Which is especially good since I’ve been working hard on something new (I know, I know: what’s new in that, right?).  But bear with me!

In a lot of ways I was all over the place in 2011 and want to fix that for 2012.  So for the most part my highly personal writing will occasionally show up at texrat.net.  There will be a few more articles showing up here, mostly Nokia and Qt oriented, but going forward there will be a new home for the technical stuff.  So at some point Tabula Crypticum will no longer be updated.

This isn’t an easy decision, nor is it easy to implement.  I’ve had a lot of fun writing here, and reading the comments, but results were too erratic.  There were either amazing days of 3000+ views or frustrating days of a few accidental visitors.  I had trouble establishing something close to steady readership.

A lot of that of course is being some random, non-famous individual who talks too much.  Where’s the allure in that?  7 2 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:06:50 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-e3f3519034a711e1939b0b450f1c49de49de https://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/microsoft-nokia-babies-hate-at-a-distance-love-up-close/

original source: http://www.pop.com.br/

Apologies to QML fans but I’m going to to extend the interruption of that series by at least one more article.  Blame a cynical friend’s recent conversion to the Dark Side of mobile Microsoft. 

As regular readers know I’ve been a dual Microsoft/Linux power user for many years.  While some friends see that as a bad case of cognitive dissonance, I prefer to call it technical agnosticism.  I was never interested though to include Windows Mobile in that scope, mainly due to an observance that it was just Windows scaled (badly) down to a handheld device rather than something specifically designed for the form factor.

Microsoft finally realized that, bit the bullet, and created Windows Phone from scratch.  But the product still carried Windows branding baggage and has been panned by some mobilists and tech pundits– many of whom did so with ten-foot virtual poles.

This has been especially true of Nokia fans (self included), particularly those who saw great things in the Linux-based operating systems Maemo and then MeeGo and had high hopes for the sexy N9.  Nokia’s CEO had brought about the Elopocalypse in accepting Steve Ballmer’s engagement offer, and no one from the Linux side of the family wanted to be part of the post-wedding reception.  Some later snickered at the Spanish meaning for “Lumia” (as tempting as it is to riff on that further, I’ll demur).

So far the MicroNokia nuptials have resulted in two acknowledged offspring: the fraternal Nokia Lumia twins, 710 and 800.  There’s nothing apparently spectacular about the 710, hardware- or appearance-wise.  Its low price is the most attractive feature.  As for the 800, photos don’t quite do it justice.  You have to use this device to realize its true beauty.

The same can be said for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS.  Yes, videos seem compelling, but jaded smartphone users aren’t easily impressed by moving pictures.  Experience it first-hand, however, and the skepticism melts.  I admit to encountering that at Nokia World when I first got to play with the Lumias.

This sort of mindset conversion is never more dramatic than when a diehard open source devotee is swayed.  Such was the case when my aforementioned friend Johan Paul surprisingly tweeted the following:

I’m highly interested in what he’ll have to say further, the more he uses his Lumia 800.

Now, I can’t quite profess unconditional love for these babies.  Some of the beauty is only skin-deep and there are genetic defects only a mother could overlook.  My personal OS peeves are no tethering, no Bluetooth file transfers and no USB mass storage mode.  HUGE step backwards in my opinion and a MUST fix.  As for the Lumia 800, lack of TV output combined with omission of a front-facing camera have my teeth gritted.  I also have to wonder why support for quickly-trending NFC was left out.

Beyond feature failures, Microsoft and Nokia face distinct but obviously related challenges here.  The former needs to get Windows Phone in general out of the market share basement.  The latter needs to re-establish their specific phones as must-have products.  I have yet to see a clear signal on how evangelical overlap is going to be handled by the two, particularly where software development is concerned.  I also still wonder if the marriage between them will ultimately put off other WP participants (not that I actually care).

Nevertheless, if outreach efforts can get examples into the hands of prospective buyers everywhere, even doubtful ones like my friend Johan, Microsoft and Nokia do indeed have a potentially winning combo.  The 25,000 device-seeding effort won’t hurt!  In addition to my QML explorations, I plan to develop for Windows Phone and can’t wait to start showing off my own Lumia 800.

I just need to get that pretty baby in my hands…

Disclosure: author is a former Nokia employee and current Nokia Developer Champion learning Qt

2 4

After a little over two years of scant free time, I’m finally working normal hours.  So that liberates me for more community engagement, aka the stuff I really love.  It also frees me up to think.  But looking back on the past 5 years of support for open source projects with great promise but ultimate abandonment, I’m left to wonder what to target. 

I asked that question out loud not long ago and concluded that adding Windows Phone to my repertoire makes sense.  I already have the skills and connections.  But so does including Qt, and so I’ve been plunging into QML recently as I await the delivery of a Nokia WP phone for development.  I find that, in both cases, developer/enthusiast communities for both platforms are small and quiet in my area.  So I feel obligated to help build them up as I did for Maemo and MeeGo.

That last thought just makes me nostalgic for a time when inspiring those communities could be as simple as posting “Just wait until you see what’s next!” on a discussion forum or IRC chat.  The passion of Maemo and MeeGo advocates was undeniable.  Even their complaints betrayed high interest; most people who don’t really care about a product or project won’t give you much feedback.  They just leave.

I notice that the original Maemo community refuses to “just leave”.  At the very least, we lament on twitter the lost chances to see each other in person once or twice a year.  We hit each other up with connection requests on social media channels, as a friend did to me this morning, inspiring this post.

I’ve realized most of my true friends are nowhere close to my neighborhood.  They’re in Moscow and Tampere and Mexico City and New Delhi and Vancouver and Berlin and Beijing.  Sadly, one I’ll not see again.

Some in my former circles will do more than cling to contact via virtual means.  Many are already in Qt and I hope to encourage more to try the waters.  A few will venture into Windows Phone, especially Nokia Developer Champions transitioning from Symbian.  Others have or will find homes in other related ventures like KDE, Ubuntu, Mozilla, et al.  So odds are I’ll bump into some of them here or there.

What I’d really like to do, though, is form a consortium of sorts from all of these passionate, talented people.  Find or create some projects, like Maemo, that fire us up again and keep us strongly connected.  The opportunities are there; Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon haven’t solved every problem yet.

More than ever, creative solutions these days demand diversity of skills.  The landscape moves too fast, the darlings of industry overturned too often for people to successfully coagulate into homogenous, bureaucratic masses.  Those deeply embedded in the eroding status quo haven’t realized that yet.  But my old Maemo and MeeGo friends do.  They’re out there now, plowing new furrows in stale fields and causing wonderful disruption.  They’re fast refactoring MeeGo communities into new groups, some with new but related purpose.

Even with the so-called failures of Maemo and MeeGo, I’m proud of what the members accomplished.  I’m pleased to have been a part of those grand experiments.  And instead of bemoaning the outcomes, let’s refocus.  Retarget.  Identify and support initiatives that take from and extend the best parts of both.  Include rather than exclude.

Anyway, I’m not going anywhere.  I’m finding new focus.  I’ll see you all at Qt Project, in the Mer IRC channel, a local Windows Phone meetup or maybe some big conference somewhere.  Let’s stay in touch.  That’s what communities do.

4 1

I said at the end of the first article that I would progress to the next phase in this one.  But the request for a screenshot of the app at this point got me to thinking that it would be worth more to fledgling QML developers if I backed up and broke down the code.  So let’s do it.  There’s a lot to cover, so I’ll spread it across two or three articles.

First, the promised screenshot:

MotoRing, phase 1

There’s more going on here than my final app would really need, but I was working for two things here: one, to expand the original code example’s functionality for anyone following me, and also to provide visual feedback of functionality for my own drive trials.  Ultimately, the home screen will be very simple and the app will rely on a separate configuration screen (or menu) along with notification audio and dialogs screens.  For safety’s sake, and especially given that this app is to reduce driver interruptions, emphasis will be on audio.

As you can see, I placed units selection at the top of the screen.  That made it easy to toggle back and forth between miles-per-hour and kilometers-per-hour during testing.  Speed certainly doesn’t need the level of precision shown; I should just truncate at the decimal point.  The screen above shows that typical US measurements are selected (feet, miles) and the speed shown is in miles per hour.  I could also add more context (i.e., “MPH” or “KPH” after the speed readout) but that’s not necessary for this app.

Now, let’s dig into the code, starting with main.qml, which is automatically created for Qt Quick projects.

There’s the usual basic requirements of course.  In main.qml, the “home” code, we load the necessary libraries for QT Quick and MeeGo Harmattan:

import QtQuick 1.1
import com.nokia.meego 1.0

The actual declarative code describes the home page itself:

PageStackWindow {
    id: appWindow
    initialPage: mainPage
    showStatusBar: true

    MainPage {
        id: mainPage
    }
    ToolBarLayout {
        id: commonTools
        visible: true
        parent: appWindow.pageStack.currentPage

        Item {
            id: switchRow
            width: 300
            height: 32
            anchors.verticalCenter: parent.verticalCenter

            // Switch for power saving: toggle gps on/off
            Switch {
                id: gpsSwitch
                anchors.verticalCenter: parent.verticalCenter
                checked: false
                anchors.right: parent.right
                anchors.rightMargin: 50
            }
            Text {
                id:switchText
                font.pointSize: 24
                text: gpsSwitch.checked ? "GPS ON" : "GPS OFF"
                horizontalAlignment: Text.AlignRight
                anchors.verticalCenter: parent.verticalCenter
                anchors.right: gpsSwitch.left
                anchors.rightMargin: 25
                font.family: "Nokia Pure"
            }

        }
// menu not yet implemented
        ToolIcon {
            platformIconId: "toolbar-view-menu";
        }
    }
}

I’m still struggling to fully understand how to use the PageStackWindow element (and welcome all explanations and examples) but the functionality is clear: it identifies the content page(s) to load for main.qml.  In this case, we have MainPage.qml (which is also created by default) which contains our actual program and is selected via initialPage: mainPage.  (note: I still haven’t figured out how to manage multiple pages with this, and could use some help!)

