n900
Monday, January 30 2023
[01:27:53]
matt [wronka.org]/Maemo
I've missed this "little" phone. In a lot of ways, there still isn't a better phone than the N900; but in many other ways...well, it's a shame there was never real successor.
Thursday, September 4 2014
[21:49:56]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
Interesingly, where I had service dark areas with the LG/Google Nexus 4, the Nokia N900 has reasonable UMTS reception.
Thursday, February 21 2013
IPv6 on Mobile
[03:40:59] matt [wronka.org]/Psi.generay T-Mobile supports native IPv6; I played around with it a bit on my N900 during their open beta phase. It's now mainstream, and rolled into their standard APN which anybody who's signed-up for an account in the last six years or so would probably be on (apparently some of my phones are still on the old Voicestream APNs which have at least recently still worked). According to them, only certain Android phones still work (half of them are Nexus brands). All recent Nokia phones (S40, Symbian) dating about at least five years should work fine too, the S40 phone I had has an option for it but I seem to recall it didn't work during the beta phase, and Nokia didn't want to support it.
Nokia Belle (S60) on the other hand was as easy as selecting "Advanced Options" from the network definition (when not connected) and changing the type from "IPv4" to "IPv6"; everything works from that point on. Well, except the native SIP client which wouldn't connect anymore (to my IPv4 server) and my J2ME Jabber client which wouldn't connect to (or resolve, I'm not sure which) the server. All synchronization, Opera Mobile, and in-built eMail worked fine; but the SIP client is a deal breaker.
[03:40:59] matt [wronka.org]/Psi.generay T-Mobile supports native IPv6; I played around with it a bit on my N900 during their open beta phase. It's now mainstream, and rolled into their standard APN which anybody who's signed-up for an account in the last six years or so would probably be on (apparently some of my phones are still on the old Voicestream APNs which have at least recently still worked). According to them, only certain Android phones still work (half of them are Nexus brands). All recent Nokia phones (S40, Symbian) dating about at least five years should work fine too, the S40 phone I had has an option for it but I seem to recall it didn't work during the beta phase, and Nokia didn't want to support it.
Nokia Belle (S60) on the other hand was as easy as selecting "Advanced Options" from the network definition (when not connected) and changing the type from "IPv4" to "IPv6"; everything works from that point on. Well, except the native SIP client which wouldn't connect anymore (to my IPv4 server) and my J2ME Jabber client which wouldn't connect to (or resolve, I'm not sure which) the server. All synchronization, Opera Mobile, and in-built eMail worked fine; but the SIP client is a deal breaker.
Friday, February 3 2012
[13:06:39]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
My N900 usually cannot go a business day (we'll say 9 hours) on a charge; but I've had the SIM out and it's been on WiFi only for the last 9 hours and barely touched its reserves.
[13:08:41]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
However, given the surprising difference, I wouldn't be surprised if something else was going wrong ither with the mobile towers or N900 itself.
Thursday, October 27 2011
[13:16:13]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
The Palm Pixi+ is a little bigger than I expected. It is approxiately the same dimensions as the N900, but half as thick, and half as light. The keyboard is not bad, but not easy to type on with two hands (unlike the E61 and its successors). It is usable with either two or one hand typing which is a benifit.
Monday, August 29 2011
[13:47:48]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
It looks like the N900 is now past firesale, with the normal price on the river site being over $400 again, and the only sub-$300 places accepting only PayPal. Lesser-known online marketplaces still advertise $350 though, so there's still that option if you need a back-up.
Wednesday, July 27 2011
One Hour with the WebOS TouchPad
[17:16:54] matt [wronka.org]/Psi.dementia The web browser has different trade-offs with the pre-IOS5 web kit browser. General display is better, but there are instances where the scrolling is broken until you zoom in or out first; support for Arabic is noticeably absent by default.
The device itself collects and displays fingerprints more-so than others I've used (Apple iPad, Nokia N900, Samsung/Google Nexus S).
Oddly, when I set the language to Spanish, it still showed the Google location services terms-of-service in English. Other license agreements were in Spanish.
It required me to create a "WebOS" account with my name and eMail address. It didn't require me to set the timezone, which it presumably got from my location.
My co-worker, and IOS advocate, voiced that there weren't enough apps in the store, and that the UI looked too much like KDE.
I might like it better than an IOS device--the fact that I can switch between the Web browser and other programs without closing each in turn is a large part of this--but I'm not sure that I would buy one on my own. It seems rough still, but still promising. If it hadn't been for the disruption of Palm going out of business and being acquired by HP, I would imagine that a lot of these rough edges would have been polished, and am dissapointed that this hypothetical device isn't what it is my hands.
[17:16:54] matt [wronka.org]/Psi.dementia The web browser has different trade-offs with the pre-IOS5 web kit browser. General display is better, but there are instances where the scrolling is broken until you zoom in or out first; support for Arabic is noticeably absent by default.
The device itself collects and displays fingerprints more-so than others I've used (Apple iPad, Nokia N900, Samsung/Google Nexus S).
Oddly, when I set the language to Spanish, it still showed the Google location services terms-of-service in English. Other license agreements were in Spanish.
