I loved Maemo when it was “just an internet tablet” — I’ve owned a 770, N800 and N810 — so I’m glad to see many of its obvious problems solved in this demo of the new user interface. However, we’ll have to see how well it works as a day-to-day phone since this video highlights one major problem: it’s still not a true one-handed UI.
Sure, you’ll see one hand manipulating everything, but you won’t see the second hand holding the device. If anything, it shows that Maemo would make an awesome touchscreen OS.
For me, someone who spends 95% of his time on a mobile using data, this might be fine… but even then there are times on the subway where I must operate the device one-handed and strap-hang with the other. But as I said, I have had a lot of these, so I know the Kung Fu Grip necessary to use it one-handed. I just wonder how receptive others will be to this.
It’s been known for a while now (via talk.maemo.org) that there is limited support for rotation in the current Fremantle kernel, so we may not see a fully rotational tablet until Maemo 6. And given the history of Maemo marketing vs. Maemo reality — or for that matter S60 marketing vs. S60 reality — we won’t know how complete its touted features are until people start pushing it to its limits. So it’s wait and see for now.
