In another example why I’m happy with my choice of the Nokia N900 over the iPhone as Apple removes Wi-Fi finders from App Store . After all, Apple knows better than it’s customer what it should allow on IT’S product. The customer is stupid and incapable of using OUR product without proper controls.
So Apple joins Amazon in determining what the customer should be allowed to do on THEIR product....
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Or rather fractured, at least as far as the operating system. It appears that the DSP, a function (I think) of the GPU (PowerVR SGX) is not working as the DMESG command executed in the terminal application results in the following output:
[ 83.651947] WMD_DEH_Notify: ********** DEVICE EXCEPTION **********
[ 83.651977] WMD_DEH_Notify: DSP_SYSERROR, errInfo = 0×300
But due to the very forgiving Debian/Maemo kernel simply works around the issue, by making the CPU work harder, and consuming the batteries quicker. When everyone else was experiencing improved battery life with the release of PR 1.1.1, mine got worse.
Now the issue will be how to get it serviced as I bought it from Expansys out of the U.K. (I’m in Ireland, the Republic of) and there is the question of wither I...
Gowalla FourSquare, and Google Latitude are all Geolocational applications intended to provide your whereabouts to your friends while out participating with life events. Restaurants, sports, shopping or any other activity outside of your home. And while interesting, they bring into question this, if you went to these places, would you want to have your followers join you there? I’m fully aware that the participation in these application ‘games’ are part advertising of the location you are at, and sometimes benefits the user. But it does so by utilizing your active participation, bandwidth, and costs in a new kind of distributed broadcast medium.
If you can truly state that you would love to have your friends meet you at these venues, then this is all very well. The...
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I was ask to tell someone about my Nokia N900 and I replied:
I blogged about the N900 here, Nokia N900 , and in the beginning was disappointed with the way Nokia was releasing it. My N900 was obtained from Expansys which turned out to a U.S. N900 with a U.S. Power supply.
However the system, and I have to call it a system as it not just a phone, was bought with the purpose of replacing my then Nokia phone and my Palm T/X. I wanted a computer with a phone. And that is exactly what the N900 is. I have to agree, if you are a power Phone user this is not going to cut it, as an example it does not do MMS, (I’ve never sent an MMS, ever) with the exception that there is a third party developer who had deployed a MMS app that fills this gap. And I guess that is the point, all the gaps,...
I downloaded and tried out Firefox Mobile a few days ago and while it seems to be very useful (and actually fun to use), I discovered yesterday I was having serious battery drain issues. I had thought that I had gotten passed this, it was disturbing that the problem had returned. I was afraid that I was finally going to be required to reflash my phone. Then while Googling the issue, I stumbled upon a discussion about the Mozilla JVM runtime that gets installed as part of Firefox and it turns out that it’s not exactly perfected on the Nokia N900 yet, Functional, but it spins up the CPU in the background, using up the battery. So I un-installed it with the App Manager and I’m back to the regular Nokia browser only, which is just fine....
I’ve been playing with the early release of MaePad and it’s quite a lot of fun. Like a sketch pad / notepad / finger paint thing. The only thing it needs is the ability to print it out in it’s full glory. And that brings back to the point about the Nokia N900, it really is a computer with a phone app installed. And while you can live without a printer for your phone, having a computer without a printer is missing something....
The answer is simple, the processor that Apple has chosen for their new iPad is called the A4 which is really just a ARM Cortex A9 with an integrate GPU. And guess what, there is another OS, a better OS, that is both touch integrated and ported to the Cortex / ARM cpu, Maemo which you can test for yourself on the at maemo.org or handle as the Nokia N900 pocket computer cum Smartphone. This OS can do everything that the iPhone OS can’t do like Multi-task and Flash. Sounds like a perfect iPad, just jail-break the iPad and install......
Since I didn’t bother to comment on what is now a fan frenzy event and the flurry of rumors preceding it, the Apple iPad has now appeared, and I will comment, Meh! Everything that the pad does, I can do with the Nokia N900, for less money, and I can carry mine anywhere. I even have a real, though small keyboard. Mind you I like the new screen, it’s nicely sized, but I have a MacBook with a bigger better screen. Is there really a gap to fill, sure sort of, and this can fill it, maybe, but will it be the next big ‘thing’ NO!...
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The reason is now clear why Nokia is using Symbian into the future it’s OVI Maps Take that Google Maps! Now just port it to the Maemo based N900 and we are good to go!...
I’m waiting for the first mass exploitation virus for the iPhone to arrive. With the iPhone ecosystem reaching critical mass, there can’t be much left in the way of roadblocks to prevent this. There has already been exploits that targeted ‘jail broken’ iPhones, more likely to have been created by Apple, or a fan of Apple DRM. Therefore the likelihood that a more potent virus will emerge is very high. The likely suspect, is one that exploits the ‘closed’ nature of the device, where the victim iPhone will show no indication of an infection.
Not that my chosen device is not subject to the same attacks, the Nokia N900 is also a target, but its just not as big a target as the iPhone. More or less the same argument that has been used to justify the lack of...