It required me to create a "WebOS" account with my name and eMail address. It didn't require me to set the timezone, which it presumably got from my location.
My co-worker, and IOS advocate, voiced that there weren't enough apps in the store, and that the UI looked too much like KDE.
I might like it better than an IOS device--the fact that I can switch between the Web browser and other programs without closing each in turn is a large part of this--but I'm not sure that I would buy one on my own. It seems rough still, but still promising. If it hadn't been for the disruption of Palm going out of business and being acquired by HP, I would imagine that a lot of these rough edges would have been polished, and am dissapointed that this hypothetical device isn't what it is my hands.
Tuesday, March 29 2011
[18:43:38]
matt [wronka.org]/mobile
Overall, the physical design of the Nokia E7-00 is exceptional. The keyboard is fantastic compared to the competition and the screen is quite nice. The sliding screen makes it easier to hold than the Nokia N900 when I am typing.
Monday, March 28 2011
[20:29:41]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
I got a free Nokia E7 to play with; it's a bit thinner than the N900, but longer and noticeably dense. I do like the feel of it, with a slightly more spaced out keyboard.
[20:42:41]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
I plan on trying the Nokia E7 for a while, but I don't see it filling the role of the N900, and it seems too big and unwieldly to replace the Nokia 3710 fold (which recently replaced the Neo 808i). My expectation is that the Nokia E7 would have replaced the Nokia E61 sufficiently, had I not already replaced it with the N900.
Sunday, February 20 2011
[04:55:36]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
The last time I tried playing with IPv6 on the N900, of course, flashing the new kernel broke the device and I needed to reflash.
Monday, November 8 2010
[12:54:34]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
http://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5894 A year using the N900 and I've finally been bitten by this bug. At least they know what it is now--but why is it still around?
Thursday, October 28 2010
[20:53:50]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
Nokia has done a horrible job of supporting Maemo since the release of the N900; it's dead, and I hope MeeGo fares better. Harmattan will be curious.
Friday, September 17 2010
[21:19:53]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
One annoying thing is, like with the N900, the phone can only be used in two positions; you can't flip it 180 or 270 degrees.
Thursday, June 24 2010
[18:28:42]
matt [wronka.org]/dementia
Everyone seems to be dissing Nokia these days; geeks love the Nexus One. The whole reason I got the Nokia E61 was because it supported the IDLE extension for IMAP; and Nokia seems to have lost how important this feature is to those who know about it--even the N900 was released without support. http://prolixium.com/mynews?id=908
Wednesday, June 16 2010
[20:16:37]
matt [wronka.org]/Merch
Hacking a text file gets the N900 to show you the text actually typed in a conversation. It's the future! http://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7127
Friday, May 28 2010
[02:51:50]
matt [wronka.org]/tkabber
What's taking up all that space in root on the Nokia N900? 30.6MB for /usr/bin
[13:41:11]
matt [wronka.org]/tkabber
So the last comment was out of frustration. The OS was hosed from the apt-get failures:
<prox> So this is all a result of the dist-upgrade?
> Sort of.
> It's a result of the root filesystem being too small indirectly.
> The previous update failed; PR1.1 back in February.
> I did some cleaning and manual directory restructuring to clean that up, but the updater didn't like that it had failed. apt-get dist-upgrade installed the components after that, but I don't think it ever
+really realized what version of Maemo it was running after that.
> It didn't even *know* there was an update when PR1.2 came out this week. I think it'd borekd something.
> And so I did an apt-get dist-upgrade and it ran out of disk space again.
> http://quec.es/org.wronka/matt/2010/05/27/
> 154MB in /usr/lib on a 255MB root partition.
<prox> Uhhh..
> I'd been able to remount /usr/share and a few thigns on /var off of the 2GB /home partition.
> but I couldn't do much with /usr/lib because it was in use ... I probalby should have just tried cleaning-up the microb-engine.
> But yeah; directly, the apt-get dist-upgrade failed a lot, and I wasn't able to fix it. Also, damned if I don't know what some of the config collisions really meant.
> but my N900 is flashed and running. yay.
> (That was quick!) Let's see if I can find my data.
> Hah! the zimbra connector or whatever it is ... mail for exchange ... is working !
> My dada is safe
> for now....
<prox> So this is all a result of the dist-upgrade?
> Sort of.
> It's a result of the root filesystem being too small indirectly.
> The previous update failed; PR1.1 back in February.
> I did some cleaning and manual directory restructuring to clean that up, but the updater didn't like that it had failed. apt-get dist-upgrade installed the components after that, but I don't think it ever
+really realized what version of Maemo it was running after that.
> It didn't even *know* there was an update when PR1.2 came out this week. I think it'd borekd something.
> And so I did an apt-get dist-upgrade and it ran out of disk space again.
> http://quec.es/org.wronka/matt/2010/05/27/
> 154MB in /usr/lib on a 255MB root partition.
<prox> Uhhh..
> I'd been able to remount /usr/share and a few thigns on /var off of the 2GB /home partition.
> but I couldn't do much with /usr/lib because it was in use ... I probalby should have just tried cleaning-up the microb-engine.
