Nokia N900 – The Penguin Has Landed
You may have noticed that I’ve dropped off the side of the Internet somewhat. Life can get busy at times, especially for someone who sometimes gets muddled up with time management and priorities. Another compelling reason for this is that I recently bought a Nokia N900. And I’m still getting used to incorporating it into my day to day activities.
Getting It Home
Unfortunately, Nokia does not sell the N900 in Canada. In theory it might eventually. But I wasn’t going until the Canadian duopoly of Rogers and Bell along with the CRTC got around to doing so. So much for Canada being a leader in telecommunications technology. Instead I bought my N900 through Amazon and used Shipito to forward my parcel. Later I found out that buying from Dell may have been a cheaper and faster alternative. It took about three weeks but I eventually got my toy.
Hardware
I must congratulate the engineers at Nokia for coming up with solid feel to the N900. I would of preferred a metal body like my old N810. But the N900 is definitely not as flimsy and plasticky like my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone. The touchscreen is quite sensitive and responsive much like the iPhone’s. The sliding keyboard also feels great. Each key nicely rounded, depresses in a solid quiet manner and gets illuminated in low light conditions. The 5 Megapixel Carl Zeiss camera takes great pictures with good resolution and great colour balance. My 5800 in comparison took decent photos but everything was a shade of grainy grey. The auto-focus on the camera leaves much to desire. But it might be a case of my not knowing how to use the software. The N900 takes MicroSD cards, which helped with migration away from my old phone. The internal memory is a massive 32 GB. Sound quality of the speakers is excellent. Great feeling stylus as well.
I loved the large full kickstand on my N810. Apparently the preproduction units of the N900 also had this design. However the production N900s have a small kickstand built into the lower frame of the camera. It took my quite some time to find it. And since the kickstand is off-center the whole device wobbles on its kickstand. Not cool. The real scary thing is the micro-USB connector. The power adapter for the N900 recharges the device using the micro-USB. And the port itself is surface mounted to the circuitry. I’ve read quite a few horror stories involved where the port detached from the device! So I’m paranoid, and extra careful with plugging in the micro-USB cables to the N900.
Software
The UI on the N900 screams wow. The Compiz-like 3D views and effects win everyone who sees the device in action. A phone should not be able to look and act so sexy. The UI is intuitive and very finger friendly. Web browsing is where the N900 excels. The swirl zoom in and zoom out, smooth scrolling and fast rendering makes web browsing fun. The browser fully supports Javascript and Flash, so the experience is comparable to using a full desktop browser like Mozilla Firefox. The N900 also has a great PIM/contact management. Combine it with the Hermes app from Maemo extras, and you have an awesome contact management that integrates your contacts on various messaging, microblogging and social network services. Amazing. There are a few nice apps available through the repos and the Ovi store. Including the fun games of Bounce Evolution and Angry Birds.
It is not all roses in the software realm. The N900 while a mobile computer and all that jazz is still a mobile device. Space and energy constraints plague every mobile device out there. So there is a limit to how much multi-tasking one can do. Fair enough. But sometimes the device grinds to a slow halt with just a few apps on. Why? I get it why it happened when I copied my 6GB music collection off my MicroSD onto main memory. Maybe I need to restart the device once in a while? But why two browser windows, two instant messaging apps and a music player can stall the device… Also the Maemo5 platform used on the N900 is new, so there will not be the number of apps that Symbian S60, Apple’s iPhone and the Android app stores enjoy. Nokia has Ovi working for the N900, except payments are still missing. Hence my hesitation to say the N900 will work well for non-enthusiasts. It looks like Nokia also has similar feelings. Then again Nokia has said that Maemo6 will be the mainstream platform, with multi-touch support, app stores and all that jazz.
