Won’t be Maemo for a while.
Amazon finally conceded that they won’t be able to ship the n900 on the date they were claiming. I rang them on Thursday, because I so doubted their claim, but they were adamant. Then on Thursday evening, their website changed, so you can no longer find the n900. And today they sent out an email, setting a December dispatch. I hope the website changes mean that they’ve filled their preorder capacity and not that they’ve fallen out with Nokia and aren’t going to get any at all. Though in all this, nothing would surprise me.
Sadly, Nokia has a bit of a reputation for doing this with new devices. The date for the n95 was all over the place so much that I ended up naming the device Godot. In practice, Nokia themselves can truthfully claim that they’ve only changed the date once, since basically they’ve avoided giving a firm date completely. Frankly, I find that beyond annoying. Just set a date, fer crying out loud.
So I may cancel my preorder. I don’t believe it’s really Amazon’s fault. They are not exactly swift at notifying people that they can’t make a deadline - but I don’t think it helps them that Nokia are being deliberately obtuse. I think they have a calendar with no actual numbers on.
I’ve spent a chunk of online time today looking at the alternatives, but basically drawn a blank. The n900 isn’t perfect, but it hits more of the spots than the competitors. I make a lot of use of the camera - so the pixon might do, or the omnia 8910. But neither has a decent lens, and I have a loathing for capacitive screens. LG put decent lenses in their phones, but don’t make a serious smart phone with good screen and software. The satio hits all the spots nicely on paper (well, not a good lens, but good camera software) but reports are saying it has the ‘symbian lag’ (you really need a fast processor for that) and it’s Sony Ericsson: I dislike the design, and my experience with the c905 has made me very, very wary.
By comparison, n900 has great hardware: huge screen (and nice, fingernail responsive resistive), only 5mp camera but with carl zeiss lens, and reputedly runs like silk (going from the previews and comments from people who have pre-release models). It won’t ever do DRM files (e-reader or music) and much of the software is still in development, but that’s well on the way.
And most of all, it has a great bunch of people rooting for it. The Maemo community are on the whole a good crowd. It’s become increasingly restless there with the steady run of delays and many people who registered have now cancelled their orders in a fit of pique at Nokia. I can understand the feeling - but honestly, losing a handful of sales is not going to ‘punish’ a company that size. I do think Nokia need to get their act together about release dates (as I said earlier) but whether I cancel or not has to be for the reasons related to myself, not because I’m angry at them.
The community ‘noise’ seems to be rising, and I worry that the serious posters and developers only have so much patience. We’ve had people posting single line TNZ-type posts, which isn’t healthy in any community. (No, you needn’t ask my opinion of how ‘healthy’ TNZ is!) I am assured that this has happened before when new devices were released, and that the community leaders are content that they have it under control. I hope they’re right. As a newbie, it’s disconcerting to see what seems like a peaceful community suddenly turn unpleasant. Not like some places which always have an element of unpleasantness.
So, I’m not Maemo yet - and I’m not sure I shall be. I shall hunt around for information on release dates from other suppliers, and alternative devices. But so far nothing has matched up.
Sadly, Nokia has a bit of a reputation for doing this with new devices. The date for the n95 was all over the place so much that I ended up naming the device Godot. In practice, Nokia themselves can truthfully claim that they’ve only changed the date once, since basically they’ve avoided giving a firm date completely. Frankly, I find that beyond annoying. Just set a date, fer crying out loud.
So I may cancel my preorder. I don’t believe it’s really Amazon’s fault. They are not exactly swift at notifying people that they can’t make a deadline - but I don’t think it helps them that Nokia are being deliberately obtuse. I think they have a calendar with no actual numbers on.
I’ve spent a chunk of online time today looking at the alternatives, but basically drawn a blank. The n900 isn’t perfect, but it hits more of the spots than the competitors. I make a lot of use of the camera - so the pixon might do, or the omnia 8910. But neither has a decent lens, and I have a loathing for capacitive screens. LG put decent lenses in their phones, but don’t make a serious smart phone with good screen and software. The satio hits all the spots nicely on paper (well, not a good lens, but good camera software) but reports are saying it has the ‘symbian lag’ (you really need a fast processor for that) and it’s Sony Ericsson: I dislike the design, and my experience with the c905 has made me very, very wary.
By comparison, n900 has great hardware: huge screen (and nice, fingernail responsive resistive), only 5mp camera but with carl zeiss lens, and reputedly runs like silk (going from the previews and comments from people who have pre-release models). It won’t ever do DRM files (e-reader or music) and much of the software is still in development, but that’s well on the way.
And most of all, it has a great bunch of people rooting for it. The Maemo community are on the whole a good crowd. It’s become increasingly restless there with the steady run of delays and many people who registered have now cancelled their orders in a fit of pique at Nokia. I can understand the feeling - but honestly, losing a handful of sales is not going to ‘punish’ a company that size. I do think Nokia need to get their act together about release dates (as I said earlier) but whether I cancel or not has to be for the reasons related to myself, not because I’m angry at them.
The community ‘noise’ seems to be rising, and I worry that the serious posters and developers only have so much patience. We’ve had people posting single line TNZ-type posts, which isn’t healthy in any community. (No, you needn’t ask my opinion of how ‘healthy’ TNZ is!) I am assured that this has happened before when new devices were released, and that the community leaders are content that they have it under control. I hope they’re right. As a newbie, it’s disconcerting to see what seems like a peaceful community suddenly turn unpleasant. Not like some places which always have an element of unpleasantness.
So, I’m not Maemo yet - and I’m not sure I shall be. I shall hunt around for information on release dates from other suppliers, and alternative devices. But so far nothing has matched up.