> But yeah; directly, the apt-get dist-upgrade failed a lot, and I wasn't able to fix it. Also, damned if I don't know what some of the config collisions really meant.
> but my N900 is flashed and running. yay.
> (That was quick!) Let's see if I can find my data.
> Hah! the zimbra connector or whatever it is ... mail for exchange ... is working !
> My dada is safe
> for now....
[14:09:01]
matt [wronka.org]/tkabber
The N900 should come, pre-installed, the phone app, address book, the microb web browser, the application manager, settings applet and that's it. Why do I need to remove the stupidly installed installers for crap like Amazon and Facebook.com--and the AP news widget is a joke; why not just use the outdated RSS client?
Thursday, May 27 2010
[17:47:57]
matt [wronka.org]/tkabber
I love my N900--don't get me wrong--but Nokia really is sucking in terms of managing external relations. And the world isn't exactly golden with the N900 either, as I've needed to mount -o bind several directories off of the 256MB flash image in order to upgrade the thing. http://bohmian.org/disc/The_availability_of_the_Maemo_5_PR1.2_isn't_visible_on_my_Nokia_N900_device
Thursday, May 6 2010
Maemo Developer List : "Why should I write apps for Maemo?" posted by Michael Cronenworth
[14:48:12] matt [wronka.org]/kerberos Mr. Michael Cronenworth recently posted a well-worded question directly to the Maemo development community (and Nokia indirectly) which echos much of the sentiment around Maemo and the N900 right now. Personally, I love the devices promise, I like the software, but I wish Nokia were a bit more open with the community (release early, release often being just the start).
His missive read:
«The continued delay of PR 1.2 has caused me to pose this question.
Without customized packaging, I cannot reliably publish applications to
the global maemo.org repositories at this time. Also having APIs in flux
without knowing when the new version is coming out makes me even less
interested. Sure, you can compile a new kernel or create a trivial
application all day long and ship it today, but I wish to write some
rather advanced applications that cover a broad range of APIs.
At most, the SDK should have been released two weeks ahead of the final
release. With a little over a month now on the clock, people can only
begin to speculate as to how poor Nokia's release management is working.
I, as a software developer, realize that unexpected issues can occur
causing unexpected delays, so this e-mail is not a "Nokia hurry up"
plea, but a concern that developing for Maemo requires a serious
commitment to add checks for multiple versions of APIs and packaging
requirements.
If I relied on the ability to publish commercial applications to the Ovi
Store, I'd be living in the street. It's been six months and the Ovi
Store for Maemo is still without a commercial solution and is extremely
limited in general.
In closing, I have a few questions to propose since communication from
Nokia in general is hit or miss (some are better than others, I realize):
-Why was the PR1.2 SDK released at the time it was released?
-If there will be any updates >PR1.2, have there been discussions on
changing the staged release of the SDK?
-Is PR1.2 still going to be released? (I am not looking for a release date)
-Where are those Ovi Store applications that we have been taunted with
videos of?
-Will there be a commercial solution with the Ovi Store or should I
expect to create my own retail store?
Michael »
The delay in the release of PR1.2 has caused problems (and for a long time completely prohibitted any) applications from being updated on the device since the build environment was using an incompatible API from the end-user devices.
[14:48:12] matt [wronka.org]/kerberos Mr. Michael Cronenworth recently posted a well-worded question directly to the Maemo development community (and Nokia indirectly) which echos much of the sentiment around Maemo and the N900 right now. Personally, I love the devices promise, I like the software, but I wish Nokia were a bit more open with the community (release early, release often being just the start).
His missive read:
«The continued delay of PR 1.2 has caused me to pose this question.
Without customized packaging, I cannot reliably publish applications to
the global maemo.org repositories at this time. Also having APIs in flux
without knowing when the new version is coming out makes me even less
interested. Sure, you can compile a new kernel or create a trivial
application all day long and ship it today, but I wish to write some
rather advanced applications that cover a broad range of APIs.
At most, the SDK should have been released two weeks ahead of the final
release. With a little over a month now on the clock, people can only
begin to speculate as to how poor Nokia's release management is working.
I, as a software developer, realize that unexpected issues can occur
causing unexpected delays, so this e-mail is not a "Nokia hurry up"
plea, but a concern that developing for Maemo requires a serious
commitment to add checks for multiple versions of APIs and packaging
requirements.
If I relied on the ability to publish commercial applications to the Ovi
Store, I'd be living in the street. It's been six months and the Ovi
Store for Maemo is still without a commercial solution and is extremely
limited in general.
In closing, I have a few questions to propose since communication from
Nokia in general is hit or miss (some are better than others, I realize):
-Why was the PR1.2 SDK released at the time it was released?
-If there will be any updates >PR1.2, have there been discussions on
changing the staged release of the SDK?
-Is PR1.2 still going to be released? (I am not looking for a release date)
-Where are those Ovi Store applications that we have been taunted with
videos of?
-Will there be a commercial solution with the Ovi Store or should I
expect to create my own retail store?
Michael »
The delay in the release of PR1.2 has caused problems (and for a long time completely prohibitted any) applications from being updated on the device since the build environment was using an incompatible API from the end-user devices.