N900, new firmware PR1.2 - failure or success?
Good day, habrachelovek. I continue my series of articles about the Nokia N900. I understand that the title gives "yellow", but really wanted to reflect the essence of the article.
What will this article be about and for whom is it? I am addressing the article:
Ie for anyone interested in the world of mobile technology. Why should this interest everyone? Yes, because in this article I will try to talk about how the policy of promoting the new direction of development (Maemo / MeeGo) by Nokia is being conducted today and in the future, not only in terms of marketing, but also in terms of software support. I will do this illustrative analysis on the example of Nokia PR 1.2, which came out recently.
Everything stated here is a subjective point of view and is not an expert assessment. The topic is very interesting and difficult, but it can be useful for long-term planning (at least as “another point of view”) or merely satisfying curiosity.
And I will answer the question whether MeeGo will be on the N900 !!!
So, on May 24/25, the long-awaited (naturally N900 users) firmware for the N900 came out. What does it mean? Undoubtedly - this is fixing errors and adding new functionality, but this is not at all important. The main essence of this event is a serious step in the reorganization of the marketing and software business model of the largest mobile group, Nokia.
However, some users are not happy and criticize the behavior of Nokia. Here we try to figure out whether this "anger" is justified.
First, let's discuss what has changed in the N900 and why I personally consider this update revolutionary in terms of new software functionality.
Then I will tell why this firmware is a huge step in promoting the mobile market in general and plays such an important role in keeping Nokia's position in the market.
In the end I will make a small note for developers.
I will not copy the entire list of changes here, those who are interested can find it here . I will go a little different way.
What did the users expect, what did they lack? I read a lot of forums, watched reviews and analyzed the output of applications. Based on this, I can offer my list of the most missing functions (before the release of PR1.2).
Also, very many people would like to get the opportunity to switch the USB port to the “host” mode, for connecting external devices (keyboard, flash drives, hard drives ...), but this is unlikely to ever happen. But nothing is impossible. To whom this topic is interesting, you are here . Quite recently, I came across a post in which it seemed that the ability to connect devices with power consumption <200mA was demonstrated and promised details in the near future.
These items prevented people from breathing. Some of them could be understood, but here some (USSD and MMS for example) practically did not fit in the head. How can you release a high-tech revolutionary device without the support of such basic functionality!?
In general, the release of PR1.2 was late but took place. Why didn’t the N900 users wait?
The first two points just shocked me. That is why the public is indignant! But what is it? Again crutches instead of MMS in the form of fMMS? Equalizer in GStreamer'e apparently also very hard work! Although it is possible to install a plugin - equalizer for GStreamer - mafw-gst-renderer, but it is not very optimized and consumes a very large amount of resources (not exactly what you need to listen to music, right?).
As for 3G calls, it is also unclear. In general, telephone functions are initially lame. But since many phones (even non-smartphones) have a front-facing camera and the possibility of video communication via 3G networks, it would be logical to assume that this kind of video communication will be the most popular.
Portrait mode is present in the browser, and some other programs (mail, favorites list, SMS dial-up ...), but people have been waiting for a full portrait phone, like Symbian. Of course, this is a keyboard slider, but this is a phone !!! Work in this direction is underway, and gradually the phone still gets “portrait”.
Here , for example, there is a discussion about the portrait on-screen keyboard.
I would say that browsing in portrait mode is very convenient, but the screenshot could not be done (to do this, press the key combination on the device, and when you open the keyboard, the device goes into horizontal mode, which is logical). It should be noted that the portrait mode in my browser was turned off by default. In order to enable it, you need to install the appropriate "bird" in the properties.
We can say that the problem was solved in half.
Amount: three and a half mins.
Now that came from the list.
Here, too, you can put 3 and a half plus.
And so - balance.
I would not say that everything is very healthy, but I will not say that everything is bad. Compared with competitors, there is a huge number of unique features that are only available on this platform. And it attracts many. And this update has increased this list.
