Bill Ricker <bill.n1...@gmail.com> writes: > > The Nokia N900 is a combo upgrade from the N97 smartphone and the > N700/800/810 Linux wifi tablet.
Ah, yes--I forgot to mention that one :) > Due on T-Mobile and AT&T soon i hear. It should be harder to lock > down ... and all the apps built for N700/800/810 should be > usable. That's what I'll be looking for when my contract is up. It may be `harder to lock down' in the sense that you'll likely be able to buy one from `direct' from the Nokia (probably via an unlocked-phone retailer, but /without/ going through any of the service-prividers) and use it with the network/provider of your choice, since it's a GSM/UMTS device. Technical considerations aside, this is why I went with GSM when I got into the mobile world; it seems more expensive to get a device without a carrier subsidy (and may actually /be/ more expensive, in some cases), but it can be worth whatever extra expense there is. Will the version that the carriers sell (if they do) be `harder to lock down'? Maybe, maybe not--I guess it depends on what you mean by `locked down'. As I mentioned earlier, the G1 (as T-Mobile sells it), ended up being not-really-all-that open, because the device enforces signature-requirements on the firmware, just like Tivo (so, great--you get access to the code, and you can modify and redistribute your copy, but you can't *run* it on your device). An N900 sold by T-Mobile or AT&T is probably not going to be `locked down' in the sense of `nickle&dime you to death' as Verizon customers tell me Verizon does, but that's not in the normal AT&T or T-Mobile culture anyway. As someone who's interested in developing software to use on his, I'm still... just not getting what the big deal is about Android (I'd love it if someone who does get it could explain it to me; I guess it's `better than the iPhone', but is that *it*?). In particular, I really *don't* want to have to develop in Java: I *really* don't want to have to re-implement network-protocols, file-formats, and graphics toolkits that I already have available just because they aren't already Java all the way down. The N900, on the other hand..., *that's* attractive to me, because it gives me open access all of the development-tools that I currently enjoy with the FreeRunner--I can just use my Cairo-based VisualIDs library, for example. For some of the development that I'm doing, I'd probably be reasonably well-off developing on the *iPhone*, of all things (wow--I never thought I'd say that..., but at least, it appears, I'd be better-off than I would with an Android phone), because I'd be able to use the toolkits that I already have. Of course, the iPhone's ultimately a no-go for me because the *rest* of the development that I'm doing is *impossible* on the iPhone, and `Free Software on the iPhone' is hampered by the inability to actually share an application with other iPhone users who haven't either `joined the developer program' or `jailbroken' their devices. Of course, what I *really* want is just for OpenMoko to pay some heed to maddog and become successful... ;) -- Don't be afraid to ask (Lf.((Lx.xx) (Lr.f(rr)))). _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
