Am I missing the point????
 

Hello, had the n900 for a few days now, and I must admit I love, got rid of my iphone and jumped ship.

While the whole maemo os is cool, I feel like I'm missing the point of it all, I work at CPW in the UK and after many demos of the n900 by our Nokia rep I decided that I would give it a go, but I am a little disappointed with what you can actually do with it!! The n900 is pegged as a hackers dream device and that the linux os will open a whole world of apps and advantages over other devices....... but Ill be dammed if I can find anything on the n900 that other devices don't already have.

I have activated the extras and testing repo's, but still cant find anything that really sets it apart from other devices, I know im gonna have my face ripped off for that statement but I feel like ive missed something important with the n900, the only thing that does set it apart from other devices is the multitasking which is sublime, but as a whole the OS is still a phone OS.

Can anyone provide any feedback or links to some cool n900 stuff that is unique to the device?

Cheers

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Xterm installed by default. A full desktop browser with real flash support.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

I think that ... If something is very cool and useful to have on a mobile device, it won't remain unique to any device for very long. Generally the unique stuff is the not-so-useful stuff. :)

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

the point is that if you need something that doesn't exist and that isn't popular at all, you have best changes to get it with maemo.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

There are loads of things I think. I must admit though that loads of it is still in testing or devels.

For Example, Quake and all the emu's with wiimote etc.
Then you have SSH, VNC RDP (ok I know other phones have this as well).
The browser as mentioned. The fully intergrated conversations is a massive big up for me.

But as mention if you can think of something and it's possible chances are someone will make it for you. this is key to the open OS of Maemo.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Precsiely Can I refer you to our 'sheep' thread? I am a total newcomer to all this. I don't code. I don't design. I barely know my root from my elbow.

But a month after I had an idea for a game using the acceleromoter, people who shared the idea have drawn it, created it, and got the first edition in extras-devel. It may not be 'new' in the sense that other devices don't have something sort of like it. But find me another phone platform with a community who can or will do that?

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

The point is you gotta wait until the great stuff appears.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Everything is great about the N900, all the time! :)

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Hi Starman,
the n900 is many things at the same time... some users will find some things extremely useful - other users will prefer other features.

What is useful to me

a) voip application (i am not speaking about skype) but the possibility to use real voip. This is interesting for me because I make a lot of long distance calls and travel a lot. Everywhere I have WIFI and even where I have 3G i can use the VOIP (or SIP) calling to call friends almost free: Here is an example how to set up sip using voipcheap

b) a scond strong point as mentioned above is you can see the REAL internet... you do not have to refer to mobile pages where flash (embedded videos like youtube or vimeo) is disabled.

Also if you look at this screen comparison you will see that you see much more with the n900.

c) OPEN: my dad has the 3gs and i wanted to "free" his phone so that he can use a different sim on holiday. We needed to do a jailbreak and i almost bricked the phone (in fact I did brick it but I got help unbricking and jailbreaking it. With the n900 you don't need to jailbreak because it is OPEN to do whatever you like to do. It is your device. You own it

d) I have a popcorn hour in my home.. it has the possibility to offer videos and music to other devices via my network. The N900 can be plugged in to the bedroom TV and I can watch movies that are on my Popcorn Hour in the living room. (via wifi) If travelling I can also put movies on the phone directly and watch them on the great screen in the plane or even connect the phone to the TV in the hotel room...

I have limited this list to my favourite 4 but there are many more of my favourites... Hope it helps a little

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

As stated, it has a browser that support Flash, so in many cases, an "app" is not necessary. I was up really late configuring/testing a pbx trunk for my SIP solution for the 900. I thought it would be great to be able to do while in bed, but hesitated because I didn't want to drag out my old, slow laptop. Then I realized I could do it all on the 900. :)

Coming from the Droid, it was great having a fairly substantial apps market, and I was able to replicate most all the functionality from my Motorola Q (save for Slingmobile support). I had to get some 3rd party apps to replace the Droid's buggy ones (email, contacts mgt., SIP, etc). However with the 900, I didn't have to download any apps. I was pretty much able to hit the ground running (except for the LED Flashlight...a "must have" :p).

