[nylug-talk] Nokia N810

[Ron Guerin]

Ruben Safir wrote:
>> 'Many people'? You mean YOU. People that have problems with small screens 
>> would not buy this kind of machine. Two million iPhones tell me that a 
>> small screen is not a problem to a lot of people.
>> 
> Actually I mean MOST people.  Most people need reading glasses some 
> time after turning 40.  Most people turn 40.
> 
> Did you ever notice those reading glasses they sell at Rite-AID?
> 
> And this is an important point that your missing.  Your trying to 
> make this personal and but in reality your the one analyzing this
> device in a confined container which would include your limited
> expereince.  If you want to argue that some young people who have
> a spare 500 dollars might find this a playful device that entertains
> them, I give you that point.  But for general use in the general
> population it suffers too many limitations and its software design
> is too fragile.

A lot of people who are younger, will not have trouble using the Nxxx 
series tablets in smaller than default fonts.  A lot of people who are 
older will have trouble seeing things in default sizes.  But this thing 
is a gadget, not a PC.  Everyone's using it for something different, 
something that works for *them*.  Not every possible usage is going to 
make sense to every possible user.  I think one of the "problems" with 
these Nokia tablets is precisely that the software that comes with them 
is uninteresting (except for the browser) and it's really up to you to 
figure out what to do with it.  These are devices whose use to someone 
is not necessarily obvious.  They seem to be making a half-hearted 
attempt at marketing it as a kind of PDA, but my guess is they sell most 
of them by word of mouth from people who've customized the hell out of them.

I happen to know a lot of young people who own these things, and I know 
people in their 20's, 30's and 40's with them.  The only real pattern 
I've picked up on is the youngins like to IRC and IM with them, but 
that's probably what the fate of mine would have been as well.  And 
maybe to look at a recipe while I'm bachelor-botching something for 
dinner in the kitchen.

> It sucks for web browsing because the input device is a PIA.  The new one
> probably addresses this better.
> 
>> and reading ebooks whereever I am, but Im sure my usage pattern 
>> is not the same as yours so the machine doesn't work for YOU.
>> 
> Too small to do serious reading from.

I disagree.  It's big enough for anyone to do reading from, you just 
have to enlarge the font.  When mine was in fact working, I did quite a 
bit of reading on it.  Reading I don't have a problem with, but writing, 
I couldn't agree more.  And apparently a lot of other people couldn't 
have agreed more either, and the word got back to Nokia.  If there's an 
N820 coming, it will probably fix more problems.  I don't know why these 
manufacturers insist on turning out so many not-quite-there products 
before they get it right though.  I could have told them 3 years ago 
exactly what needed to be done, as could about a dozen people I 
personally know.  It's not rocket science.  Just like Sharp with the 
Zaurus, Nokia seems destined to need 4 to 6 iterations to do what 
obviously needed to be done in the first place.  These things must get 
designed by committees.

The good news is, I think Nokia will keep at it until they get it right. 
  I wish that could have been said of Sharp, who got -->this close<-- 
with the Zaurus at least 5 years ago, but just couldn't hit the damn mark.

- Ron