Thoughts, Ideas and Dreams
This review is reaching epic proportions now. In short, I love my little N900 mobile computer/Internet tablet/cellphone. It is definitely something I looked forward too. And I’ve owned a number of mobile computing devices already: Palm Tungsten E, Nokia N810 & Nokia 5800 XM. A great thing is that the device and platform has the potential of getting way better with time.
Related Links
- Aaron Seigo’s (Plasma KDE lead developer) thoughts on the N900.
- Yes, the N900 CAN control pole dancing exotic robots.
News – The Future of Nokia N-Series Phones, IP for Libertarians, Animating the Death Star
Once again, Dorian has dropped off the side of the Internet to work on stuff. So instead of an update, Dorian sends some interesting bits of news he found on the Internet.
Maemo is the Future of the Nokia N-Series
Just when you thought Nokia planned on using Maemo only for their experimental line of phones… future N series phones will run Maemo! This is great news for all the Maemo fans out there. And it looks like this will be happen in 2012. So all you who follow the Mayan calendar, while be able to ring in the new Mayan calendar cycle with nice Maemo-powered phones. 
Intellectual Property from a Libertarian Perspective
This is not news so much as a well written article by Stephan Kinsella discussing Intellectual Property from a Libertarian perspective. So if you’ve been following the news concerning the mess that is intellectual property, this article premises that it doesn’t make sense to have it, makes sense. Patents cause the most amount of problems, being so broad in scope. But at the end of the day, it comes down to the question should or should not the owner of a physical property have exclusive rights to their property. The fact it cause loss for a content creator or it is not acceptable behaviour by “society” is a moot point.
Dorian’s thoughts: Thats why all that I publish is under the Creative Commons license. I’d rather just putting things in the public domain. Unfortunately there is a double standard of what an individual’s rights to that of a corporate entity’s, and thats why some restrictions to protect myself are needed. I’d hate to go to court over something I originally published, being picked up by a corporation and then being hunted down by their lawyers for some IP infringement.
Animating the Death Star in Star Wars
Think computer animation is hard nowadays? Then check this video of animating the attack on the Death Star in the old Star Wars. Amazing.
News Flash – Linux Desktop Suck, Android is Not Linux and the Nokia N900s Dropping Out of Orbit
These past few days have seen Dorian scrambling to catchup and not blogging. Dorian still feels the need to fight his e-mails, update his “other” sites and organize his cluttered life, rather than update his readers on exciting developments he has worked on. Instead Dorian will continue writing in the third person, and highlight the latest and niftiest in Linux tech news… and hopefully he will get his act together soon. So lets look at whats buzzing in the blogsphere.
The Linux Desktop Sucks
First the Linux hater, and now some developers and power users state what they REALLY feel about Linux on the desktop. vanRijn experienced the beauty of sweet candy land that is the Mac OSX world and laments why we can’t see the same in Linux-o-landia. dkite proofs more an optimist, saying yes its broken and but will get better… someday. Also some finger-pointing to the manufacturers for not getting their act together, and states some heroic community coding is needed. Funny how Dell engineers are helping to make Dell machines running Linux able to recover themselves, just like under the most common desktop OS.
Dorian’s thoughts: The Linux desktop worked for me, on a laptop in 2002, so stop your bitching guys. I’ll agree the legendary saga that is fixing X and sound, etc. is reaching epic proportions. And yes devs from vendors are leading the way in many cases. But in some cases it seems easier to start from scratch as with Wayfarer or Moblin or PulseAudio. Still building a solid and expandable underlying architecture is hard, so everyone does so in a piecemeal fashion. And in traditional UNIX fashion, we argue and argue over what we want to build and how to do it. Instead of wringing hands, help fix the problem.
Android is Not Linux
Sounds like another bad recursive hacker pun, no? Looks like the guys at Google, took a Linux, through out the parts that worked-yes, shocking some parts of Linux actually work quite well thank you very much-and replaced them with their own jerry-rigged replacements.