I have customized the default main.qml content by removing some of the auto-generated stuff and replacing it with what my app needs.  In this case, an on/off switch (gpsSwitch) on the Toolbar (commonTools) at the bottom of the page.  The switch works in conjunction with a text box (switchText), so both elements are grouped into an Item called switchRow. The Item element, as explained here, makes such grouping (and therefore managing) of common and/or related items easy.  As a side note, I’m sure I don’t have to explain what the id property is doing for all elements… do I?  6 1 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:29:58 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-ccc717461eda11e18227d344d5b7f129f129 https://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/a-qt-qml-beginners-project-motoring-part-1-gps/ I unloaded some Qt newbie frustration the other day detailing my first serious efforts to code for the Nokia N9.  Now I’d like to step back a bit and outline the actual project, and in subsequent posts walk other newcomers through my coding journey of pleasure and pain.

First a disclaimer: I’ve been programming for over 25 years.  That has included COBOL, Forth, Logo, DOS/VAX/Unix batch commands, Basic, LISP, Pascal, C, JavaScript and Visual Basic (both COM and .NET).  While I could work minor wonders with scripting and compiled linear languages, I found that I have been most productive in event-driven VB.Net.  Readers should know that I am not targeting an audience that’s totally new to programming, but rather, programmers who like me are experienced with other languages and platforms but new to Qt.

I really wasn’t very apprehensive about Qt, especially the mature 4.7.  Friends kept telling me how easy it was, and the Qt Creator environment did not look difficult at all at first glance. 

What got me motivated to finally dive in?  I was presented recently with a coding challenge and after some thought decided I would create an app for the Nokia N9 and N950 that would intercept calls and texts for responsible drivers.  I hashed the idea over with Andrew Flegg and Thomas Perl in London last month and they offered some really useful ideas.  Then I discovered not long ago that apps of this sort already exist for other platforms so there certainly appeared to be a need.

I elected to go the Qt Quick route and see if I could do this completely using QML and JavaScript .  What better test of QML’s depth and breadth?  I also have some experience with JavaScript and none with C++ so that was a deciding factor as well.

With any project, it’s always good to tackle requirements first.  So other than a clever name (in this case, MotoRing) what were mine?

• Constantly retrieve current device speed (in user-preferred units)
• Intercept calls and texts when device is moving above a preset threshold
• Send automatic text to callers/texters informing them that driver is not taking calls.  They should be instructed to immediately call back if there is an emergency
• Allow calls through from previously intercepted number if placed within specified time frame (i.e., emergencies)
• Automatically exit app after device has been moving below speed threshold for a given amount of time

That’s pretty much it.  Of course we can add more bells and whistles, but it’s usually best, especially for us beginners, to focus on core functionality first.  On that note, as I began this I wasn’t even sure if QML and JavaScript could handle this idea.  So the first order of business was to check that out, starting with the GPS need.

As I noted in the previous article, I found example code right away.  After some small bugs were exorcized, the example ran perfectly.  I just needed to add Speed capture.

No need to rehash my struggles with Qt Creator’s behavior.  I’m learning to work around its occasional flakiness anyway (and will report bugs once I get a good grip on what’s been happening).  My main problems outside of bugs and IDE quirks had to do with QML element layout.  Minor changes kept flinging things around my workspace.  Then I came to understand that Qt Creator allows UI elements to be positioned relative to each other… and that’s how my selected sample code was oriented.  This is an elegant solution to the need for fluidity on mobile devices, especially in handling portrait and landscape flipping.  On a related note, I had also been mystified as to why the layout Grid in the sample code extended beyond my portrait mode boundary, until I realized that this was done to accommodate landscape mode.

Ah HA!

With this new-found grasp of QML layout features I was able to make changes to elements positioning without fearing their fall into some IDE black hole.  That included adding a new Speed indicator for testing purposes (I really don’t need all the other GPS properties).

Getting the speed indicator to work was easy.  I found what I needed on a Qt API documentation page and It Just Worked.  But in my excitement I neglected to note how speed was returned.  My youngest son and I took the app out for a test drive and were mystified at the results.  Speed in MotoRing seemed to be about a fourth of actual.

I felt pretty stupid when I discovered the next day that speed is shown by default in meters per second.  That is, 3.6 kilometers per hour.

Of course in the US we measure miles per hour.  I wanted my app to be able to handle either, so I needed a function.  I whipped the following up in JavaScript (precision is truncated):

function speedConvert(speedState) {
if (speedState == buttonMetric)
return 1.00;
else
return 0.62;
}

I also added a ButtonRow element to the top of the page to toggle miles-per-hour and kilometers-per-hour.  The text box for speed passes the state of this element through the JavaScript function above to determine which is being used.  There is probably an even easier way to do this but my method works well.  Not counting a brief hair-pulling period where I forgot that JavaScript has no “THEN” in “If/Else” statements.  Oops!

After I got this part working well, I updated the code at wiki.meego.com/QML/Get_GPS_data.  If you have ideas on how to improve it further, feel free!

Some things to note:

• It would be nice to have the app automatically set units of measure based on localization settings, but I’m not even sure QML can support that.  Readers?
• I would have rather used a RadioButton rather than ButtonRow element– but despite what’s shown in the Harmattan API documentation, it does not appear to be available for that platform.  Question: why would this be a Symbian-specific element?  Radio buttons are very common UI features
• Speed accuracy seems to be +/- about 3 miles per hour, so consider that when you set thresholds

Next: I need to add the threshold setting, and look into SMS interception…

On a broader note: if you’re interested in this series, and/or articles that strive to make technology more accessible, make sure to subscribe to this blog as that will be more of the focus going forward.  And feel free to share articles!

5 1

source: conversations.nokia.com

I didn’t expect to be able to say anything first-hand about the Nokia N9.  I really thought my semi-facetious post a while back would be pretty much it unless I came up with some other abstract commentary to inflict on you all.  And I really haven’t used this meandering blog for device reviews, unless you count one admittedly unusual attempt for the slightly-less-cool N8.

So I was genuinely surprised to receive a sleek black N9 in London last month the day before Nokia World 2011, at a special Champions Day event.  And I’ve used it enough to share some juicy details.

First, however, a disclaimer:

The following review is from a drooling, starry-eyed device nut who is contemplating super-gluing an N9 to his hand.  Don’t expect much objectivity.

So let’s do this. 

Design

There’s been enough mentioned on this aspect, but I have to say it myself nonetheless: this is the Ferrari of phones.  In fact I even suggested on Twitter that Nokia co-brand a red one with the Italian king of cars.  I cannot overstate the sexy elegance.  Yes I have overused that word “sexy”.  Yes the N9 deserves it.  No other cell phone has been designed better.  Most don’t even come close.

Your gaze is immediately hooked by that seductive ebony screen.  The one bordered by an almost non-existent bezel.  The only one that gently arches above the front surface of a cell phone.  Double-tap that gloss black Gorilla glass beauty and be dazzled by the display’s brilliance.

This device is such a work of art that I find myself treating it with much more reverence than its predecessors.  I am using the included slip case religiously, and finally contemplating placing a screen cover on a cell phone… for the first time.  Just hope I find one that does it justice.

The single-body case is almost stunning enough to make me forgive Nokia for the sealed battery.  Almost… but given my discouraging experiences with Nokia batteries, I’m really concerned about the possibility that this one could go bad.  So there’s a risk.

I’m also disgusted with myself for somehow letting the chrome camera trim get a little scuffed.  Probably from riding in my pocket.  Note to self: buy a damned hip case.

Oh, and I really like the robust SIM slot and usb cover mechanisms.  Nokia finally got those right!

UI/UX

I came to this conclusion with the N950, but the N9 just cemented it: MeeGo Harmattan provides the ultimate mobile device experience.  Period.  Yes, I have a fondness for the various Maemo iterations (and a tolerance for Symbian Anna) but this user experience is state of the art.  Swiping is so intuitive, so expected, that I now find myself futilely flicking my finger across the screens of lesser devices.  Other than some oddities with settings drilldowns, I’m completely satisfied.

Notifications and messaging integrations go a long way toward making this a must-have product.  I’m a forgetful sort who gave up on watches when I started using cell phones, and the N9 does a great job of alerting me to what I’ve scheduled and what is going on in my virtual world.  The sleep screen shows the time and icons for alert types– very handy.

Power/Performance

At first the N9 irked me with its sluggishness on waking from sleep.  No such thing as a coffee app, unfortunately, so I had to wait for the recent PR 1.1 update to see an improvement.  Sure enough, it now wakes up and goes straight to work.  Nicely done, Nokia!  Especially getting the update out so quickly.

Battery life is… tolerable.  I’m a demanding user of mobile internet so I know to keep expectations low… but I would not have complained if a larger capacity battery had added some size and weight.  My ultimate dream device will go at least a day of heavy use without needing a recharge.  The N9 isn’t there, but it tends to last long enough between recharge opportunities.  I occasionally have issues charging from usb (“not enough power…”) but without some troubleshooting I don’t know if it’s the phone, my power sources or both.

Apps

You know me: I’m not really an app guy.  Allergic to Apple-sized content stores, I’m usually content with what the manufacturer includes.  Nokia has done a great job here, preloading the N9 with the usual useful utilities like Maps, Music, Facebook & Twitter clients, a nice integrated Accuweather app and much more.  That even includes Nokia Drive, contrary to some misleading press.

