[kwlug-disc] Nokia N9

[Chris Irwin]

The N9, the first meego/harmattan phone is shipping and has been
reviewed by engadget.

The reviewer really seems to like it. It looks like it handles
multitasking nicer than Android does. From a development point of view,
it is QT-based, so it is probably a fairly easy learning curve for
desktop developers to work with (as opposed to Palm focusing on web
developers)

    http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/22/nokia-n9-review/

Personally, I think it looks like an awesome phone. A strange
combination of great hardware and a great os (which happens, but not
usually on a launch phone).

Now take those nice things I just said, and all the nice things in the
article, and change them to past tense. The Nokia/Microsoft thing was
big news at the time, and it's interesting to see how nice and polished
a "dead end" platform can be. That their CEO could look at the early
versions of this and cancel it shows a lack of vision, but is not really
surprising as he was a Microsoft exec. That this phone and software can
exist without re-evaluating that decision is extremely sad.

Another sad point to ponder is that this nice user interface is not (as
far as I can find) Open Source, unlike the meego underpinnings. No
source and no product means it probably dies here, too.

-- 
Chris Irwin
e:  chris at chrisirwin.ca
w: http://chrisirwin.ca
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