Nokia N9

Nokia N9: A Turning Point

On June 21, 2011 Nokia CEO Stephen Elop announced the first Nokia device to run on the mysterious MeeGo operating system. Before this announcement, there was only one device that ran a version of MeeGo - the N900, originally the company's Maemo 5 device, that in the eyes of many, is a powerful portable computer that just happens to have mobile phone functionality.

The issue with the timeline of the N900 to the N9 is that the N900 was released in early 2009. The N9 may not be released until Q4 in most markets, and availability outside of Europe is still uncertain. The N900 was suppose to be a stepping stone to a  great ecosystem in Maemo. In the months following the N900 release, Maemo was merged with Moblin, forming MeeGo, which brought Nokia and Intel together - promising to say the least. Nokia lacked visibility in the regions between the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean (North America) as a smartphone powerhouse, so having backing from a very respectable name (Intel) might have been all Nokia needed.

Then the house of cards fell. Nokia ousted a lot of officers, which led to others leaving, resigning, retiring, and I think it came at the right time to transition to new horizons, but the wrong time for the MeeGo platform to stand a chance. MeeGo was a big project that Nokia simply could not afford to keep as the platform of choice going forward. Considering Elop's background with Microsoft, I thought the choice to pair with Windows Phone 7 was very logical, and considering the growth of WP7 and name recognition in the North American market, I think it was the best choice.

Google. Apple. Two of the biggest companies in North America both have operating systems they back for mobile phones. Nokia, a Finnish company, does not give North America the confidence in a Nokia-built operating system, because they are thought of as a phone maker, not software. Internationally, Nokia is still the biggest phone (smart and feature) in terms of market share, and I think Nokia will continue to dominate the non-smartphone market because they have been doing it for so long. I think they have evolved their feature phones in a great way, and S40 is the best OS I've ever used in terms of ease of use paired with functionality.

Enter the N9. Elop called it a "market disruption device" that will likely see Nokia support fall off near the end of 2012 (and not because of December 12, 2012). Let me start off with the positives I see in the N9:

• Great design - the curvature of the front and back combined with the unibody shell and simplistic lines reminds me that chrome, metal, etching, and over-use of logos are not necessary to produce a beautiful product. This may be what gets Nokia WP7 phones into the hands of the populous.
• Functional and gorgeous user-interface - the idea of a "circular-based" user interface reminds me why I believe Nokia can still do a lot of work and it be spectacular. The circular icons add a sense of continuity and uniformity. The circular home screens are great because there are no "apps" to open or button-combinations to press to get to three items I personally use the most; applications I have, applications I am running, and events I want to be notified of. While having a button-less interface is new to me, it could possibly be a trend that other operating systems borrow. 
• Gigahertz and Gigabytes - Nokia has prided itself of being conservative with the under-the-hood specs. Although there are still nay-sayers who whine "these are last year specs" Nokia is still king of making the most of the least amount or processing power and memory capacity. Specs do nothing for me, because the Intel Core 2 Duo in my Lenovo laptop doesn't do squat if the operating system doesn't use it properly. 
• The best digital camera - yes, better than the stand-alone digital cameras because the N9 is my camera and phone. The Carl Zeiss line of lenses that Nokia has used are spectacular. The 12mp shooter on my N8 still amazes me to this day, because I can take respectable photographs that I feel proud to share on Twitter and Facebook. The 8mp shooter on the N9 with wide-angle lens and f/2.2 aperture is very good specs for a phone, and I imagine there will be very little difference in the N8 and N9 photographs.

Now, let me lash out against the decisions behind the N9, because although I am a Nokian for life, I have to express my concerns. Firstly, what took so long? I was close to getting a N900, although I am on AT&T, and I decided to wait until the next big Maemo device. Two and a half years later, it was announced. Also, there is not even a decision of the availability of the N9:

Although the likelihood of it not coming to the States is slim, the fact there is not a decision bothers me. I think Nokia's fence-straddling in the North American market has killed its branding. I can name one device that is currently being offered by Nokia to US carriers that was released in the past 6 months - the Astound (C7) on T-Mobile. One device. One. Guess how many Samsung has just on AT&T? Five. Two WP7, two Android, and one WinMo. Plus the plethora of feature phones. I just can't comprehend the lack of North American carrier support, not for the sake of myself, but for the sake of Nokia's North American market, which is essentially non-existent.

