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Introducing Neo900

neo900.org

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Re: Introducing Neo900

#51

Post by simias »

npsimons wrote: post #47
simias wrote: post #37

Aren't most Android phone pretty open in practice? If you're able to rebuild your kernel then what's stopping your from tinkering with the hardware or installing whatever OS you want? The only closed bits remaining are the firmware blobs for certain IPs but is it really limiting? How many time did you think "man, I wish I could write a custom firmware for my GSM chip!". Not saying that it's not interesting "for the p…

This isn't for you; there, I've said it, and I'll add this: the market is large enough to accommodate things like this. Some of us like to tinker, all the way down to the bits in our hardware. Some of us like having a hardware keyboard, like having emacs in the palm of our hand, with all the power that implies. And we don't really care about high resolution capacitive displays. Maybe it's not your ideal "everyday" ph…

Way to be patronizing.

I like to tinker as much as anybody else but this phone doesn't get me very excited.

Not long ago there was almost no way to get custom code running on your phone. Now it's getting easier and easier.

Not to mention the various ARM boards you could fit with a GSM module and use to make a custom open phone of your liking and tinker away.

So basically either I want a good everyday phone and I won't go with that or I want to play with phone hardware and there are already a lot of ways I could do that without waiting for this project to deliver.

Re: Introducing Neo900

#52

Post by wmf »

npsimons wrote: post #34
moystard wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the N900 was the embodiment of the dream of what Nokia could have been without Elop, the N9/N950 were. Both were beautifully designed phones, with a unique and powerful operating system: swipe-based interaction, social feed screen, multitask, beautiful applications, good development environment (Qt).. This was the direction Nokia should have gone toward.. Edit: typos.

You have to realize the timeframe that N900 was released: 2009. Back then, it was way ahead of most other smartphones (including iPhone), and had multitasking to boot. The resolution was touted as "better than DVD". It had a commandline out of the box, and not some watered down, misplace all the system files version either. It was basically Debian on a phone, with smooth, beautiful graphics, a decent package manageme…

I bought a N900 and it may have been ahead of the iPhone in tech specs but it was way behind in the feel of day-to-day usage. True multitasking could drain the N900's battery in an hour even if the phone was idle. Because the stylus was included many apps required it, so a lot of time was wasted unholstering the stylus. The resistive single-touch screen doesn't support gestures. Maemo didn't support portrait orientation for one-handed usage.

Re: Introducing Neo900

#53

Post by renata »

sspiff wrote: post #18
captainmuon wrote: post #8

I wonder whether this has an open-source* baseband/firmware, and open-source graphics drivers. If not, it's not better than, say, a Nexus 4, which you can unlock and put custom software on it (e.g. Ubuntu Phone, I'm sure you could port Meego/Maemo/whatever it's called nowadays). The Nexus of course has vastly superior hardware. If I buy such a tinkerphone as this, I want to be able to play with it at all levels. For…

It has a keyboard. That makes it infinitely more interesting to me than a Nexus 4. I bet a lot of (former) N900 users will agree. While I never used an N900, I've used phones with and without keyboards over the past few years, and I'm not settling for a touch-only device. There's also more and more of the base Android apps that are abandoned in favour of closed-source, Google branded apps. So there's that as well.

I would have agreed before Swype/FlexT9/etc existed. Now I find I can type faster on gesture-based keyboards than I ever could on the hardware keyboards anyway.

Re: Introducing Neo900

#55

Post by werkshy »

sspiff wrote: post #18
captainmuon wrote: post #8

I wonder whether this has an open-source* baseband/firmware, and open-source graphics drivers. If not, it's not better than, say, a Nexus 4, which you can unlock and put custom software on it (e.g. Ubuntu Phone, I'm sure you could port Meego/Maemo/whatever it's called nowadays). The Nexus of course has vastly superior hardware. If I buy such a tinkerphone as this, I want to be able to play with it at all levels. For…

It has a keyboard. That makes it infinitely more interesting to me than a Nexus 4. I bet a lot of (former) N900 users will agree. While I never used an N900, I've used phones with and without keyboards over the past few years, and I'm not settling for a touch-only device. There's also more and more of the base Android apps that are abandoned in favour of closed-source, Google branded apps. So there's that as well.