For me, it felt like the 900 didn't have much to offer at first, as it lacks a few customization options. But after I dug a little deeper, there is a lot of features/functionality "built-in", but its more discrete. For whatever reason, I still think that being able to adjust WiFi radio power is one of the cooler features.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

You are obviously missing the point, but I think you are right in a way. A long time ago Palm made a Palmtop that included phone functionality. They called it a smartphone. Late last year Nokia made an internet tablet that included phone functionality, but they called it a "mobile computer". Obviously a more correct term would be "smart phone" this time also.

But one main point is that the N900 is neither a iPhone or an Android. Lots of people (me included) just don't like iPhones or Androids, and now we have the perfect alternative. :)

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Thanks, I couldn't put into words, but that's exactly how I feel. And for me, it just keeps getting better, all the time! That has been true for all my Maemo devices, but this one definitely goes to 11. You just can't say that about too many persons, places or things.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Right now, Nokia controls Maemo 5. But, OP, are you aware that there is an alternate version of Maemo 5 called Mer that will be community-controlled? This is amazing to me, and it's possible because so much of Maemo 5 is open-source. Mer is still being developed, but it is able to install apps from the Ubuntu repositories, which opens up your options pretty wide. When your N900 turns into a legacy device, you'll be glad for this policy b/c it will be able to extend the lifetime of your device.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Just be thankful the Nokia rep bothered to show up and demo it for you, I work in a Leeds CPW and we haven't even had the phone in yet. When I get mine tomorrow, it will be the first time i've even held one (Im putting alot of faith into Nokia here, which after the whole N-series fiasco of the last few years, I never thought I'd do!)

I think the main thing about the N900 is the possibilities it creates. You won't 'get it' right now, but in 6-12 months, when Maemo is flourishing with devs who know the device better, you'll see some truly amazing stuff.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

really??, down here in sunny bournemouth we see our nokia rep at least twice a month....

anyways, i think i get what everyone is saying, patience is a virtu when it comes to the n900, i guess im just being a little impatient

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Thats probably just it mate! Everyone here has no doubt had their fair share of all singing, all dancing phones, that 6 months down the line, are obsolete, boring and stagnant.

The N900 will be relevant for years, and the available apps will only increase in numbers, and get more advanced and be of a better quality.

I absolutely know I'm going to go through the same feeling you are after a month or so. 'Is this it?' kind of thing. But these boards will help, getting into the terminal side of things will keep it interesting too. I literally knew nothing about maemo 2 days ago, but the learning is so interesting.

On a side note, which voda package did you go for?

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

this one from http://www.mobiles.co.uk/vodafone-nokia-n900.html, £25 per month, but i added the internet bolt on afterwards... good deal.. :)

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

surf to your favorite torrent site, download xy, watch/listen
highres display with mozilla-based browser and flash
watch/listen from NAS
scummvm
rdesktop/vnc on 800x480
integrated multiprotocol conversations
hack around with gstreamer
sudo gainroot
comic readers
sopwith
openssh

do some work
be part of the next generation

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

'surf to your favorite torrent site, download xy, watch/listen'

Hi mate, can I ask which program you use?

'scummvm'

And while I have you, are you using the 1.04 version on extras-dev, or a .deb install that you've downloaded elsewhere?

Sorry for the random questions!

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

'his one from http://www.mobiles.co.uk/vodafone-nokia-n900.html, £25 per month, but i added the internet bolt on afterwards... good deal.. '

Thats a good one. I got it through us on the 25 18 month deal, 210 for the phone, but a handy discount and a traded iphone later, and nothing to pay!

One of the main things that I've wanted to know was how you find the keypad? I've only held the dummy version, which is obviously just a lump of plastic, how have you found getting used to the 3 row pad?

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

yeah i idid it the loooong way round, i got board of my iphone and traded it in for a htc hero, that turnt out to be a real disappointment so went for the n900 lol

keyboard is excellent, a lot better than the dummy phones on the walls...

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Hi all,

I'm new here and a phone 'Neanderthal'.
Is an N900 overkill for me?
I've a 'regular' phone and have still a Palm TX as PDA.

• I only use the phone for local calls and limit my overseas calls to when at home (with vyke.com!)
• The Palm has my passwords, calendar, notes and shopping list.
• Occasionally I listen to some music on the Palm.