Dorian’s thoughts: Why guys, why? Just learn to use the tools, and I’m sure the standard Linux stuff works pretty darn well on a mobile device. At least one real handset maker seems able to use the existing Linux stack, and run with it. Sure the UI needed a replacement and some optimizations are required, but rip and replace with crappier renditions? Not cool guys. Google needs to learn to work with the FOSS community, and not around it.
Nokia N900s Dropping Out of Orbit
So the N900 already launched… but Nokia started pumping out, shipping out their amazing N900s and stocking retailers with these pieces of mobile computing paradise. And unlike Google, Nokia knows how to build on top of existing Linux stacks and without stomping on existing FOSS communities. Not like a giant robot ravaging a city… Google.
Dorian’s thoughts: Remember about us Canadians! We’re that country above the US, and we’d like some N900s too, pretty please.
In Other News:
- A documentary on LugRadio? Kewl!
- The Khronos guys who brought you OpenGL, OpenCL and OpenSL E, want to bring you a standard windowing framework for Linux mobile devices: OpenWF.
- Big multinationals and big government want to fix copyright to work for YOU. YOU being a big multinational or a big government, of course. Cause another global over-arching treaties is a good idea. <smirk /> And this treaty will solve one of the world’s problems: the publishing industry’s losing their profit margin, which was the highest of any industry to being with. <smirk /> World hunger and peace can wait until next week’s meeting of “elites”.
OK, Dorian must end his newcast here and scurry back to his other work.
A Return to Mobility
As a happy owner of a Nokia 5800 smartphone, I quickly realized the potential of this gadget as a great pocket-sized mobile computer. Unfortunately, for the longest time I relied completely on wireless access points. With the lack of a physical slideout keyboard, this phone felt like a step down from the N810 Internet tablet. On top of that, while the Symbian platform is well supported. I really enjoyed both the UI and multitasking abilities of the N810. While the 5800 XM does allow for multitasking, it feels a bit uncomfortable to use. Now I won’t complain about Symbian because I understand that it is limited by its age and its original intended useage. I’m sure that Nokia and all the other Symbian players are working hard to keep the old workhorse going. But there really is a limit to what you can do with it. Hence my anticipation for the N900. Lets hope it’ll be available for Canadians soon.
Sticking to only wireless LANs has the downside of being offline most of the time. Plus it means using the office WLAN when at work. And I’d prefer not to for the obvious reason of wanting to maintain the separation of work and my personal life. So eventually, I bit the bullet and added a data plan from Fido. Everything seemed perfect, until I checked my phone bill. Apparently the data plan didn’t appear, and the bill was a lot larger than expected. Dismayed I contacted Fido, and stopped using data to avoid an even larger bill. You can imagine my elation, when a rep from Fido called me today, withdrew the charges and reinstated my data plan. Yes! So I’m back online in the mobile space, enjoying the Internet everywhere.
The Chrome and the Cloud
Google today announced their Chrome OS project. The details are sketchy for this announcement. This Chrome OS apparently stems from the Chrome web browser that Google released last year. A sort of instant-on netbook operating system, that meshes the hardware with the Internet cloud. Google claims the OS project differs from the Android stack that runs on cellphones. And thats all we essentially know about this Chrome OS.
So left me put on my futurist hat and predict what Chrome OS will be. If I were building something like Chrome OS, I would grab an existing OS (say Linux). I would then strip out all the unnecessary extra services and applications. Then I would modify the desktop shell to essentially run a web browser (Chrome) connected to the web. I would include an internal web caching application (Google Gears anyone?) to handle the off-line situation. So there you go, netbook running Chrome OS would essentially act as a smart thin client (dummy terminal for you readers who remember the 70’s). And the server would live on the Internet cloud.
Wonder how such a device would feel like? Grab a Nokia N810 or N800 and you’ll have a closer feel to a mobile cloud computing device. Congratulations to Google to helping bring true heterogeneous cloud computing and its advantages to the common man.
