Diablo is on FIRE!

I wasn't able to try out the Diablo Beta, now that the release is official, and I have upgraded, I'm thrilled. Late last week Nokia released the latest update to the Internet Tablet, Diablo: version 4 of the current Nokia N8X0 firmware releases. This update is touted as the last flashing you'll need for the Internet Tablet: whether its true or not is yet to be seen nevertheless, I updated my N810 to Diablo two days ago and I couldn't be happier. Diablo offers no real aesthetic and few updates otherwise upon first look. When you dig deeper the little improvements become apparent. If ever there were a cases for the little things making a difference, this is it! The subtle changes make all the difference in the world for this release.

One of the first things I noticed was the much improved touch screen sensitivity and accuracy. The touch screen is great but annoying when you have  select something multiple times, most obvious for me when web surfing and trying to select hyper-links. This has been a problem for me on both the N800 and N810. Another improvement is performance, which I've most appreciated in Canola and during video play back.  Canola had always been a little sluggish (on a good day). With Diablo, Canola is a delight and, dare I say, snappy.

I have had some trouble installing an application here and there, but nothing I couldn't work through. I was able to work through these hiccups usually by visiting the Maemo Garage or the developer's site for a more recent release of the given application (I can't explain why these newer releases didn't show up through the repositories in Application Manager). I had the most trouble with OMWeather, not suprising to me as I've always had some difficulties when upgrading the application. OMWeather finally worked after uninstalling the application, rebooting, downloading the more recent version from the developer's site, installing and rebooting again. I prefer to have OMWeather set to display 5 icons in combination mode, current conditions as the first icon, one for the current day and the remainder for the preceeding days. The icon for current weather still didn't work, as it hadn't in the past, and then suddenly started working, having not changed a thing. OMWeather has always been my most trouble some application, so I wasn't surprised when I had trouble with it this time also.

Each day as I use my NIT I see other little improvements that make this device even better than it was before the update. I'm most anxious to give the claim, I mentioned previously, a run for its money. Now there is an update notification for the Status Tray, I'm hopeful I won't have to check for updates as often as had became habit. The bottom line -- this update is worth your time and trouble.

-- Blogged from a Nokia N810 on vacation in Washington State

Comments

[Marcelo Eduardo]

Hi Matthew,

The apps are not showing in diablos repositories because (this was really needed) a new " strategy " for the whole platform, installation, update is being deployed along with diablo... and thus all (we) developers need to comply with diablos new "way" of working.

Canola for example in the first week stopped working because Diablo's software started to appear and some components were still broken or not compatible between themselves.

But this is a matter of time, and every application will be back on app installer quite soon.

for canola, I also share the opinion, I really felt it was faster and this is really nice as we always have been on the edge of performance.

BR

Marcelo Eduardo
www.marceloeduardo.com/blog

[AdmiralAK]

I didn't know you had an internet tablet - cool!
I agree Diablo is great! (on an N800), however I would have liked a copy of Diablo II to run on it ;-)

[Texrat]

Nice write-up Matthew. I think this release of Diablo is where the devices start to turn a critical corner in gaining mainstream traction...