fnordianslip | # 11 | 2010-07-02, 14:35 | Report

Yes, I did.

bayernhan | # 12 | 2010-07-02, 14:43 | Report

you are a basic user so it is easy for you to be amused from it,but in reality it is not that simple

Luz | # 13 | 2010-07-02, 15:10 | Report

I bought N900 primarily for web browsing and am more than satisfied. When peeps say it is a poor product, I dont find this, seems people miss things like MMS and certain types of calender sync and e-mail access, if you primarily want a personal organiser and to just ring people, buy a blackberry or similar? MMS is solved by fmms, but u have no exscuse as it was highlighted in all reviews that N900 had no native mms support... Also I dont understand why people worry about assigning ring tones etc, is that really that important? I presume u want to show off to ure m8s how many l33t mp3 samples you have?! Also people say N900 is buggy, but dont really give many specifics. N900 isnt perfect, but which one is? there will never be one!!! You can ring people and send texts, thats what you get tacked onto a small computer and there is the internet where you can read hundreds of reviews which will tell you this, no exscuse for claiming you didnt know after you have bought it and its too late. Also how many phones have a primarily landscape view? not many, again this can be read in all of the N900 reviews. I think it is a good product, the phone bits are basic but functional, job done...

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Last edited by Luz; 2010-07-02 at 15:16.

fnordianslip | # 14 | 2010-07-02, 15:22 | Report

If you mean me, then you couldn't be more wrong. Although the N900 does amuse me on occasions, it is supremely useful in a practical sense. I need a Linux puter in my pocket, and now I don't need to carry a phone too.

However, Nokia do seem to suck. I always hated their phones and would never have bought one, were it not for Maemo5. Hopefully the competition amongst future Meego devices may open up more scope for other vendors to act in a less ******ed fashion and ship products that are equally or more useful and hopefully more usable (I mean more feature complete and less quirky) too..

Edit: I can't believe that the word ****** is censored. That's just ****ing ******ed. It's a perfectly good word and shouldn't offend anybody.

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Last edited by fnordianslip; 2010-07-02 at 15:26. Reason: Censoring

Nathraiben | # 15 | 2010-07-02, 15:27 | Report

Errr - yes? Because I'm travelling a lot, and even my <9" netbook was a pain to use in crammed trains?

I was looking for something to get my netbook online during hotel evenings and something to write eMail while waiting for my train.

In addition to that I got a video player to entertain me during long travels, an office application I could work with everywhere, a gaming console that didn't force me carry a bag with my dozens of cartridges, a barcode scanner to compare prizes while shopping, a connection to access the files on my home server at any time and from anywhere, a music player with all the functionality I'm used to from my desktop (and one where uploading and rearranging files is mere child's play), my very personal coding platform in my pocket, a VCN client to fix up my parent's computer while dining thousands of miles away... and a lot of other things that I never even dared dream of.

If I went back in time 5 years and told myself about it, I would have laughed at myself and send me back to whatever insane asylum I might have broken out of.

A couple of times, sure. And it worked like a charm.

That's pretty amazing for the fact that I didn't buy a phone but an internet tablet, isn't it?

And you shouldn't have, either, because it has ALWAYS been marketed as an internet tablet, and the fact that the more useless phone stuff (like MMS - because it's a good idea to send an expensive, restrictive MMS instead of an eMail ) has been known ever since the first previews.

I can sympathise with everyone who wanted a smartphone/an iPhone surrogate and bought the N900 instead, because from time to time everyone of us is bound to buy something without checking first. It's a natural impulse, especially when it comes to technology.

But stop telling me that what I got is not what I wanted, because in this case I DID do my research and got my dreams fulfilled when it arrived.

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Last edited by Nathraiben; 2010-07-02 at 15:32.

atilla | # 16 | 2010-07-02, 15:31 | Report

[QUOTE=fnordianslip;738678]If you mean me, then you couldn't be more wrong. Although the N900 does amuse me on occasions, it is supremely useful in a practical sense. I need a Linux puter in my pocket, and now I don't need to carry a phone too.

However, Nokia do seem to suck. I always hated their phones and would never have bought one, were it not for Maemo5. Hopefully the competition amongst future Meego devices may open up more scope for other vendors to act in a less ******ed fashion and ship products that are equally or more useful and hopefully more usable (I mean more feature complete and less quirky) too..