Linux… the Future of Computing
I’m a Linux user. So I always like to strain my ear to hear news about Linux. But this I didn’t expect.
Caroline and I did a bit of computer shopping before going to watch a film together on Saturday. While we wandered the aisles in the nearby Futureshop, she turned and asked me what I knew about Linux. I was surprised. Caroline is a very smart and talented girl. She finished statistics at the University of Toronto after all. But she is not a person who follows computer tech. She further told me that her mother told her that Linux was the future of computing. And then she asked whether Linux was for her. To top it off, we bugged the local salesperson… and I had an intelligent conversation about what computer she should get. (No offence to the smart Futureshop employees out there, but a good chunk of your coworkers are not all that knowledgeable about computing as they should.) And the salesperson, said he that his life would be easier if PC came pre-loaded with Linux. I took this all in… amazed. After some thought on what she would be using the computer I told her to stick with Windows for now. Why?
Linux and Linux-related technology looks like very much the future of computing. Thanks to the free software licensing, active communities and flexibility of open source development methodologies, many vendors are looking toward using Linux. For a vendor Linux provides a way out of the per unit licensing problem. Also it lets the vendor to control the build out of a product from top to bottom. Linux appears creeping into non-desktop computing platforms. We hear about Linux competing with Windows in the netbook market. We hear of Linux taking on cellphones with projects such as LiMo, OpenMoko and Google’s Andriod. The hyper-fast development pace makes Linux progress in leaps and bounds past its competitors. Nokia heavily invested in Linux with their Maemo-powered Internet Tablets. Intel invests in Linux with drivers and Moblin. nVidia and ATI both crank out graphics drivers like no tomorrow. Dell and HP are each trying to outdo each other selling Linux servers and laptops. News articles compare Ubuntu Linux on the same level as Windows XP & Vista and Mac OS X. So forth and so on. Five years this was unimaginable. When I installed Linux on my laptop and desktop machines in 2002 and 2001… I could not imagine Linux being more than a cool minor alternative. Something to play with, and use for fun computing.
So with all these cool developments, why did I not sell Linux to Caroline? I could of. Linux could work for her. But I didn’t because Linux is the future of computing. Linux exists in the present of computing, but the technology is still in a transitionary stage. The next few years is where we leap the chasim from novel innovator toys to mainstream consumers. However along the way there are growing pains. Graphics and sound need to get up to par. Support companies need to spring up around the technology. We are getting there. But right now, I feel uncomfortable offering Linux to a mainstream consumer and leaving them to their own devices. If I were to support the system, I could easily setup a Linux system that Caroline could use and enjoy. A Linux system could be setup to let her do her surfing, watching TV, connecting her digital camera and media organization. But she could only turn to me for help if something goes wrong. This is not something I want to inflict on either her or myself. In a few years time, yes, Linux will work for her. But it will most likely be everywhere and work for everyone.
Phoneing This One In
My recent loss of my Nokia N810 Internet Tablet has meant I need to resort to more exotic devices for offline blogging. At the moment I’m traveling on the bus (or standing at a bus stop), chilling to music and blogging/writing on my Nokia 5800 cellphone. So tapping on a touchscreen feels more etheral than tactile than on a slide-out keyboard. But if you don’t have what you like, you like what you have.
Also on a N810 I could use a blogging application and publish directly to my website. On the 5800, I need to take the extra step of uploading to a computer, copy and paste and then post the entry. If I need to suffer for my art to get a daily post, I’m willing to suffer cold fingers and confusing workflows.
And I just got news that the N810 is back! Note to self, when the phone rings and you are getting on the bus… Figure out your priorities. Hint show ticket first. Also learn to use the headset, it looks less awkward. And noone wants to hear your Pink Floyd tracks. 
Reflections in the Rain
Rainy days put me in an reflective mood. Or maybe I’m just in a reflective mood recently. I don’t know.
