On 7/20/07, andrei raevsky <raevsky.andrei at gmail.com> wrote: > > I personally have no use whatsoever for "PDA applications" and I am quite > happy that Nokia did not even try to go down that road. They created a > fantastic piece of hardware and a rather good OS to run it. Then they > added some applications and the rest is up to us, the community. And it > seems that the community does not have PDA functionality high up its list > of priorities and I understand that. > > I do not mean to be critical, but you might stick to Palm for PDA like > applications and not expect Internet Tablets to ever even try to match > them. The community *has* tried to do calendar and contacts applications; off the top of my head: * GPE Suite's (calendar, contacts, todo) * Opened Hand's Dates and Contacts * Winzig * DejaPim ...and probably a few others. But decent PIM applications (see Palm OS or EPOC) are fairly involved, and these disparate efforts have had no consolidated resource and leadership. Currently, with the Maemo community so disparate, Nokia is best placed to provide that leadership. As you say, it's a fantastic piece of hardware (video bandwidth notwithstanding), but it's only marketing which makes it an "Internet Tablet" rather than "high-end PDA" or "palmtop computer" (if I were in an uncharitable mood, I'd point out that it's not the RSS reader or email client which makes it an Internet Tablet ;-)). My phone doesn't advertise itself as a PDA, but it has a calendar, a countdown timer and decent contacts management. Various people working at Nokia have expressed the opinion its PIM functions should be adequate for my needs. It's not: the screen is too small and the data entry is crap. The pragmatic point has also been made: *every* review of the 770/N800 has mentioned the lack of PDA-like functionality (whatever that is taken to mean), if that results in a slightly more negative review, it *will* cost additional sales. Presumably, at the moment Nokia Marketing have decided that the cost of development is greater than the cost of the lost sales. Ted's made the consumer point: it's one of practicality, if I need an MP3 player, PDA, phone and Internet Tablet; there will be times where one or more has to stay behind. If I can manage one day without my N800, why not two, four, a week, a month? Once it falls into disuse, the community dies. Cheers, Andrew -- Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew at bleb.org | http://www.bleb.org/
