n900 gripe thread
 

ok, seriously somebody has to do it. I am really excited for this device and plan to buy it as soon as I can get one anywhere on the planet, BUT,

here are my negatives so far with this thing:

1. Syncml over only BT or USB, WTF? I am coming from an e71 and the syncml is great and thorough and, oh yeah, over any network connection available on the phone. Please don't go backwards. And I will never let activesync into my networks, EVER.

2. Screen size. Yeah, so it is the same as the iphone, would it have hurt to just make it a wee bit bigger than iphone? Not necessarily n810 size, but hell, lose the nokia badge on the bezel and give the engineering team an 8-ball and get the screen maxed to the edges.

3. No portrait mode for apps other than phone. Huh? This makes no sense, so much for any hope of one handed operation.

4. Nice processor, why not take off the governor? 600mhz, come one, this thing can do almost twice that, let it rip, buy Mugen stock.

5. Ovi, Nokia messaging. OK, this is not necessarily a problem with this device per se, but I am on a roll. I hate that nokia is forcing me to consume their SERVICES and not just their DEVICES. Messaging is a nice client except for the fact that every email I receive has to go through effin Finland. Ovi chat is great and hey it is jabber, why not let me use the client on my own jabber server? I am perfectly capable of setting up my own IMAP server with very good IDLE support an long timeouts and my own jabber server.

What are yours?

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

It didn't take long, did it? :-D


Who is FORCING you to do anything?

Unlike certain other manufacturers I could mention, Nokia lets you replace almost all of the built-in apps with third party stuff if you want to (heck on Maemo you can replace the whole OS if you want to!).

Many of the third party options are even available through the built-in software (for example Share Online lets you upload pictures to Ovi Share or Flickr or Vox).


If you don't like Messaging install some other e-mail app. There are plenty of them out there.


Probably because most users wouldn't want to be constantly recharging their phones.


Physically bigger screens = less battery life and more expensive hardware

BTW the N900 is higher resolution than the iPhone.


AFAIK no one has confirmed this.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

This can (and probably will) be fixed easily by a third party program.

Again, this will probably be corrected by people other than Nokia, as it was for N8x0. Applications can also work this out for themselves - see FBReader for example.

Is the processor really guaranteed to work at more thatn 600MHz? It can certainly not come close to double that. Reports I read from Pandora developers are that not all chips are even stable at 900MHz.

apt-get remove?

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Pre-emptive strike!

No D-PAD!

No Hard Cover!

EDIT: Keyboard! No Pipe Key! No Tab Key!

EDIT EDIT: ;) :D

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

I definitely have to agree about losing the little nokia tab on the front. If I had one I know its a damn nokia cause I bought the thing.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Well, messaging is the best client out there as far as functionality, but you can't use it with your own imap server. Is meamo5 going to include modest or the lame symbian default client or just nokia messaging/
well, maybe community will be able to have some switch or addon where we can enable this. If I am couch surfing or something while plugged in, I want all the power that is availableI realize that. First page of the manual should teach the drill down/zoom method so you can read the screen in the browser though.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

What ? You didn't even mention double and full SD slots ? NIT rant test: FAIL :D

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Regarding the zooming....will we be able to use the buttons on top to zoom in and out as we always have? I dont care for the swirling your finger deal.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

1 - lack of hard cover. I love my red leather cover on the n800.

2 - screen protector. If the first thing anyone sensible does is slap on a screen protector, why can't Nokia do it for us?

3 - D-pad. Why can't they put it on the back?

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Wait... am I slow or what???

It didnt even occur to me that there is no dpad.... i didn't think to look for it :( i was so swept away... :(

just think how well the bogged down emulators would work with all that power behind em :(

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Feel like sourcing this one? You're likely to run into major stability issues pushing 900MHz. Assuming, of course, that you don't burn it out outright.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Trust me, if they've implemented double-tap right, and if they fixed word-wrapping/fit-to-width, you won't need to swirl much, if at all.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

IF

I'd still rather have a couple hard buttons to use. Perhaps someone can remap the volume control buttons to work as zoom.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Alright, let's stop the the FUD and get some clarification. How do you know that this only works with Nokia's Intellisync service? The integrated Nokia Messaging clients (see E75) support direct connection via IMAP and POP3 as well as their push service via Intellisync (http://email.nokia.com) as well as MS Active Sync via Mail for Exchange. There's no way that Nokia is going to release this device with no support for IMAP/POP3.

