A few months ago Nokia released the third iteration of their Internet Tablet N-series, the N810. This model has some new hardware characteristics, and a brand new version of the Maemo interface. Update: I designed a clean background for you, to be used with the "Echo" theme. Download it here, check out how it looks like here.
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Member since:2005-07-06
what dev tools do winmob use again? visual studio with a cross-compiler?
if so, its not hard to understand how there can be so many apps for it out there. even more so if microsoft have been their typical self and maintained backwards compatibility uber alles...
anyways, i think development for maemo runs into a bit of the same issue as the dev kit for iphone. while i recently heard about a vmware image that had been set up, i think one needed to set up a special dev environment inside a linux distro. and the setup was anything but cakewalk iirc. similarly the iphone requires a mac, but the install is at least simpler from what i understand. so no matter how you spin it, both have a more limited resource of developers then one have for windows mobile.
also, from what i see the 770 on up have been embraced as a sysadmin tool by the geeks, while the iphone is fashion item number 1 of the tech market. so basically one is looking at different levels of mindshare.
still, there are some nice tricks coming out of that maemo geek sphere. people have gotten the usb controller on both the N800 and N810 to act as client, otg or host. the latter means that you can plug just about anything into the usb port of the device and the device can make use of it, given the right kernel module/driver loaded. and people seems to be compiling new ones all the time.
and just recently nokia launched a video showing off a system developed that can show video in HD using wifi or usb. while it will probably not satisfy purists (i smell compression in use) this little device may well turn out to be quite the computer.
now if they where to launch variants using cortex A8 and later A9 based ARMs under the hood, and fix their "delete all internal memory" issue when doing firmware upgrades (promised in the next one, iirc), it could very well turn out be a computer in your pocket. just hook it up to a screen and keyboard (bluetooth hid keyboards supported out of the box these days) and access the net. you more or less bring the heart of your desktop with you 
Member since:2007-09-06
A fully upgradeable OS instead of clean start firmware would be great. There are still a few things that my Palm T5 did really well that I haven't replaced fully on Maemo either. It will all come provided Nokia doesn't do anything trastic to the OS.
I'd love to see a bridge between QT4 and GTK too. KeepassX is available for Maemo now but only works with the 810 since Keepass needs QT4 and the current maemo version of QT is not able to make use of the onscreen keboard us N800 owners are limited too. If some developer can bridge the GTK onscreen keyboard over to QT4 then KeepassX would be on my N800 instantly and my same password database could be used across all platforms I come in contact with (Win32/osX/*nix/Maemo).
The built in GPS made me want an upgrade to the N810 but the usable QT4/KeepassX is almost enough to make me blow the budget and hope I can get some of it back for the N800 on ebay.
Member since:
2007-09-06
If you look at the basic devices, they are meant for different things.
WinCE (er.. mobile) is still a full blown PDA and smart phone. The N810 is between an internet tablet and a umpc.
WinCE has the full library of software due to the time it's been around while Maemo is very quickly growing a library but it's the new kid on the block.
WinCE has Microsft behind it so marketing it good and you know it will be designed to work with Exchange. Maemo is a linux distribution by Nokia that is mostly open source so it has a whole world of flexability.
Maemo is based on Debian so the geeks in the crowd can cross compile there .DEBs for the mips cpu if they want. It's basically a gtk/gnome user interface for the really geeky in the croud.
WinCE has the word/excel/powerpoint combo availible for it already. Maemo has gnumeric and the GPE todo/calendar/contacts/notes/timesheet suite which is evolving but very usable and easily syncronized with Evolution and the google apps.
Meomo installs and uninstalls are handled through the package manager so you simply add the repositories (there is an easy add website), search and install. WinCE follows the usual hunt the internet for the program, download it and install it through the paired desktop (download.com helps though).
On advantage I make use of is the flexability of a Linux based OS like Maemo. I have actually partitioned my SDHC card; large fat32, 1.5 gig ext3, 1.5 gig ext3. The first is for storage space the way any SDHC would be used. The second is my partition for IT2008 fully installed and configed the way I like it. The third is my partition for IT2007 fully installed as I had it before the new OS version was available. There is also the internal memory where the clean "out of box" IT2008 image remains. If I want my old OS install, I boot the N800/N810 with it. If I want my new OS, it's the default boot. If I somehow chew both OS installs, I have the base internal OS as my system restore environment. My PDA/IT is a tripple boot; bwahahahaha!
OpenSSH handles my remote shell, scp, sftp needs too and from the device. I have the MSF framework and some other auditing tools installed. Bluetooth tools and phone connectivity and some other things that just don't exist in the WinCE world. (I've never seen Metasploit on a Windows device anyhow)
Really, it depends on what you want it for. If you post your specific needed functions then I or someone else can probably give you a better response.
In my case, I love my N800 and Maemo. If I had the budget, I'd upgrade too the N810 with physical keyboard and built in GPS radio. If I needed a larger keyboard and full blown Mandriva then I'd go EeePC. Really, I'd need a PDA size device (N800 for now), a notebook size device (EeePC or ThinkPad, Toughbook depending.