Roland Tanglao's Weblog

I have started a personal Google Wiki called "BUG Adventures" to track my adventures with my Bug Labs BUG. There's not much there for now other than some newbie eclipse questions and  the usual anti-Java whingeing :-)  (since I have only played with my BUG for about an hour), but if you are interested you can check it out at your leisure.

The question of the moment is: what is this ? (couldn't find it in the wiki and manuals but then again I only searched for about 15 minutes!)

Otherwise, I'll post highlights here.

Real artists ship! My Bug Labs Bundle Arrived today. Check out my BUGbundle unboxing pics (including the nice touch of the team's signatures inside the box.). The Camera module is on back/order but I received a cool von Hippel hacking module as a bonus for the delay. Now for some GPS hacking. Oh, and if anyone else in Vancouver has a BUG, contact me and let's get together to exchange notes!

Change 2008 to say 2009 or 10 and change Linux to Android (which is on top of Linux) and Russell was basically correct. Go Russ go! Looking forward to more mobile predictions now that you have joined Nokia (and I love how you continue to be honest!)

QUOTE [From The Future of Mobility is Linux - RussellBeattie.com]

There could be some spoilers out there. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow - Apple could pull out some amazing iPhone and change the market over night. But right now being in the industry this is how I see things progressing. As it is now, I use a Symbian phone and plan on recommending that platform to others looking for a good smart phone. But as the next 12 months goes by, I full expect that a Linux based phone will enter my world, and within the next few years become a standard.

See you in 2008.

END QUOTE

I want the entire suite of Bug Modules but I live in Canada. I tried to order with my Canadian Credit Card with a US Shipping Address but as I suspected, it didn't work. Thanks to the fine folks at Bug Labs for their patience in dealing with my multiple emails on this subject! It's not the end of the world but it's a bit disconcerting to see that despite "free trade" and "globalization", things haven't progressed since I was a kid ordering software and other gadgets from the USA in the 1970s and 80s, i.e. it's still ludicrously difficult to get gadgets over the border. Can we have a Schengen like zone between Canada and the USA please?

Russ Beattie agrees with me that Nokia should adopt an open source core.

FROM Nokia and The Next Gen Mobile GUI

QUOTE 

Point 4 is something I’ve written about before: Symbian had its chance to reach critical mass, and didn’t. It may continue to gain developers and new phones, but they’ve hit the high water mark in terms of rate of adoption and units… From this point on, Symbian is going to be doing that slow fade into technological obscurity. Let me put it like this: Symbian is not a platform that any true innovators would ever base their ideas on going forward, and without innovation an OS is dead. Once Nokia moves on to something else, it’ll quickly go away forever. And what would Nokia move to? Linux of course - as shown by their two outstanding web tablets the 770 and N800. The quicker Nokia starts moving that OS to their top-tier mobile phones, the better, IMHO.

END QUOTE 

I'm really enjoying the Nokia N800 that I received from the Nokia Blogger Relations Program. Surprisingly, Nokia have made Linux almost usable :-) . Seriously, it's fast enough and does what it does well (of course what is the market for the N800? I think it's a great portable Linux computer for geeks and cheap phone and video call power users today!). I am not a big fan of the stylus so I am happy that you can use your fingers. Going to have to try to go a day without my laptop once I have all the apps installed (irc client, ssh client, and a few others).

I think that all major operating systems will be built on an open source core in less than 10 years. So why not build S60 on top of Linux instead of whatever it's built on top of now? Perhaps the N800 as atmasphere suggested in twitter is the one of the first steps to that.

In the long run, it makes sense given the introduction of Open C and Widgets on S60. If apps actually use these two APIs then they should mostly work if S60 were to switch to Linux.

Please read the very thoughtful N800 review that I've quoted below. I can live without YouTube, really (and I am sure this will be fixed!). Easy to make video and audio calls with SIP and soon Skype + open Linux make this the closest thing today to Doc's ophone (anything with a SIM in it will never be truly open!) concept. I definitely want one of these things! Saving my pennies! When Skype comes out for it, I'll be seriously tempted to cross over the border into the USA and pick one up! Go Nokia go!

[BTW still want the N95, N999 and the iPhone :-) Yes I am obsessed or rather I have a compulsive need to create and consume stuff on the go and N95, N999, N800 and the iPhone are (or will be) the best ways to do this!]

FROM My review of the Nokia N800 - when the walkaround web meets the see-me-anywhere call at Internet Tablet Talk:

QUOTE

Take it from me, see-me calls are just … natural. When you don’t have to decide up-front, “I want to pay extra for this, so it better be worth using,” there’s an immediate acceptance of “this is the way it’s meant to be.” And it’s the kind of thing that makes people buy a new device, the way Visicalc (the first spreadsheet) made buying one of those new-fangled Apples worthwhile 20-plus years ago. The step-in price is reasonable, the experience is unique and persuasive immediately, and you don’t worry that “this is going to cost and cost and cost.”

You won’t hear this described as “video conferencing” or “video calls” next year, btw. Those names are so Flash Gordon in their invocation of the future. So don’t trust that any reviewer who uses one of those terms has any idea of what’s coming. Video conferences are what the guy holding a Treo expects to happen, once Verizon offers it as part of a $120-a-month data plan.

Some users wonder about why the N800 jettisons the useful screen cover that the 770 comes with. It’s so you’re always able to get a call. Putting on the 770’s cover doesn’t turn off the WiFi (or Bluetooth), but it breaks the wireless connection. Users make it a physical representation of “I’m putting my device to sleep.” You don’t put your phone to sleep, and the N800 behaves similarly.

And it makes a world of difference between these tablets and laptops that really do sleep. Your tablet is just on. You start using it. No delay, no wakeup, no nothing. I’ve always regarded the 770 as “instant on” because it’s live the moment the screen cover comes down. But the “never off” side of the N800 is better, and I’m more comfortable with keeping it on all day and connected to my network than I have been with the 770.

It’s my contention that the opportunity to hook up with voip giant Skype got tied to the webcam, and Ari Virtanen’s ascension to the VP of convergent products not only put the internet tablet into the mainstream of Nokia’s future thinking (and N-series)**, but also into the CES and consumer electronic marketing timeframes. They weren’t going to launch entry number two on some random day in spring like entry one (May 25, to be precise).

END QUOTE

Can't wait for official N800 announcment. I want a 2 megapixel still camera and CIF video and Sip client that handles Gizmo and Truphone and GTalk and .... :-) ! Sounds great so far!

FROM Ring Nokia: Nokia N800 Internet Tablet Specs:

QUOTE

Fortunately Carrypad has all the gory details on the new Internet Tablet, which sports a 4.1-inch, 800x480 pixel touch screen, a 320MHz processor, 128MB of RAM, 256MB of Flash ROM, dual SD memory card slots, 802.11b/g WiFi, a built-in camera (they don't specify resolution), and Bluetooth 2.0. Apparently CompUSA, which carried the original Nokia 770, already has 'em for sale in some stores.

END QUOTE