So what have I installed?

• Solitaire
• PhoneTorch
• Recorder
• File Manager (beta)
• Radio FM4

…and a really pretty fish wallpaper.  All recommended.

Etcetera

I love the tiny usb-style wall charger.  It’s about time Nokia got on board with that.

Kudos also to Nokia for its environmentally-responsible quest to reduce packaging.  The N9’s product box is very close to zero wasted space.  Other manufacturers, take note: you should be ashamed of your excess.

I enabled Developer mode on mine because I’m trying to teach myself Qt.  I haven’t seen it interfere with any other functionality.  Now if only my code would work…

Summary

The most surprising thing about the N9?  The amazing reaction it’s garnered.  Quotes like:

You’ve never seen anything like it, and if you think it’s attractive in pictures, wait until you see it in person — it’s completely and utterly irresistible. –Engadget

The thing with the N9, though, is that, much to my surprise, I really do rather like it. –Gizmodo

After using the Lumia 800 for a day, I am happy to say that it makes my Nokia N9 purchase even more valid and justifiable –ZDNet

The sole complaints from reviewers?  The expected short shelf life of the MeeGo Harmattan OS and the scarcity of apps.

I must now remind the reader: I am really a computer person, not a phone person.  And when I have had to use a cell phone, my past preference has been Nokia sliders and E71-type form factors.  So when I tell you I can’t put this candy bar touchscreen phone down, that’s profound.  The user experience has no equal.

Well done, Nokia!  Now… if your CEO would only change his mind on the platform’s viability…

6 2

This is a highly personal post so for those whose eyes roll or minds reel at the thought, click past this one and I promise more juicy tech stuff next.

As regular readers know, I lost a great job with an awesome company in January of 2009.  As of this past Monday I started a challenging new role with what seems like another awesome company so far.  In between, I worked at something that didn’t work out while keeping an eye on Nokia opportunities the whole time.   

Now, maybe I need to qualify that last statement.  It’s not like I’m ever going to “phone in” performance at any employer.  I worked hard at my previous position.  But I could have made much, much more of the role had I been so empowered… and it was extremely difficult going from the can-do culture at Finland’s single largest employer to an organization that could have used a best-practice infusion at the very least.

I’ve related here and there some lessons learned before and after my Nokia job loss and I will repeat them here for the interested readers’ sake.  Not just to bemoan my own mistakes, but perhaps help others from making the same ones.

But first I want to share some things with Nokia.

You really were an awesome employer.  There’s no such thing as absolutely perfect, but you were close enough for me.  You provided me opportunities I never could have previously imagined.  Thanks to you I’ve been to Finland, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, England and Mexico (not to mention states here in the US).  I was already open to cultures other than my own but you cracked my mind wider.

The projects I was given, and others I was able to initiate thanks to your empowerment, had me eagerly racing into work on Mondays when others dreaded the drive.  It’s an almost indescribable feeling.  Like I was being paid to play.

When you closed the Alliance factory I was almost in tears.  Many colleagues did indeed cry.  We were a family.  A tight, talented family that kicked ass if I might say.  I still believe there was value in what we did for the US market.  I still believe we had the skills and strengths to turn around your prospects here.  I just hope you’re truly serious about pulling that off.

You emphasized Connecting People at every level, every entry and exit point.  I wasn’t good at that at first.  You helped.  In three years I went from a stuttering introvert to a much more confident trainer, presenter and business explorer.  You demanded it.  Thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone.

I didn’t get it as well as I should have.  Sure, I networked globally with 400 to 500 people on a regular basis, but I neglected key parties on my home turf.  So when you (mistakenly) decided my critical role was superfluous, I discovered the hard way that I had not made managers at the fringe of my circle aware of who I really was and what I could do for them.  You were good enough to give me two months to find another internal opportunity, and they did exist, but the hiring managers declined to interview me because of my former failure to fully network.  Ouch. Lesson learned… painfully.

But it wasn’t all me.  In the past three years I’ve noticed you doing some odd, even counterproductive things with regards to hiring.  I’m mystified by why you deleted the “Global/Location Negotiable” job classification out of your Taleo  career system.  Many of your employees can and do operate virtually.  So how do you classify them now?  And why did you remove that for new prospects?  I don’t get it; virtual is the trend!

Then there was the extremely frustrating experience of applying for jobs that were available.  On one I was told I was overqualified and would not be considered.  I replied that the economy here had dropped just about everyone down a job grade so that was not an issue.  Still no go.  The job was closed without being filled, then re-opened weeks later, same exact description.  I applied again, and this time was told I was underqualified.

Really?

There were so many other chances at roles I could fulfill.  But no interviews.  I still don’t know why.

I came so close to rejoining you a month ago, though– I was even told to expect an interview!  But you dashed those hopes by deleting the opening… along with, I now hear, the jobs of more friends and colleagues.  That’s hard news to swallow, and I can only hope your master plan is on track.  Of course I also hope that every released employee finds another good opportunity as soon as possible.

But hey, I’m not writing just to lament lost opportunities.  I’m throwing myself into what I’m doing now.  An even though I failed to rejoin you, I’ve stayed close.  In 2009 after a brief hiatus I shifted my focus in the Maemo community from technical liaison to outreach.  Being elected to the community council is what got me to Amsterdam.  Helping the MeeGo community later got me a trip to Dublin.  More recently, participation in your Nokia Developer Champion program helped land me in England for Nokia World 2011.  Friends and family don’t quite get why you do these things without hiring me back, and I have been trying to explain the perks of volunteerism in response.  Personally I feel well-rewarded!  I strongly urge everyone, especially young people, to volunteer in activities that interest them.  One never knows where that might lead.

I had hoped to eventually leverage that volunteer work into a related role within your walls, but it looks like you’re not ready for that yet– at least, not in my neck of the woods.  Everything these days seems to revolve around Beijing and Sunnyvale.  The Irving office is about to lose more employees and I don’t know for sure your plans for its future.

But I did just have my Champion status renewed for another year, so I’m looking forward to our continued relationship.  I will proudly carry (and show off!) my gorgeous N9 and when my Lumia 800 arrives, I’ll try to give it equal time.  I’m even hoping to develop for both (currently struggling with Qt).  I want you to succeed, for a variety of reasons, and I will continue to do my small part in that… paid, unpaid or what have you.  So ping me when you need me!

I still believe in you.  You truly were an awesome employer.  It’s just a shame I could not put “Nokia” back on my resumé.

But life goes on.

7 1

Granted, my entry began by addressing cynicism, some personal but largely general, which had to make it a long-shot.  I walked readers through my Nokia journey for this year, with the aim of providing an objective yet ultimately optimistic view of the company’s prospects.  

I didn’t win that prize, but I do feel like a winner after having joined around 4000 other skeptics and enthusiasts at one of the largest product launch events of the year.  Nokia didn’t disappoint, either: not only was the much-anticipated Lumia 800 formally acknowledged, but a compelling sister product (the 710) and a new feature phone line (Asha) made their debuts as well.  There were no surprises for me with Lumia; the sharp Nokia blogging community had already pegged the critical details.  But Asha was a pleasant revelation– I had been so focused on Nokia’s work on the high end that if there were signs of Asha’s existence prior to the event I completely missed them.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  The personal high point for me was being invited, along with 34-or-so other Nokia Developer Champions, to arrive a day early for a special mini-event targeted specifically at us and by extension the developer community at large.  As important as the Big Show was, I believe community outreach to be equally critical.  Let’s all be honest: some Nokia moves and statements since late 2010 have cast a pall over its otherwise-stalwart developer armies, especially those in the Qt camp.  While many Nokia developers are certainly interested in adding Windows Phone to their arsenal, some have balked for one reason or another.  Nokia’s challenge is to make sure a sufficient effort is put forward toward developers feeling skittish or disenfranchised, as the company can ill-afford any more negative publicity.  Getting more behind developers and providing them a path to Nokia’s future will be much-needed goodwill.

Super-developers like Simon Botes have been successful at getting their products downloaded, but struggle at monetization.  During our Developer Day, Nokia’s Kenny Mathers and Reggie Hutcherson assured us that this is a key component of their strategy.  Hopefully we’ll hear more on that very soon…the survey we were sent afterward certainly asked all the right questions.

The Nokia Developer Team is to be commended for putting this day (including an evening mixer afterward) together.  Handing out beautiful black N9s was just icing on the cake.  Next: more regional events, please, especially across the US!  It’s all about engagement.

Which brings us back to the main event.  As awed as I was by the glitz and glam of that important opening keynote, what I found really assuring and exciting was a well-received live feed of Lumia product being packaged for shipment at the Salo factory.  This is precisely what Nokia needed to connect with the skeptics.  Not some pointless dog and pony show, but rather, a nuts-and-bolts example of something tangible.

As usual, for me the best part of any event is socializing.  Nokia World was an excellent opportunity for me to share thoughts with friends and meet new people with a fascination for All Things Nokia in common.  Yes, sometimes that fascination follows a cynical twist but even detractors freely admit that Nokia has many strengths.  For one, the sexy designs of the N9 and Lumia 800 were a hot topic of discussion.  And even those searching for flaws in Windows Phone 7.5 had to settle for minor gripes– if there are any showstopping-defects, I didn’t see or hear of them.

I can’t say the experience was 100% positive, however.  Communications (wifi and cellular) were horrible to non-existent throughout most of the show… not a good indication of Nokia Connecting People.  I was told 2010 suffered the same issues, and I sure hope this is resolved by 2012.  It’s embarrassing.  But not as awful as the Monster-made headphones that were revealed.  Ack.  Too glossy, too bulky.  Sorry, I don’t see these coordinating with the sleek Lumia phones.