And in fact, that's what we see from the tech specs page here:



On, and we finally see threaded SMS for those that think this is important. ;)

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

I think he hasn't source very many of his "issues" given some of his complaints...

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

I agree with lemmy, Id rather use the hardware buttons.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

No you wouldn't. By default, zoom buttons can't guess the context of what you want zoomed. You'd rather use hardware buttons for page-up and page-down on the n900. And yes, I've remapped my browser's zoom-in and zoom-out to page-up and page-down on my n810. Now if only I had double-tap on my n810 browser...

If you don't know what double-tap is, watch qgil's demo video again. It's quickly shown before the swirling zoom. Once you have the column of interest fit-to-width, you usually only care about paging after that. But for further font-size refinement you'll have zoom menu items and client-side stylesheets.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

this is just the first result i found from google referencing the 3430 running at 1ghz

http://www.design-reuse.com/news/152...-omap3430.html

and that was in 2007

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

on e71 the integrated email client that does direct imap is crap. the one from email.nokia.com is a very nice client but they only let you use that through the service. i am pretty sure this is the same situation with other models

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Oh, you mean when TI first demonstrated the capabilities on a reference design board plugged into a DC power supply and with large amounts of copper for proper heatsinking? This is a far cry from integration into the compact battery powered solution of a mobile phone. Either way we'll see this scale up soon enough and the 600MHz we're going to see is going to perform very well. Sourcing IC's that are capable of running stably at 1GHz are going to be a little expensive for a some time.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

This extra install for NM on the E71 and other FP1 devices was necessary so that Nokia had an install base to test the software and serivces. The whole point is to replace the integrated mail client with the interface from Nokia Messaging. The first device to do this was the E75 and we're going to see it on the E52, E55 and E72. The same improved interface that we've all come to enjoy in NM on our E71's will be uniform for the direct IMAP/POP3 client as well as Mail for Exchange. I trialed an E75 from WOM World and the standardized interface was welcome and needed for Nokia's phones. I fully expect this in the N900, a standardized email interface that supports IMAP/POP3, Intellisync and Mail for Exchange. You'll enjoy the experience if it's as good as the E75. The only issue with the client on the E75 was that the processor was a bit underpowered for it but I don't expect those issues with a Cortex A8 powered device.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

If you're interested you can read my messaging E75 review over at Howard Forums.


http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1562274

This is exactly how I expect the N900 to work except I hope they have addressed some of my issues with messaging capabilities. If I'm wrong I will be hugely disappointed but Nokia has worked hard to update its messaging client and I hope they haven't wasted that effort on this device.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

sorry, didnt know that about the e75. i would love the email.nokia.com client interface with direct imap. sounds good. thanks for the info

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Sorry if I came off a little harsh. I really think you'll enjoy the updated interface and hope we see more of it at Nokia World.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

My gripe is that I can't buy one right now ;)

Of course, I wish the price would be really low, but that's not really a gripe because I think the estimated price is fair (just a bit too high for me).

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Probably a repeat but backlit keyboard would have been nice.

Atleast i did not see it mentioned.

Display and User Interface

* Size: 3.5" touch display
* Resolution: 800 x 480 pixels (WVGA)
* Desktop with up to 4 personalisable views
* Landscape and portrait (for voice calls) modes
* 3D Graphics acceleration with support for OpenGL ES 2.0
* Brightness control
* Ambient light detector

Keys and Input Methods

* Touch screen with:
o tactile full QWERTY keyboard with word prediction
o virtual on-screen keyboard
o pen input option with stylus
* Dedicated zoom keys
* Dedicated camera
* Dedicated volume keys
* Lock key
* Notification light
* Camera key

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

My two gripes... T-Mobile data frequencies & no announcement about Skype - use the camera (yes/no).