Nokia may be planning a full-on assault on North America with the WP7 devices to come, and I anticipate success, because Nokia (great phones) + Microsoft (hey, it's Microsoft!) is likely to equal success. I just wish Nokia had room for MeeGo to continue to be their baby.

Unless the forthcoming WP7 device from Nokia blows my mind, I don't see not buying the N9, granted it makes it to Nokia USA. If Nokia is going to abandon MeeGo, then I want to be a part of keeping the OS alive in being a developer and contributor. So, the Nokia N9 is a turning point in three ways:

1. It has geared up my motivation to become a mobile developer, be it application or operating system improvements, I want to coddle the heart of the beast as long as I am able.
2. Nokia has certainly turned away from its most loyal patrons by leaving the MeeGo ecosystem out on the doorstep and hopes someone adopts. Nokia is still dear to my heart, but they have mishandled the MeeGo development and it could damage the credibility of their brand to loyalists going forward.
3. Nokia is ready to take on WP7 full strength. They are ready to reclaim world dominance, by getting rid of the dead weight of Symbian (I still love you) and MeeGo, they are surely more streamlined to ride the WP7 train. The question is, how far will this train go?

Nokia can be compared to the rattled American car companies - the market is pulled out from under their feet by Toyota and Nissan (Apple and Android), the economy blows up in their face (turnover of officers) and the comeback plan to address the changing economy (drop Symbian, go WP7).

Will Nokia rally?

My 2011 NCAA Men's Bracket

The tournament expanding to 68 teams, and 4 "first-round" games is a little confusing, so I will try to break it down some:

There are 8 teams that play in the first-round. Texas-San Antonio v. Alabama State; Alabama-Birmingham v. Clemson; Southern California v. Virginia Commonwealth; North Carolina-Asheville v. Arkansas-Little Rock

Since I am not picking any of those teams to go on and win their second round game, which is the traditional first-round, field of 64, I will give you the third-round, field of 32 participants, then the Sweet 16, and so on.

In the East region, I have:

THIRD ROUND                 SWEET 16      ELITE 8

Ohio State v. Villanova  -> Ohio State

                            v.         -> Ohio State

W Virginia v. Kentucky   -> Kentucky

                                          v.   -> Ohio State

Marquette  v. Syracuse   -> Syracuse

                            v.         -> Washington

Washington v. UNC        -> Washington

Southwest:

THIRD ROUND                 SWEET 16      ELITE 8

Kansas     v. Illinois   -> Kansas

                            v.         -> Kansas

Vanderbilt v. Louisville -> Louisville

                                          v.   -> Kansas

Georgetown v. Purdue     -> Purdue

                            v.         -> Notre Dame

Texas A&M  v. Notre Dame -> Notre Dame

West:

THIRD ROUND                 SWEET 16      ELITE 8       

Duke       v. Tennessee  -> Duke

                            v.         -> Duke

Arizona    v. Texas      -> Texas

                                          v.   -> Duke

Missouri   v. UConn      -> UConn

                            v.         -> SDSU

Penn State v. SDSU       -> SDSU

Southeast:

THIRD ROUND                 SWEET 16      ELITE 8

Pittburgh  v. ODU        -> Pitt

                            v.         -> Pitt

Utah St.   v. Wisconsin  -> Wisconsin

                                          v.   -> Pitt

Gonzaga    v. BYU        -> BYU

                            v.         -> BYU

UCLA       v. Florida    -> Florida

Final Four:

Ohio State                               Kansas

v          -> Ohio State v Kansas  <-         v

Duke                                 Pittsburgh

Champion: KANSAS

Link to the PDF version: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26821/bracket.pdf

My Top 10 Reasons I Love Ubuntu

The entire month of February, I went back to being a Windows user. I had a couple of reasons for switching back, the main reason was to have the ability to sync my phone with the music, pictures, etc. on my computer via Windows Media Player. Also, my build of Ubuntu was starting to act crazy, like not going into suspend mode, instability in some applications, among other things (I've attributed it to upgrading the distro on the fly instead of doing a clean install or downloading the update all at once first).

Going back to Windows was a painful process, and in my top 10 reasons I love Ubuntu, I will also explain the inconveniences I endured during my switch back to Windows. I don't plan on switching back again, for sure.