It is raining outside. Rain drops pitter and patter on the sidewalk. On the buildings standing against the pale grey sky. On the cars passing by. On the people busy in their everyday lifes. I like the rain. Yes, days like today make me sleepy. But the greyness brings all the colours out. The pale grey becomes a canvas on which bright coloured things stand out, while the dark ones fade into the ether. And every surface becomes shiny and reflective like a mirror. People say that the rain falls down when Heaven cries. But are they are tears of sadness or of joy?
I’m am joyful today. I powered up my new cellphone today. Still need to get a provider and a SIM card, but it looks like a fun toy and tool. Today I also finished quite a few tasks. Most of the documentation I need to read at work, I read. Soon I will get to play around with Perl. In fact my task involves learning object-oriented Perl. Nice! Also went to Prince today and had a huge meal… and sake. 
So I’m in a really, really good mood today. And I sort out my IT troubles with Nokia yesterday… Today is a good day.
Now to make the day perfect, I just need to finish off some more old tasks. And start working on my projects. Also I need to do some trip planning!
Funny, I just read how SGI got bought out. Funny cause I remember going to an open house at the IAOD, for a computer graphics course. A very expensive course that required every student to buy a copy of Maya and a SGI rig. Funny how things worked out. I now work in an industry with a lot more stable and well-paying work than the graphics artist could ever provide. And my sad little Intel x86 computers can replace the SGI rig. And a copy of Blender can replace Maya. Funny how everyone with some time and talent can now start work as a graphics artist.
It is On My Desk
No, I’m not mocking Marika’s blog name. Rather this morning I am tired and uncreative. At this point, the creative artist starts stealing ideas from more inspired artists.
Over the course of my university career, I learned the elegant art of organization. The results from just a little effort and some smart thinking goes a long way. Now I feel compelled to organize, pile, list and label everything. Not because I’m a neat person by nature. I just found organized chaos makes one so much productive than in an disorganized chaos. And I’d rather waste my time dragging my butt out bed in the morning at sloth’s pace than waste time looking for my keycard frantically. Instead of asking myself, “Where did I put so-and-so.”, I’d rather tell myself, “Great! Found that things, and did the task. Now I can do something for myself now.”
This morning I dragged myself out of bed to the sound of a humming computer. Yesterday evening’s upgrade of my desktop to Jaunty went smoothly. Except for a few prompts concerning configuration files. With tired eyes, I clicked through said files, and then went to the task of pretending to be awake. Some idle surfing later, then I tired to find that blasted receipt so I could expense a piece of hardware. In contrast to what I said in the above paragraph, organizing papers still eludes me. After a bunch of looking around I still couldn’t find what I needed. Saddened I left for work, and tired hard not to fall asleep.
Today starts the first day of a new project at work. And I start the day extra early for personal reasons. Should be a fun new project. But as I look what is on my desk, somethings impress me and others distress me. The lack of the receipt spoils my attempt of filing my expenses yet again. The lack of my laptop’s mouse, means a forced existance with only the touchpad/trackpoint. The lack of coffee in my cup is of minor temporal concern. I just need to stumble toward the coffee machine down the err… hall or aisle or office space. I’ll figure out what to name I should call it when I wake up.
Presence and lack of certain items on my desk, help or hinder my efforts today. The standard pen, notebook, laptop, headphones and USB pen drive means I can be productive to today. I really miss my mice though. The IBM branded water bottle is a nice touch. The bastards never gave me a job, not being an intern and all. But I like the bottle and soft briefcase I got from them. The soft briefcase on my desk I could do without. Paperwork, bills, papers and sad dysfunctional Internet Tablet all hide there. They will demand I turn my attention at them. The briefcase is there so that I can’t just wave away the work. The chocolate bar wrapper sat on my desk until I noticed. Nice chocolate waffer… not so great substitute for breakfast. But breakfast I plan to grab from the sandwich bar downstairs once they open in a bit from now.
