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3 months of use: some comments about the N800

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dmg at uvic

Oct 11, 2007, 6:46 AM

Post #1 of 13 (773 views)
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3 months of use: some comments about the N800

I am not sure this is the best place to post this information. But
hopefully somebody at Nokia will be listening.

After almost 3 months of use I have to say the N800 is the best PDA I
have ever owned. I just came back from a 10 days trip where it became
my main computer, and I am very happy with it.

These are some comments that perhaps could be addressed to make the
next generation of the N800 an even better product.

** Mute button. When the alarms kick in it takes several seconds to
start be able to silence it (or when you remove the
headphones). Sometimes that is embarrassing, like when you are in
a meeting.

** Separate the <+> <fullscreen> <-> buttons a little

** Make the screen of a harder material (perhaps glass like the iphone). I have light
scratches on it already.

** Thumb keyboard. I am not exactly how to reproduce it, but sometimes it inserts repeated
copies of sections of the text.

** PDF reader. Allow me to open more than one document at the same time.

** Web browser: it needs cut-and-paste

** Nokia's Image browser "Images". It is a pain to zoom-in and scroll
the image. I was trying to view a subway map with it and it was a
total pain. When one changes to fullscreen the image gets resized
automatically. In my opinion the image browser should behave more
like the web browser, allowing to pan around the image with the
stylus.

** Soft-power off mode. I have enabled it with a long press of the on-button.
Unfortunately it does not disable the keys. It would be nice if it
did, except for a long-press of the on-botton again.

** File manager.

*** When I move files from one directory to another I'd like the file manager
to stay in the source directory, not the destination one. Perhaps an option will
do.

*** Support for different font sizes.

The following are comments regarding third party applications:

** Mapper: One thing missing is the ability to goto to a designated
POI. The only current option is to go to the nearest.

** GPE-calendar.

*** It messes appointments when one changes timezone. In my opinion appointments
should stay at the same time, even if the time zone changes.

*** It needs to update the end-time to be at the very least after the start-time.
It is cumbersome to have to change the date twice: once for the
start time, and once for the end time.

*** It badly needs a search function.

--
--
Daniel M. German
http://turingmachine.org/
http://silvernegative.com/
dmg (at) uvic (dot) ca
replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .
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johsuars at gmail

Oct 11, 2007, 6:52 AM

Post #2 of 13 (733 views)
Permalink

Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

A quick reply - the browser does have cut and paste. Just double tap
the screen where you want to highlight, then drag. You can then hold
the stylus on the highlight part, which brings up a menu with copy as
an option, or you can invoke the keyboard, and choose copy in the menu
from the little arrow on the bottom left side.

Hope this was helpful.

Cheers,
josh

On 10/11/07, Daniel M German <dmg[at]uvic.ca> wrote:
>
> I am not sure this is the best place to post this information. But
> hopefully somebody at Nokia will be listening.
>
>
> After almost 3 months of use I have to say the N800 is the best PDA I
> have ever owned. I just came back from a 10 days trip where it became
> my main computer, and I am very happy with it.
>
> These are some comments that perhaps could be addressed to make the
> next generation of the N800 an even better product.
>
>
> ** Mute button. When the alarms kick in it takes several seconds to
> start be able to silence it (or when you remove the
> headphones). Sometimes that is embarrassing, like when you are in
> a meeting.
>
> ** Separate the <+> <fullscreen> <-> buttons a little
>
> ** Make the screen of a harder material (perhaps glass like the iphone). I have light
> scratches on it already.
>
>
> ** Thumb keyboard. I am not exactly how to reproduce it, but sometimes it inserts repeated
> copies of sections of the text.
>
> ** PDF reader. Allow me to open more than one document at the same time.
>
>
> ** Web browser: it needs cut-and-paste
>
> ** Nokia's Image browser "Images". It is a pain to zoom-in and scroll
> the image. I was trying to view a subway map with it and it was a
> total pain. When one changes to fullscreen the image gets resized
> automatically. In my opinion the image browser should behave more
> like the web browser, allowing to pan around the image with the
> stylus.
>
> ** Soft-power off mode. I have enabled it with a long press of the on-button.
> Unfortunately it does not disable the keys. It would be nice if it
> did, except for a long-press of the on-botton again.
>
> ** File manager.
>
> *** When I move files from one directory to another I'd like the file manager
> to stay in the source directory, not the destination one. Perhaps an option will
> do.
>
> *** Support for different font sizes.
>
> The following are comments regarding third party applications:
>
> ** Mapper: One thing missing is the ability to goto to a designated
> POI. The only current option is to go to the nearest.
>
> ** GPE-calendar.
>
> *** It messes appointments when one changes timezone. In my opinion appointments
> should stay at the same time, even if the time zone changes.
>
> *** It needs to update the end-time to be at the very least after the start-time.
> It is cumbersome to have to change the date twice: once for the
> start time, and once for the end time.
>
> *** It badly needs a search function.
>
>
>
> --
> --
> Daniel M. German
> http://turingmachine.org/
> http://silvernegative.com/
> dmg (at) uvic (dot) ca
> replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .
> _______________________________________________
> maemo-users mailing list
> maemo-users[at]maemo.org
> https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-users
>
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anidel at gmail

