Android dual-boot could make Nokia N900 jack of two trades
By Chris Ziegler 
posted January 23rd 2010 6:34PM
posted January 23rd 2010 6:34PM
posted January 23rd 2010 6:34PM
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Hmmm, Android on N900, the free Ovi maps would sweeten it a bit...
@Almo If it runs Android, it should also have access to Google Nav.
@Almo
We need to get this going on the iPhone, then finally we can have something usefull than this POS iBrick...
@NAME
No matter what you do with the software, the iPhone will still be a useless toy because it doesn't have a keyboard.
@jgp
Does every one of you posts have to be 'if it doesn't have a keyboard it's a toy'?
Jesus. Change the record. You're on a gadget site, you probably like toys.
@jgp
You're nuts. Some people don't like physical keyboards, hence the Blackberry Storm, etc. Virtual keyboards offer flexibility you can't get from a physical keyboard with a static layout. You want a physical keyboard, then get a phone that has one, for those of us that don't want one, we have options too; those options needn't be an iPhone (could be Android, Blackberry, etc.)
@politicalslug and some have both the best of both worlds
@politicalslug
Except you can get the flexibility of the virtual keyboard in a physical keyboard.
Optimus Maximus http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/
@jgp umm neither does maybe half the phones on the market? But yeah sure the iPhone is the only one that "fails" because it's so popular
@Atlantian
Like my G1!
@(everyone responding to troll)
Stop responding to trolls.
@politicalslug It really depends on how much you're going to actually be using the keyboard. I have a G1. The keyboard rules. I can't stand virtual keyboards some times. I text and email a lot. My friend doesn't. He loves his virtual keyboard. So shut up everyone. It's just a matter of opinion.
For "Linux", it does take longer than Vista to load! :P
@Almo
Should have used my cables....
@Almo I can confirm that Vista boots faster than Linux on this device! Some people think that's impossible, since the ARM processor in the N900 is slower than anything on x86 PC you could install Vista on, and since Vista doesn't even run on that architecture...
... but I can tell you are an educated and discerning man who doesn't let reality tell him what the truth is. Preach on, brother!
@Load Ran, well, it can run Windows NT, tho: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUA78P7gGCQ
Post viewed and written on N900 on a full Engadget site. Link acquired via the same method in paralel. Yes, it is a beast!
Nokia without the Symbian? HELL YEA!
Please make this happen.
@Smurf uh maemo is not symbian
@Smurf
as much as I want an android nokia phone, maemo is really not that bad
@Acey
but then of course theres the community on android. Android has a company behind it pushing it while maemo's company kind of sucks...
you know, google vs nokia ?
@Smurf It makes me wonder, under what rock have you been living for the past few years? Nokia has had meamo devices since 2005...
i started reading the title right to left, and was immediately wondering how and what the n900 was jacking off.
@vlad the inhaler
Id be disappointed if at least one other person didn't read it like that.
@vlad the inhaler
Not only jacking off, but twice! "jack of two....
What doesn't this device do?
symbian sucks but maemo is ok they should put android on all nokia touchscreen phones
I'll eat my hat if he can do this with iPhone OS. (Buys chocolate hat just i case...) Either way, sweet.
@Oflife They got halfway, and then the two hackers working on it , planetbeing and cmw, disappeared around July of last year. Like fell off the map disappeared. It was really quite sad ;(
@10nisman94
Conspiracy theory?
@10nisman94 "he then died"
First HTC winmo phones, now the n900? Man, I wish I still had my Wizard. I feel left out having an iPhone now.
If this becomes available to the public like the jailbreak on the Iphone I'm getting
Nokia should give it up and adopt Android already. They are losing market share and need to stop pushing their own OS. Of course Google executives would piss themselves in happiness if that ever happened.
@SteveJobsCEO
So your going to add android to your precious iPhone, since you no longer like companys that make their on own hardware, software and OS for their phones!!!
@SteveJobsCEO
Fact is that if you wanna be in a position of Nokia you will need something different than others in the OS side. If 1/2 of your competition is using the same OS it's not going to cut it. Anyways it's long set as Symbian^4 and Maemo 6 that gets released this year will use same application base because of the Qt platform that Nokia bought from Trolltech years ago.
What we have seen about Maemo 6 it seems to be a killer. It won't share much with Maemo 5, but future Symbian^4 will probally have similarities with it.
@SteveJobsCEO
No, "Follow the Leader" mentality is bad. We need innovation, not standardization, and the two are mutually exclusive.
@jgp
whoa, lets not get ahead of ourselves. standardization is great in some situations. I love how I can buy a new phone and not need a new car charger to go with it :D
Maemo is more open than android, so can't see the point. Now if they ported maemo to android phone....
@newone
Androids kinda got the best of both worlds though..
Unless i'm mistaken, because of androids wider userbase, there'll be more developement done for it, therefore more apps.
The iPhone is considered a smart phone, and without the 100,000+ apps.. itd be pretty crappy..
Any platform without enough user share to entice developers is going to be crap for the end user.
For the record: I'm not dissing Meamo... I'm just making a point
@geekthree
Maemo is debian based linux with x window. Android isn't standard linux and doesnt support X. This basicly means that pretty much any linux program can be ported to maemo, and for android you need to do a lot of rewrite.
So this means android has less programs. Somebody has ported even Blender for Maemo.
@newone
By the way, I specifically chose the N900 over the HTC Dream because I wanted something running Linux. Android may use the Linux kernel, but everything else was written by Google. Android basically runs in its own VM that uses the Linux kernel to bootstrap itself--calling it Linux is a stretch.
@jgp
Who cares if it runs a full, or basterdised version of Linux?
The point is, if no-one uses it, no one will develop for it, and the platform will be rubbish because of the lack of applications,
just like desktops with windows and Linux.
If all the developers worked on Linux programs, Linux would be so so awesome, but hey I'm using windows due to lack of natevly supported software.
Same rules with mobile platform, perhaps meamo gives the user a mild orgasm with each keystroke, but if android has the apps I need, I'd go there.
@geekthree
If you check out the maemo.org you'll notice that there are quite a few good apps for maemo. And as it is a debian port so any debian program should be quite straighforward to compile for maemo.
How easily programs theoretically are ported from Linux to Maemo and whether they actually are ported are two different questions. If Maemo attracts market share, and Ovi takes off, then it may make sense for developers to make the effort. If not, then expect it to remain a niche product. Remember, too, that not all desktop programs easily scale down for use on a mobile device. UI needs to be adapted, too, so not everything is simply a port. It could be a port with re-writes to optimize it.
@newone Thanks for making this point clear. I have been an N810 Maemo user since 2008 and want to buy a N900. However Nokia needs to do a better job of supporting N Series devices. OVI Maps and Nokia Navigation is not compatible for the N Series devices. Yet Maemo is better than Android by far. Developers for Maemo have done an excellent job porting the most basic programs. Garnet runs on N810 but should only be used for transferring Palm files into Maemo Apps.
If this becomes available like the jailbreak on the iPhone I'm getting.
fapfapfap
Coming from the biggest Apple fanboy...I would buy it if it were as easy as jailbreaking and iPhone
I'm an old Palm Garnet guy and would love to see a Garnet emulator on either Maemo or Android (preferred). Garnet still has the best calendar and PIM setup.
@rpahk Well, there is a garnet emulator for the 800 series that works perfectly fine. Search for garnet-vm_1.0.4b_ITOS2008_armel.deb and install using xterm dkpg -i
@jonshipman Actually that package changes all the time, best to just go to Access and get it from there.