[nzlug] Symbian, Palm OS, Blackberry OS?

[Ghodmode]

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 1:06 PM, Liam Farr <liam at farr.co.nz> wrote:
> I suggest you *try* an iPhone before you discount it.

Thanks, Liam, for your comments.  I do understand that the iPhone is a
top quality device, but there are restrictions I'm not willing to
accept.


Besides the numerous criticisms of the iPhone, which I won't reiterate
here, I'm a strong supporter of Free (as in freedom, but not
necessarily as in beer) and Open Source Software.  Current licensing
and development restrictions strongly discourage FOSS on the iPhone,
and that is a deal-breaker for me.

Primarily, I want a hackable mobile Internet and multimedia device.
I'd love to find a good excuse to not have a phone with me all the
time... to be honest, I hate it.  In that case, I'd get a Nokia n810
in a heartbeat (ref:
http://www.nseries.com/index.html?l=products,n810).  But the phone is
a necessary evil.  Since the phone is such a minor part of my life, I
don't want to carry it around as a separate device.


>
> One of my companies has just converted all our smart phones to iPhones, and
> even without jail breaking, the productivity increase has been significant.

Is this by comparison to Windows Mobile, or Windows CE devices?  If
so, I'm not surprised.



> Not to mention things like out of the box VNC (free from app store),
> aggressive wifi usage, threaded sms, and the fact than when someone calls
> you the phone it actually rings.
>
> I also have a Treo 700wx, a HTC Titan (with WM6, new boot loader, radio rom,
> GPS etc), and have had blackberries, and other various smartphones in the
> past, and the iPhone beats them hands down.

Both the 700wx and HTC Titan are Windows Mobile devices.  Again, no
surprise there :)


>
> The iPhone isn't perfect, but what it does do, it does very well. (I'd
> rather loose some functionality, and have a phone that does exactly what it
> says it does on the box day in day out, without dropping calls, crashing
> etc).

With regard to the functionality of the phone itself, I've never had
any problems with any model of phone or any service provider that I've
used (including AT&T, Cingular, Sprint, Digi, Celcom, Telecom, and
Vodafone).  That's just because I don't use the telephone much,
though.  So, from my perspective, every mobile telephone does exactly
what it says.



> On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 12:51 PM, Ghodmode <ghodmode at ghodmode.com> wrote:

>> All of the reports about the new iPhone have had their effect and I'm
>> convinced ...I don't want one.  But I do want a new mobile device.
>> So, what do you guys think is a good choice for a Linux enthusiast?
>>
>> I'm currently using a Palm Treo 680 which synchronizes pretty well
>> pilot-link and/or gpilotd.  I have had an HP iPaq (Windows Mobile) and
>> I was never able to get any Linux software to work with it, but I
>> might not have tried hard enough.
>>
>> Here's what I want ...
>>
>> Essential:
>> - Wi-Fi
>> - unlocked phone
>> - ability to create my own applications (J2ME, C, etc...)
>> - Java app support
>> - Linux sync support
>> - external memory option (SDHC, microSD, etc...)
>> - external speaker
>>
>> Stuff I'd like that isn't essential:
>> - QWERTY keyboard
>> - GPS
>> - position sensor
>> - bluetooth support
>> - bluetooth stereo headphone support
>> - a line of accessories
>>
>> The Treo 680, with Palm OS 5, has flaky Java support and does not have
>> Wi-Fi, but it does have a lot of resources for mobile development.  I
>> currently use an 8Gb SDHC card with it.  Officially, it only supports
>> up to 2Gb, but the 8Gb works fine.
>>
>> Can you guys make a recommendation?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> --
>> Vince Aggrippino
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> NZLUG mailing list NZLUG at linux.net.nz
>> http://www.linux.net.nz/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nzlug
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Kind Regards
>
>
> Liam Farr
>
> Director
> Farr Networks Limited
> Em: liam at farr.co.nz
> Ph: +64-27-666-4644
> Ph: +64-21-306-104
> Fax: +64-9-925-2025
> _______________________________________________
> NZLUG mailing list NZLUG at linux.net.nz
> http://www.linux.net.nz/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nzlug