Still, I’m newly enthused about Nokia’s prospects, even though I’ll admit to some discouragement over the move away from mobile Linux.  But I’m a ten-thousand-foot technologist, and don’t get as religious about platforms as I do platform philosophies.  I think now that Nokia’s thoughts are on a good track.  That’s a good feeling for this fan and stockholder.  5 2 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:25:51 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-4ab13a2409cd11e1b312d9007dbc15c415c4 https://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/me-tizen-you-join/ Mobile Linux characters have been acting out lately like they were in a bad adventure movie.

Maemo lopes slowly and reluctantly toward its fatal date with the sunset.  MeeGo blinks in the same sun and finds its full commitment gone.  And like a battle-tested Phoenix, Tizen emerges from the ashes of twice-burned, thrice-shy skepticism.

Such is life in the largely undeveloped desert ecosystems outside the expanding stockade walls of Appleworld, Microsoftia and the remaining fading few. 

I knew something was developing on, under or around MeeGo for the past few months but until I dropped down in SEA-TAC airport last Tuesday evening I had no idea it was so drastic an overhaul.  Of course “drastic” is in the eye of the beholder, and just like Maemo-to-MeeGo before it, the Tizen announcement has polarized those affected into two basic camps: those seeing the change as necessary and evolutionary versus those seeing it as unnecessarily destructive.

As noted in the previous article here, I’m trying not to rush into judgment.  Yes, the move to an HTML5 focus is disruptive but is it necessarily destructive?  Well, many Qt developers thought so at first, but Nomovok’s assurance that they will provide support for Tizen + Qt should encourage most if not all.

Developers are an important part of any software-oriented community, of course, and that was especially true of Maemo.  But community goes far beyond coders.  The enthusiasts need to be sold on Tizen, too, and that isn’t going to be easy.  Will it require another Dublin-scale event to sway the cynics?  It sure couldn’t hurt.

And then there’s governance.  Intel was more hands-on than Nokia was with Maemo, and there were grumblings about MeeGo governance and transparency.  This is noteworthy since only the diehards stuck with the migration from the former to the latter.  Now the move to Tizen threatens to fragment the open source community even further.  Keep in mind that many are still trying to keep Maemo alive in some fashion, and it didn’t take long for the dedicated MeeGo community to float similar proposals.  OpenSUSE was quick to reach out and offer one possibility, and there will surely be more.

That said, I do expect Tizen to attract its own following regardless of skepticism.  Many will undoubtedly be drawn from web-centric developer pools, in all likelihood including the uncertain WebOS community (unless the rumor of Amazon.com acquiring that operating system prevents a mass exodus).  At some point I expect to see further convergence in the mobile Linux realm.  It’s inevitable.

I’m personally on the fence for now.  I invested in Maemo– that went bust.  Put even more effort into MeeGo– poof.  But as with many bloggers who devoted miles of text to both ventures, it’s the rebranding that mostly affects my participation.  After all, I have yet to write a line of code for either (although I am preparing to try my hand at Qt) and have been mainly involved in community building, cultivating and advocating.  Most of the projects I have worked on will translate well to Tizen; indeed, I see starter activities like MeeGo Greeters as necessary for speedy ramp-up.  Same for solving essentially unanswered questions such as “Why MeeGo?”.

But I’m not just going to analyze and criticize.  I have some more suggestions:

• Pick a talking head, and have them talk.  There were times of silence in Meegoland, and that’s just not acceptable.  Even a frequent “we still can’t say much, but here’s what we can say” can do wonders.  And try to limit messages to the owner of the message to ensure accuracy… but by all means make them highly available!
• Forget the “because we say so” answers.  Just excise that habit completely from your response vernacular.  They do damage to your credibility.  Same goes for automatic defense of any decision– you might just be in the wrong.  If strong, knowledgeable members of your community say so, be prepared to hear them out… and if you must counter, do so with facts, not emotion.
• Foster some fun.  At AppUp Elements 2011, Bob Duffy asked our community panel what the AppUp/Tizen communities could do better.  I suggested contests, and I see them as an easy, popular way of injecting fun and excitement into the experience.  Consider this:  you only really need one reward offered in any contest, not one per participant.  And people thrive on fun competitions.  AppUp has already held some cool coding contests, and Meego did so with tee-shirts for conferences.  More, please.  Maybe create a Ministry of Fun?
• Support regional/local outreach.  The Linux Foundation was right to let this activity grow organically from grass roots, but stronger support would have been helpful.  We were working on budgets for this at MeeGo, but I’m guessing the shift to Tizen is what stifled that.  I’m expecting that to be revived now.
• Kill the Genie.  Seriously.  What a creepy mascot.  And how does it associate with Tizen?  Why not design something around the actual concept of Zen?  If you don’t, though, I will.  Maybe a contest?  4 3 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Mon, 03 Oct 2011 01:23:45 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-2fefaa82ed6111e0828f753552f5be66be66 https://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/getting-down-at-appup-elements-2011/

  In June of this year I was pleasantly surprised when Intel’s Dawn Foster asked me to join a community panel for AppUp Elements 2011. I’ve been admittedly making only rare appearances in the AppUp community so far but the focus here was on Intel-sponsored communities in general, so if nothing else my MeeGo journey was relevant.

  Closer to the event itself, Kira Boyko let me know that a separate talk I had proposed was accepted. More on that… later. 

  Prelude

  In the weeks running up to the event, MeeGo’s future was a hot topic. There were various theories on that subject but none of them resolved with MeeGo in a good light… despite Intel’s assurance that they were fully committed to the platform. The emphasis at IDF’11 just recently was on Android, which certainly didn’t help quell the more anxious MeeGo rumors.

  Various happenings and nonevents had clearly pointed to some sort of change regarding MeeGo: my process/policy bugs being stalled by a mysterious “rebranding” effort, reduced public activity from Intel contributors, etc.  So I was naturally expecting something.

  Still, I was shocked to land at SEA-TAC airport late Tuesday evening to see the strange word Tizen strewn across Twitter like the remnants of houses after a hurricane.

  And the Maemo community sighed collectively: here we go again.

  But I had reacted maybe prematurely in early 2010 when the Maemo-to-MeeGo announcement was made, so this time I decided to try something new and listen before venting.

  Day One

  Based on the Wednesday morning keynote, Intel definitely seems pumped.  They’ve got to be pleased at having a rising partner like Samsung replace their troubled former cohort Nokia.  Samsung, however, spreads itself thinly across numerous platforms at present, so it remains to be seen how this new partnership affects their broad approach.  Where bada goes, for instance.

  As the AppUp project iself had been indicating, Intel sees HTML5 as the technology to target for the most part.  But even with that emphasis, my thoughts as I sat in the audience were that we would see mostly hybrid apps that introduced HTML5 as a high, common layer across hot platforms while diving into the murky native depths of device uniqueness as needed.  That is still a benefit for developers, as it potentially reduces the necessary distinctive code for cross-platform development.  Of course, fulfilling that potential depends a great deal on developer toolsets.

  One thing I really admired was Peter Biddle‘s refreshing candor concerning AppUp’s slow adoption.  It’s precisely this sort of no-BS corporate-to-community engagement that can soothe the cynics… but of course that’s just the necessary first step.  Telmap joining the AppUp family (announced on Day 2) adds more meat to Intel’s goal of 6 million AppUp users by next year but even Biddle acknowledges that acquisition as “cheating” via a personal tweet so I’m curious to see what other efforts will be made to achieve it.  I definitely see a need for greater outreach and hope to participate there in some capacity.

  On that more personal note, this talk inspired me to think of just where I could fit in to help AppUp’s success.  That leads to the community panel.  The ever-popular Bob Duffy hosted, supported by myself, Dawn, and Rovio’s charismatic Julien Fourgeaud.  We spoke broadly about community needs and addressed MeeGo’s successes and shortcomings.  I had a lot to talk about, including the importance of benchmarking against successful communities like KDE, but ended up focusing largely on the MeeGo Greeters program that enabled shy members to easily contribute to community prosperity and start down the path toward higher involvement.  Hopefully there will be room in Tizen for such easily-implemented efforts.

  I spent the remainder of the first day meeting new people, attending informative talks and finally enjoying a rather unusual steampunk-themed party that evening immediately after Intel’s informal chat.  Good stuff.

  

  Rhonda "FromTheFab" Peters enjoying the bus ride

  Day Two

  Thursday morning I devoted more time to discussion than presentations, trying to absorb as many thoughts on Tizen as I could.  Other than grumbling about the odd name and a creepy genie mascot, the biggest concern expressed had to do with native code needs.  I think a lot of this should have been dispelled by Bob Duffy’s AltMegaRace game demo that afternoon.  Here’s Bob, a self-professed non-developer, demonstrating an Omega Race clone coded using the HTML5 Canvas object.  Granted, such a solution won’t solve every need, especially for power-hungry games and productivity apps, but it should allay many fears over HTML5’s capabilities.

  Now the embarrassing part.  The organizers decided to include an ad hoc track  that wasn’t advertised much in the mainstream materials.  There was a slide-in card covering this in back of the event booklet, but I’m thinking many attendees never made it that far because only three people showed up for my collaborative talk on Open Tech Ecosystems… and one of those left.  Very disappointing in many ways for me, particularly because I had planned a reversal of the traditional presentation, whereby I would moderate but really expected the audience to be inspired by my presentation’s questions to actually take charge of the discussion.  I don’t know if it was the topic, my anonymity to most attendees, the ad hoc nature of the track or what… but the experience has given me reason to really consider what subjects to cover in the future if the opportunity arises again.  The right one should draw people in regardless of obstacles.  Anyway, I canceled after a short wait so that Dawn and Cosimo could check out other things.