Edit: I can't believe that the word ****** is censored. That's just ****ing ******ed. It's a perfectly good word and shouldn't offend anybody.[/
its ok if you dont like nokia phones.i dont like mny things too but what are you doing here at maemo.org????
pls explain me that cause i dont understand why you register at a forum like maemo if you hate any nokia device.and why you bought the n900??if i hate somethink then i dont buy it......
really confused.......

mishmich | # 17 | 2010-07-02, 15:34 | Report

I bought it because I knew it was based on Debian.
I bought it because I of all the mobiles I have used, I only got on with Symbian, and now Symbian is no longer as useable as it was - but I like Nokia phones.
I didn't buy an iPhone because I dislike Apple nearly as much as I dislike Microsoft.
I didn't buy Android because from what I read, although it is based on Linux, it is locked down.
I looked at a Palm, and just didn't like the look of it.
I liked the sound of the n900, as it was more open.
I like it because it works more like a computer - I have worked in IT for software houses, and for a mobile phone distributor - I don't really understand phones as well as computers.

So, this is easier for me to understand than Symbian. I have worked on Solaris, SVR4, OSF, HP-UX, SCO, and I run debian and ubuntu as well as XP & Windows 7 at home. I try and avoid the CLI as much as possible - as I haven't worked in IT for ten years, and while I used to write scripts and stuff, I find it hard trying to remember what I used to do on UNIX.

At first I thought I'd made a mistake, it has a learning curve, and you have to fix things yourself - but now I have MMS, the only thing it seems to lack for me is a functioning navigation tool that I can use in the country I am moving to. That's not really down to Nokia, Maemo, or Ovi - that is down to the people who develop applications for it. It does seem off that given how Nokia sell the 'free mapping & navigation' on their phones, that what my partner gets on her e72 I cannot get on my n900 - although from what I can tell, it is pretty buggy on Symbian anyway (I guess why it is given away - less come-back when a freebie doesn't work than when it is paid for).

But look, why would anybody want this phone if they don't appreciate things like I mentioned? I have never used a mobile to play games on, and I am sure I am not alone, and cannot see the point, as I don't play games. I cannot see what else is missing. There are plenty of phones that can be used for playing games with - why should this one have to do that as well? If people want a phone that is just a phone, I have no problem with that - but why should that stop people who want a phone like this from having one? It is a bit like complaining after buying a Ford pickup, because you don't need to put stuff in the back, and it is not as good as a VW Beetle.

I know exactly where everything is on my n900 - because I put it there. I know exactly what is on my n900 - because I put it there. I find the e72 really hard to figure out, because I have to play hide-&seek looking for stuff to figure out where Nokia have hidden things, mainly because there is so much stuff in there navigating around a predetermined set of icons to access sub-menus is a PITA. I am so glad I didn't get an n97 - I am sure I would been even more frustrated.

I have the Milky Way as my background, I can group my widgets and shortcuts across four desktops in ways I can easily get to them. I am surprised that a phone can be so buggy a year after release, and some parts incomplete. But, looking at what it does, I shouldn't be. Windows 3.1 was pretty horrific at times - and one of the MS.DOSs was a complete disaster. New things are never perfect, and this was a very new thing. I am more surprised that Nokia took such a risk with the n900 - and sure, we paid for that, and we took that risk with them. They didn't market it that way - but who would?

I guess I am more tolerant, because I have seen this in the IT industry time and time again. Whole companies have collapsed because of problems in software - one of the last projects I worked on was implementing BaaN v.5, which was total disaster at the time, and some companies literally went under because their production and accounts systems simply didn't work properly and BaaN couldn't fix it. I am used to frigging about with something in Linux that doesn't quite work right - and usually you get there, find a way around it, and eventually the developers figure out what the problem is and fix it.

I just think that if you believe you were missold the phone, then you go to the people who sold it to you - or the company that marketed it. There is no point whining about it here - this is about the software that runs on it. If you have issues about the software itself, then talk about what that is, see if there are fixes or ways around it. But moaning about how crap the n900 is because you don't want a phone like the n900 is isn't very helpful really.

I still want an n900, and I want to know more about what I can do with it (not what I can't), how to do more with it, and how to ensure that this is a device I will use for another five years - or until something better comes along.

Mish.