Oct 11, 2007, 7:01 AM

Post #3 of 13 (735 views)
Permalink

Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

Il 11-10-2007 15:46, "Daniel M German" <dmg[at]uvic.ca> ha scritto:

>
> I am not sure this is the best place to post this information. But
> hopefully somebody at Nokia will be listening.
>
It's a good place, but not the best.
There's a place that is specific for this enhancements requests:

https://maemo.org/bugzilla/

Just file the request as a bug and in the "Severity" field choose
"enhancement".
It'll be a kinda slow process, but really really really helpful.
Then you can post the links to your requests asking for people to vote for
them. The more, of course, the better (either enhancements or votes).

--
Anidel

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eero.tamminen at nokia

Oct 11, 2007, 7:33 AM

Post #4 of 13 (734 views)
Permalink

Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

Hi,

ext Daniel M German wrote:
> ** Make the screen of a harder material (perhaps glass like the iphone). I have light
> scratches on it already.

There's plastic film on top of the screen. If you haven't removed this,
the scratches are in this film, not the actual screen surface.

(there's small piece of folio on the lower left corner which makes
removing the film easier. I just removed the folio piece from the
film and left it to protect the screen.)

> ** PDF reader. Allow me to open more than one document at the same time.

PDFs can use a lot of memory. D-BUS makes sure that there's only one
service (application) launched/running at the time, but if you start
applications directly without D-BUS, you can have multiple ones running.
Just try running following twice in Xterm:
run-standalone.sh /usr/bin/maemo-summoner /usr/bin/osso_pdfviewer.launch &

If you want something like this runnable from the Task Navigator
application menu, copy this file to another name in the same directory
(as root):
/usr/share/applications/hildon/osso_pdfviewer.desktop

Remove the "X-Osso-Service" line from the new file and replace
the Exec line with something like this:
Exec=/usr/bin/maemo-summoner /usr/bin/osso_pdfviewer.launch

(This is untested, but should work in principle.)

> ** Web browser: it needs cut-and-paste
>
> ** Nokia's Image browser "Images". It is a pain to zoom-in and scroll
> the image. I was trying to view a subway map with it and it was a
> total pain. When one changes to fullscreen the image gets resized
> automatically. In my opinion the image browser should behave more
> like the web browser, allowing to pan around the image with the
> stylus.

(how to do this was already explained, I think it might be even
mentioned in the PDF user guide?)

> *** Support for different font sizes.

Where?

- Eero

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james.knott at rogers

Oct 11, 2007, 7:34 AM

Post #5 of 13 (738 views)
Permalink

Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

Daniel M German wrote:
> I am not sure this is the best place to post this information. But
> hopefully somebody at Nokia will be listening.
>
>
> After almost 3 months of use I have to say the N800 is the best PDA I
> have ever owned. I just came back from a 10 days trip where it became
> my main computer, and I am very happy with it.
>
> These are some comments that perhaps could be addressed to make the
> next generation of the N800 an even better product.
>
>
>

Allow the scroll bar to be moved to the left side of the screen for us
lefties. It's really annoying to have to use the one on the right side.