  Wrap-Up

  

  image source: Intel

  I already noted the Telmap news, which was the major announcement of the closing keynote.  The rest was just affirmation of what we had already heard about Intel’s commitment to AppUp and now Tizen.  There are many, many skeptics and one could be persuaded to dismiss them based on positive industry buzz– except that these are hardcore Maemo and MeeGo adherents currently feeling burned.  But I’ll go over that more in another article.

  The bloggers in attendance seemed largely motivated by Intel’s news, mostly just bemoaning the rebranding necessary for migrating from MeeGo to Tizen.  I would expect Intel’s AppUp team to ramp up outreach efforts to smooth the transition for those willing to suspend doubt.  I think a large effort will in fact be critical to AppUp’s success.  Intel says they’ll do it, but if we don’t see Tizen on devices by mid next year at the latest, then what?

  4 1 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Sun, 02 Oct 2011 01:19:15 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-aca95c22ec9811e090fb59a9ae4bcb7fcb7f http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/09/18/gary-birkett-a-community-heart/ Some of us like to think that systems and data and processes are the bones, brains and blood of any venture.  And for the most part that’s true.  But what body can thrive without a heart?

  This isn’t just rhetorical.  The question came up for me a few days ago when I received the devastating news that a very good friend had passed away. 

  

  image courtesy Kathy Smith

  Gary Birkett was no ordinary acquaintance for me.  I first encountered him online in the maemo.org community, when Maemo was still pulsing with fresh interest and (despite occasional lapses) Nokia seemed strongly behind the mobile Linux effort.  Gary showed up as “lcuk” in early 2008 and began peppering the discussion forum with unusual questions and wild ideas.  He exhibited an amazingly deep and broad understanding of graphics software and hardware, so deep that even with my own background in the fields he lost me easily.  I think that was true for many in the community.  His useful knowledge and friendly manner made him an instant hit in Maemo circles.

  He wasn’t a prolific forum poster, but made up for that lack with a persistent presence on IRC.  It didn’t seem to matter what time or day, or that I am in Texas and he was in Manchester, England– whenever I signed on, there he was.  Always greeting new arrivals and sometimes pulling me into impromptu private conversations about nothing and everything.

  I mention all of this because even though he joined in a little later than some of us, Gary quickly became part of Maemo’s core.  That was easily apparent at the second Maemo Conference, held in Amsterdam.  Gary’s mindblowing demos of liqflow were so popular that neither his new Nokia N900 nor his fingers got a rest… and as I noted in one story in his tribute thread:

  In Amsterdam one night we all went to a club at Nokia’s treat, but the music was so loud several of us went outside.  It started raining lightly and I was the only one with an umbrella, so we huddled underneath, heads bumping occasionally, as Gary shared his liqbase touch-responsive particle swarming demo.  We were all charged up by it and kept throwing ideas at him, until finally he couldn’t take it anymore and had to run back to his hotel room to code.

  That was Gary.

  Gary was the sort of person to whom people gravitated.  They were pulled in by his talent, his cheer, his never-say-die attitude.  I guess the irony of that is what hit me so hard when his passing was announced on Twitter.

  lcuk… dead???  It couldn’t be!  I’m still struggling to come to grip with the thought…

  He leaves the open mobile world at a time when MeeGo battles abandonment rumors and maemo.org tries to imagine life in a post-Nokia time.  He also leaves behind a family that includes a baby I know he was so proud of fathering.

  Some have remarked that his passing is symbolic, at least for Maemo, but I would rather focus on Gary’s life and contributions.  His seemed a life worth celebrating.  Interest in his interactive graphics work led to a celebrity stint at Nokia’s onedotzero 2009, where he displayed a spectacular N900 app projected outdoors and earned the praise of many ranging from Maemo newcomers to Nokia executives.

  But praise alone only goes so far.  A community isn’t just about its projects and prospects– it’s about the people that make them happen, often in surprisingly brilliant fashion.  People of all types, backgrounds, modes of contribution.  A successful community embraces them all and supports that diversity not passively, but with passion.  With a heartfelt recognition that anything less leads nowhere.

  Every community needs heart, and Maemo and MeeGo just lost a good one.  It will be up to the rest of us keep the lifeblood flowing.  Let’s do “lcuk” proud.

  Gary, thanks for the friendship and inspiration.  We’re all missing you, mate.  Our thoughts are with your family and other friends.

  
  Filed under: Great Governance, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, The Write Stuff Tagged: community, forumnokia, Gary Birkett, lcuk, LinkedIn, liqbase, liqflow, Maemo, MeeGo, Nokia 10 0 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Sun, 18 Sep 2011 09:57:09 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-ccfc8c76e1e211e09ebc2bd2637d8f618f61 http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/maemo-meego-mango-and-me/ Ever since the February 11 2011 Nokia event cheekily tagged as #NoWin and known colloquially as The Elopocalypse, I’ve struggled to cover Nokia’s present and abandoned strategies here with equal care.  Don’t be misled by my attempts of objectivity over Linux and Microsoft activities, though– it hasn’t been easy.  I’ve been moderating an internal conflict between a growing invasion of open source love versus a legacy of Microsoft development experience combined with strong curiosity.  Neither side has a clear advantage over the other for me and therein lies a conundrum.

  I could have very easily avoided the whole controversy at the start.  When I assumed responsibility for Maemo internet tablet quality in the North American market, I could have taken the easy route and stuck to the basics.  That meant developing test plans, training auditors and inspectors, hosting Finnish and Mexican product teams, and making sure CES 2007 was supplied on time with 200 pristine N800s.  Nothing more.

  But no.  I’m a device nut.  An admitted hardware geek.  As I’ve shared many times, laying eyes on the Nokia 770 tablet changed everything for me.  It put what I saw then as the future in my hands, literally and figuratively.  I could not just treat this product line as I did the various and sundry cell phones I also touched.  I took tablets personally. 

  Which meant that when a colleague referred me to Internet Tablet Talk (now talk.maemo.org), I had to check it out.  I found a community of talented, passionate people eager to see where they could take the 770 and its successors.  Grateful to Nokia for daring to deliver this novel Linux-fueled family.  Of course I joined immediately.  The developers and enthusiasts desperately desired guidance from Nokia, and I was glad to be of some service… although given the frustrating secrecy around the hardware, that often meant nothing more than dropping cruel hints to keep them interested whenever Nokia lapsed into all-too-common periods of apparent non-progress, or worse, resistance.

  That up-and-down Maemo journey took an unexpected turn to the merger with Moblin that led to MeeGo.  After overcoming initial anxiety I decided that MeeGo represented the redefined future.  I replicated Maemo Greeters as MeeGo Greeters, played around with some graphics identity stuff, and shifted over outreach work (while still staying with the Maemo community).  More recently, I helped start the Community Device Program and expect to keep working at it.

  But as one pundit after another predicts the demise of mobile MeeGo, and the venture itself suffers a visible lull, many are nervous over the prospects… including myself.  I’m not going to give too much credence to rumors– especially since there’s alternative talk of Samsung taking over the reigns instead of an outright plug-pulling.

  What I am pondering, though, is Windows Phone 7 (the current build is referred to as Mango).

  After all, Microsoft has gone to great lengths to ensure that my Visual Studio experience is readily useful.  I’ve missed software development work the past few years, as I’ve had to focus on a job where only my SQL skills were relevant.  There just has not been the time, regrettably, to do what I had hoped with Qt (although I have not given up completely).  But with WP7, I only have to learn the unique aspects of phone development and I’m up to speed.

  That’s really, really tempting.

  I’m also coming up on the end of my term as a Nokia Developer Champion.  Whereas my Maemo and MeeGo experience was applicable when I was nominated last year, I can’t see that being the case now.  I do want to enjoy the privilege for a second year, and that means embracing Nokia’s current strategy.

  And it’s not just negative talk that has me concerned about MeeGo.  The outreach efforts I began for North and Central Texas have stalled after a bright and promising beginning.  I am right near the point of letting the Dallas-Fort Worth area Meetup.com account lapse due to declining interest (Austin never really got off the ground).  I won’t drop it outright– merging with a general open source group makes sense.

  It’s been interesting living in two worlds the last several years.  Friends who are diehard soldiers of either camp don’t quite get how I can reconcile the two.  But as I said at the start of this article, I’m a device nut.  Still passionate about open source, yet also willing to explore the “dark side”… with a focus much more on hardware than software.

  In that respect, I think I have something unique to offer as a volunteer ambassador for Nokia.  I’m passionate but not religious about any technology, and in fact prefer to stay as agnostic as possible.  I believe I have a rare ability to bridge two distinct worlds, to talk with and listen openly to members of either one.  That’s what I hope to bring to another year as a Nokia Developer Champion.  Hopefully the judges will soon agree… and that the MeeGo community won’t be too rough on me as I keep a foot in that realm, too. 

  
  Filed under: Addressing Retention, Employing Opportunity, Getting Qt, Great Governance, Into Outreach, Inviting Change, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, The Process and Product Frontier, The Write Stuff, Views and Reviews Tagged: 770, internet tablet, LinkedIn, Maemo, Mango, MeeGo, Microsoft, Moblin, N800, N9, N950, Nokia, Windows Phone 7, WP7 3 2 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:44:23 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-d8145848d9bb11e0b1a52760dd33692f692f http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/nokias-design-for-the-future-focus-on-what-works/ There’s been a crazy fog of speculation surrounding my previous employer for the past few years, and I’ll admit I’m guilty of contributing.  Many of Nokia’s moves during that time have been unusual, counterproductive and even downright bewildering… so it’s hard to blame anyone for wondering what the heck platform-torching CEO Stephen Elop has really got in mind.