10) Native SSH/SFTP connection support

Windows does not support SSH/SFTP connectivity out of the box. PuTTY or some other SSH client is required. PuTTY is a decent application, but it lacks severely in comparison the gnome-terminal in Ubuntu. Copy/Paste is a hassle, key mappings are a pain to get correct (gnome-terminal does very well without configuration), and it really comes  down to not having the Linux OS underneath, which enables so much more when using SSH (which I do 90% of work in with 4 Linux servers). PuTTY was good, but the Ubuntu terminal is the best I've ever used.

9) Support for multiple server connection types

WIndows Explorer does very well in opening WIndows shares, but that is where it ends. FTP, SFTP,  and WebDAV is not supported out of the box, which means all your Linux servers must be setup with Samba shares in order for Windows clients to open Explorer to. Ubuntu, on the other hand, can handle not only SSH, FTP, and WebDAV, but Samba as well, right out of the box. Network locations can also be saved as bookmarks in Nautilus, so they act like a mapped drive, instead it is a mounted share, for ease in working out of a network directory.

8) Usability of command line

I do ok with a Windows command-line. I can do a few things, call a few processes, but I am in no way a power-user. But, I've quickly become a Linux power-user because the command line for Linux, in my opinion, are much easier to understand and get accustomed to than that of Windows. gnome-terminal make is easy to handle copy and pasting, the Linux OS seems more structured on the command-line side, and I feel I can write scripts much easier using a Linux terminal. I can't completely knock the Windows command line because I haven't used it as much at the degree of Linux, but I highly enjoy the Linux terminal experience.

7) Command-line utilities

This goes along with number 8, except Linux comes with so many useful command line utilities. My favorite, awk, is an advanced text-parsing scripting language that can be written in one line or 50. Other commands like locate, sdiff, sed, and a combination of multiple commands have allowed be to build very useful utilities for myself and others I work with.

6) Driver Support

Ubuntu is the only distro of Linux I have used on a personal and professional level, but the driver support from Ubuntu is amazing. A bluetooth dongle, wireless network card, and my smartphone, required drivers from Windows, and even then, they didn't work well. With Ubuntu. I have had no issues with any device, and everything seemed plug-and-play -- like it should be. Windows would turn my wireless radio off after a few minutes of using it, apparently because the driver was bad - the very driver that came with my laptop. Downloading an update did not work, and that is why I quickly went back to Ubuntu.

5) Customization

I love the ability to customize my user experience with Ubuntu. From how my command-line functions when I open it, to my desktop, where my icons are, what is displayed in my panels, and the amazing Compiz effects that add not only special effects, but increased usability. No other OS has given me the options I desire, and Ubuntu keeps adding to the long list of customizable options.

4) Workspaces

Not having workspaces with Windows killed me. Although I found third-party software that allowed me to have virtual desktop spaces, it was not the same experience, and likely was the cause of Windows crashing on me the few times it did.  Workspaces have allowed me to be a quicker, more efficient worker, and they have saved me a lot of time scrounging for that minimized window in my task bar.

3) Window Management

WIndow management in Windows is aweful. How ironic. Although I wasn't using Windows 7, which is much better at window management, my productivity sunk when I wasn't able to drag a maximized window to another monitor, or scroll on a window that didn't have focus, or snap windows to the edge of the screen. On top of not having native support for workspaces, the workspaces application was a bummer to use when the windows management system was so bad.

2) Native Network Profile Support

This was one of the biggest pains in Windows - the lack of an intuitive network profile system. Lenovo's application allowed for profiles, but the application crashed so often, I had to uninstall it. I love having the ability in Ubuntu to define network connections, and the ease of doing so is one of the best features. At work, I need a fixed IP address, but at home, or most other places, I just need DHCP to give me one. The nm-applet for Ubuntu allows me to do so, and to easily switch profiles, without opening any windows. 

1) Learning something new

Since a majority of my work involves a Linux server, I have learned a vast amount about the Linux OS just by having it and using it everyday. It has allowed me to write scripts and processes I would not have ever been able to do without Ubuntu as my primary OS, and it has allowed me to excel at my job. I continue to learn more and more each day.

Thanks Ubuntu!

Nokia + Microsoft: What Happens Next

This morning's announcement came at a surprise to a lot of the Nokia community members I stay in touch with. A lot of the comments were Windows Phone 7 was not a platform Nokia could support, not their style, no parallel ecosystems, etc. etc. etc."