Less significant "features" that did not come with the firmware:
What can be distinguished from the innovations:
Now I will try to tell why all this is so important. Here is a list of key points, see below why they are so important:
The first three points can be combined together. PR 1.2 firmware is Qt out of the box on the device. Which makes Qt applications automatically native to the Maemo platform. Qt Mobility 1.0.0 is an add-on for Qt that adds a cross-platform API for accessing phone capabilities. Thus, Qt is now the official development framework for the N900. And all applications written with Qt + Qt Mobility will automatically run on three platforms - Symbian, Maemo and MeeGo. And you can develop these applications cross-platform with the help of the Nokia Qt SDK (more details in this my article ).
The second very important point is the addition of video calls over the network. Now the “Video Call” item is available in the user's contacts if the client supports it (for Skype it was said that the latest version is needed (the number was not specified), I checked and works with Skype on Windows and Mac OS, there is no possibility to check on Linux).
Who used it - he knows that Skype / Gtalk / SIP video on the N900 is not much different from simple 3G video - small pictures of rather poor quality of interlocutors. Not exactly what most expect :-)
Here is a screenshot of the conversation:
Since the video display is implemented on “overlays” (displayed on the screen by means of a video adapter, bypassing the window system), it was not possible to get the pictures in the screenshot, so I marked the red areas where the images of the interlocutors are displayed during communication.
But there is one big “BUT”, video gradually comes to mobile devices, and braking was associated with a large number of factors - not the readiness of software / hardware platforms to encode / decode video, not the readiness of mobile networks to transmit such traffic (who will tell me that Moscow has no problem with that - I’ll throw a stone at that :-), I’ve never been able to talk on Skype over GPRS in Moscow, I’m not talking about the video), it’s not the video services themselves. Of course, in different countries and in different regions of the same country, the situation with mobile data transmission is different, but this is a common global service and it is important that it is accessible from everywhere.
So, for a long time already shouting: "The video is coming." There were announcements of technologies, implementations ...., but the main video chat providers today are Skype, Gtalk, MSN, Yahoo. And it is already clear what exactly they will bring video to the mobile world.
And here is the first tentative step - Skype-video on the N900. Given that the Gtalk video has already been, we get a very powerful combination of Skype / Gtalk / SIP video. For many, this will be news, but before that no mobile device supported Skype video. N900 was the first !!! This is a very significant event. The funny thing is that the N900 does not support 3G video calls, as if hinting at the failure of 3G video calling :-).
Here is the beginning of the revolution and the vanguard of this revolution is the N900 !!!
Thus, we have two revolutionary incidents: the arrival of cross-platform Qt on mobile platforms and the arrival of popular IP-video chat on the mobile market.
UPD: when I finished this article, the iPhone 4G was presented, and at this presentation Steve Jobs confirmed my thoughts on the topic of video calling. FaceTime is a solution from Apple and it’s interesting that 3G video calls in iPhone 4G are also missing. Although the video on the iPhone 4G looks much better on the presentation than on my N900, I believe that the N900 is ahead of its competitor in this regard for several reasons:
I don’t want to make a comparative analysis of the iPhone 4G and N900 here, I just wanted to express my opinion on the onset of video communication. I wanted to notice that she already has! And my main thought is that the N900 is the flagship in this direction.
Well, I am glad that I did not find anything that “broke” with the release of the new firmware, and it pleases. Here's an example of what a habr looks like with a flash on a page:
Now briefly view from the developer. I already wrote in detail about the Noka Qt SDK . There are detailed instructions on how to work with it and what restrictions exist, as well as how to get around them.
Essentially:
Global Change for Developers - Qt Mobility SDK 1.0.0. If you don’t really understand why I admire the appearance of this SDK, or want to learn more, then read the documentation for examples with pictures .
')
Despite the fact that some users are not happy with the fact that PR 1.2 brought them, this is indeed a turning point in the development of a platform for Nokia and a huge event in the mobile market. Very pleased with the dynamics of the market, something great happens every month. And ahead of us all are waiting for joyful events. I look forward to the emergence of MeeGo for mobile platforms. But now you can start developing applications for Maemo and if you do not use anything other than Qt and Qt Mobility API, then the application will automatically work on the Symbian and MeeGo platform.
Very pleased that the direction of Nokia to users and developers. New, fresh, good. Thanks guys.