  Nokia has always been a leader in hardware.  That’s not even open to debate.  Their serious failures have been, increasingly of late, in softer areas.  Operating systems.   User experience.  Marketing.  In no time Nokia’s failure to execute on iPhone-driven paradigms caused it to fall from leader to follower to company-with-a-questionable-future.

  No need to rehash any more history, though, right?  Let’s talk about the company’s future… and why my pessimism started to evaporate tonight. 

  Many people were impressed with the industrial aesthetics of the N8.  Many more were floored by the uber-sexy N9.  If I were to forget everything I know about the company, step back and look at their recent hardware design trends objectively, I’d say Nokia has decided to become the Ferrari of phone makers.  The N9 alone is that good-looking.

  And do I need to remind readers of their prowess with engines?  Other than some embarrassing lapses with memory and CPU power, Nokia is the undisputed king of cell phone aspects like cameras, antennas and power management.

  For a brief period, though, none of that mattered so much.  Apple introduced a device that in many ways was technically inferior to competitor’s products and yet still managed to take the world by storm and become the smartphone benchmark.  They showed that, as cell phones grew in power and complexity to become mobile computers, usability became the utmost selling point for users often befuddled by a vast array of features.

  Thanks to a strict adherence to the singular vision of Steve Jobs, Apple has managed to increase the perception among consumers that they are the company to care about.  Even as the Android ecosystem grows to dominate (overtaking Nokia’s Symbian), phones running the quasi-open operating system are always measured against iPhone.

  But here’s the funny thing about software: it’s fairly simple to replicate someone else’s features without stepping on their patents.  As Nokia’s Swipe for screen flipping shows, there’s more than one way to engage a touchscreen.  I do expect more costly battles over gestures and other aspects of user experience (UX), but I expect most of them to be lost or tossed.  Courts overloaded with these lawsuits are going to push back.  Software patents have actually been working against the very principles that patents were originally designed to secure, and that can’t persist forever.

  It’s no secret to readers of this blog that I’m a big fan of the Maemo and MeeGo operating systems.  I’m even relying completely on a not-for-resale Nokia N950 lately (running the hybrid MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan OS) for cell phone use.  But again, I’m setting that aside and taking an objective tack here in analyzing Nokia’s business moves.  While agreeing to adopt Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 for all smartphone use may make Nokia look like a whipped OEM, if they can outperform competitors in product design and reliability they might just have a winning combo.

  Remember the hypercool Nokia Morph concept?  Tell me you don’t want one of these babies to one day be real:

  

  source: http://themediaguru.blogspot.com/2008/02/nokia-morph.html

  In the slightly less-exciting present, Reviews for Mango (the current pre-release build of Windows Phone 7) consistently identify it as a serious iOS and Android threat.  As loathe as some may be to consider it, the user experience playing field is leveling.  Once all smartphones have equal access to a competent operating system and user interface layer, the focus reverts back to hardware… and therein lies Nokia’s clear advantage.

  It was an interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal [1] that modulated me back into more positive thoughts on Nokia’s prospects.  I’m particularly intrigued by one specific section:

  Microsoft’s Windows Phone Mango is a modern graphic user interface that requires fewer clicks to operate than the folder-based iPhone platform and the Android.

  Mr. [Marko] Ahtisaari says today’s touch-screen phones are inappropriately immersive, and that he would like to design in a way that allows users to keep their heads up again.

  “When you look around at a restaurant in Helsinki, you’ll see couples having their heads down instead of having eye contact and being aware of the environment they’re in,” he says.

  “Designing for true mobility…makes it easier for people to have more eye contact and be aware of their environment, and is an example of what people would not explicitly ask for but love when they get it,” Mr. Ahtisaari says.

  Who can argue with that?

  Well, obviously some will.  IT World insists iPhone 5 will be a significant threat. Apple has done a decent job keeping this one under wraps, so who knows how much of Marko Ahtisaari’s pondering it will or won’t incorporate?

  It’s still too early to write Nokia off as a contender or be completely certain of a turnaround… but I’m even more convinced now that they still do have the pieces to pull it off.  Question remains: do they have the players?

  Stephen Elop and staff may just surprise everyone.

  [1] Very sorry, the WSJ article requires an account.  If someone has a free link, let me know!

  
  Filed under: Delivering Quality, Inviting Change, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, The Process and Product Frontier, The Write Stuff, Views and Reviews, Ways of Rocking Tagged: Android, Apple, design, forumnokia, iPhone, LinkedIn, Maemo, Mango, Marko Ahtisaari, MeeGo, Microsoft, Nokia, Stephen Elop, Symbian, Windows Phone, WP7 1 4 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:37:37 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-4928c1bad2cb11e0930d7b1d11e28acd8acd http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/self-manufacturing-how-close-are-we/ When I was a kid, the most exciting Christmas gift my parents got me was a green Honda QA50 mini-bike.  Until I was upgraded to a cooler Honda Z50 a few years later, I rode the hell out of that little thing.  Even stripped a great deal of skin off my 9-year-old body the first day riding– then got right back on, to my mother’s horror, and kept going.
  

  source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com

  But the most useful present was a Science Fair 100-in-1 electronics kit.

  You can see it on the right side of this 1972 advertisement from Radio Shack.  It was a board loaded with electronics, including a meter and speaker, and used pre-cut wires and spring terminals to virtually assemble all sorts of cool projects.  I annoyed my family by creating a household radio station, harassed the pets with a sound synthesizer, and amused myself endlessly with a lot of trial-and-error spaghetti wirings before I really understood what was going on.  But in the process of doing so, and by scribbling notes all over the big manual’s pages, I developed the knowledge of electronics that eventually helped land my first professional job (with Texas Instruments) and cultivated a deep love for tinkering that has never died. 

  As a parent I wanted to share the same excitement of self-discovery with my kids, and was saddened that, although they’re just as geeky as I am, they have never shown the same kind of curiosity.  I think we still have a largely-unused experimenter’s kit gathering dust somewhere in storage… waiting for grandchildren?

  I’m concerned that societal changes since my childhood have reduced interest in this sort of activity.  Or maybe kit assembly was more of a niche than I’ve acknowledged.  Either way, as manufacturing increasingly abandons expensive regions like the United States, a technical void is left that’s looking to be filled by something new.  Enter self-manufacturing.

  The thought is that, at some point, many advanced products could be purchased in kit form for minor user assembly or even mostly manufactured at home.  This could include cell phones and other common electronics appliances.

  The plastic component aspect is already there.  Anyone with access to 3D design services can submit custom part files to build-on-demand services like Shapeways.  For those who want to bring this closer to home, 3D “printers” continue to decline in price and improve in capability.

  This advent not only opens up the area of customization, but serves repair and maintenance needs by enabling ad hoc creation of parts long discontinued by original manufacturers… extending the lives of products otherwise rendered frustratingly useless by simple part failures.  Haven’t we all been there?  My trusty QA50 suffered a few mishaps like broken fenders and such.  There’s a nice little niche aftermarket for it now, but there was a stretch where getting replacements was next to impossible… so my motorbike suffered.  Note that even the aftermarket web page shows unavailable parts.  Imagine being able to rig these up yourself!  Long tail economics at its finest.

  And the possibilities go beyond basic parts, too.  Exciting developments in printing electronics by extending ink jet technology are well underway and promise to blow the doors off conventional circuit card manufacturing.

  The common scenario cited starts with a customer using an online configurator to select and mash-up the features of a desired product.  The configurator would then select (or even design on-the-fly) the necessary circuitry.  This would then be coupled with a custom casing and other components.  The result could be ordered online as a simple-to-assemble kit or downloaded to the customer’s own home manufacturing setup.

  All indicators point to us being right on the threshold of this being practical, at least for early adopters.  But there are potential pitfalls.  In the sort of world envisioned here, money would be made in three main areas: raw materials,  designs, and support services.  The margins tend to be low for the first, although supply and demand could change that if self-manufacturing takes off.  But design revenue depends on intellectual property (IP) protections, and that’s an increasingly bothersome issue these days.  Consumers typically fail to see value in IP and think that “soft” items should be free.  How will design providers protect their products and services?

  I would expect the same sort of underground sharing of files for self-manufacturing purposes that we presently see with music.  The easy answer is that, ultimately, the design work will be mostly open source and revenue will be relegated to raw materials and services that aren’t as subject to hijacking (delivery, equipment repair, etc).  The music industry still has not successfully transitioned to such a model yet though so this is questionable for any other ventures with similar vulnerabilities.

  Coders won’t be left out of this future.  Operating systems and applications will still be needed, and in self-manufacturing circles I expect Linux and related open source tools to play a huge role.  In my opinion, MeeGo for one is very well-suited for success here.

  Regardless of any hurdles, self-manufacturing is coming.  If you doubt, attend events such as the Open Hardware Summit (15 September 2011 in New York City) and prepare to be amazed.  There may even be Make-type events in your area… check around if you’re interested!  And I can’t wait to see what a new wave of device-hacking teenagers cobbles up…

  
  Filed under: Inviting Change, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, Out There, The Process and Product Frontier, The Write Stuff Tagged: 3D printing, aftermarket, custom, electronics, experiment, Honda, kit, LinkedIn, long tail, maker, Radio Shack, self-manufacturing 4 0 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Sat, 27 Aug 2011 16:02:04 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-c8099f2ed0cb11e08fe697a350982b8a2b8a http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/achievement-badges-not-just-for-gamers/ A friend of mine in the MeeGo community brought my attention to an interesting concept he calls MeeGoVerse, which translates common gaming elements to real-life work as a sort of “massive multiplayer” endeavor.  One important aspect is the use of achievements to reward people for attacking necessary community evils, like bug reporting.  I can envision Meegon badges for each achievement.  People love to contribute, and especially be recognized for it.

