Reply
Thread Tools
aspeckt1 is offline aspeckt1
2014-06-25 , 12:40
Posts: 2 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on Jun 2014
#1
Hi Guys,

I'm hoping for a little bit of advice. Long story short, I had an N900 back in 2009-2010 and I loved it to pieces. It broke after 9 months and Nokia refused to do anything about it and instead offered me an N97 (insulting, right?) in its place. I swore blind Nokia would never get a penny of my money ever again, took the N97, sold it and got my first Android device (a G1) and I've been using Android since.

I'm now pining to have an N900 again since you can pick them up for around £60 as I'm bored of Android, and none of the other platforms take my fancy. I'm not stupidly invested in Google's ecosystem and could give most of it up fairly easily, however I'd like to find out if there is any compatibility/a workaround for some of these things, if anyone could shed some insight it would be really appreciated.
  • 1) I've had a search and I can see Google Chrome works, but how good is the bookmark syncing? I use this alot
  • 2) Would Google Drive work at all?
  • 3) How about Google Music? I use the £9.99 a month all access subscription and I save music to my device so I don't need to steam.
  • 4) Do any other Android apps work (Flipboard, etc)

I'm also considering just keeping my HTC One and just keeping it in flight mode to use it as more of a media device. However if I can find a satisfactory solution to all of my above queries then I would just throw the One in a draw and use it if I really had to.
Last edited by aspeckt1; 2014-06-25 at 12:47. Reason: I'm an idiot
 
sixwheeledbeast is offline sixwheeledbeast
2014-06-25 , 12:58
Posts: 2,290 | Thanked: 4,133 times | Joined on Apr 2010 @ UK
#2
Originally Posted by aspeckt1 View Post
  • 1) I've had a search and I can see Google Chrome works, but how good is the bookmark syncing? I use this alot
  • 2) Would Google Drive work at all?
  • 3) How about Google Music? I use the £9.99 a month all access subscription and I save music to my device so I don't need to steam.
  • 4) Do any other Android apps work (Flipboard, etc)
I would look at appropriate replacements for your Google services.

I have never likes Google services so have alternatives for some your services.

Chrome or bookmark syncing are not something I use.
There is a Dropbox client for Maemo for cloud storage,
Spotify and QSpot works well for music.
There is a proof of concept .apk compatibility layer apkenv. But generally andriod applications would need to be ported.
__________________

Wiki Admin
sixwheeledbeast's wiki
Testing Squad Subscriber
- mcallerx - tenminutecore - FlopSwap - Qnotted - zzztop - Bander - Fight2048 -


Before posting or starting a thread please try this.
 

The Following User Says Thank You to sixwheeledbeast For This Useful Post:
aspeckt1 is offline aspeckt1
2014-06-25 , 13:08
Posts: 2 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on Jun 2014
#3
Thanks for the reply. As long as Drive worked through the browser I wouldn't care that much about a native app.

Do you know if QSpot allows for tracks to be saved to device for offline listening? Spotify Premium is the same price as Google Music so I don't mind switching. I only have 1GB of 3G a month though, which is why saving to the device is such a big thing for me, I download it all on the WIFI at home.

Thanks again for the reply.
Last edited by aspeckt1; 2014-06-25 at 13:13.
 
Copernicus's Avatar
Copernicus is offline Copernicus
2014-06-25 , 13:36
Posts: 1,986 | Thanked: 7,698 times | Joined on Dec 2010 @ Dayton, Ohio
#4
Originally Posted by aspeckt1 View Post
Thanks for the reply. As long as Drive worked through the browser I wouldn't care that much about a native app.
Actually, I don't think Drive will work through the browser. (I've just tried to access my Drive account from the Microb browser, and it never finished loading.)

The truth is, Google services and Android apps are going to work much better on an Android device than on an N900 (if they work at all), so if you're happy with those services, it'd be best to hang on to your One...
 
sixwheeledbeast is offline sixwheeledbeast
2014-06-25 , 14:47
Posts: 2,290 | Thanked: 4,133 times | Joined on Apr 2010 @ UK
#5
Originally Posted by aspeckt1 View Post
Do you know if QSpot allows for tracks to be saved to device for offline listening? Spotify Premium is the same price as Google Music so I don't mind switching. I only have 1GB of 3G a month though, which is why saving to the device is such a big thing for me, I download it all on the WIFI at home.
Yes, I was trialling it out for a bit since last.fm killed there radio service.
I seem to have found few minor bugs in QSpot, I have been told this is due to the version of libc on N900. However, it's still perfectly usable.
http://qspot.garage.maemo.org/
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=55589