Now, about whether MeeGo will be on the N900. According to the official statement , there will be no official support, but with almost 100% probability we can say that it will be possible to install MeeGo, but without official support. This is due to the fact that Nokia does not want to completely change the whole platform on debugged devices and assure that Nokia will continue to support Maemo even after MeeGo. They can be understood that after so many years of work on the project it is not easy to bury him so quickly. It is one thing, if the project is already obsolete morally - another modern competitive product. And I can immediately be disappointed. Since Qt will be the main development tool for MeeGo, all applications will work on both MeeGo and Maemo. And what will happen next - we will find out in the future. It is safe to say that the next year N900 will remain an actual platform.
Thus, I declare authoritatively: “PR 1.2 is not only a success, but also a significant event in the mobile world!”. I invite those who disagree to a duel in the comments.
What will this article be about and for whom is it? I am addressing the article:
- Existing N900 users
- those who choose the phone;
- eyeing the N900 with the prospect of acquiring it;
- those who are not going to change their current “non-N900” to N900;
- those who will never become the owner of the Nokia N900 by their own convictions or chance;
- Pending N9 with MeeGo on board;
- Those who are tired of reading about the iPhone 4G :-).
Ie for anyone interested in the world of mobile technology. Why should this interest everyone? Yes, because in this article I will try to talk about how the policy of promoting the new direction of development (Maemo / MeeGo) by Nokia is being conducted today and in the future, not only in terms of marketing, but also in terms of software support. I will do this illustrative analysis on the example of Nokia PR 1.2, which came out recently.
Everything stated here is a subjective point of view and is not an expert assessment. The topic is very interesting and difficult, but it can be useful for long-term planning (at least as “another point of view”) or merely satisfying curiosity.
And I will answer the question whether MeeGo will be on the N900 !!!
1. The essence
So, on May 24/25, the long-awaited (naturally N900 users) firmware for the N900 came out. What does it mean? Undoubtedly - this is fixing errors and adding new functionality, but this is not at all important. The main essence of this event is a serious step in the reorganization of the marketing and software business model of the largest mobile group, Nokia.
However, some users are not happy and criticize the behavior of Nokia. Here we try to figure out whether this "anger" is justified.
First, let's discuss what has changed in the N900 and why I personally consider this update revolutionary in terms of new software functionality.
Then I will tell why this firmware is a huge step in promoting the mobile market in general and plays such an important role in keeping Nokia's position in the market.
In the end I will make a small note for developers.
2. Programmatic changes.
I will not copy the entire list of changes here, those who are interested can find it here . I will go a little different way.
What did the users expect, what did they lack? I read a lot of forums, watched reviews and analyzed the output of applications. Based on this, I can offer my list of the most missing functions (before the release of PR1.2).
- 3G video calls.
- Skype video calls.
- Jingle video calls (almost all XMPP clients are Jabber, GTalk).
- SIP video calls.
- USSD (this is when you enter something like * 1234 #)
- MMS (it's not clear at all why there is no such nonsense from the beginning)
- Equalizer.
- Portrait mode.
Also, very many people would like to get the opportunity to switch the USB port to the “host” mode, for connecting external devices (keyboard, flash drives, hard drives ...), but this is unlikely to ever happen. But nothing is impossible. To whom this topic is interesting, you are here . Quite recently, I came across a post in which it seemed that the ability to connect devices with power consumption <200mA was demonstrated and promised details in the near future.
These items prevented people from breathing. Some of them could be understood, but here some (USSD and MMS for example) practically did not fit in the head. How can you release a high-tech revolutionary device without the support of such basic functionality!?
In general, the release of PR1.2 was late but took place. Why didn’t the N900 users wait?
- Mms
- Equalizer
- Portrait mode (almost)
- 3G video calls
The first two points just shocked me. That is why the public is indignant! But what is it? Again crutches instead of MMS in the form of fMMS? Equalizer in GStreamer'e apparently also very hard work! Although it is possible to install a plugin - equalizer for GStreamer - mafw-gst-renderer, but it is not very optimized and consumes a very large amount of resources (not exactly what you need to listen to music, right?).
As for 3G calls, it is also unclear. In general, telephone functions are initially lame. But since many phones (even non-smartphones) have a front-facing camera and the possibility of video communication via 3G networks, it would be logical to assume that this kind of video communication will be the most popular.