  Badges can be found in unusual places and contexts.  While updating my LinkedIn profile recently I took stock of a couple of icons I had not really thought much about before.

  Right there beside the YOU indicator you’ll note an in and, next to it, a circular array graphic.  The first indicates  a Premium account, meaning for one that you get to harass potential connections with InMails.  Very valuable when I was searching for a new job two years ago.  The circle of circles shows profile viewers that I’m a member of an OpenLink network and thus open to said harassment.  Fair, after all, is fair.  

  Now, LinkedIn calls these badges, which strikes me as a little amusing.  I didn’t earn them; I paid for one and selected the other.   So I feel a bit like a fraud.

  To be completely fair, Premium membership means a lot more than a small quota of outgoing spam potential each month– it also indicates that your profile can be fully browsed by those outside your network.  So it’s a useful icon to display, sure, but I still can’t quite call it a badge.

  In my opinion a badge is earned.  So if LinkedIn wanted to go that route, your number of recommendations could be one.  Why not allow members to show that count up there with the other so-called badges?  Occasional boilerplate recommendations notwithstanding, it’s at least more legitimate than the other two examples.

  Even more appropriate, though, would be badges based on actual, personal accomplishment.  Wouldn’t it be cool to have a common protocol for such a thing, that meant the same thing to everyone and could be deployed in any context?

  Mozilla has just such a concept in mind.  It’s called the Open Badges Project, and here’s a summary of the scope and intent:

  We’re building an open platform that will enable anyone to issue, collect and display badges. Providing learners with new ways to get public recognition for their skills and achievements.

  Their PDF draft paper shows they’ve put quite a bit of thought into this, and I think Mozilla is in a good place to push such an idea.  I imagine support will be built right into Firefox, and since the specification is open, I also expect Open Badge support to at least be made available to all browsers.  And this could possibly be extended to employment, providing a way for job applicants to quickly and easily demonstrate competencies.

  I’m really intrigued by this, so I’m going to wriggle my way into the Mozilla community and learn more.  I also have some related thoughts on the dreaded subject of internet karma, so stay tuned and definitely browse the Mozilla materials.  I think they’re onto something!

  
  Filed under: Econometrics and Analytics, Great Governance, Into Outreach, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, The Write Stuff, Views and Reviews, Ways of Rocking Tagged: achievements, community, forumnokia, gaming, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Open Badges, recognition 3 3 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:16:34 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-0b66d968b9a611e0ba097b63902652025202 http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/the-nokia-phoenix/ I wrote in May of last year asking, only partially rhetorically, if this would be a make-or-break year for consumer electronics giant Nokia.  And like many other pundits, I’ve offered my previous employer sound survival advice on more than one occasion [1][2][3] .  Based on recent financial reports, nobody listened.

  All facetiousness aside, here around the halfway point of this year it makes sense to look at the company’s situation again and see if any of Nokia’s remaining strengths can lift it up and turn it around.  

  Capacity and Reach

  The one thing I was constantly impressed by when working for Nokia was the company’s manufacturing and distribution prowess.  Its supply chain depth and expertise is second to none.  Bottom line, Nokia can build and deliver like nobody’s business.

  If that was all it took to put out the world’s most desired and respected consumer products then Nokia has the deal sewn up.  But the best logistics in the world don’t make up for shortcomings elsewhere.  It just means you can ship more of what nobody wants than anyone else.

  Mechanics and Innovation

  One of my complaints as an employee was that there didn’t appear to be a clear Nokia product identity.  Yes, there were certain shared characteristics within product families but nothing that ever shouted “Nokia!”.  I heard colleagues and customers express the same concern but somehow word wasn’t getting where it was needed.

  While I’m discouraged by some Nokia moves the past few years, I’m thrilled to see the branding part coming together.  I can look at an N8 and E7 and see the relative DNA.  I can see Symbian Anna and MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan interfaces and know that, despite significantly different underpinnings, the user interfaces are produced by a design team with a cohesive vision.  Love those squircles!

  Some other peeves are being addressed, like pentaband capability on high-end models.  Combine these progressions with Nokia’s winning camera and display technologies and you have a really compelling offering.  In fact as far as I can see Nokia has failed to capitalize on what it does better than most.  Yes Symbian was too slow to evolve, and still has some quirks, but customers will ignore some annoyances IF the device does certain, expected  things Very Well.  Apple proved that with the first iPhone iterations, omitting features that other smartphones already had but creating a highly-compelling user experience that led zealots to not only overlook but even defend iPhone shortcomings.

  Nokia needs to cultivate zealots of its own, and actually had a powerful contingent until touchscreen devices became de rigueur.  I’ve been harping on the company to improve its outreach efforts, and see promising signs here and there, but still no heavy PR push as is needed.  But that may well be largely device-driven; Nokia’s best product, the upcoming N9, doesn’t run the Windows Phone 7 OS on which Nokia has pinned its future.  Outreach campaigns may well be waiting, understandably so, for those Microsoft-powered phones.

  Conventional Wisdom

  The analysts, however, are already writing Nokia’s epitaph.  Many believe Nokia has already passed that make-or-break point.  Tomi Ahonen has been especially critical, which is interesting given his more favorable assessments in the past.

  And when you read glowing reviews that pick the N9 over iPhone, you wonder if there isn’t a sort of self-defeating insanity infecting Nokia’s upper ranks– given that CEO Stephen Elop has hinted that the amazing MeeGo-capable N9 will be a one-off product.

  Reinvention

  But the reality is that no company is dead until it’s, well, completely nonfunctioning.  Nokia is hurting now, hunkered down and licking its wounds.  It may well not survive long enough to be a power player again, especially if the stock keeps declining.  Its prospects certainly haven’t been helped by Elop’s original provocative statements about impending product endings.  But… the company still has a wealth of resources, and I believe it can pull itself together and succeed again.

  When I was a Nokia employee (2005 through 2009) it was easy to get caught up in unrealistic expectations.  Say what you will from the outside, within the company there was an energy, a living spirit of Can-Do that could have led to greater things– had it not been squandered by executive arrogance.

  That focus on possibilities served the company well in the past, as it morphed from one distinct industry to another, and can again.  A fog of complacency settled over the upper ranks during the late 2000s, and maybe the resulting rapid market loss was necessary to shock them out of it.  Some analysts believe that Windows Phone may well be the vehicle to launch it out of the ashes.  And there are also interesting things going on with S40!

  Assuming Nokia can hold on through the next year or so, it also has some exciting technologies in the wings.  Like solar charging and haptics on steroids.  I’m cautiously optimistic my favorite employer can fly again!  As a stockholder I need to be.

  
  Filed under: Addressing Retention, Getting Qt, Greening Up!, Inviting Change, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, Out There, The Process and Product Frontier, The Write Stuff, Unusability, Views and Reviews, Ways of Rocking Tagged: forumnokia, LinkedIn, Nokia 4 3 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Tue, 26 Jul 2011 04:53:04 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-3c67fa28b74a11e08e09bd2394ded0bbd0bb http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/confessions-of-an-appathetic-user/ I’m going to confess something that’s likely to cost me Twitter followers, kill future career prospects and launch a mild Comment war:

  I’m not much of an app user.

  And I can’t understand those who are, either.  Well, I can align with the casual user.  The few utilitarians out there.  Those discriminating sorts who reserve their precious device storage space for more valuable content.  Like songs, photos and LOLcats.  

  But there’s a whole world out there just begging for more cute and clever applications it seems.  And forget fart apps; enter cool apps into Google and you’re rewarded with 165,000,000 results, with mostly gas-free iPhone goodies bubbling up to the surface.  That’s a LOT of interest.

  The race to claim the biggest app repository is reaching mind-numbing numbers, with Apple’s trademark-protected App Store still possessing a commanding lead of over 400,000 little software blobs in its clutches (and has actually breached 500,000 including inactive apps).  And if that doesn’t boggle your brain, rapidly-expanding Android is on track to beat Apple’s bragging rights by July or August of this year.

  I’m usually happy with the basic pre-installed stuff and a few extras here and there.  Load me up with maps, weather, geek utilities, some games and a full-blown web browser and I’m cool.

  The last bit says it all.  Forget local apps stealing precious finite device resources– I’ll take the internet, thank you, and everything on it.  With relish.

  That means high octane HTML5, naturally, and even proprietary technologies like Adobe’s Flash.  Yes, I agree with most of the complaints but just think of the number of Flash games out there.  No application store necessary.  The internet is increasingly the way to go.

  Which is why I rolled my eyes every time I heard someone complain that Nokia’s Maemo “didn’t have any/many apps”.  So what.  Maemo had a killer Mozilla-based browser.  And are you really going to dig your way through 400,000+ listings in someone’s virtual store?  There’s no search engine good enough, nor time in the world.  Assuming you were so curious, the only way you would ever see what’s on the bottom is by inverting the listing.  But then, rank hacking notwithstanding, the more useful blobs bob to the top anyway.  So most shoppers will sift through the more obvious offerings and anything floating just below the cream line can only dream of daylight.

  Interestingly, Microsoft’s mobile app count is growing faster than device adoption, leading to a software top-heavy situation.  That will in turn dilute their value unless and until phone sales take off.  For a saturated market of products heading toward free, that’s not good.

  Web apps make sense in many ways.  They tend to be cheaper to develop, cover more platforms, and are easier to maintain.  Monetization, though, can be more of a challenge.  But if you’re reaching more people, then you’re increasing the chance of alternatives like voluntary donations… so turning a profit with mobile web sites can be simply a matter of the model.  There’s even room for subscription solutions as long as the price is below the typical user’s pain threshold.