Originally Posted by Copernicus View Post
The truth is, Google services and Android apps are going to work much better on an Android device than on an N900 (if they work at all), so if you're happy with those services, it'd be best to hang on to your One...
Exactly.
__________________

Wiki Admin
sixwheeledbeast's wiki
Testing Squad Subscriber
- mcallerx - tenminutecore - FlopSwap - Qnotted - zzztop - Bander - Fight2048 -


Before posting or starting a thread please try this.
 
bla1 is offline bla1
2014-06-25 , 15:51
Posts: 19 | Thanked: 24 times | Joined on May 2014
#6
Originally Posted by aspeckt1 View Post
Hi Guys,
1) I've had a search and I can see Google Chrome works, but how good is the bookmark syncing?
No idea about Chrome, but in Chromium through ED, every option/feature works perfectly. Just keep in mind, that you will be limited to Squeeze-backports version of Chromium for unidentified amount of time (due to more recent version of Chromium not working for armel). Maybe forever.

Originally Posted by aspeckt1 View Post
4) Do any other Android apps work (Flipboard, etc)
Probably no, except if port for Maemo or Debian exist, or someone is willing to port it. Doesn't apply to closed source things, obviously.

OTOH, most things that Android programs do have better programs to do the same in Maemo, FOSS way.

No idea about the rest.

Cheers,
 
ffha's Avatar
ffha is offline ffha
2014-06-25 , 18:18
Posts: 131 | Thanked: 170 times | Joined on May 2010 @ Netherlands
#7
The N900 is a very dated device by today's standard, not only hardware-wise, but software-wise as well.

MicroB (the web browser of the N900) is more than 5 years old and it shows - it's based on Firefox 3 (which was a memory hog, especially compared to today's Chromium).
  • Has a slow/outdated (and thus incompatible with the modern web) javascript interpreter, which takes ages to process scripts and it will bring the weak CPU down to it's knees.
  • It has a tendency to crash your entire device (low RAM means the slow eMMC (N900's 32GB storage) is used as extra RAM, which completely destroys all I/O because the qeues for memory access take too long to process).

A possible solution to this problem would be running regular Debian in a chroot so you can run Chromium, except...
  • Low amount of RAM etc. -> See the text above.
  • Limited to Debian Squeeze (which is now oldstable and it will soon be obsolete) because Wheezy doesn't run on the N900.

The few apps out there are all pretty high quality stuff and they run great, but there are almost 0 service-specific apps (no Google Drive, <INSERT YOUR CARRIER APP>, Parkmobile).

Hardware faults/dated components.
  • Low resolution/brightness screen.
  • USB port can get loose.
  • Keymats wear down over time.
  • Solder balls get cracks.
  • SIM slot can break.


Despite all this, I love it to death.
Honestly, the main reason people get the device these days is either because they lost their old one (meaning they were already long-time fans of the N900) or for the qwerty keyboard.
I cannot recommend it to anyone these days, especially someone who's "spoiled" (don't mean to offend you) by the Android ecosystem & hardware.

If you really want a small gadget to mess around with, just get yourself a Acer C720/second hand Thinkpad.
Or wait for the Pyra if you want something a little more portable
 

The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to ffha For This Useful Post:
ndhikaa's Avatar
ndhikaa is offline ndhikaa
2014-06-26 , 16:51
Posts: 40 | Thanked: 48 times | Joined on Jul 2013 @ Pondokgede, Indonesia
#8
Originally Posted by ffha View Post
The N900 is a very dated device by today's standard, not only hardware-wise, but software-wise as well.

MicroB (the web browser of the N900) is more than 5 years old and it shows - it's based on Firefox 3 (which was a memory hog, especially compared to today's Chromium).
and microB's no longer works on youtube desktop page.. html5 anyone?
i really hope there's a solution comes from neo / freemantle.
 
bla1 is offline bla1
2014-06-27 , 09:11
Posts: 19 | Thanked: 24 times | Joined on May 2014
#9
Youtube & friends are working perfectly via dedicated FOSS program, cuteTube (with possibility to playback retrieved content in OMP/Mediaplayer, which is, was, and always will be better than any playback in browserwindow).
 
Reply

« Previous Thread | Next Thread »

 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 23:43.

Contact Us - Home - Archive - Top