I was not a buyer in the conversation about Nokia going in with Android or WP7. However, I knew Symbian wouldn't last, regardless of my endless love for the platform since the S60v3 days on the E61. Nokia has done the best job of not adapting, or being late adapters in the smartphone platform, where the OS is king, and hardware is second (hence the millions of iPhone 4s sold after finding out about the antenna issue) and the number of Galaxy S phones being littered over the carriers with the GPS fiasco, yet they still have the support of the best selling smartphone platforms in the North American market. Symbian still holds a lead in the market share worldwide, yet they light at the end of that tunnel would come in a definite time-frame, and Stephen Elop refused to be caught with his proverbial pants around his ankles once the Symbian ship runs aground. Being a former exec at Microsoft, and the fact Android is as polluted a mobile platform as the Hudson River, and WP7 was a viable opportunity to bolster one another's trajectory. Granted, WP7 is a very young, and immature OS, but with MeeGo still in the R&D mill, which is based out of the most mature mobile device OS (Maemo), the odds are certainly against Nokia and Microsoft in the smartphone ecosystem, but there are several factors that weigh in favor of the partnership:

1. Microsoft's attraction to business - Businesses run on Microsoft, from the floor to the ceiling. Microsoft Exchange is an email server empire. The Microsoft Office suite of programs is second-to-none, and that comes from Mac users with the new Office for Mac 2010. Outlook calendars, tasks, and contacts are probably the most synced content on any smartphone, be it an iPhone, Android-based device, or Symbian-based device. The business of the decision is to provide a vessel to business customers through the world's most renown mobile phone company (and that's not tooting their whistle too loudly, it is a fact).
2. Microsoft's growing mobile entertainment division - Zune as a device hasn't been the best of successes, although we can simply blame the iPod and move on. The Zune, as a service, has reaped the most of benefits because every one of the 10+ million of Xbox 360 systems sold in the US have the Zune store built-in, regardless of Xbox Live subscription level. Music, Videos, and Movies are what drives the revenue outside the realm of the video game subspace of the system, and with WP7 being the flagship device for Xbox Live and Zune, Nokia will benefit from being absent in the States with their Ovi Music Store and the failure of N-Gage.
3. Nokia's worldwide brand - as the top selling cell phone based on worldwide sales in the past ... well forever, basically, Nokia brings the big name in cell phones WP7 needs to get their software out the doors and on the streets. Microsoft, being a U.S. based company, and much bigger in terms of software development resources, can cut down the cost of the OS, so Nokia can provide premium hardware at a competitive rate, even unlocked. Nokia can also continue being an international phone, being provided on several dozen European carriers subsidized, as well as the future possibilities of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon (sorry Sprint, Nokia says they want nothing to do with you). 
4. Nokia's quality of hardware - The consensus from the current WP7 devices from HTC, Samsung, and Dell have been, well, not good. Lack of decent camera, poor speaker quality, and other media-related features are what is lacking with the current slate of the WP7 devices. The Dell Venue Pro, the most promising of WP7 devices, has failed to get out of the door before considered a flop. Nokia has a strong hardware development backing, and the Fins do it the best. Back to the early N-series devices, they have always had the best cameras, speakers, and overall build-quality. Even Nokia's low-end feature phones are superb quality, so low-end smartphones can and will be better than the current offerings.
5. Microsoft's empire in North America - Microsoft is a worldwide brand in computing, without question, but the empire is based in the states, where the reaches of Nokia's empire fails to tap into. It will be a huge bolster to get Nokia back into the states as a premier device, and the culprit before was the lack of embrace for the Symbian OS. In 6 years of the S60v3 Symbian software lifecycle, a total of 3 devices made it to the States (E61i and E71x for AT&T and the E73 for T-Mobile). Nearly every Nokia device was present on the Euro carriers during that time period. Nokia needs the backing of U.S. carriers to continue their success of yesteryear, and with WP7 now a common and marketable platform for smartphone OS, the U.S. carriers should be able to open their doors once again to Nokia devices.

With MeeGo still being one of Nokia's software platforms for their phones, which might be a more viable OS in the higher-level computing platforms, such as tablets, notebooks, and in-vehicle info-tainment systems. Symbian, set to be "harvested" sometime in 2012 will more than likely spell doom for a lot of Nokia loyalists. My hopes are since Symbian opened the doors of their source code, that the dedicated Symbian community will continue development, and Ovi becomes a Cononical-like service to the Symbian environment. Ovi Maps and Store, likely to be the only two Ovi services to survive the WP7 migration, will likely have limited support in future years, but as a loyal Symbian user, I intend to use my Nokia N8 until I find the next Nokia phone that is for me.

Long live Symbian.

2 more weeks ...