  Multi-platform app stores like AppCentral, Appia and Intel’s AppUp are a good compromise.  Even Amazon says it intends to go that way with its service.  What this could mean to single-platform servicers like Apple remains to be seen.  Would the company so eager to protect the term “App Store” (failed) go so far as to prevent others from selling software for its products?

  Who cares.  Give me an open ecosystem powered by MeeGo, Mozilla and the internet and I’m good.

  
  Filed under: Just for Fun, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, Smooth Codings, The Cat Corral, The Write Stuff, Unusability, Views and Reviews Tagged: Android, App Store, AppCentral, Appia, Apple, AppUp, forumnokia, Intel, LinkedIn, Maemo, MeeGo, Microsoft, Nokia 9 1 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Fri, 15 Jul 2011 05:59:47 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-339753b6aeae11e09f2ae9cec63d7c107c10 http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/works-for-me/ Want to stop productive bug reporting in its tracks? Want to get the trolling rolling? Toss a flaming “Works for me!” into the mix and stand back.  

  I’ve often described the title of this piece as the most devastating insult one techie can inflict on another.  It’s surely one of the more popular. And while in many (maybe most) cases it’s dropped in perfect innocence, this little innocuous phrase tends to land with the force of a nuclear bomb.

  

  Bug triage is a progressive process.  After the initial report, others join in to share their experience and a living, breathing, sometimes-viral organism develops.  Those afflicted with the bug take co-ownership of the report, as do those working to resolve it.  They may see anyone poking in to coo a cavalier “works for me!” as an affront.  A theft of discourse and productivity.  And a blatant example of trolling.

  It’s especially an issue in open source communities, where much if not all of the work involved is strictly volunteer.  Pointless infringements on precious time are not taken lightly.  And unless the poster is a sociopath, they surely don’t want to develop a troll’s reputation.

  But what if the alleged agent provocateur really is innocent?  There’s actually value in the remark if it’s sincere.  A valid “works for me” becomes a control, an example of an environment or set of conditions where the bug has failed to manifest.  A bug-free control can aid in troubleshooting by enabling investigators to better identify critical environmental differences.  In fact the more “works for me” contributions there are, the quicker the culprit can be identified.  It lurks in the unique shadows of the bug originator’s domain… and can often be something really simple.

  Obviously bug triage depends on collaboration and, to some extent, healthy competition.  But successful bug resolution is best accomplished by avoiding ego-driven contributions on either side.  That means no taunting, and no rash assumptions.  Consider your words carefully.  If you have no stake in the bug, just observe from the sidelines if at all.  And if personality conflicts emerge, they’re best taken out of the bug stream and handled between the adversaries.

  Keep on (de)bugging!

  
  Filed under: Delivering Quality, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, Smooth Codings, The Cat Corral, The Write Stuff, Unusability, Views and Reviews, Ways of Rocking Tagged: bug, debugging, forumnokia, LinkedIn, triage 6 1 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Wed, 13 Jul 2011 03:35:16 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-6c093b40ad0211e0a1ebe18592e11e2d1e2d http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/is-s40-nokias-future/

  source: http://www.cellfanatic.com/

  Nokia’s S40 operating system has long been relegated to non-multitasking offerings in its stable of devices.  Simple to implement and use, it’s the ammunition for Nokia’s carpet-bomb-the-developing-world-with-cellphones strategy. Symbian, and then Maemo, and then MeeGo and now Windows Phone 7 have been touted as the operating system(s) for the rich high end (excluding Vertu and some other exceptions).

  The thinking seems to have been, “Get low-end Nokia devices into the hands of those who can’t/won’t yet use or afford smartphones, and then migrate them upward when the time is right”.

  Great tactic in theory, but it has so far failed to succeed as needed.  For Nokia, anyway.  

  Background

  Understanding why is not difficult.  After joining Nokia’s US operations in 2005, I was astounded to newly discover N- and E-series devices. To my limited American experience, Nokia was the majority owner of the grocery store end cap, devoting its energies solely to cheap cell phones… especially pay-as-you go products for companies like Tracfone.  So in my mind, Nokia was synonymous with the low end.

  If I had been alone in that assumption, Nokia would have been fine.  But history clearly illustrates that as America’s desire for smartphones ramped up, Nokia lost out.  So I can only imagine I’m not so alone.

  The reasons for Nokia’s US decline are more complex than simple purchaser  perception, but that one is key.  If Nokia had succeeded in educating US citizens about its high end offerings, and how the company was about much more than “disposable” phones, then service providers would have surely been besieged by irresistible demands that Nokia smartphones be made available as subsidized options.  But because purchasers saw Nokia in a  single low light, that didn’t happen.  Handset manufacturers who did a better job of promoting their high end succeeded instead.  And ultimately, a consumer electronics company with no low-end handset legacy at all came out of left field to dominate with its iPhone.

  This wasn’t limited to the United States, either.  Nokia worked the low and mid ranges in India, too, hoping to get the upgrade action going there.  Despite initial success, though, as observers suspected Nokia has recently seen competitors move in to capture many customers.  Retention, again, has been a problem.

  Foreground

  So we’ve covered the past.  Let’s talk about the future.

  Nokia dropped some strong hints about its plans for “the next billion” at its Nokia Connection 2011 event.  Development framework Qt, HTML5 and operating system S40 have been recently discussed in such semantic proximity lately that the only reasonable conclusion is that Nokia is taking a new tack:  rather than pulling handset owners up to the world of smartphones, it will instead push that rich functionality down into price points that a few years ago would have been unfathomable.

  Let that process for a minute.

  As much as Nokia has stumbled during the past few years, it very well could make this work!  They have the expertise, the logistics, and surely the desperation required to change the smartphone game in a way that most competitors will be unable to meet or beat.  Beef up the power on low end devices and use Qt to create a truly breathtaking experience for users unused to smartphone niceties.  CEO Stephen Elop has already declared that a full touch UI is coming to S40.

  Of course this comes with a caveat: these users don’t want complex.  Not all of them choose S40 for cost; many select it for its simplicity and responsiveness.  Both come courtesy of avoiding multitasking and third-party applications.  Now, putting high-powered CPUs into these handsets will certainly mitigate performance hits– but if Nokia is going to utilize Qt for UX/UI solutions, then they will have to expect pressure from third-party developers.  Clear, strong guidelines and a rigorous test/approval process should help.

  Bottom Line

  Before such a bold initiative could work, however, Nokia still has to battle ongoing perception problems.  Its strategy for the past several months has been flexible to the point of chaos.  Consumers, developers and service providers are confused, frustrated and as angry as Rovio’s birds.

  Mobile pundits have long urged Nokia to start taking PR seriously.  Rethink retreats such as the closing of consumer-friendly flagship stores.  Ratchet up the advertising.  Improve outreach to bloggers like me.  Work like never before for that next billion.

  If they don’t, they’ll be seen as disposable as those end cap phones.

  
  Filed under: Getting Qt, Inviting Change, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, The Process and Product Frontier, The Write Stuff, Views and Reviews Tagged: forumnokia, LinkedIn, Maemo, MeeGo, Nokia, Qt, S40, Symbian, Tracfone, Windows Phone 7, WP7 2 4 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Sat, 25 Jun 2011 01:11:37 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-1823f3009ecd11e092092bc4deb348fb48fb http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/i-need-a-new-phone/ My third Nokia N900 lost the ability to recognize a SIM card recently.  And the usual home repair tactics (bending the SIM, adding padding between the SIM slot and battery) had no effect.  I tried a cold reflash to no avail.

  So I went back to my previously-trusty Nokia E71x only to find that the infrequent odd behavior it had been exhibiting (mainly going unresponsive when I needed it most) has now become the norm.  The little thing spends most of its time now in a coma and requires measures just short of serious abuse to awaken.  Factory reset didn’t help there, either.  It’s also not a mobile computer.  

  I’ve been blessed with Nokia N8 and E7 devices thanks to Nokia’s Developer Champion (formerly Forum Nokia) program, but those ended up in the hands of my two young sons and good luck getting either back.  Despite adult reviews to the contrary, my teenagers love the things (their friends are actually jealous).

  So I need a new phone.  Fast.

  As I wrote yesterday I am (almost completely) enthralled with the MeeGo-ready Nokia N9.  Not the drama developing around it, for sure, but the device itself.

  But it’s not out yet, and even if/when it’s made available I don’t expect to see it in the US any time soon.  Nokia apparently has a similar handset in the wings meant for Windows Phone 7, and it’s clear now that the two products will be launched in mutually-exclusive markets.  Even if the N9 makes it to the US, I won’t be able to afford it thanks to a severe reduction in salary since falling out of the Nokia nest and I doubt I’ll see this subsidized (although there are rumors of an AT&T offering at some point).

  I’m tempted to turn to the AT&T store to grab something there.  In fact I even went so far recently as to purchase an HTC device, but the server choked on my order.  There’s some karmic irony in that, no doubt.

  There are still some legacy Nokia phones gathering dust in my house.  My oldest son has an N93 that was never used since Nokia inexplicably chose to support T-Mobile bands but not AT&T’s.  I also have an E70, which I believe Nokia should resurrect with some modernization.  I think we have an old candy bar or two lurking somewhere as well.

  I really, really miss using my N900 though.  Regardless of its faults, toting a mobile computer with cell radio capability worked best for me.  Hmmm… maybe what I really need is one of those N950 developer devices…

  
  Filed under: Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, The Write Stuff, Unusability, Views and Reviews Tagged: AT&T, forumnokia, LinkedIn, N9, N900, N950, Nokia 2 2 ]]> Randall Arnold <texrat@ovi.com> feed:a7ebd5f9cfd7ca3830cb6317611d7f18 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:53:32 +0000 http://maemo.org/midcom-permalink-c052ca829dc011e0bebd0f6abf6498e198e1