Wednesday, May 26, 2010

PR 1.2 - major disappointment of the year

Just updated my two N900's to PR 1.2. Well...

Pure disappointment. None of the bugs I cared about was fixed even though it's set as fixed on bugzilla:

Bug 7211(Unable to play media. Media format not supported" for recently recorded video) - not fixed.
Bug 6823(media player won't play any video files now (.avi) divx / xvid) - not fixed.

It fails even to play its own built-in "Nokia N900.avi". Since December there's been no way to play video files on this so called "Mobile Computer"!

They added Skype video calls, but it's like slideshow.

Calling with Skype? "General error" after 1 minute and no even a sign of your call on the other side. After call pulseaudio uses 20% of CPU. I found that because both of devices were too hot for no reason.

Portrait browsing? Really?! Check the screenshot. Where is the address bar? Where is the window switching button? Exit fullscreen mode button? Is this portrait browsing or portrait viewing only?

I'm not sure whether I should wait for MeeGo or just give up and buy Android next time.

13 comments:

  1. Pure pleasure here.
    Exactly the opposite. It's smoother than before, I can play all the videos I've recorded from the phone itself + the ones that come with it (how can you even think Nokia's going to release a video the phone can't play??) + some videos I got straight from Internet with any re-conversion.
    I sure am sorry about your experience, but I am sure you're one of the few experiencing it.

    I can agree on the portrait mode for the browser. It was clearly not their intention to release it (I still don't see the point of it) and this was released after the community specifically asked for it.

    Calling with Skype, why complain with Nokia?
    It's Skype that makes it and Skype should be the one to blame for it. Sure Nokia could ask more, but where else do you see Skype so well integrated ?
    Who else pays Skype to have Skype Video and Audio on their phone?
    On the Android the Skype client has been beta for ages and makes only audio and only over WiFi (last time I checked). You don't have this integrated experience anywhere else (a part from the SkypePhone Sx themselves).

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  2. >>how can you even think Nokia's going to release a video the phone can't play??

    Anidel, I have one phone that plays video and another that does not. Re-flashing did not help. Since December. It was a developer program device so I cannot return it back. And I did not notice this within first week so there's been no way for me to watch video on the device at all for the last 6 month.

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  3. @@ "It was a developer program device"

    I thought returning the device for recirculation was the while point of the developer program.

    Am I wrong?

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  4. Andy, DDP, not the Summit or device queue loaners.

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  5. Oh, okay. Disregard my comment, then.

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  6. Skype Video calls works here great! Had a call yesterday for 25 minutes and it worked flawlessly.

    Video works also fine. With Update PR1.1 -> PR1.2 only the additional codecs that I had installed are gone and now i have to reinstall them but have forgotten the package name! So I blame myself for that not the N900 or Pr1.2 :-)

    regards,
    nexus

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  7. I agree with most here that PR1.2 is absolute bliss. The improvements noted on the headlines are but a tiny piece of the work that has gone into this update. I love all the smaller ones I have found so far:

    1. Much, MUCH faster and snappier. I was grinning from ear to ear using it.
    2. Contacts plug-ins. And clickable addresses on my contacts that go to maps. It was annoying me before and they fixed it!
    3. The 'send mail' button re-appears at the bottom of your email message. I was not annoyed, but inconvenienced before having to scroll back up a long composed message to send it - now I don't have to!
    4. Memory leak bugs solved. OK, I have to have a bigger uptime before commenting but normally I have to shoot some processes within 12 hours, haven't had to so far.
    5. Media player updates: I like the new 'now playing' button. I could be fooled into thinking the volume control has been re-mapped as well, it seems I am using more of the middle of the range.

    All great updates and I'm very grateful. I don't understand people complaining about software upgrades (and requesting meego). You bought the device some time ago and then you decided it met your needs? I did anyway. It did what I wanted and expected 6 months ago and was happy with the N900 as is. And now suddenly it got better! How great is that?

    Thank you Nokia, and moreover, thank you community! I hope I will be able to help in some capacity sooner or later.

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  8. Maybe you should look why you got this error ... : Default hw, specifics things ... nope ... you whine ... but the result is while other have no problems with video ... or sometimes use mplayer for reading video ... you whine ... and ?

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  9. 2Khertan:

    Believe me, over the last ~5 month I've been trying everything. And my last hope PR 1.2 had my bugs as 'Fixed' on Bugzilla. The device's HW is probably buggy. But as it's DDP, I can't return it.

    Yes, I whine, because it's my money, not someone else's.

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  10. Did you also reflash the eMMC? (Just to be on the sure side)

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  11. Has anybody had any problems with battery life after installing PR 1.2?

    I installed it on Wednesday and after going home with a fully charged battery 2 days running it has been out of juice by the next day - which it wasn't before the update.

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  12. Eugene ... this is fairly strange ... i use also a ddp device.

    How did you do the update ? Flash or OTA ?
    Did you flash also the mmc ?

    As you own a ddp device, i assume you are a dev ...

    Did you use Extras Codecs Support (or something like that) ... it s a package which provide some extras codecs ... but some version was bugged (in extras-devel).

    When trying to display a video recorded by the cam ... can you try after to display the log of dmesg.

    Come to #maemo irc channel, maybe someone will be able to help you. Maybe it s just a software problem.

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  13. Dear Eugene,

    You should flash the fiasco image then immediately flash the mmc image without letting it boot. Then activate extras repository ( it should be on by default ). Install the extra decoder support and then test your movies. Don't restore from backup just make a test with the device fresh.
    I had the same problem as you experience and this solution is working for sure.

    Thank you for your patience with this wonderful device.

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