Portrait mode is present in the browser, and some other programs (mail, favorites list, SMS dial-up ...), but people have been waiting for a full portrait phone, like Symbian. Of course, this is a keyboard slider, but this is a phone !!! Work in this direction is underway, and gradually the phone still gets “portrait”.
Here , for example, there is a discussion about the portrait on-screen keyboard.
I would say that browsing in portrait mode is very convenient, but the screenshot could not be done (to do this, press the key combination on the device, and when you open the keyboard, the device goes into horizontal mode, which is logical). It should be noted that the portrait mode in my browser was turned off by default. In order to enable it, you need to install the appropriate "bird" in the properties.
We can say that the problem was solved in half.
Amount: three and a half mins.
Now that came from the list.
- Skype video calls are generally very cool, thanks guys. I will talk about this later, but I am delighted with this opportunity!
- Jingle (video extension for XMPP) - previously you could call from a video on GTalk, but the video worked only if they called you. Now you can initiate video chat using Jingle. In fact, this is a bugfix, not an innovation.
- SIP video - I can not say anything, I can not even check, but it's good that there is.
- USSD - well, everything just works here, thanks.
Here, too, you can put 3 and a half plus.
And so - balance.
I would not say that everything is very healthy, but I will not say that everything is bad. Compared with competitors, there is a huge number of unique features that are only available on this platform. And it attracts many. And this update has increased this list.
Less significant "features" that did not come with the firmware:
- Ovi Suite support;
- contact groups.
What can be distinguished from the innovations:
- integrated FaceBook chat;
- file manager can send files (sharing plugin, bluetooth, mail) (death to Petrovich);
- OVI Maps interface has become much more convenient, easier and faster;
- contextual search for applications in the list in the application manager;
- increased battery life (apparently affected the optimization);
- volume control works when the phone is locked;
- Missed calls and messages are displayed in the blocking window (convenient);
- EAP-TTLS + PAP authorization type is available for Wi-Fi connections.
3. So what does this all mean?
Now I will try to tell why all this is so important. Here is a list of key points, see below why they are so important:
- Qt 4.6 Embedded
- Qt Mobility 1.0.0
- Nokia Qt SDK
- Skype Video / Jingle / SIP
- adding social services
The first three points can be combined together. PR 1.2 firmware is Qt out of the box on the device. Which makes Qt applications automatically native to the Maemo platform. Qt Mobility 1.0.0 is an add-on for Qt that adds a cross-platform API for accessing phone capabilities. Thus, Qt is now the official development framework for the N900. And all applications written with Qt + Qt Mobility will automatically run on three platforms - Symbian, Maemo and MeeGo. And you can develop these applications cross-platform with the help of the Nokia Qt SDK (more details in this my article ).
The second very important point is the addition of video calls over the network. Now the “Video Call” item is available in the user's contacts if the client supports it (for Skype it was said that the latest version is needed (the number was not specified), I checked and works with Skype on Windows and Mac OS, there is no possibility to check on Linux).
Who used it - he knows that Skype / Gtalk / SIP video on the N900 is not much different from simple 3G video - small pictures of rather poor quality of interlocutors. Not exactly what most expect :-)
Here is a screenshot of the conversation:
Since the video display is implemented on “overlays” (displayed on the screen by means of a video adapter, bypassing the window system), it was not possible to get the pictures in the screenshot, so I marked the red areas where the images of the interlocutors are displayed during communication.
But there is one big “BUT”, video gradually comes to mobile devices, and braking was associated with a large number of factors - not the readiness of software / hardware platforms to encode / decode video, not the readiness of mobile networks to transmit such traffic (who will tell me that Moscow has no problem with that - I’ll throw a stone at that :-), I’ve never been able to talk on Skype over GPRS in Moscow, I’m not talking about the video), it’s not the video services themselves. Of course, in different countries and in different regions of the same country, the situation with mobile data transmission is different, but this is a common global service and it is important that it is accessible from everywhere.
So, for a long time already shouting: "The video is coming." There were announcements of technologies, implementations ...., but the main video chat providers today are Skype, Gtalk, MSN, Yahoo. And it is already clear what exactly they will bring video to the mobile world.
