Nokia N900 appreciation thread...

[woodyear99]

[Arcmanov]

OK...I can now proclaim that this phone has supplanted the E71 as 'that new hotness'. 

You really cannot appreciate just how kickass this phone is until you have it in your hands, swishing and tapping through the menus and screens.  At one time I had as many as EIGHT different tasks running, and it didn't slow down the OS one bit, although power consumption increased significantly.

I mean, what can you say about a phone that can access your shared drives/folders over wifi,
and stream your porn with nary a hiccup.   This is epic jizzing all over WIN.

Not to mention the plethora of apps you get access to once you install the appropriate app catalogs....the win just keeps on coming.

Special note must be made of the built-in browser.  This thing plays YouTube videos over
wifi like a champ.


I am still discovering new things about this phone.  Can you even call it a 'phone'?
This is more like an internet mini computer/tablet, with a phone tacked on.

Sadly, I did not get the TV-out cable.  I'll have to search for one on ebay,
but i am not missing it yet.  So much more N900 to explore.


Lets see how the battery life fares after a day of full usage.

[TriniXaeno]

its billed a mobile computer

looks like the moniker is well earned

pity, thanks to company policy I'm stuck with blackberry and their lackluster browser/net performance.

steups

[phoenix31tt]

thats harsh... company policy prevents you from getting another type of device?

[Spazosaurus]

its billed a mobile computer

looks like the moniker is well earned

pity, thanks to company policy I'm stuck with blackberry and their lackluster browser/net performance.

steups

Dude, the 9800/Torch is the healing. Full desktop browsing thanks to the webkit browser and flash support for youtube etc. Touchscreen and good old keyboard.

Considering that I have officially caught a 'crack' habit, I cant see myself w/o one of some kind, and this one looks to be the ultimate.

Still, for raw hackability and 3rd party goodness, the n900 is king. For the crackheads like me, that 9800 cant come soon enough.

[TriniXaeno]

wow, that looking like the money right there.

+1 to you

[Arcmanov]

So...I've finally been able to 'tame' this beast.  Found a plethora of apps at maemo.org...everything from scientific calculators to battery meters to pedometers yes.  Not to mention a treasure trove of utilities to have your N900 running fully optimised for whatever you prefer.

The beauty of it all is that you can install these apps right from the browser.  What's not to like?

One of the biggest complaints I have encountered online is about battery life, but the maemo.org forums are a wonderful resource of info for tips on extending battery life.  Personally, I have discovered that changing the email check interval to 1 hr, and switching off wifi seems to have had the greatest impact.  I can go almost 24 full hours with 'moderate' use.

I want to try running that SNES emulator with a PS3 controller...yes, you read that right.  There are two apps that allow the N900 to interface with a PS3 controller via bluetooth.  I'll see how that goes.

This is without a doubt the finest phone I have ever personally come across thus far.

[woodyear99]

Mugen makes good third party batteries, there is an N900 extended battery that will increase battery life however it is expensive and makes the phone quite bulky......


http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com/nokia/nokia-n900.html

[Notnice]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/03/firefox-1-1-hits-maemo-in-final-form-featuring-add-ons-save-to/

[woodyear99]

Forgot to mention this but a really useful widget is touchsearch, add any search engine to the desktop. Typing this on my N900 and found the URL using Touchsearch hehe. Oh and Transmission downloading a bunch of torrents in the background as I type this. Love it :p

touchsearch.org

[Arcmanov]

My Firefox actually gave me a status display icon to update.  I just connected to the internet, and bam...update downloaded and installed.

As for that Mugen Power battery.  *bookmarks page*

[woodyear99]

Yuh sure yuh can handle that, it will give real fatness to yuh n900 lol.

[Arcmanov]

So yuh boy went ahead and installed the PS3 sixaxis daemon, and software, and then was able to configure a SNES emulator to correctly
detect and use a PS3 controller via bluetooth.  Connected phone to TV using TV-out cable and BAM....instant portable SNES...WITH wireless control.

This was no mean feat either...I had to boot my netbook with a Linux Ubuntu LiveCD, compile the sixaxis code and 'reflash' the PS3 controller
via USB with the N900 bluetooth MAC address...all from the command line.  As a total Linux n00b, that one was a little daunting, but ultimately
easier than I expected.  Big props to the Maemo community for making this one possible.  I think making the OS as open as possible is the BEST
thing Nokia could have done for this phone yes.  Truly great stuff.


Does your iPhone have an app for THAT!!? 


I love you Nokia...

[woodyear99]

Hehe I started using ecoach to monitor my speed/distance when jogging it is pretty accurate and you can even link it up to a bluetooth heart rate monitor.

http://ecoach.garage.maemo.org/

[woodyear99]

Found a FRESH app in the apps-devel repository, Grooveshark Client called Groove. Using it right now basically once you have an active internet connection you can listen to any of the songs in the grooveshark library all for free. It's like having a few gigs of mp3s streamed to ur phone with custom playlists. WIN!!!!

For those that dunno about grooveshark...

http://listen.grooveshark.com/

[woodyear99]

Two pieces of software to note.

Just tried fcam, it's actually a photography app platform but already has given some new features to the camera such as burst mode and the ability to take HDR images.

http://recombu.com/apps/nokia-n900-gets-fcam-open-source-photography-app-platform-for-better-photos_M12070.html

There is also a hack that now lets you run Google's Froyo OS on the phone

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/27/hacked-n900-blazes-through-froyo/

[Arcmanov]

Can't install that.  The phone disallowed it because I have the 'BlessN900' app and the 'Enhanced Linux Kernel for Power Users' running.

What am I missing though?  I'd rather not trade the enhanced kernel's power-saving features for that.

[woodyear99]

You not missing too much, only a few more features than blessn900. The real benefit will be from future camera apps that use the fcam framework.

Is that power saving kernel stable? What kind of improvement u got? I was worried it would make the device unstable.

[haterforever]

fellas i know the thread old but after an eventful weekend my trusty htc screen no longer works because it got soaked. i see amazon have the nokia n900 for $400 usd
http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-N900-Unlocked-Computer-Touchscreen/dp/B002OB49SW/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=wireless&qid=1283281725&sr=8-9

would this be a good buy seeing as the phone came out last year or are better value phone nowadays.

on another note. i heard tstt have some sort of net plan for nokia just like blackberrys, true?

[Arcmanov]

For what it is...the N900 is an awesome device; and totally worth it for $400.  Unfortunately, Nokia is no longer supporting it, as they have officially shifted development to the new MeeGo OS, and the upcoming N8.  All current support is by the open source Maemo community.

I say buy the thing.  As a geek device, you wont regret having it.  You can always invest in an iphone, or HTC android phone for a little future-proofing, or wait for a W7 phone, but why...when you can have your smartphone cake NOW...and eat it too.

Haven't heard of any Nokia-specific service provided by bmobile though, but you can apply for their GPRS service, which costs 150 per month (extra).  You can use that GPRS access to run your browsers, IM, etc.



...and oh yeah, I posted this from my N900 too.