Feedback -- 2 ways

Feedback for internet tablets and maemo

So we are getting feedback. It’s coming through maemo.org, through our 770 feedback channel, through blogs etc. Thank you! Sorry, I cannot comment them all.

The feedback seems to fall into three major categories
1) Hardware
2) Applications
3) System

Hardware
There are various hardware improvement ideas ranging from “expandability” through “connectors to the side” to the all famous “more memory & speed”. The ideas of expandability make a lot of sense but they’d easily contradict with a durable and affordable device. Screen protectors, charging cradles, separate in-box keyboards, etc would also increase the price, although they are good ideas, too. On the other hand, we already put a charger into the box, unlike some others who sell it separately, eh eh ;-).

But now, the hardware is what it is. We’ve got a gorgeous screen, a pretty good size (not too big – not too small), the device is tough and solid, and the price is right. Yes it is. You’ll see new hardware coming from Nokia in the future, but let’s now use the hardware we’ve got. We try hard to get enough units built, and get them to you.

Applications
At the application side, there is a very loud group of e-Book fans. I promised to Roger to try e-books and form my own opinion. E-Books have never been in my radar screen, so I’m trying now. Too early to say anything.

Then, what comes to internet calls and instant messaging – you’ll have them in the next major release later this year.

Other suggestions include PIM, more games, voice recorder, presentation editors, etc. A lot of people are working on those already, including open source based and commercial stuff. So let’s see what happens with them. But really, we are not really building your average PDA here.

System
I don’t think we’ll abandon X.

For more memory and speed, we’ll work with the software to try to improve the performance. We already had tested swap idea similar to those already presented, but there are still many issues there. We are not sure at all if that is the way to go. Also, let’s remember that a 770 is not your regular PC. So comparing a 770 to your latest laptop makes no sense what comes to memory and speed. But I agree that there is room for improvement there.

Our goal is to make internet tablets good internet citizens. All major internet use cases should be easily performed. Therefore, all kind of input related to this goal are carefully studied. We need to put things in priority order and keep on working.

For all kinds of ideas, there is a lot of discussion happening at maemo mailing lists, too.

Feedback from me
We all agree that we need to improve software – not only for Nokia’s internet tablets but for all Linux and open source based systems. In addition to us geeks, we need to attract a wider audience, and get our stuff to regular users. I claim that this one of the biggest challenges for the entire open source movement.

There is no doubt that open source can produce good quality software. Just think about Linux or Apache, for example. But simplicity, usability, and end user appeal – I don’t know. GNOME, Ubuntu and others are happening, but we've got a long road ahead of us. Therefore, I was really happy to get some 770 feedback from Alan Cox: “What is most impressive is that you've actually made a Linux system feel like a Nokia device -- not like a Linux device by Nokia”.

I encourage you all to work on your favorite applications. Share them as open source or distribute as commercial applications or services, like DejaDesktop, and please, publish you apps at maemo.org application catalog if you can.

But above all, have courage to publish a 1.0 version of your work– not just 0.1. Make it ready. Test it fully. Perform usability testing and fix usability bugs. Make your software works for your mom and dad. Seriously!

By the way
By the way, you can prevent pop-ups in the browser (tools-->settings-->plug-ins&scripts). Also, using the 4way button you can either scroll (keep the button down) or jump from link to link (press the button once). Also, we’ve do have dedicated hardware volume controls: while the video or audio player is on, the +/- button otherwise used as a zoom button works as a volume knob. …for those of you who didn’t know these.