A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Hi All,

I'm pretty much ready to order my N900, but just have a few small minor questions.

As a long time Nokia N series user (N70,N95 8Gb are my last two phones), is there anything I should be aware of that I might have missed regarding the N900. I know it can't currently do MMS (though I saw a post yesterday about being able to send them via email but can't for the life of me find the post now!!), but I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious.

Does anyone know what post I was on about with regards to the MMS work around, I simply cannot find it (I thought I'd bookmarked it), it had links to a website showing the email suffix's for each mobile operator.

One more question I can't find the answer to, do we know if the N900 will have an iPlayer app like the other N series phones, or will the web browser be capable of using the iplayer website? In either case, will downloads be available?

Many thanks, Dex

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

I think for your first question, it would be more helpful to know what you need from the n900 rather than asking what is missing.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Sorry, perhaps I should have rephrased it a little, basically other than the lack of MMS and digital compass, what else is the N900 missing that the N95 8GB can do?

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

it can't take low quality snapshots/video like the n95


there is no t9 support in the n900


no dual sliding also

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

- fit into a slim pair of jeans
- cant use 3G on At&T in USA
- a single click to answer a call
- use google maps app which is light years ahead of Nokia maps
- joikuspot type application to turn the n900 into a wifi hotspot
- hopefully the battery life usage is not worse than N95 8GB with the same usage
-

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Well N95 8gb doesn't have a compass, so you won't be losing anything there..

The big question for me over my N95, is the amount of software which will be available for the N900.. I haven't yet seen a list of programs, that'll come out for the N900.

I also hope that there'll be a proper gps application for the N900, with voice guidance.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

source?

last i heard ovi maps got local storage for maps so you can use it offline etc, but maybe google maps got that now?

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Maemo Downloads catalogue for Maemo 4 is a quite good indication what will be available quite soon after N900 ships (as existing Maemo developers port their software to Maemo 5).

On a bit longer term I'd expect N900 to have a wider range of software available than the older Internet Tablets as new hardware features (and the phone!) will make it more appealing towards end users, and so also towards developers.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

I meant the convenience of having a physical button just to answer and make a call. Not sure how that resistive screen is going to behave for false calls/pickups while in pocket.

In USA, the Nokia maps are a joke, they are not accurate and I simply cannot search to find anything. I've maybe used it twice in 3 years when I needed to lookup offline

Google maps still needs to be online though

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

What do you mean by "low quality" exactly? Smaller images? Less megapixels?

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

This has already been discussed in another thread, word is the prox sensor will stop false answers etc.

Seriously though man - for someone who does nothing but bag on the n900, you spend a crap load of time here.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Sorry, I'm not a fanboy. I'm just being realistic.

If the prox sensor stops false calls then I assume if it rings in your pocket, you take it out and either:

a) the prox sensor detects its out of pocket and unlocks the screen and presents button. Possible delay incurred for prox sensor to do its thing
b) you take out of pocket and you have to unlock the screen

either way, its not as convenient/reliable as a simple click to answer.

By the way, I spend time here as I'm considering writing apps for the N900. I need to determine whether this platform/device is worth my effort or not.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

That's everything but not realistic. I have 5800 and i can accept the call with the button on the screen or the physical button, and i took it hundred of times out of my pocket without accidental answering or dropping call.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Now, I don't have any exact data on the proximity sensor and the timing for lighting the screen+activating touchscreen but I really doubt it's gonna be a noticeable delay between that and pressing a hardware button

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Well if we assume the n900's behavior for answering a call is like the iPhone (since both I believe operate with proximity sensors) then it shouldn't be problematic.

I also think that given what we know of the n800/n810. Phone calls and alarms generally over-ride the lock. I've had instances where I had the touchscreen and keyboard locked and my alarm went off and I can still press close/snooze. But other then that everything remains locked. Not sure if answering a phone was the same way (I believe it is though given the internet call prompt).

"joikuspot type application to turn the n900 into a wifi hotspot"

Likely doable, wouldn't it be simply be a bridge between the two networking devices? E.g. on my desktop and laptop I can bridge my ethernet connect to my wifi one to my wireless card. Thus giving my 360 internet access.

Unless the wifi in the n900 is only able to receive and not transmit.. (which may be the case) or the access to wireless is somehow encrypted from us.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

My god there are some sarcastic replies amongst these! lol!

I just wanted to know if there was anything significant, but not necessarily obvious, I had missed.

Also, I realise the N95 doesn't have a digital compass, I phrased that badly in my previous post.

So far the only thing I've read that concerns me, is the lack of google maps app, I've seen some videos that seem to have a google maps widget on the desktop, does that not open up the google maps app? Or does it open Google Maps in the web browser?

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Ah, a question has just occured to me, can the N900 be tethered via Bluetooth, allowing access to the 3G (or 3.5G) connection? Like I can do with my Laptop & N95 now?

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Again, I'm not sure what it exactly does (if the prox sensor is the thing that stops false calls), but if it uses the prox and you are in a dark room then ????

I've handled the touch screen for N900, its very nice and sensitive. Cannot compare to 5800 so we don't yet know how it might react in the pocket.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Absolutely the same thing that would happen if you were in a Brightly lit room, since prox sensors dont use visible light detection to determine proximity. Thats assuming the prox sensor on the n900 is of the infrared type.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_a...ty_sensor_work

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

From within UK iPlayer should work with Flash. I don't know what version of Flash they require though. Nokia N900 will ship initially with Adobe Flash 9.4.

More information about compatibility see http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.u.../about_iplayer

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

The proximity sensor simply detects if something is covering the space directly in front of it (e.g. when you hold it to your ear, it's in your pocket, etc). It's instant.