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Another day, another experience. Yesterday I managed to strech the Nokia N900 battery to more than a full day. This isn’t a miracle, it only takes turning off all the cute, but ultimatly useless eyecandy widgits. Not that they don’t look nice, they just spin up the CPU a lot.
However, today was much busier, lots of SMS, lots of Skype IM, calls and what not. I tried the GPS and bought a car charger. I then managed to download the new firmware update. I haven’t really see a much of a difference. But I have not tested, or timed everything yet either.
The update did not install cleanly, twice it claimed to not have enough memory. So I removed some of the apps I had been playing with, but did not intend to keep anyway. And it managed to install, but it did not manage to fix...
Vodafone speedtest
Originally uploaded by Branedy
The first time I tried this I was getting better than 1.2Mbs but I forgot how to do a print screen, this is what I got the second time, too bad that it show so much inconsistency. But typical from what I’ve heard from other Vodafone users. It’s interesting that the upload speed is faster that my Eircom DSL line by almost 2X while the Eircom downlink was rated a 2.7Mbs....
Lee_Weir
Originally uploaded by Branedy
With all the bad weather, this is really only the first chance to take a ‘daylight’ photo with my new Nokia N900. It was getting very foggy when I took this, but still I’m quite impressed with the result from a ‘camera phone’....
As you can see in the photo (on top of a MacBook), the Nokia N900 is not that big, smaller vertically and horizontally than a Palm T/X but larger than a Nokia 6300 or a Motorola F3. And much smaller than a Apple Newton....
My N900 desktop
Originally uploaded by Branedy
This is what my Nokia N900 desktop looked like until I cleaned it up to save battery power. And while I couldn’t get the pre-installed Media Player to play any video, including the pre-installed ones, I did get Mplayer to install and it works just fine, if not as fancy as the media player....
Nokia N900
I’ve had my Nokia N900 for almost 48 hours, and while I’ve have a few frustrations, I’m equally satisfied with the product. And so to keep it geeky and simple:
I’ve logged into the device (not really a phone) with SSH from my desktop. And it just looks like a standard Linux system.
I’ve logged in to my Opensolaris from the device shell (X Terminal) with SSH and that works like normal.
I’ve connect to the VLC server on my server, with VLC, from the device, and while the navigation of the screen size differences will be ‘fun’, it works as expected
I’ve Blogged from the device using MaStory.
I’ve sent SMS and received SMS’s, I received Phone calls. (gee)
I’ve been fetching emails, full html support...
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It looks like all the previous vendors (eXpansys, Amazon UK and other suppliers) of the Unlocked Nokia N900 have been consistently denied product to sell by Nokia. Now the word is, that the N900 will be exclusively the product of The Carphone Warehouse (with a Vodafone ontract) and Vodafone UK.
This means only one thing, there will be NO SIM Unlocked Nokia N900’s. They will all be locked to Vodafone SIMs and further OTA updates will be to Vodafone specifications. With the advent of Vodafone 360 they will be more and more tied to this service. You really can reach no other conclusion, so much for Nokia’s commitment to Open Source and Open Source developers....
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Well after all the lame excuses for a release that Nokia has be performing with the N900 it’s should come as no surprise that I was notified that it has been delayed again. This time Amazon is not expecting to receive any product until after the 25 of December.
How lame can Nokia be? If anyone doesn’t believe that the Nokia N900 is a fake product only has to count the numbers of real handsets shipped. It should tally under 1000, a typical prototype batch run. What has been being publicized, have been those chosen few who have been shipped a ‘demo’ unit, or a few select squeaky wheels on the Internet that needed to broadcast the N900 greatness.
Guess what, I’m not one of them.
So just as a suggestion, if anyone actually HAS a real, purchased Nokia N900,...
From the email this morning…
We regret to inform you that the following items have been delayed as we are still awaiting stock from our suppliers :
“Nokia N900 Mobile Computer with Maemo 5 Software”
Estimated arrival date: December 17 2009
One of Amazon’s aims is to provide a convenient and efficient service; in this case, we have fallen short. Please accept our sincere apologies.
I order this on the
2nd of Oct 2009
and this is the third delay. Could Nokia get the release of this phone more wrong? No! they have nothing to release, it’s a fake, vaporware! There are stories out there of Nokia shipping empty boxes to keep up the illusion. I’t no wonder that the boxes themselves look so cheap, they are cheap mockups.
Time to look for another REAL...
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From the photos being posted on the Flickr N900 Pool I have been observing that the Carl Zeiss optics (Tessar) installed in the N900 is exhibiting, particularly in Macro or near macro focus mode, a classic shallow depth of field focus typical of a small f-Stop.
The N900 specs indicate that the Lens has an F-Stop of 2.8 and a Focal lenght of 5.2 mm, which for such a small sensor is good. But a real camera it’s not, from all it’s behavior, it looks like the F-Stop is fixed wide open which make any control over the depth-of-field meaningless. The lens does exhibit classic Carl Zeiss high contrast, which results in a very sharp photo. but there appears to be no real ’shutter’ either. Motion effects behave more like video scanning where all sensor elements are NOT...
