Nokia updates N900 to version 1.2 in UK, closes door on MeeGo
By Thomas Ricker 
posted May 25th 2010 3:48AM
posted May 25th 2010 3:48AM
And after much speculation, Nokia's also admitting that MeeGo will not be officially supported on the N900 once the Intel / Nokia OS is device ready. Nokia will continue to support the core Maemo OS, however, as demonstrated by today's update. Regardless, we're sure that the N900's active fan-base will deliver a MeeGo update outside of official channels, especially since the N900 is already being used as a platform for ARM-based MeeGo development.
[Thanks, Pasu]
Truly, one of the best mobile phones ever.
@michaspi
really? One of the best phones ever? And what makes it one of the best phones? Have you actually used one as a phone? Worst experience ever. Returned mine and enjoiyng Palm Pre Plus.
@nohcho
And tell me how is that amazing Palm Pre better than the N900?
@michaspi, one of the best mobile devices ever, most certainly. But the weakest point of the N900 is its phone function, so I wouldn't really put it in the `one of the best mobile phones` category...
@michaspi
I looked long and hard at the N900 and ultimately decided against it because the list of software issues was way too long. The OS needs a whole lot more work. Work which it now seems it won't get.
The Official reason for not porting MeeGo is the screen technology.
MeeGo doesn't seem to have support for resistive screen - may be it will be added later.
@Nokia N900 I do not think that the screen technology is an issue. Resistive screens are actually much more accurate than capacitive ones. The problem with them is that they are more of press-screens than touch screens.
No, I am not arguing that capacitives are better and stuff..
just saying that the official guy said ,MeeGo was programmed with capacitive screen in mind(not optimized for resistive).
@tonicboy
Yes it will, MeeGo will run on N900, it is even a reference device for it. It will get MeeGo in a shape that is at least on par with the readiness of Maemo 5. Bear in mind MeeGo 1 is just Maemo 6.
@Goc - it can make and complete calls. Dork.
@meatball
Which the N900 does as well, and actually has proper reception. Dork. jk.
@JFH
"N900 will get MeeGo to the shape of Maemo 5"
No-where else have I heard that.
If your pulling this out of your @$$: don't!
If your serious: post a link :D
@michaspi Truly, one of the best mobile computer ever.
@Kangal
Talk about fragmentation...
"Thank you Nokia"
Sad to hear this. Then I will definitely not buy the N900, rather an Android device or wait for the N900 successor.
@Crank
Well it will be "kinda" supported. So Nokia is actually putting resources in helping the community. Other companies dont do this
"Carsten, the maemo.org distmaster, is in the best position to coordinate this effort. He has all the Mer experience and he is working in the open project to provide an N900 hardware adaptation for the MeeGo OS. He is also used to collaborate with members of the MeeGo Devices team at Nokia like Tero Kojo or myself, who will pay attention to the progress of this effort."
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=53551
Does it finally have latest Nokia Maps with free navigation?
What happened to that portrait mode that will allow me to use my phone with just one hand?!
@dtakias No it doesnt. Only speed and UI improvements for the built in Ovi Maps
@dtakias Its called Ovi Maps and it always had "free navigation"
I have europe maps installed on my phone since the beginning and never needed to use the internet to download the maps on the go
@Mr w00t
Are you sure about it??
I am taking about the free navigation that was introduced with ovi maps a few months ago. I thought that you need the latest version of the maps to get advantage of this.
@dtakias 100% sure :) I use every time in my N900.
What you might be confusing is voice navigation. N900 does not have voice navigation yet, maybe in a future update.
I even used downloaded maps when I needed to travel to Rome. Just got a GPS signal and it was working.
So Nokia is supporting 2 OSs or will it kill Maemo once MeeGo is done?
@nooruls143
MeeGo is Maemo 6 with another name, it's as simple as that. And considering that Nokia still supports my nearly-2-years-old E71, I believe they will continue to push updates for the N900 for a while.
@Goc
You're lucky, they've pretty much quit supporting my 1 year old N85 (been released for 1.5 years).
Honestly, I would be surprised if they support the N900. I think they're going to leave it to the community to do the updating.
"rest assured that Nokia will continue to support the core Maemo software on your Nokia N900, as evidenced by the PR 1.2 "
Core Maemo software? What exactly does that cover?
I know i'll be flashing the community version of Meego whenever its out, but this isnt the most encouraging news i have heard from Nokia.
thanks for no credit
Nokia definitely needs to streamline its OS offerings.
Not getting Meego sucks,
but Maemo is an excellent OS. As good as Android, iPhone and BB
@Cynical Hippie im gazing at you now cause you said that with a straight face and i want some of whatever your smoking
written from my Nokia N900
@Atlantian Au contraire dude.
Emulators, awesome apps, I assume you have lag cause you download extras devels app and it clutters and lags it. The new firmware willjust make it smoother, skype video call, google talk call. Still one of the most awesome browsers available
@Cynical Hippie
I would compare Maemo to Android 1.6
(Yes I have a N900)
Surely Engadget should've done better than failing to mention that this is now the first handset to support Skype video calls. Let's not forget GTalk video calls, SIP video calls and Skype multi user chat.