I do not know if and how it is used for answering phone calls though. It definitely stops you from accidentally hanging up a call with your ear while in a conversation.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

I do not think there is a Google Maps app (officially) on the n900. Now gnuite is working on a MaemoMapper for Maemo5 so in that regard you would have Google Maps (along with Microsoft, and Yahoo) but unless he radically changes the way POI are done then you still wouldn't have full Google Map features.

I think the widget you are talking about is the Ovi Maps one.

But you could always use Google Maps in the web browser + maybe activate location aware.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Please see "How to extend Bluetooth profiles in Maemo 5".

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

wow lots of ot bickering. I've never heard anyone complain about difficulties answering calls on nokia phones, touch or otherwise, so I'm pretty sure it will work just fine.

Three things with the N900 annoy me.

1. Mms. Not because I need it, but because I've made so much fun of iphone users when they didn't have it. Awkward!
2. Usb OTA. Not because I need it but because some people could do some really cool stuff with that.
3. (and here is the big one) no JAVA!? Wtf? Not that I need it, but my wifes grandmothers phone has java!

None of these things have any affect on my decision of buying the phone, because frankly, maemo makes other mobile OSs look like pong.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Actually.

http://java.sun.com/javase/embedded/...quirements.jsp

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

I think a lot of people fall into this category lol, the irony.:D

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Sign me up. :D

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Hey Dexter,

I have a n95-8gb and a n810. If you never used a maemo device, you will be blown away by the usability of the n900 when compared to the n95.

Anyway here is what you will miss in the n900 in comparision to the n95 8gb:

1. At&T 3G. May be big issue if you still want to stay on AT&T
2. Google maps. Nokia has Ovi maps but it is not as good as the google maps because even routing is not free on ovi maps. And the ability to search locally for something is really awesome on google maps. I hope google will port a version very soon or maemo mapper will somehow enable local search and routing.
3. N-gage games. There is no DRM so no N-gage.
4. Bluetooth tethering AFAIK is not officially supported by nokia but i assume work is being done to get it start working right from the start by the community
5. MMS
6. Hardware keys for task switching.
7. Nokia pc suite? I am not sure about this one.

But when compared to what you will gain.... i can write pages. But it would be fun to learn the limitless possibilities of Maemo.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Thanks for your reply, sachin007.

Luckily the AT & T thing doesn't bother me since I'm in the UK. Out of interest why can't you use 3G on AT&T?

I will miss Google Maps, hopefully there will be an app for it eventually, or the website version will work nicely in the browser at least.

Never used N-Gage, so that doesn't bother me, but is the lack of DRM system wide, or just games? i.e. no DRM would mean no iPlayer downloads!!

The Bluetooth bothers me a little but not too much, it's not something I use that much so I can live without it, or find/use a work around.

The MMS is my biggest bug bear (sp?), though like I say I'm sure I saw a post on here recently showing how to email an MMS using someones telephone number, but I can't find it now to test it out!

Not sure how much the lack of hard keys will bother me until I use it.

Isn't Nokia PC Suite, now Ovi suite? Haven't used it for ages tbh, but I'm sure I've read about contacts/calendar syncing, so there must be something.

Overall, I'm confident the N900 is better (or going to be better), than my N95.

Oh, also, someone said that the N95 takes rubbish photos, since the N900 and N95 have a similar 5megapixel, the photo quality isn't an area of concern. My N95 take excellent daytime pictures!

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

US AT&T uses a different frequency for their 3G network than EU (and most of Asia?). I guess they had to choose which one of the 3G antennas they wanted in and the AT&T freq just couldn't be justified for whatever reason. :)

No DRM at all at the moment - not sure how iPlayer would/wouldn't work. There was talk about implementing it as Ovi Store payed apps require it (afaik, but don't take my word for it, going off memory here :))

While Bluetooth won't be supported out of the box, the actual BlueZ developer is having a talk about how to enable other BT profiles at the Maemo Summit, so you can almost count on this coming at least from the community sooner or later. (Only saying this as you said it was not a dealbreaker, had it been I would advice you to wait and see ;))

Some operator let's you email an addy and the receiver gets it as an MMS in his/her phone, not sure which does though.

Ovi Suite is currenlty in beta afaik, and it lacks *a lot* of the functionality PC Suite does. It's more like a basic picture/addressbook/message sync (also handles installing maps for Ovi Maps, at least on my N95) while PC Suite comes with the messaging centre etc.

From what I've seen, the N900 might even take better pictures - but as you say, I think my N95 takes good enough picture for when there isn't a DSLR around ;-)

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

it has become clear that the n900 doesnt have voice dialing and that there is no handwriting recognition.

does anyone know whether it has the ability/option of announcing the incomming callers name, as the symbian devices can per default?

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Wow it doesn't have voice dialing? I thought every phone had that as a standard feature now (even my cheap free Sprint phone has that). Granted it works like 50% of the time..

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

i was wondering: if the physical volume buttons zoom in and out, how do i influence videos on the net?? obviously sites like youtube hoave their own volume regulation, but others dont, so how do i increase and decrease the volume here??

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Click on the status area (the one showing battery life etc) and you'll get a volume control.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

That is a good question (I see someone has answered this already below), I'd not thought about how to actually change the volume when web browsing!

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

I didn't even know that there are people, who use voice dialing?

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

It's a lot of use if you are driving at the time! Granted you have to impersonate the Speak & Spell machine from the 80's but it does seem to work ok.

Re: A few questions before ordering my N900
 

Not necessarily. This tool was designed on desktop systems, but I can't see any reason it wouldn't run on an N900:
http://linuxcentre.net/getiplayer/