Cortex | # 21 | 2013-08-12, 10:15 | Report

very soon in China!

tuxsavvy | # 22 | 2013-08-15, 07:25 | Report

I started with N900 but well before N900 my previous smartphone was N95-1.

The N95-1 has been one hell of a horrid experience. Every packages needed to be signed and there was no easy way to bypass the certificate authentication methods. I remember the days of using OPDA certificates and such to get pynetmony working. It was only pynetmony that kept me sane in retaining N95-1. Every other time, if it wasn't issues with getting softwares signed, it was the device randomly rebooting. I read the NAM version of N95 (which was not N95-1) had far more RAM than the horrid N95-1.

I've been using linux on and off for a fair few years now. It just happened one day when a bloke from the US told me about Nokia N900 when he and I were on the lookout for new phones/devices that could potentially be a weapon in the pocket. This was all about aircrack-ng, yes the wireless pentesting suite. He suggested many other devices such as OQO but it just happens to be at the time when I was fully fed up with N95-1 that he found an interesting blog with N900 and being able to sniff wireless traffic. He pointed that out to me. That's when my interest with Nokia N900 grew.

I never knew what maemo were or what N900 predecessors were. At the time my interest grew from simply using N900 as a portable wireless pentesting device into something probably Nokia would have ever wished for N900 to be, a full fledged device designed and used the way it was meant to be. My interests with N900 peaked when I got my hands on a demo N900 at the store, the staff wasn't very knowledgeable but I basically started navigating in N900 like as if I had some insight. At that time I was so happy that I couldn't refuse on buying my very own N900. From one instance of where it was a thoroughly well researched and thought about purchase very quickly boiled down into instinctive purchasing. I simply couldn't resist.

On many levels I loathed my N95-1 but at the same time for a linux handheld (!) to have phone functionality was something I could have never imagined. The conclusion became clear that I am going to stick with N900.

Since then I have had many ups and downs with N900, it was years ago when I first gazed at N900 in my own hands at the shop wishing the device was mine till now having three (!!) of the same thing (actually its four but the fourth one is broken). My interest with N900 and maemo overall has not diminished tremendously since. As I got involved within the *.maemo.org as well as on IRC it became clear that n9 was the last device.

Since switching back and forth between N900 and n9, I did have some gripes with n9 but I cannot stop loathing how I wished n9 to have a hardware keyboard and less of being so paranoid (with aegis). Eventually my n9 broke one day by accident and now I'm stuck with N900 until one day I may be able to fix that n9 again (or somehow acquire proper N950).

Day in, day out I've constantly pondered how such a project (maemo) did make an impact (albeit small) on the handheld/smartphone realm. How linux was close to dominating every (other) thing. How had Nokia decided to keep OSSO/Maemo alive, the dreams of a proper handheld device with phone functionality could be married as one instead of the way N900 is. Then again the reality as we can see is far different.

Lumiaman | # 23 | 2013-08-15, 23:02 | Report

In 2009, I owned several Nokia pearls, E51, E71, and loved the phones. iphone and Android love was raging all around, but I wanted to stay loyal to NOKIA and like the feel of their phones. I did have a lot of issues with E71 and my corporate email, but learned how to live with it. I was hoping that Nokia will respond to iphone and android challenge and come with a game changer. Nokia N8 came out, and it was truly bad. Everything about it was just substandard compared to iphone. I guess the touchscreen Symbian just couldnt do it. I still wanted to stick with NOKIA and saw N900 discussed on gsmarena and saw youtube videos about it, and I really liked the look of it. I liked that it was a mobile computer, with nice keyboard and that you could customize it. I could care less that it was open or closed. I got it and really liked it, but to my dismay it could not handle corporate email, it could only handle one exchange account at a time, and because I could not forward my corporate email, I could not get my calendar to sync with it. That was unfortunately a deal breaker. I did love the lay out, the keyboard, the social integration, and how pretty everything looked. So it became a dumb phone for me. I used it to make calls, IM, skype and browse where strong wifi available, otherwise painfully slow on T mobile 3G. I still have two and use them from time to time as my second phone......

pichlo | # 24 | 2013-08-16, 10:49 | Report

And did you?