@Mr w00t I know, I was indeed being sarcastic :)
From those in the know, it seems like Nokia is pushing the MeeGo effort for N900 using a community based approach involving volunteers from Forum Nokia etc.. So tons of "unofficial" support but no official support if you know what I mean. It is truly an open source effort - none of the half-baked ones we see in the other open source mobile OSs.
MeeGo on the next Nokia device will also be Maemo (Maemo 6 a.k.a. Harmattan), just rebranded as MeeGo, for real MeeGo devices we'll have to wait 'til 2011.
In any case, since the upcoming MeeGo device will also be running on OMAP3430 SoC, and since the drivers and most of the sytem are developed on the N900, community port for N900 will be straight forward even if not supported by Nokia.
Also, you forgot to mention that the PR1.2 brings full Qt 4.6 which gives the ability to share the same software across Maemo/MeeGo and the Symbian platform (and Windows, Linux, MacOS X...) That's the single biggest improvement in the new release.
@incognito
"MeeGo on the next Nokia device will also be Maemo (Maemo 6 a.k.a. Harmattan), just rebranded as MeeGo" Are you sure about that? Meego is Meego, Nokia has revised Maemo6 to mean Meego and not the otherway around. RPM packaging and QT based UI are all Meego not Maemo.
Also, we are still waiting for all the closed source modules/device drivers to be opened so that a community port can realistically happen.
From what Peter@Maemo said on TMO, the reason they arent officially pushing Meego on the N900 is because the Meego devices are going to be capacitive and they arent willing to improve the UI onto the N900 for the resistive crowd.
@DoctorWhat, yes I'm sure, the MeeGo device that ought to be released this fall will technically have MeeGo, but it will still be Maemo beneath. It will still use debian packaging and previously released UI concepts and it will only get some of the software that MeeGo gets after the merger (i.e. the phone application which was basically the same code-base on the Moblin and Maemo). Same goes for Intel's release of MeeGo this year - it will still be more Moblin than a true merger. We'll have to wait yet another year for the true MeeGo.
As for the UI, as far as I know, while Harmattan was supposed to be released on cap-only devices and thus it would pose a problem to write workarounds for resistive screens, MeeGo will support both and will switch modes in dependence of a device it recognizes. The UI will be basically the same but some multi-touch gestures will need to be reimplemented as single-touch gestures to accommodate resistive screens. That is, of course, if Nokia and Intel do not plan to start using Stantum screens. I'm pretty sure that the community will be able to hack a way around Harmattan to get it running on the N900.
@incognito
I wasnt asking if Meego uses deb, I was stating that it doesnt.
http://meego.com/about/faq
"Q Will MeeGo use .rpm or .deb as its packaging system?
MeeGo will use the .rpm format"
There are no Intel releases of Meego, its all the same base, only the UX is going to be vendor/Use Case specific, which is the reason behind every one having the same git source for the Meego base OS.
Also, regarding the capacitive issue Peter@MaemoMarketings original quote is
"Let's remember that this all about user experience. Polishing software is a lot of work. Polishing each application for resistive screen (as good as it is) is not trivial considering that we are making the UI for our Nokia product on MeeGo for capacitive screens as we have said already in Maemo Summit 2009."
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=674685#post674685
It doesn't make it impossible, just difficult.
Nokia displays this uncanny ability to shoot itself in the foot so often that I keep wondering of some key Nokia employees are on the payroll of Nokia's competitors. And to think I was planning to buy a N900!
it's a shame that they don't officially support MeeGo, but I wished that at least they would provide the community with all their MeeGo-on-N900 material to help them port it.
"If you don't wanna do it yourself, you might as well help those they do"
@serlex AFIK they already do that. Most of the *smartphone* meego development is done on the n900 so it doubt it will be that hard to get a good "unoficial" version.
Terrible phone. Whats more this seems to be getting more coverage than the Motorola Milestone overclocking ability many have been waiting for with anticipation...
Yay! This is great news indeed.
I know this device is not for everyone, but if mine broke today I would immediately be in the store buying new one. I'm already totally dependent on the great browser and all the native linux apps.
@Thomas Ricker: this is the first mobile ever that has
- Skype integrated into the OS
- manages to do video chat (call) in Skype
- supports Qt (and Nokia Qt SDK), which brings app dev compatibility across Symbian 3, MeeGo 1.0 and Maemo 5
I think this are the main things (which Nokia forgets to emphasize).
I'm Proud of you Nokia this will teach people a good lesson don't trust Nokia with you updates,don't trust Nokia with your money expect and in less than a yr for the device you bought to be discarded by Nokia and with updates if ever the speed of updates is comparable to a small a snail trying to travel a mile to the finish line on a ground covered in salt...
@Atlantian
So, in that whole reply, all you're saying is: Nokia updates infrequently and kills support quickly.
Simplicity is the key sometimes. ;)
@Bioran23 yeah but it doesn't carry all the bitch factor
@Atlantian
What are you talking about. Nokia is the company that supports its phones the longest. The N900 just got 1.2, which is a major deal. It will also get MeeGo, through a Nokia aided community port.
What is the big deal?
@JFH And they're still supporting my 2-year-old E71. no, it doesn't have S^3, but it does what it was intended to do and it does it well. Moreover, it isn't very buggy at all and very rarely slows to a crawl/crashes.