One thing about the Nokia N900 (Maemo) system has always bother me. And that was it’s dependance on operations in Landscape mode, usually with the hardware keyboard extended.
Often I have heard other potential buyers put this restriction as a deal breaker. And while the Phone DOES operate in Portrait mode (in fact it switches to the Phone application when in Portrait mode) it could not operate the other applications in Portrait mode. This issue was also due to the lack of a Portrait virtual keyboard. Most of the complaints I heard were that people would use one handed operations while the phone was in Portrait, and that the N900 was flawed if it could not.
Now, watch some YouTube videos some time, if you watch other phones in operation, particularly when using their virtual...
While most of what this guy said is short sighted and generally idiotic it did touch on something I agree with
But the fact is that by the time the M900 hits store shelves, it will be competing with not only Apple’s iPhone, Palm’s Pre and Research in Motion’s second take at the Storm, but the first of what figure to be many Droid phones, all of which have serious brand recognition in the United States. By the time Nokia gets around to reintroducing the N900 — this time with pricing and a carrier — all the oxygen will have been sucked out of the market by the likes of Motorola, HTC and LG, running on Google’s Android.
Nokia, NO MORE DELAYS!!!...
I’m saddened and disappointed to report that Amazon has reported another Nokia N900 shipping delay.
“Nokia N900 Mobile Computer with Maemo 5 Software”
Estimated arrival date: December 03 2009 – December 09 2009
That places the Nokia N900 dangerously close to a Vaporware classification. And moves the Nokia release date to the very end of November, rather than the early or middle of the month as was hoped. This is a bad move, one that put’s it’s release AFTER the Motorola Droid and all the other Android handsets. It makes the Nokia an Also Ran handset Maker, a Me Too! in a marketplace soon to have a large number of failed and marginalized handsets....
It’s not Google and it’s Deadly Power of Data I have always been leery of Power. I don’t buy Microsoft , and I’ve stopped playing into Apple fandom. The last computer I bought was a home-brew DIY Server built from parts I chose, powered by OpenSolaris So now it’s another validation of my still unshipped Nokia N900 and Maemo! Please let Amazon ship it soon...
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I’m hoping that the Nokia N900 doesn’t become Vaporware as it has now delayed, or at lease allowed the perceived ship date to slip twice now, from October 2009, to End of October to now ‘November’. If there is a third slippage, it begins to make the N900 the subject of Vaporware rumors, and that kind of talk is death to a new product....
Well if anything, you can’t say there there are too few choices in the Smartphone arena. Joining in the iPhone , Rim, Palm Pre , Windows Mobile firefight, there are now Maemo and LiMo. The later two (Maemo and LoMo) are entering the market just as there is an Android explosion of new phones. And while the Android phones are very tempting my requirements still point me at the Nokia N900, and I think that unless the Vodafone M1/H1 360 doesn’t get traction early, LiMo well be an early dropout....
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I looks like I’ll have to wait a bit longer for my Nokia N900, the ’supplier’ has slipped the ship date from Oct 26th to Nov 5. I’m already anxious with anticipation, now I’ll have to take extra blood pressure pills to last out extra 10 days. The only consolation is if they manage to remove more bugs, add more software, and maybe throw in portrait mode operations...
As part of the Nokia Push of the N900 they are having meetup
where you can meet the Nokia Team in the Nokia flagship stores in Helsinki, Moscow, London, New York, Dubai & Chicago. Too bad it’s not in Dublin, I’d be there, but I guess I’ll have to wait until my Pre-Ordered N900 arrives.
Take that Android Lovers the fight for mobile dominance begins....
I gone and done it, I’ve committed to a pre-order for a Nokia N900 from Amazon so sometime in the next X Days I’ll be on the Maemo 5 bandwagon. After pondering Android, Vodafone 360, Palm WebOS and Maemo, I had to choose a platform based upon HOW I USE a phone rather than as a Carrier would have me use one. It’s the one phone that most mimics my current use, a Palm T/X with a tethered Nokia 6300. Since Vodafone has killed my tethering of the Nokia, I’m reduced to using the T/X WiFi only, and there is a dearth of free WiFi sites in Ireland. Given that the Blazer browser in the T/X is functionally obsolete pointed me at a ‘Full’ OS device like Maemo. And while I can, and have booted Angstrom on the Palm, it’s inability to connect WiFi and...
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The battle continues, while in London this week I got to play with several HTC Android Hero and Magic Handsets. And I have to say, the Hero really fits nice in my hand, Very pleasing phone. I did not find anyone carrying the Nokia N900 as yet so I didn’t get to see one, and hence I was disappointed in that regard. I still think that the N900 is the better choice for me, but the Hero is very tempting. Now however there is an Acer A1 Android phone soon to be released which has superior specifications to that of the Hero. And there is still the Palm Pre to try and evaluate.
I did Pat Phelan a boost and bought one of his MaxRoam SIM Cards on the plane to London. But found out that my Nokia 6300 is NOT unlocked but glued to the Vodafone network. So I had to wait will I got back to Cork...