On Mon 2006-04-17 (13:55), david at thekramers.net wrote: > >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/15/AR2006041500125.html > > Interesting article. The slashdot feedback was just as interesting. > http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/06/04/17/1221247.shtml > > The one thing I disagree with is he criticizes it for not having a > cellphone built in, coming from Nokia. I heard someone from Nokia speak > about the 770 at LinuxWorld, and they had a very good answer to that. > Cell phone devices are *VERY* heavily regulated, and the manufacturer must > ensure that the device cannot be modded once home to do illegal things > (not that they always succeed in this). If they put a cellphone in the > 770, they would have had to limit its flexibility, and certainly would not > have allowed users to flash whatever software they want on it. Good point, i think what these reviewers and so on is missing is that nokia is creating a "home pc" market for embedded/handheld devices. They (nokia) have the problem that they are entering a market saturated with devices, and they have released a device that is so-so at doing what it is doing, but is the first device from a manufacturer where they are actively encouraging people to go buck wild with their device, getting the best of what the community offers, and re-packaging it when it is ready for use. While the device is not ideal for the humpty business man, it will be given time. He says it is missing x feature, oh, hang on, we have the _potential_ to use (in some form or another) code from just about every posixy/unixy app on sourceforge. That is a hell of a lot more than any other manufacturer can offer? Sure you can port stuff to PS/2, and other platforms, but there are always hardware questions...Nokia has created a device (which isn't perfect) and got every debian/linux/gnu freak out there wanting to get their paws on it. Who cares if you can't really market it to the "traditional" market? the people who count want them, and they are doing cool things with them (mono and python esp.) which will mean the next device nokia (or anyone really) produces that is emdebian friendly. Microsoft made wince, and got manufacturers to build the devices. Nokia has made a device and given the community the opportunity to create the operating system/interface (with initial reference work from their R&D department). I think that is cool. I think these guys reviewing these don't actually realise what they represent -> the first handheld that is in a position to _really_ harness the development potential of the Open Source world. I think it is why the n770 keeps doing the completely unheard of -> getting reviews of 8/10 and more from enthusiasts, while being rated the worst device of 2006 by CNet. How can you have something rated 5/10 by "the people in the know" but 8/10 by "the people who understand the devices" Ra Ra! </rant> > > > > _______________________________________________ > maemo-users mailing list > maemo-users at maemo.org > https://maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-users Brad Whittington. -- http://radbrad.rucus.net --------------------- # E-mail: radbrad at rucus dot net # Phone : +27 46 603 8642 # 2nd Phone : +27 46 622 2465 ext. 7535 # Cell Phone: +27 72 022 3638 # IRC: D-Arb on rucus.zanet.net server (#rucus, #clug) and irc.freenode.net (#dotgeek) # Jabber: D-Arb at jabberafrica.org # GoogleTalk: radbrad182 at gmail.com # Sip: 7535 at sip.ict.ru.ac.za # MSN: radbrad182 at hotmail.com # ICQ number:74177972 --------------------- My other computer is a 4000 node beowulf cluster.