Nathraiben | # 18 | 2010-07-02, 15:41 | Report

Same reason I bought an iPhone although I despise Apple? Because at that time it was the only "affordable" phone that featured a real web browsers and a finger-friendly interface at the same time. And I'm not going to let the logo on a device dictate whether I'll get it or not.

Same with the N900. There's nothing like the N900 out there, so why would I not get it, just because it was made by Nokia?

Also, the Maemo community itself has nothing to do with Nokia - this is a place of friendly geeks, not a Nokia outpost.

cpate99 | # 19 | 2010-07-02, 15:58 | Report

I love the phone.. No problems no complaints nothin!! Well except for the faulty charger that broke on me.... oo and F Iphone. Their 4th generation is still beneath the N900 and it has 6 months extra tech time. N900 successor willl be amazing

Laughing Man | # 20 | 2010-07-02, 15:59 | Report

Several things..

First you have to understand the history and where most of the old users come from (as well as the history of Maemo). Maemo is a Debian derived OS used on the Nokia Internet Tablets. While some of us used it as phones (due to its SIPP functionality) it did not have a cellullar radio in it. This meant WIFI or tethering. I just carried around (what's now called a dumbphone) and the n800. Using the campus-wide WiFi to use my n800 as a phone whenever I needed it.

This forum talk.maemo.org was changed over from InternetTabletTalk.

Thus the history of this site and its original focus was taking Internet Tablets (mostly Nokia ones, the 770, n800, and n810) and pushing them to do things Nokia didn't do with them. This meant things like alternative operating systems, chroots, all that fun stuff. When Penguinbait was here we had a pretty nice working KDE3 installation on the n800. There were even attempts to get Ubuntu on the device. Thus some of the older users here (not necessarily all of them) are interested in using the device for that reason. I joined this community for that reason. I was looking at an iPod Touch and the n800, and got the n800 cause it did alot more. And to a certain extent, it still does alot more than the iPod Touch although the hardware is terribly dated now.

And yes I do use the N900 as a phone. But just as a phone, it makes and receives phone calls. Phone calls in which I get once in a while (if the person hasn't realized that the best way to reach me is through IMs). I don't expect anymore smartphone functionality from it than I would receiving a SIPP phone call on my computer. Would I appreciate more smartphone like features? Sure, who wouldn't. Though I wouldn't want to sacrifice any more features (we've already lost quite a few features sadly). The keyboard in the N900 as of the PR1.2 update is one of them. -_-. Luckily some developers in this community are interested in those things. Best of both worlds. =). But many people (including me since I'm now a Masters student) are interested in using the N900 as a NIT with a cellullar radio slapped in for internet access anywhere.

Though do note: I think that once I'm done with school, I don't think I have as much a need for what the N900 provides. . I'll probably buy an Android device or an iPhone (if Apple stops being an *******). Or Meego if some other company besides Nokia makes it.

Nokia Marketing and retailers can call it whatever they want, based on the history of the device (and what it seems like Maemo just slapping a cellular radio in it) it is more similar to its tablet roots than a smartphone. Remember, that marketing and retailers want to sell you the device. Most companies don't care what happens to you after you make that sale. Nokia is likely one of those companies.

And while there wasn't any information on the N900's support from Nokia (I do agree Nokia has been a ****** about supporting the black sheep of the family) you could've probably figured it out how well Nokia supported the previous versions of the internet tablets.

I know plenty of users (including me) are annoyed at Nokia for their previous (and what looks like to be continual) lack of support for Maemo. It's a shame, since Nokia could've done the proper thing and support it after the n800 was a successor. Make a better user interface (but still leaving in the underlying guts for people in this community) for the regular users and they wouldn't be in the position they are today. Which is trying to organize and get Meego running with Intel and partners while Android continues to march and conquer.

Actually I hate seeing company logos on the device. I don't mind Apple since it's a symbol and not the text Apple. But seeing company names like Nokia, Motorola, Verizon (the last two being on the Droid) bugs me. A shame the Otterbox case doesn't cover the Nokia on the N900 (my previous cheap case did). Oddly it doesn't bother me as much for game consoles and handhelds. So it's just the way it's displayed on smartphones and computers I guess. I have a giant sticker slapped over the Sony and VAIO on my laptop lol.

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Last edited by Laughing Man; 2010-07-02 at 16:03.