But if it does, why the proprietary port as well? Nokia has signed up to the ITU’s universal charger. What’s the 2mm jack doing there?
I’ve had a limited explanation from a Nokia spokesperson: “I can confirm that as expected you can charge the Nokia N8 via the micro USB port”. Nokia does support the universal charger idea, my contact said, sending me “the latest” on the subject… which turns out to be a blog post from February 2009 – more than 16 months ago. This made the less than urgent promise that “by the 1st of January 2012 the majority of all new handsets will support the universal charger”.
So Nokia’s not exactly vocal in its support for the micro-USB charger. Since it looks like the N8 can charge either way – when it is packaged, which charger will Nokia put in the box? As correspondents tell me, Nokia is rated highly for its environmental activity by Greenpeace, so let’s see what happens.
Why have two charging sockets on the phone? I’m tempted to think it’s just because this is Nokia, and it’s the kind of thing Nokia can do. But one correspondent came up with an ingenious suggestion. If the USB socket is in use for a storage device, it’s not available for charging: “So if I am watching a couple of HD movies I can simply plug in my flash drive and charge the phone with the 2mm at the same time.”
Like I say, this phone seems to invite some pretty obscure and marginal use-cases…
It’s been reported that the N8 is the last N-Series phone to run Symbian. The Reuters report was pretty categorical and quoted Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson: “Going forward, N-series devices will be based on MeeGo.”
But in a blog post last week Anssi Vanjoki. Nokia’s new executive vice president of mobile solutions, promised a “fightback”, to get Nokia back its number one position in high end devices.
He suggested the N8 might be followed by other devices using the as-yet unreleased Symbian^4. “Of course, we ‘never comment on future products’, but a Symbian^4 Nseries device is a strong possibility,” he said. “A very strong possibility”.
So future devices will be MeeGo, except thre may be some Symbian^4 devices… and of course, Symbian^3 will continue on lower-end devices. Vanjoki’s post got users confused again, asky “Why not commit to an upgrade to Symbian^4 on the N8?”
Unfortunately, Symbian^3, for all its open source cred, begins to look in market terms a bit like Microsoft’s Windows Mobile. It’s old and tired and there’s a new version on the way. In the meantime, the main player has to flog the last update of the older version, and the competitors are stealing a march.
In the end, it seems like there is confusion around Nokia, around Symbian and the N8.
We’re trying to get to the bottom of it, and not add to it, because confusion must detract from the potential of any phone.
Apple’s tight control of brand and specifications may not produce the best product – and certainly not the most innovative. But the Apple fans know where they are.
We’re hoping that by the time it arrives in its final form, there’s more certainty to Nokia’s plans, a definite roadmap, and a phone that will have wider appeal, than it looks so far.
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Hello Mr. Judge!
I took note of the mentioned article, and while I generally have sympathy for Nokia, I don't like to see it expressed in such violent ways.
But I have to question your theory none the less. There is indeed one big competitor, that is making huge profits by limitting its users choice and cutting down the functionality of its products, like inhibiting usb-access.
I would suggest, that Apple's economic success is not a result of its product's lacking areas, but of the product's excellent marketing and interface. Your suggestion implies, that I-Phone sales would tumble, should Mr. Jobs implement more features. This is uncertain.
Certainly, a big pile of features can obstruct a phone's succes, if it harms its usability. But if the phone manages to keep the basics simple & accessible, than I don't see any logical connection. Noone is forced to use his phone as a mobile HD-media-platform. But it might affect the decision of a numerable size of buyers.
And considering that practically any TV sold today features HDMI and practically every houshold has some sort of digital camera, I cannont see how it would NOT appeal to a broad public to have a device, that would replace at the same time a point&shoot, a video-camera AND a Hifi-mediaplayer (feat. dolby-whatever). There are few people that I imagine to fancy having a huge pile of techno gadgets around, which each bring their own chargers, cables et cetera. So what the N8 offers here is not a feature overload but in fact a major simplification of life. A grandmother could appreciate that just as much as a mother as the techno-kid himself.
What remains to be seen is, if all those parts come together in a way, that the N8's no. 1 feature will keep up to Nokia's reputation: The phone.
Hey, judge. Stop making reviews of the Nokia N8. You don't know nothin'. Just wait for it to come out, buy it, and enjoy it.
The Nokia N8 is the worlds greatest gadget and phone ever made. You know why they're releasing it late? Perfecting it. Saving the best for last. The only thing that COULD topple it is their own Nokia N9, that N8-lookalike with QWERTY. But I don't know...
No, Peter, what you found were lots of people who don't like half assed, factually incorrect 'reviews' based on limited exposure to a pre-production prototype.
You jumped on a bandwagon, made a fool of yourself and were taken to task for it.
Don't try and disguise your own incompetence by pretending it's down to the preferences of others please.
Hi,
I think I know why there will be 2 charging ports. If you think about it it's kind of a no-brainer. There are so many people out there who are faithful to Nokia, who have car adapters, multiple AC adapters and such, so if they provide both they propagate customer loyalty by making a silent statement that the money you spent for your accessories was not all thrown out the window with the purchase of this new phone.
Just a thought.