A welcome change to the items on my desk is the change of books. Yesterday I finally finished Joseph Tissot’s How to Profit from Your Faults. A fine read, but a hard read with so much quotes of saints and biblical references. The books discussed how to deal with sins and all that inconvenient stuff a modern technocrat living in a postmodern positivist-relativist world, sometimes wishes he could wave away. But alas the soul remains and the fallen nature of humanity is what it is. Might as well find a way to make oneself better, even by exploiting ones faults. Today instead I have Mary Beth Bonacci’s Real Love book. A lighter read about dating, marriage, sexuality and all that jazz from a Catholic perspective. Normally I don’t mention what I read, due to the obvious personal nature of things. But today I don’t really care what anyone thinks. And if I can piss off a positivist-relativist by showing that a logical thinking technocrat feels the need to read “God nonesense” and to delve into “antequated” religious thought, then that will make my day. Rubbing salt into the wound I’m an anarcho-capitalist. And I’m building your future world. Enjoy! Hopefully I managed to offend someone and ruin their day… just to meet my quota of negative karma feedback.
Also I write this stuff, since I know part of my audience is of a traditional Catholic leaning. And I just want to throw at least some token support and love your way. God bless. As for my open minded, non-discriminating friends, you understand the importance of transparency and free thought. So I’m sure you don’t mind my occasional religious rants.
Another sort of welcome addition to the desk is the cellphone. Yes another Nokia device, and not your standard phone. Before I open up the box and set it up, I’m going to deal with Nokia’s tech support team again. And Nokia tech folks, you are all wonderful people working for a very forward thinking and innovative company. Having to send my Canadian bought IT to a repair place in the US via an American address IS NOT very forward thinking or smart. Since the cellphone seems to have Asian roots, I’d rather not have to send it to Taiwan to get it repaired. Unless of course you guys want to pay for the shipping, in which case I have no qualms.
Anyways enough of my rant today. I need to get a coffee, reboot and get some work done for my dear, generous ex-client before I get to work on my new project. Take care everyone. I hope I haven’t offended to many of you. Or my rant was not too long… Have a happy April Fool’s day. Avoid becoming a fool today. Just adding some more words to get the word count to over a 1000 words (1006). And I’m off.
Windows? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Windows!!!
I just read this article on Phoronix on the Phoenix HyperSpace quick boot Linux. So a quick boot Linux partition installed side-by-side with Windows is nothing new. It happened early last year.
Rather what this article shows is the increased awareness of Linux in the vendor space. It also shows that vendors will ditch their loyalty toward Microsoft and the Windows platform, if it suits the vendor. And Phoenix is not a sole rogue vendor. Nokia does it with Maemo on its internet tablets. Dell on select machines and its Mini 9 netbook. Asus and Acer, again two Linux netbook vendors. And a number of other vendors do the side-by-side install too.
Microsoft should be worried. The Vista debacle caused more than just users to get upset for a slow, bloated OS. Vendors got upset, when Microsoft promised a feature and then didn’t deliver half of what they promised. And vendors trying to stay ahead of the curve got burned when a vital feature didn’t appear. Don’t be surprised that vendors will happily pull a Julius Caesar on Microsoft.
Vendors and user both got tired of Microsoft telling them how they should do their computing. The basic beauty of computing is the flexibility and freedom of workflow that it allows for. Imposing limits of the technology for “historical” and business reason is folly in the long run. Also today’s state of the art technology is past the desktop. The desktop has to interact seamlessly mobile handhelds, web applications and cloud computing offerings. Making everything into a desktop paradigm as Microsoft sees things, doesn’t work. It doesn’t cut it anymore. And vendors know this.
Vendors now look to Linux and free/libre/open source software (FLOSS) as a way to simplify development, cut costs and ultimately as a way to go forward. That is the beauty of FLOSS, you have the freedom to take technology where you want it to go. The only constraints on computing technology should be the laws physical universe and your own imagination.
