Before I even get to the subject of this post I have one request:
Dear Nokia: I recommend that Mr. Luke’s essay be sent to anyone working on Maemo.
Who is Sean Luke?
I’m a former spare-time Newton Messagepad user and software developer. I wrote, among other things, the Waba for the Newton Java virtual machine and the Hemlock
Internet Search Tool for the Newton. And a lot of Chinese applications.
I think I qualify as a power user and developer. I’m also an okay UNIX
hacker, though I’m better on BSD than on Linux, much less
uLinux/BusyBox.
Why did he write this essay?
I like the N800. That’s why I bought it. But as great as the N800 is, and as much of an advance it represents technologically
over my 10-year-old MessagePad, I am surprised at how much more
sophisticated the MessagePad is than the N800 in terms of user
experience.The point of this essay is to discuss (later) places where
Nokia could actively, and generally easily, steal from the Newton, and
some GUI bugs they could fix.
Some snippets:
On the Newton you can have multiple applications displayed at one time.
Typically one application is in the background taking up the whole
screen (such as the Note Pad shown at right). And other applications,
or subwindows of the main application, may float freely on the screen,
such as the number pad at right. The earlier screenshot of Einstein
shows further floating applications. This allows for drag-and-drop or
via-event application interaction which largely doesn’t exist on the
N800. On the N800 all dialogs and notification windows are fixed in
location and no additional windows are permitted.The N800 has okay fonts. But the Newton used bold system fonts
throughout, resulting in high readability even in poor light
situations. The N800’s GTK-inspired small application-function icons
are atrocious. The worst I’ve seen on a PDA. Tiny, with large
borders of whitespace around them, faded, obscure, and often difficult
to make out.I find it unbelievable that in 2007 a PDA has come out which cannot rotate its screen.
Nokia seems to have a triangle fetish. [I smiled a little when reading this section]
On the N800, you click on a text field and up pops the keyboard or HWR entry window. You enter your text letter by letter,
and close the text entry mechanism. Over and over again. Clunky to say
the least! This was the crummy approach that PalmOS went with: but at
least they had a built-in mechanism (the Graffiti pad). The N800 does
not — keyboards keep popping up and going away, even if you don’t want
them to show up — maybe you just wanted to select some text to copy it
or move it.
Overall there are just too many good points to outline. This piece was written very well and even tho it is long, it flows. Lots of pictures too, they help express Sean’s arguments more clearly.
My main counterpoint:
The Newton was a PDA, period. The N800 is being toted as a full web browser in your pocket, with a sprinkle of multimedia support, nothing more. Do I think that Nokia should make the N800 more PDA like? Absolutely!
Microsoft is trying to push UMPC’s as the next big thing. Smaller than a laptop, bigger than a PDA, runs full blown Windows. Nokia’s N800, with better software, can become the UMPC’s number one competitor.
Problems with the UMPC form factor:
- Heat: That much power in such a small package = thermal issues.
- Battery life: UMPC’s use laptop chips. In order to stay small UMPC’s use smaller batteries. This wreaks havoc on battery life.
- Usability: The Windows UI really wasn’t built to be used on such a small device. Microsoft is trying to fix this in Vista but we’ve yet to see how much improvement this adds to the user experience.
- Size: OQO makes a pretty sweet UMPC, it’s very small, but it costs around $2200!
- Price: The cheapest UMPC is around $800.
Nokia’s N800 solves all of these:
- Heat: Slower TI OMAP processor built with mobility in mind.
- Battery life: 2-3 times better than the best UMPC’s on the market today.
- Usability: Maemo was created just for this form factor.
- Size: Very portable.
- Price: $399
Maemo can be so much more than it is right now, I hope Nokia is listening.
[Essay found via Reggie on Internet Tablet Talk]