than the Touch 2G, which is still ARM11 based! So I stand by what I said - it is slower than a 3G at the moment, but I would still totally buy an N900 - just not for performance reasons. It's gorgeous, clever and I'm a long-time Nokia fan :)
@Fnky
First of all, sorry if my use of word "idiotic" seemed like confrontational.
As you say performance is a difficult thing to look at. Like you, I haven't used much iPhone but I'm familiar iPodtouch. I haven't done any fancy benchmarks. I've had N900 running at the same time a Flash video running in browser and playing Bounce beta, then switched to dashboard and seen N900 render that video and game in real time indashboard. That to me was a freaking wow moment! Frankly, iPhone/iPodtouch platform felt like a toy after that.
It's difficult to measure two different platforms. Your benchmark is propably much objective measure than my "gut feeling". It's just that me, personally, Maemo is far more impressive, and it does it while multitasking and without loading GIFs of apps as they were before closed while used last time while loading apps.
Again, I hope you my earlier remarks didnät seem like too hostile. The "real world" performance of N900 in prototype stage just seems so impressive to me, that your comparison to iPhone 3G seemed ridiculous. I hope we can agree to hope that the performance of final product is hopefully impressive.
I'm glad I already preordered the N900, and I'll be keeping it for quite a while if they're going to start "tailoring" Maemo on future devices...
Booo! Stick to your guns Nokia.
God I hate you, Engadget...
....now tuck me in.
Why does Engadget seem happy that Nokia will let operators tailor the N900 and Maemo?
Because they hate me =(....
Well for T-Mo subscribers, for instance, it means you get things like MyFaves built in. So it could actually be beneficial in some circumstances. Also, both T-Mo and Sprint don't really have records of locking down their phones like crazy, so it won't hurt in that respect.
TMo still does not let their subscribers use voip apps on their phones, not even on WiFi, let alone 3G. Maemo has built in Google Talk VOICE chat in the phone AND a neat skype app in the works, which would work great on a 3G connection, but unfortunately, most service providers in the US would "customize" MAEMO to remove that functionality, or lock it down to WiFi only :'(.
Because now maybe a US carrier will actually have the phone.
Since Engadget keeps teasing us with the beautiful device but not giving it to us as a recession antidote I think we should start a boycott.
I think the misunderstanding isn't even around carrier customization(s)... it's around carriers crippling features. Big difference.
Indeed.
They won't allow cripling, but will allow stuff like carrier logos and links to carrier services.
This is an important point. Personally, I don't care if a device says Nokia or Carrier Brand - don't care if they want to add a custom app to the "base" of the OS on the device. What I do care about is a carrier doing things like not allowing wifi on a device with 3G. As long as Nokia stays true to the hardware platform, it should not matter.
Nokia never said it wouldnt allow customisation what they meant is they dont want networks devaluing the user experience by removing applications and blocking functions, including root.
That still hasn't changed from what ive read today. Maemo's skin is very customisable and there will be plenty of third party themes available at launch.
Reality bites Nokia, not a chance to get Maemo devices to operators without customization. I guess they realized they are not Steve Jobs to dictate terms ;)
Booooooo.
Oh well, at least we'll always have T-Mobile, who has thus far been too lazy to bother crippling their smartphones.
Well, this sucks but isn't surprising. According to a Job Ad MS is doing the same stuff with WM7
http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2009/08/07/microsoft-is-building-custom-windows-mobile-7-uis-for-mobile-operators/
For the Win(dex?).
@N900 - Please, please, please come to AT&T or Verizon! T-Mobile & Sprint are no good in South County, RI
Bah, I was happy when I read the news that Nokia decided to stand firm. But no, the carriers win, yet again.
... and just like that, my interest, money and enthusiasm for Maemo and the N900 were gone.
Here's hoping that Nokia will make stock firmwares available to be installed on even the carrier "customized" phones.
lol, you can flash it back to standard rom in about 10mins.
yeah, hate the whole customization/ branding rubbish that goes on, cetrainly would make me think twice. but i guess the great thing about maemo is that the developer community is so big that they would find someway to alter or release the base firmware unbranded.
Of course they can customize it, it's linux.
But keep the customization there is another story, since the root access is available to the user from start ;)
The Verizon Bluetooth crippling article you linked is from 2004, it is 2009 now. If you are going to bash Verizon at least pick something more current, if there is anything.
Nokia 7205 Intrigue
Nokia 7705 twist
I need not go on
AHH... to live in a country where the only customization that happens from the carriers is a smalll brand sticker on the phone. peel it off and you're good to go!
I'm so jealous!
Commence with the hackin' and slashin'.
Oh snap...
That was the best idea manufacturers had had since Snake.