--
Use OpenOffice.org <http://www.openoffice.org>
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disqkk at gmail

Oct 11, 2007, 7:41 AM

Post #6 of 13 (734 views)
Permalink

Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

On 10/11/07, Daniel M German <dmg[at]uvic.ca> wrote:
> ** Soft-power off mode. I have enabled it with a long press of the on-button.
> Unfortunately it does not disable the keys. It would be nice if it
> did, except for a long-press of the on-botton again.

softpoweroff works better if you assign it to the short press. I use
it that way and it also locks the keys. I also made it so that the
long press brings up the power menu.

--
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john at rudd

Oct 11, 2007, 8:36 AM

Post #7 of 13 (733 views)
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Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

Kemal Hadimli wrote:
> On 10/11/07, Daniel M German <dmg[at]uvic.ca> wrote:
>> ** Soft-power off mode. I have enabled it with a long press of the on-button.
>> Unfortunately it does not disable the keys. It would be nice if it
>> did, except for a long-press of the on-botton again.
>
> softpoweroff works better if you assign it to the short press. I use
> it that way and it also locks the keys. I also made it so that the
> long press brings up the power menu.
>

How do you re-assign the power button settings?

And this reminds me of a feature I found severely lacking recently:

Monday morning I set two alarms on my N800. First time I've done any
alarms. So, one goes off .. and then a few minutes later, my N800
freezes (the "nokia white screen of death"). I couldn't get it to
respond to anything, not even the power button. I don't know if it was
caused by the alarms, or what ... but that's not my point. In order to
get it to power off, I had to pull the battery. I don't consider that
to be an acceptable action (for one, I had no idea what kinds of power
spikes it might send into the device as I was wiggling the battery out,
since it's not an easy battery to pull).

When it came back up, it didn't fully reboot. The alarm function wasn't
in the status bar, and it still wasn't responding to the power button.
So, this time I opened up an xterm, ssh'ed into root, and told it to
reboot. When it came back from that, all was fine again.

What this leads to is: soft power buttons are nice for some things, but
are absolutely useless in other situations. Sometimes, you need to
force an action when software and interrupts have been corrupted.

IMO, the N800 _REALLY_ needs:

1) a hardware reset button, probably next to the battery (so, it's
almost as desperate a situation as pulling the battery, but you don't
have to actually pull the battery). Obviously this can't/wont be done
for the N800, but maybe for the WiMax version, and/or the next
generation IT.

2) a means of actually invoking the unix "reboot" command without having
to break into root. I can probably make "reboot" be setuid root, and
add it to the status bar graph menu ... but I think that'd be a little
too easy. Maybe something you can invoke from the control panel
application menu: "hard reboot now".

And, while I'm on the subject of power, I'd also like the battery status
icon to tell me the % of battery charge remaining. Telling me how many
hours are estimated to be left is kinda nice, but I'd _also_ like to
know what % of charge capacity is left. The only time it does anything
like that is if it's plugged in, and full, it says "battery is full".

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disqkk at gmail

Oct 11, 2007, 8:53 AM

Post #8 of 13 (733 views)
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Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

On 10/11/07, John Rudd <john[at]rudd.cc> wrote:
> Kemal Hadimli wrote:
> > softpoweroff works better if you assign it to the short press. I use
> > it that way and it also locks the keys. I also made it so that the
> > long press brings up the power menu.
> >
>
> How do you re-assign the power button settings?

by editing /etc/mce/mce.ini. of course this is dangerous and breaking
that file would lead to having to reflash your device. you have been
warned.

here are some pointers:
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=34283&postcount=20
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=65410&postcount=3

--
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steve at yelvington

Oct 11, 2007, 10:03 AM

Post #9 of 13 (733 views)
Permalink

Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

Eero Tamminen wrote:
> There's plastic film on top of the screen. If you haven't removed this,
> the scratches are in this film, not the actual screen surface.
>>

One of the guys at work has discovered PSP screen protectors can be
adapted to the N800 fairly easily.