Lumiaman | # 25 | 2013-08-16, 16:30 | Report

I did care less than less, which equals lesser.

king Ralphred | # 26 | 2013-08-19, 17:58 | Report

I got my n900 by accident. I ordered my third iphone from vodafone but it didn't arrive. they said they'd run out of stock. I asked what else they had. I'd had 2 communicators before and loved them so went for the n900. I hated it, poor battery life, ovi store was a joke after appstore, couldn't believe I hadn't waited. A couple of weeks later, vodafone rang me to ask how I was enjoying my iphone. I gave them an earfull about my n900 so they said sorry and that they'd send me an iphone. Before my iphone arrived I discovered this forum and what the n900 actually was. The iphone went on ebay as have the last 2 upgrades. I now have 2 n900's and a raspberry pi and am trying to learn python. I've also changed from windows to ubuntu. I still enjoy discovering new things 3 years on.

AndyYan | # 27 | 2013-08-20, 01:50 | Report

N900 came out in 2009, but back then I was stuck with a Symbian phone (the lame Nokia 5320, the 3G-less version), and still thought I was "good" at messing with phones... Until I read on the net that N900 as well as HD2 can run multiple OS and has great raw processing power.
Then in 2011, time to change my phone, I made a wishlist of all sub-$500 smartphones available, including competitors like HD2 and Milestone 2, but N900 finally persuaded me because 1) it has QWERTY and 2) it is Nokia.
It has been in active use for 2 years, during which it led me to a far more complicated and interesting realm, thanks to its Linux interior, and even served as my Android entry device that helped me grow attached to and know more about Android (NITDroid still rock!) But this spring, when it's once more used for calls & SMS, I found its battery life extremely disappointing (compared to my other Android devices) and opted for something else in June - a Nexus 4.
But guess what - on the same day I purchased the Nexus 4, I got another phone I longed for: an N9! Yep I've been drooling over N9's design and its better hardware for too long, I've even test drived NITDroid Alpha 5 (JellyBean) on my classmate's unit, and now I have my own unit to play with! It's now my second-in-command device, though battery life is still not ideal, it's now capable of serving me some more months until I put both N900 and N9 into my collection box...
And yes, there'll never ever be a QWERTY device as good as an N950. I long for one, as a dream, forever.

kikujiro0208 | # 28 | 2013-08-23, 04:43 | Report

1,5 years ago, my N8 got stolen and I needed a replacement urgently. I use Nokia maps alot and since they are free on a Nokia, I decided that my replacement phone should be a Nokia again... Only problem was that the N8 was only available secondhand or refurbished, so the N9 sounded like a worthy upgrade and the price has dropped dramatically since its launch... Today I own 2 N9's (16G and 64G) and my phones still amaze me and my friends... for instance, I live in China and still have access with Facebook or Twitter (without the need of a VPN)... the notification center is soo smart and I have not seen this feature with any other phone... Even the hardware is not outdated yet (1GHZ speed, 1G ram, ...)... I like the Lumia 1020 based on the reviews, but no access to Facebook/Twitter anymore, so probably I will stick with my current phones...

mikecomputing | # 29 | 2013-08-25, 21:11 | Report

I bought N900 because my Android (HTC Hero) was piece of ****. Then if was natural upgrade to N9. Then there come biggest idiot ever who decided to kill upcoming Meego phones at Nokia. If not it would be logical step for me to go for an N10.

And the rest is history.

bjv | # 30 | 2013-08-25, 22:43 | Report

I wanted a mobile PC to carry with me at university without having to lug a Laptop, and one I could use standing/riding on public transportation.

After a few months of researching the best Sharp Zaurus to load debian on... Nokia announded the N770 and made my task much easier, and more rewarding for me
I pre-ordered one at full launch price (350usd, still much more affordable than a PC) and had web, an x-term, gcc, mplayer, pdf, and ebook reader on my person, all-day-every-day - and this was winter of 2005.

At the time I was using a Nokia 6010 bar phone, switched to a Motorola flip-phone with bluetooth, camera, and to tether with the Internet Tablet(smaller/lighter to carry,
when the motorola broke in half, picked up a Nokia 2760.

I saw a handful of people with Compaq or HP windows-phones, later the HTC-variant Windows OS, but was already computing circles around them and began to see 2-3 other people around campus with N800 or N810-WiMax editions.

Upgraded to N810 after sitting on a table-edge with N770 in my back pocket one time too many, and cracked the screen quite badly. Upgraded to N900 nearly a year after it launched only because I began working more than half-time a location with a no-wifi security policy and intollerable EDGE reception.

And that's when I entered the world of only carrying one device, faster mobile computing, and irritating 9-hour battery life thanks to 3G data (bt was bad, but not 3G bad).