Nokia's N1 fondleslab's HIDDEN BRILLIANCE: The 'Z Launcher'

Another me too "veneer on top of Android" vendor.

ZZZZzzzzz

...zzzzz

Will Nokia be properly supporting the N1 tablet?

My question is whether the N1 runs stock Android which is guaranteed to be kept up to date by Google? If not then I am concerned that the N1 will not be updated to Android M (Mars Bar?) next Year.

Z launcher

I've got summat like that on my desktop PC it's called Recent Documents...

Some People

I imagine that some people aren't going to be so happy to have their porn app appearing automatically on the home page, rather than staying wherever it was they hid it.

Marketing 101

Microsoft put their name on a phone Nokia designed

Nokia put their name on a tablet they didn't design

result profit (?)

Interesting

The Z launcher certainly seems interesting. I'm sure after a few weeks of use it will be pretty good.

I won't be making the switch yet, though. If nothing else, I can't change the docked apps at the bottom*. I'll try it out at some point and give it some time.

* They say you have to go to your default home app and change them there. Not only is this cumbersome, but it didn't work for me. Until I can put my own stuff on there, I will not be giving it a proper go.

My view

...is still that Nokia will return to the phone market with Sailfish in a year or so. It is interesting to me that first launch isn't taking place in the US or Europe any more, but the East, where it won't be facing the same "level" of competition from iThings or Samsung tabs ... the battle field is different.

Jolla has got deals with carriers in China and India ... but not the UK ... I think that the structure which has formed in Europe/US over the last few years, is neatly being side-stepped and ignored, rather than being competed with head-on. That's what I find interesting to observe.

Why can't we have this in real life?

Imagine your light-switches and heating thermostat being able to roam your walls at will, ready to be on hand wherever they think you might need them. Possibly also able to respond to simple voice commands like 'where's the bloody light-switch gone?!'

Nokia Strat

I think that this is a spoiling move on Microsoft, and an attempt at keeping the brand.

Evidence?

Nokia are not actually building the new tab (Foxconn) - the brand is what matters

Nokias distro in China/India/Asia generally - its where it has strong channels (and the N is apparently Android 5, but it doesn't have to play in the play store)- BUT it also offers this wrapper in the play store to keep European brand awareness.

The thing is likely to be good - I will be playing with it on a spare tablet - though unless it plays well in the store, its unlikely I would by an NX - Pity - as I always loved the old Nokia brand....

Regards

John F J

Isn't this just the smartphone version of the old 3310 Navi-Key

Makes sense and is totally logical.

Scribbling letters works even on small screens, and minimizing the amount of input you need based on your previous history makes sense. Similar ideas are found frequently in collapsible menus and input fields that automatically suggest common inputs.

So yes it's nice that someone with a bit of experience looks into at least one problem of "smart"-phones.

The real killer feature would of course be if it had an open bootloader and a PC-BIOS so I could install any operating system I want.

Thanks but no thanks...

I suspect I would find Z Launcher incredibly annoying. I most certainly do not want a phone or a tablet to guess what I am trying to do based on what I did in the past (or, extrapolating just a bit into the future, based on what others did in the past, just as Google do with their search "suggestions" that I always switch off) any more than I want Amazon to suggest I should buy stuff that I have already bought from them.

I don't want the phone to suggest that I should fire up The Register because I do it every day. It is highly unlikely that I will unintentionally forget a regular activity. And if I am in a habit of calling my mom daily on the way to work I will set a reminder to do so, thank you very much. And, crucially, delete or modify the reminder when I want (or when we find ourselves in different timezones).

In fact, any uncontrolled initiative on the part of my phone is NOT welcome. It should do what I tell it to do, period.

watch this space....

This is just the beginning......I bet Android is purely an interim OS solution and the platform will be running Sailfish in the not too distant future as has been suggested earlier here.

This is a real disruptive play on their behalf, watch how badly things will now go for the M$ Lumia range with the potential of other true Nokia devices appearing and the real Nokia fans hanging on to their current devices for dear life just waitng for that to happen.

Elop thought he won, well buddy you have just been played beautifully and it couldn't happen to a nicer person.....

I'll just call it the 'zed' launcher, if you don't mind.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1632/why-do-the-british-pronounced-the-letter-z-zed

Well I thought

Zed launcher and it will stay that way.

As to US spelling, quite often the wrong spelling means that you cannot pronounce them properly.

Think how we say colour, that u is essential for the way you say it.

Fingers

The problem with typing (or scribbling) the initial letters, is that it pre-supposes that you know what the app is called. There are apps I only know by their function - not their name. And how many app names start with EZ?

Atom processor. Meh.

Some informed opinion here then.

Yes it does support Android Lollipop.

Yes you can control what appears on screen (and prevent your 'porn app' appearing.

It doesn't just search on the first few letters so you don't always have to know the exact name of what you are looking for.

It learns what you wnat and when you want it pretty quickly. I haven't got time to set my phone up 'just so'. So if it makes sensible suggestions at appropriate times that's actually quite useful.