There was a lot of fallout in the comments to my last post.
The first thing I want to clarify is that Ryan Abel is absolutely correct on his summation of capacitive touch displays. Having a high-precision resistive touch display gives Maemo tablets a wider degree of functionality than a capacitive display could. These are little computers, after all. Capacitive touch is for low-precision operations like phones, media players, and kiosk displays.
Second: I know damn well that my aspirations for a Maemo 5 tablet are far out of line with reality. The features I described at the price I mentioned are simply not possible with today’s technology. There’s simply no way to stuff all those features into such a small device without killing battery life and skyrocketing the price. I know it was a pipe dream. The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet was years ahead of its time. Years have passed, however, and the next Maemo tablet needs to be far ahead of existing technology to stand out as a device consumers actually want to buy.
Finally: I haven’t lost my lust for internet tablets. While technology is catching up with Nokia’s innovation, I still believe that Maemo developers can pull something out of their hats that will make jaws drop worldwide. I believe this because I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a good number of them. They’re really THAT brilliant. If they pooled their minds and decided they wanted to build a Mars rover of their own, I am sure they could do it.
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I gave up on my tablet (After owning all three models over the last few years). I started getting fed up at the seeming inability by Nokia to provide a better experience (The tablets are still far, far to slow for their core web surfing experience). I’m sure they’ll get there in the end. The next Maemo 5 powered model will probably be really impressive but it’s too late for me. I’ve thrown my lot in with an iPhone and apart from the lower resolution I’m far, far happier.
When I started to use my N800 the browsing experience (Opera at this time) was simply unbeatable by an other device.
At the moment there are alternatives and devices which do a better web browsing job.
But there are _not much more_ devices and the experience is _not much_ better.
On the other side there are so much other stuff you can do with the tablets – I don’t ant to miss that!
I know where Big Flub is coming from – I too have owned all three tablets, have raived about the potential but don’t use them anymore. Why? Because Nokia has consistently left me disappointed with the quality of the software which fails to meet it’s basic objectives, even after all this time. Other devices do a better job with more limited hardware, and arguably have as much if not more potential thanks to greater and more wide spread support.
Nokia have, IMHO, one more shot at this market with Maemo 5 and the next device – if they don’t succeed with their next effort, then pack it in, please as I’m beginning to think that Nokia will never understand what they need to do in this space to succeed, let alone catch up with the competition.
Dan, I always have read your blog with great intrest and joy. Over the past few months I’ve come to notice two big changes:
First, besides one big announcement of Ari nothing really exciting has happend in Internet Tablet land, right?
Second, you do now own an iPhone, too. Having that, how frequently do you still use your tablet?
Don’t get me wrong, I really liked the idea of Linux driven internet tablets. Right now I think that the ipod touch is the internet tablet Nokia should have produced (as a device between a mobile phone and a real computer), although as a more open system.
Generally I wish there was more information on next generation of tablets.
I find it interesting that there are former tablet owners who dislike it so much they have to spend time going round blogs telling everybody.
All small handheld devices have compromises, and I’m not pretending the tablets are perfect, but either you find a way to love or ignore the quirks and compromises or you move on, no need to keep coming back to moan on the tablet blogs and forums, we’ve heard it all before – sorry to be blunt but you’re wasting your time and ours!
For me the nit is still the best pocket device available, specially because i can run python on it.
Why i say that ? To demonstrate that all comment before are point of view based on experience with the device. And this is not what all nit owner think.
Some love it, some hate it …
ps : i hate the iphone … no python
Of course ryan also totally wrong in the sense that it is really not that hard to produce a capacitive stylus… beyond that simply point I disagree with his assertion that significant value would be lost by shifting away from a resistive touch screen…
An issue tied to that is the user interface remains confused as to it wishes to be weighted down with stale conventional desktop conventions such as grab and pull scroll bars, window controls etc. they take up ridiculous amounts of space that could be used for content, and detract from the mobility case, using the device shouldn’t be like windows 3.1 and it looks and feels dated. moreover the ui frequently can’t make up it’s mind between finger, stylus and keyboard input (think about how you get to a menu with the app maximized) this is the worst of the possible outcomes frankly and in contrasr the n800 and n770 do not suffer from this quite as much as the n810 with it’s moronic button placement.
Dan, I wish there were some other event like the Maemo Summit where I could hang out with you. I miss those heady days in Berlin.
Looking forward to Maemo5,
Qole