And here is the first tentative step - Skype-video on the N900. Given that the Gtalk video has already been, we get a very powerful combination of Skype / Gtalk / SIP video. For many, this will be news, but before that no mobile device supported Skype video. N900 was the first !!! This is a very significant event. The funny thing is that the N900 does not support 3G video calls, as if hinting at the failure of 3G video calling :-).
Here is the beginning of the revolution and the vanguard of this revolution is the N900 !!!
Thus, we have two revolutionary incidents: the arrival of cross-platform Qt on mobile platforms and the arrival of popular IP-video chat on the mobile market.
UPD: when I finished this article, the iPhone 4G was presented, and at this presentation Steve Jobs confirmed my thoughts on the topic of video calling. FaceTime is a solution from Apple and it’s interesting that 3G video calls in iPhone 4G are also missing. Although the video on the iPhone 4G looks much better on the presentation than on my N900, I believe that the N900 is ahead of its competitor in this regard for several reasons:
- even though FaceTime uses open standards, but it takes time to popularize it as a communication standard, and Skype / GTalk / SIP is already popular and I can already use it;
- FaceTime only works between iPhone 4G devices, and on the N900 you can make video calls to all Skype / GTalk / Jabber / SIP subscribers;
- the video on the N900 works on any internet connection (of course, the speed depends on the quality, but on the Turkish GPRS video works, write about your results in the comments, please), and on the iPhone via WiFi only (which is not great if you have a working 3G network) ;
- On N900, most likely, there will be support for calls on FaceTime (I do not see any obstacles), then the appearance of Skype video on the iPhone is questionable.
I don’t want to make a comparative analysis of the iPhone 4G and N900 here, I just wanted to express my opinion on the onset of video communication. I wanted to notice that she already has! And my main thought is that the N900 is the flagship in this direction.
Well, I am glad that I did not find anything that “broke” with the release of the new firmware, and it pleases. Here's an example of what a habr looks like with a flash on a page:
4. A look from the developer.
Now briefly view from the developer. I already wrote in detail about the Noka Qt SDK . There are detailed instructions on how to work with it and what restrictions exist, as well as how to get around them.
Essentially:
- Nokia Qt SDK is the official development tool while it is in the testing process, but you can already use it. Firmware support from version 1.2. (Do not confuse with Qt SDK. Qt SDK is a development kit on a desktop computer which includes compiled Qt libraries, their sources and Qt Creator. In fact, it is a set to download and you can write programs right away. But Nokia Qt The SDK is a toolkit for writing applications for Nokia mobile platforms (at the moment - these are Symbian and Maemo)).
- Start to get acquainted with Qt on Maemo need with official documentation .
- Qt examples for Maemo5 can be found in the extras-devel repository. The package is called libqt4-examples-maemo5. You can read more here .
Global Change for Developers - Qt Mobility SDK 1.0.0. If you don’t really understand why I admire the appearance of this SDK, or want to learn more, then read the documentation for examples with pictures .
')
5. Conclusions.
Despite the fact that some users are not happy with the fact that PR 1.2 brought them, this is indeed a turning point in the development of a platform for Nokia and a huge event in the mobile market. Very pleased with the dynamics of the market, something great happens every month. And ahead of us all are waiting for joyful events. I look forward to the emergence of MeeGo for mobile platforms. But now you can start developing applications for Maemo and if you do not use anything other than Qt and Qt Mobility API, then the application will automatically work on the Symbian and MeeGo platform.
Very pleased that the direction of Nokia to users and developers. New, fresh, good. Thanks guys.
Now, about whether MeeGo will be on the N900. According to the official statement , there will be no official support, but with almost 100% probability we can say that it will be possible to install MeeGo, but without official support. This is due to the fact that Nokia does not want to completely change the whole platform on debugged devices and assure that Nokia will continue to support Maemo even after MeeGo. They can be understood that after so many years of work on the project it is not easy to bury him so quickly. It is one thing, if the project is already obsolete morally - another modern competitive product. And I can immediately be disappointed. Since Qt will be the main development tool for MeeGo, all applications will work on both MeeGo and Maemo. And what will happen next - we will find out in the future. It is safe to say that the next year N900 will remain an actual platform.
Thus, I declare authoritatively: “PR 1.2 is not only a success, but also a significant event in the mobile world!”. I invite those who disagree to a duel in the comments.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/95852/
All Articles