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atmasphere at atmasphere

Oct 11, 2007, 10:10 AM

Post #10 of 13 (738 views)
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Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

In case you guys missed it the user manual is actually on the device...

http://www.maemoapps.com/2007/03/12/the-basics-the-user-guide/

On 10/11/07, Steve Yelvington <steve[at]yelvington.com> wrote:
>
> Eero Tamminen wrote:
> > There's plastic film on top of the screen. If you haven't removed this,
> > the scratches are in this film, not the actual screen surface.
> >>
>
> One of the guys at work has discovered PSP screen protectors can be
> adapted to the N800 fairly easily.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> maemo-users mailing list
> maemo-users[at]maemo.org
> https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-users
>

--
Jonathan Greene
+1.914.750.8740
AIM / iChat - atmasphere
gtalk / jabber - jonathangreene[at]gmail.com
Skype / Gizmo - JonathanGreene
blogs - http://www.atmasphere.net/wp / http://www.maemoapps.com

fred at crozat

Oct 11, 2007, 1:12 PM

Post #11 of 13 (731 views)
Permalink

Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

Le jeudi 11 octobre 2007 � 13:03 -0400, Steve Yelvington a �crit :
> Eero Tamminen wrote:
> > There's plastic film on top of the screen. If you haven't removed this,
> > the scratches are in this film, not the actual screen surface.
> >>
>
> One of the guys at work has discovered PSP screen protectors can be
> adapted to the N800 fairly easily.

Or you can buy 770 screen protection which are compatible for n800.

I recommend Brando UltraClear
http://shop.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00337&dept_id=&cat_id=018 (also available as AntiGlare : http://shop.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=01194&dept_id=&cat_id=019 but I prefer UltraClear personally).

--
Fr�d�ric Crozat
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dmg at uvic

Oct 12, 2007, 12:39 PM

Post #12 of 13 (717 views)
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Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

Eero> Hi,
Eero> ext Daniel M German wrote:
>> ** Make the screen of a harder material (perhaps glass like the
>> iphone). I have light scratches on it already.

Eero> There's plastic film on top of the screen. If you haven't removed this,
Eero> the scratches are in this film, not the actual screen surface.

I can't really see any film on it. The scratches are very thin, but
noticeable at an angle.

Eero> (there's small piece of folio on the lower left corner which makes
Eero> removing the film easier. I just removed the folio piece from the
Eero> film and left it to protect the screen.)

Oh, that one. I removed the film when new.

Eero> PDFs can use a lot of memory. D-BUS makes sure that there's only one
Eero> service (application) launched/running at the time, but if you start
Eero> applications directly without D-BUS, you can have multiple ones running.
Eero> Just try running following twice in Xterm:
Eero> run-standalone.sh /usr/bin/maemo-summoner /usr/bin/osso_pdfviewer.launch &

thanks for this warning. I have tried and it works. I had two
documents I had to jump back and forth and it was painful without two
different windows.

>> *** Support for different font sizes.

Eero> Where?

FileManager. I have already filed a bug report using Bugzilla (and
many other ones).

Thanks again,

Eero> - Eero

--
--
Daniel M. German
http://turingmachine.org/
http://silvernegative.com/
dmg (at) uvic (dot) ca
replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .
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drfredc at drfredc

Oct 24, 2007, 9:50 PM

Post #13 of 13 (655 views)
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Re: 3 months of use: some comments about the N800 [In reply to]

On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:49:46 -0700
Fred Chittenden <drfredc[at]verizon.net> wrote:

>
> > Allow the scroll bar to be moved to the left side of the screen for
> > us lefties. It's really annoying to have to use the one on the
> > right side.
> >
> I'd settle for something like a scroll-wheel somewhere.
>
> A couple optional touch keyboard layouts would bbe nice.
>
> There's also an occasional time where a right/left mouse button would
> be useful.
>

--
Always Fred Chittenden, DDS
drfredc[at]drfredc.com
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