Would I want to browse the web on a phone screen? Maybe when I'm on the can, but it seems really small?! (I still read without glasses...) How long can you read, when browsing through 3.5" ?

• So I read that VoIP would be cool and allows me to call Europe when not at home!
• MSN when not near my PC is cool too.
• A decent camera always handy is nice.
• AWS band is a bonus.
• Infrared remote could be neat.

All in all it seems to me $600+ for an all-in-one gadget is steep. I don't see a need to be always connected...

Would it be something for me, or should I just wait till my TX really dies, before joining the smart phone world?

Have Fun.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

i think OP is right. was looking for a special something as well. have not found it yet.

A really cool app or whatever that does something that is so cool you could play for hours with it.

though maybe that is NOT the point of this device. Maybe that is the point of many devices and new stuff but not this one. Everything is already done. Thats the problem.

This one is a everything in one it seems. Its like a PC. So if youve had a pc. This is nothing new.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

I can't help but feel like your absolutely miles off buddy. Everything is already done??!? Nothing is done!! Maemo has years of development ahead of itself, and as a open OS, you will literally find new things everyday!

May have been a good idea to look into the whole Maemo thing first before you blew that much money.

'This one is a everything in one it seems. Its like a PC. So if youve had a pc. This is nothing new'

Thats like saying if you've had one car, you've had them all. And your complaining about it been like a PC?! Thats the point! You sound like you may as well have bought a 6300. But then, you'd probably complain that its NOT like a PC.

I honestly don't understand how you can view the N900 in this way. Go trade it in for an Iphone, you might find that mystical app your looking for.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Either you stay true to your nickname or not :D
For me, the N900 is the ultimate "supergadget"
OTOH, if a Hello Kitty USB handwarmer is your preferred gadget, then you shouldn't go for a N900 ;)

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

I think it's hilarious that you should mention a "hello kitty usb handwarmer" because it really hits home for me. I'm currently teaching English in China and nearly ALL my students (university level) come to class with these! LOL

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Devil's just trolling, as he does.

Everything has been done before, but every dog has his day. There are countless technologies that come around and fail, only to be reinvented years later to wild success and fanfare. The N900 may be the fusion of several different cases of that, or it may just be a niche device that serves a certain small population of users very well. It's too soon to tell.

Certainly you're not going to find a "killer app" unique to Maemo in the traditional sense, because (as someone already pointed out) anything great in software has probably already been done everywhere possible (and is coming soon if it hasn't). What people are more likely to find with the N900 is the "killer toolbox" that has all the components of a solution they happen to need. That's its real strength--the breadth of components it has available to it--and it comes from Maemo's linux origins, where the paradigm is single-purpose but solid tools and easy ways to chain them together to do fantastic things.

Those who will get the most out of the N900 are those who are able to visualize their own personal killer app, and then make (or get others to make) it a reality. And wouldn't you know it but we've got this awesome community doing just that, every day!

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

^^ well said.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

You are missing a big chunk of the action is actually in the debian. There is a complete linux lightweight desktop including gimp ( photoshop like software ) and openoffice. These are not scaled down versions these are the full packages and with the ablity to install thousands of other linux packages.

Granted it is is bit slow to launch openoffice and gimp but hey, you have a desktop computer in less than 200g with a phone.


Ehab Heikal
http://www.elmotaheda-web.com/

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

This could use a refresh, but the humor and the message haven't changed.

http://www.misterbg.org/AppleProductCycle/

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Thanks. Exactly. The N900 is like an AI. It developes and thinks all the time - no matter what you do, where you are, what you think. As Christopher Lambert said in the first Mortal Kombat movie: "Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant!" :D

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

To paraphrase Jack Nicholson, "It makes me want to be a better programmer."

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Hi, But sorry but that does not show me how to set up my voipcheap on my n900 thru sip????
how have you set up voipcheap on your n900 please?
or can anyone else suggest how i set up voipcheap? or would waiting for FRING be a better option?

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

The Maemo 5 browser is hands down the best on any mobile device (believe me, I have tried them all). So, even if most of what N900 has to offer are also offered by other devices and platform, at least no one can compete with the browser for now.