Yes, but it's a 3 row keyboard. I upgraded from the G1 (5 row qwerty) to the G2 (4 row, numbers-on-the-qwerty-row) and it's next to useless.

As a phone, I need to use the number line a lot. As a computer /terminal, I need to use letters, numbers & symbols a lot. 3 and 4 row keyboards are bad for both of these use cases.

If someone makes a decent, interesting 5-row qwerty phone, I will buy it tomorrow.

Re: Introducing Neo900

#57

Post by bergie »

zokier wrote: post #17
programminggeek wrote: post #10

It looks thick. I don't know why, but it makes me not at all interested. Also, what was so special about the N900 and is that relevant in the market today? I'm genuinely curious, I don't know much about the N900.

> Also, what was so special about the N900 and is that relevant in the market today? N900 had: - HW keyboard - Pixel-accurate touchscreen (with stylus) - Desktop-ish hacker/FOSS friendly Linux OS Essentially N900 was the embodiment of the dreams of what Nokia could have been if it weren't for EVIL Elop and MS ruining everything, and that is why the device has small cult following. There has been occasional HW keyboar…

The N900 was amazing. I used it as my only computer on quite a few trips, effortlessly handling stuff like flight reservations and hotel bookings regardless of having to use desktop-oriented websites with Flash. And the keyboard was great for email on the go.

Of course, progress has passed the device quite a while ago. I still see the occasional hacker using the phone, as that was the last phone many could consider having. A phone you bought and would actually own: http://flors.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/software-freedom-lover...

Disclaimer: I was part of the team that built the "Maemo Downloads" app store for FOSS applications for Nokia.

Re: Introducing Neo900

#58

Post by vidarh »

ekianjo wrote: post #28
vidarh wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My current phone is 4.7", capacitive, with 1280x720. My next phone will likely be 5" or more, with 1920x1080. The perceived improvement in readability etc. in going up my current phone was fantastic - I've pretty much stopped using my tablets because I can now comfortably do so much more on my phone. Using a phone that small with a resolution that horrible would be like being forced to wear glasses with mud smeared a…

What an exaggeration. I have a device with the same resolution 800*480 as well as a Galaxy S3 with much higher pixel per inch resolution, and honestly I don't see much difference and both are very comfortable to use. That's marketing effect at work.

Well, I do notice. I have a 800*480 ZTE Open too, and when I got it, it was a shock to see just how horrible it was to read stuff on a screen like that again.

Re: Introducing Neo900

#59

Post by makmanalp »

Interesting, I was hoping for a N9 port of Sailfish OS, which is a way more powerful phone than this, but maybe I should consider this, since it seems like an N9 port won't be official:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=90761

edit: or maybe it will? www.jollausers.com/2013/10/sdk-update-jolla-won-an-award/

edit2: ok even more confused now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr_yQwTUv3s&feature=youtu.be

Re: Introducing Neo900

#60

Post by vidarh »

zokier wrote: post #43
ekianjo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an exaggeration. I have a device with the same resolution 800*480 as well as a Galaxy S3 with much higher pixel per inch resolution, and honestly I don't see much difference and both are very comfortable to use. That's marketing effect at work.

Especially with such a small display. 800x480 at 3.5" screen is 266 PPI, the parents 720p at 4.7" is 312 PPI, only 17% more.

It's not just the PPI, it's also the display size that makes a major difference in readability - being able to comfortably use bigger and crisper text and still have a decent amount of content on screen.

I didn't believe it'd matter much either, until I got my higher res phone a year ago. Now I can't stand a smaller, lower res screen. I recently got a 800x480 ZTE Open as well, and it reconfirmed just how much difference it makes - the latter is just awful to read on.

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