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Yes with skype video I would be buying one for me and one for my wife.;)

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Can anyone confirm/deny the following:

1. Is the stylus and a stylus holder on the n900?
2. I heard that video calling is not supported right away.. is that true?

Thanks

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

1. Although it looks like it's in place still in the lower right edge, there's no mention of it in the What's in the box section on the Technical specifications page of the maemo.nokia.com site. I think you'll want to forward this on to Tim or Andrew to confirm while they're at Nokia World.

2. See the Communications section, under Call Management: http://europe.nokia.com/find-product...specifications Already been mentioned elsewhere, but it states "Videocalling availability will be announced later"

HTH

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Seeing this makes me sooo want to get one....too bad it's a phone (which is MY gripe with it..): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP5R-5NX1BE&NR=1

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Yep, iphone nailed this perfectly. If the N900 can copy that functionality, then that's one less thing to worry about :D

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

I don't see the Pre-emptive strike component mentioned anywhere- what's wrong with having it included? ;)

No D-PAD - we saw this coming for a little while didn't we? This is the phone variant; a d-pad is definitely more suited for the dedicated tablet format. Obviously size was a hefty determining factor. I understand your frustration though.

No Hard cover - Hmmm, as a phone I'd rather have a belt clippable holster of some kind or a quality leather sleeve but many will just get a screen protector/armor and call it good carrying it in a pocket. (maybe not those paying full initial price) I'm guessing plenty of current sleeve-type phone cases will handle this device's measurements decently. From a mass-market/consumer appeal standpoint, I can only see the metal sleeve type of previous models being an option down the road if at all since this has no markings to indicate edges to ride, perhaps again left for a Maemo 5 tablet form factor. Without a real hard bezel to lift a case from the display, you'd have to take a different approach to design.

Keyboard etc. - Have we seen much of the virtual keyboard yet? I recall a pic which mimmicked the 4.x virtual keyboard fairly well. Obviously chances are greater for more character choices there, but do we really know what the Ctrl modifier on the hardwware keyboard will do yet? And what about the shift key- who says you can't hold it and press either of the left/right directional arrows and navigate as tabs that way? That may not be the exact method but there should be more than a few ways to generate the results you're looking for, given a little creativity on the programmer's part. And the Sym button- will that pop up a virtual selection of extended symbols such as the pipe you're looking for? Wouldn't it be sweet if each keypad button was OLED and you could see the image of its function change with each modifier?

Overall I think one has to look at this at face value- it's a high-end consumer phone with killer web-enabling technologies that will inevitably explode beyond what we see here to include so much more compatibility and convenience that will solidify it's position as the do-everything platform and tool to never leave at home, forget in your car, nor walk more than 3 feet from as you'll always be going back for it.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

@daveb70: what do you mean d-pad is more suited to 'web tablet variant' and not the phone variant, whne nokia has been releasing a gajillion of phones in the past WITH d-pads..

Btw, what's with calling up on screen cursor?
I saw it in the youtube video when they're demo-ing the browser.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

daveb7: I was trying to call out some of the common complaints from the last few months to avoid having them brought up later. It didn't work.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Oh, it worked... if you were tryin to piss me off about the dpad ;)

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

Yeah, what was that all about? Maybe there will be a vertical Maemo announcement, 'cause that had desktop written all over it.

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

I nominate this "The most uninformed thread!" :D

"I heard this rumour, I didn't read the specs or watched the videos... ergo I hate the n900" :D

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

I am going to be an early adopter but this thing is fat at 19-20mm at certain areas (not 18).

Re: n900 gripe thread
 

I've been thinking about this since you wrote it, and I don't believe it will be a big deal like it was with the N810.

The N810 came with significantly less onboard storage than my N800 had by that point. Also, it used an expensive, non-standard card.

With 32 GB on board and a micro SD slot (micro SD seems to be a lot less expensive than the goofy mini SD in the 810) I don't think people will start griping about this on the N900...

...until next year. ;)