Also, as has been mentioned, the community here alone makes Maemo a platform with endless potential.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Running old games from Windows via DOSBox?
Running old games via scummvm?

Reading books using FBReader with a screen that is much better than the iPhone?

MaemoMapper, and using it with a variety of types of maps. When I recently went to Wales for the weekend, I had maps and satellite photography downloaded before I left so I didn't have to worry about signal along the coastal paths. As we were out walking the rain rolled in faster than expected, and I steered us onto the runways of a disused military airport so we could avoid the increasingly deep mud and get back to the car more quiickly.

FMTransmitter -- Sending the audio of YouTube videos through the car's stereo system without using a cable. Audio books for free, essentially, with all sorts of content available. No 3G data costs or dropped signal as I had downloaded these over WiFi at home using @Scene, an offline YouTube client.

Orrey -- used it last night to confirm that the bright thing the sky was indeed Mars, but that the other bright lights nearby were stars in specific constellations. This was with the Planet Compass function.

Streamed Spotify to my N900 using yaspot and qtify. A million song library for £10/month that doesn't take up any shelf space? Brilliant!

mwtube -- OK, not unique, but very handy for me. A dedicated and fast app showing me the status of the London Underground system that I commute on.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

You should check out the Garnet Palm Pilot emulator. You can bring any Palm apps that you can't live without straigh across.

• Sign up for a skype account (don't use an underscore in your username), and buy a bit of credit to "skype out". You can then make international calls on the go to anyone you now call.
• Passwords -> pwsafe. Calendar -> built in, or GPE calendar, shopping list -> xournal or maepad.
• Music: Your MP3s will come right across. You can listen to last.fm or Pandora in the web browser.

I do web browsing on the N900, an iPod touch, and various PC web browsers when at home--so it is usable even when you have the option. For longer sessions, I use the big screen and the full size keyboard, as you'd expect.

As far as readability, it depends a bit on the webite. But with the new firmware (51-1) you get a partially complete portrait mode browsing as well, so you have two different viewports to try and get the sizing right. There's also the menu setting of "text:large", but I don't use that myself. For this site, when I read it on the N900, I us the control panel and set it to "minimalist-dark" and read in portrait mode.

Have you yet been always connected? It grows on you.

Honestly, part of the reason I have it is my commuting pattern -- the train and tube journey into London isn't quick, and I like to web surf and send emails on the move. If I still had a 20 minute drive to work I'd not need it for surfing or email :-), but I'd still want it for streaming music and streaming Internet radio. I often listen to French news, and I'd definitely do this on commute that included driving.

I think you'll find the always connected aspect something you wish you'd grabbed earlier if you wait. When I get to a restaurant half an hour earlier than my wife (who left work late) I can login to my computer at home via the ADSL connection, and start a download. Check my email. Use skype to call family back in the US. Pull up a copy of Google maps showing traffic, and tell her that she'd be better getting of an exit early as the next junction appears to be a worse mess than normal.. All this regardless of whether the place has a WiFi access point...

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Try taking a look at this: http://wiki.maemo.org/User:Jebba/VoIP

Also try google searches with these settings:

• site:talk.maemo.org SIP
• site:wiki.maemo.org SIP

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

Followup needed on this one. When you hook up a power cable, FM transmission is turned down/off due to legal restrictions on FM transmission. Check out FM Boost as a technical workaround, but be aware that you might be annoying other cars near you by using too intense a signal.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

To set up your voipcheap account with your n900...

Address: sip.yourvoipcheapaccountname@voipcheap.com
Password: xxx
User Name: yourvoipcheapaccountname

Done.

Re: Am I missing the point????
 

The TV-OUT is pretty awesome - I dont think you will find that in most cellphones


also try visiting your favorite radio station's website and see if they stream their radio live!

I think you would be pleasantly surprised that Most do!!!

Thanks to the Adobe Flash Plug-in Tons of online radio stations are no streamable with out a need for an app and the quality is better than any FM Radio I've ever hear!!!

Better yet the radio will work anywhere you have 3G - No need for satellite radio - use the FM TRANSMITTER and you have New York City Radio stations when your in Miami and vice versa!!!


Their are more but here are two features that no phone on the market really have.