A few weeks ago I applied to the Nokia N810 maemo device program, as I’ ve become more and more interested in mobile devices. I thought my profile would fit their description of candidates fit for the program.
My close friends know a thing or two about my obsession with mobility (and, consequently, VoIP). I often have enough in my backpack to set up shop (or office) most anywhere and colleagues often come to me with unusual requests for adapters, connectors or accessories that I locate quickly among my desktop chaos. Unless you have lots of free time you don’t want my advice on the subject (including what kind of backpack best carries it all).
Last week I got an email announcing I had been accepted in the program, which means I’ll be able to buy a (discounted) device! Living in Montreal will no doubt help as we have a large free wireless network provided by Ile sans Fil.
My application basically proposed to work and contribute in the following areas, from a non-developer, end-user point of view:
- Making the N810 work flawlessly with Ubuntu: syncing, access to data, etc.
- Look for language support problems
- Abuse the device’s VoIP and video capabilities
- Obsessively use and abuse Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora content
- Share the device with colleagues & friends and collect input about all the above
- Report bugs, document and review this device on my blog based on all the above
I was clear in my application I won’ t be doing any dev work, and I have never contributed to the maemo project before, so I am happy I got accepeted and hope I will make the best of it.