My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Had the phone for nearly a month now and i'm sort of liking it apart from a few niggles.

Anyway my girlfriend has been playing with the phone ever since i got it and her top 3 issues are below and tbh they are pretty fair.

1. iPlayer just doesn't work well it stutters constantly on my wifi connection no matter what we try compared to the iPhone which could play it until its battery ran out.

2. Can't browse and play music at the same time without the music stuttering, at first we thought i got a dud handset but after a quick google search we found it to be a very common problem.

3. Apps are very confusing as to what some do they are named for the tech savvy and don't really help people who aren't.

What does she like about the phone? almost everything she loves the browser, loves the pullout keyboard and the overall design and she absolutely loves the social networking power of this phone and the multitasking.

However the 3 things above she feels are deal breakers and i have to agree and i'm hoping the next update will at least sort the web browsing\ music stuttering issue.

What do you guys think?

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

After reading this i immedaitly picked up my hand set and listened to some high bitrate music and browsed google and a couple of forums - im on the latest firmware and can confirm not a single skip or jump :)

As for iplay - i too am disapointed in this:(

On a sid enote: i half expected the top reason to be 'because it dones come in pink' lol (thats why my misus said about it)

Thanks

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

I think you're your girlfriend's bi7ch, what with making this post on her behalf. (hey, you asked what I thought).

1. never had stutterihng issues. i stream audio and video from a Media server through knots.

2. Browse what? The interweb? Music library? Can't talk on that one, I only use the browser when I'm not home (like now).

3. Yes, because it's so hard to remember app names. I'm sure the iphohne has much clearer app names... oh wait. it doesn't.

The N900 isn't for everyone. It's not a do all perfectly device. When you do find such a device, please let me know.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

I havent seen (heard to be precise) any stutter with built in media player. yaspot used to do that but the latest version fixed the issue over 99%.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

I used a system media player - no problem with music.

Actually - no problem with Internet Radio stations too even WiFi or 3G.

BTW, I browsed while listening my N900 and I don't see any problem.

Can you point us with link to "we found it to be a very common problem" (I mean - in N900)? It is interesting to me.

But I use system media player because it has a different priority in comparison with another half-cooked players.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Get her an iphone and she will be happy

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

ok so what causes the iplayer problem? is it just not optimised for this handset?

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

#1 Agree, never got the iPlayer working well here even the wii version.

#2 I've never experienced the stuttering and just gave my N900 a try.. couldn't get it to stutter at all playing music whilst surfing, and I went to some pretty cluttered flash heavy web pages. Do you have many apps installed from testing or devel?

#3. agree, but it's nothing that would put me off...

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

I think OP posted a fair report, I don't see any justification to respond aggressively to his post or to call anyone names.

Tsk tsk.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Get her iPhone and get some.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Sound stuttering is known problem. Some people seem to experience it more often than others.

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7190

For me reboot helps but doesn't remove problem.

.edit
Did I understand you correctly. Your girlfriend has used YOUR phone and She doesn't like some things in it? Excuse me but why it would matter anything to you? I assume that you have bought it and YOU use it.

Yes this seems to be problem but does iPhone have specific application for that webpage?

Yes as I said it´s known problem.

I do not understand. Please give an example.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Respond aggressively? Obviously, you lack the skills to interpret a "friendly" jab.

Grow a brain.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

I suppose I should call your mom and sister with a few terms of endearments of my own then, as a friendly banter in exchange? ;)

C'mon, grow up.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

well this works for me, mostly ok even on 3g......
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/

i used to get stuttering music, first firmware update sorted it out lovely. listening now using bluetooth stereo headphones. while browsing and messaging etc. not a single stutter.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

I think: ok.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

I get stutter but it's a niceness issue and mostly solved, for me only when opening pages in new window.

Names are not ideal, but there's a repositories with descriptions. Window shopping.

Besides, I like the N900 but it is not a girl phone, it's large. But it has keyboard for messages and games. Ask her if she would like stuttering music now and then or keyboard.

Also, music stutters when doing stuff at the same time. IPhne doesn't have that problem. How could it stutter if there is nothing else to drain resources?

As for online radio and stuff, you have an old firmware or a network latency issue. It flies here, even over 3g

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Knock yourself out. Keyboard warrior types like you don't bother me.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Ask iplayer developers directly through garage.maemo.org
They may not read this thread.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

a lot of the app names are stupid. its a self righteous linux thing. "i created it therefore i will name it after an obscure geeky reference to a film or tv show". fair enough though if they did put the effort in to make it.

photoshop = know what that does
gimp = dont want to know!

finding a reverse example will not defeat my unfallible logic.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

I haven't posted in this issue lists at all - as there are innumerable posts like that ... but I think some criticisms are entirely valid without raising a strorm of ideological and fanboyish retorts.

The OP points are entirely valid ...

The music stuttering I get too (am on latest firmware) only when I open two or more browser windows - and happens during the opening of the new window - this is at least expected as multiple windows will strain the CPU resources and will content with the existing processes already running (in this case the music player).

About the application names - I have complained about this since the Zaurus days - I think this is a Unix/Linux legacy where developers give names which only developers and geeks in the know understand - and often times the lack of a descriptive test to the app.

There are cases where an app is called
Foo
and the descriptive line says
Foo

Now there you go pondering the "Foo" application whose functional descrition is "Foo".

Thankfully the Maemo Reporsitory and its strict maintenance has at least eliminated or reduced the lack of a clear descriptive line now ... but such is thw world of Linux / Open source apps.

And to sign off on my flow of thught - I have been using Linux driven PDA / Phones since the early Zaurus days - so I know what I am talking aboiut.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Isn't GIMP an acronym? I haven't looked it up but it might be GNU Image Manipulation Program.

As for photoshop if you asked a person who didn't already know what it was or heard about it they may think it's a photo shop.

Anyway this thread will be an interesting demonstration of who can take non-negative criticism of the N900.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

Seems obvious to me. Awk might be odd, but Gimp is clear.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Commercial marketplace for some photos?

(EDIT: it is what we name 'prejudice')

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Ridiculous complains...i don't see any music stutter...maybe video stutter.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

You won't see "Foo/Foo" in the Maemo official repositories - if you do, disable alpha and beta software. They don't make it final being called foo.

I think that this is about known programs. Photoshop makes no sense. Come on, people. Neither does AutoCAD, Word, Excel (at what?), Access, Binder, Outlook (how does that spell mail?), Outlook Express (is that like quickly looking out?), Nero (The emperor of disks!), Firefox (Ok, that's linuky), Handbrake.

I have a million. It's just that by now everyone knows what Office is and what it has. You hear Excel, you think spreadsheet. Naming has nothing to do with it, it's all about having a base already.

OTOH, Linux developer have this weird fetishes with animals, acronyms (especially looping) and puns. I can't believe 30 years later they still pun on Linux/Unix/Gnu/Whatever.

Anyway, once you get the hang of it, it'll be cool with the names.

Also, stutter? As in, you boot the phone, no anything installed/working, no at-boot indexing, CPU is <5%, you fire up the embedded media player, pick a station, it plays and the for no reason just *pkkhck*? I don't get that. Not even after an hour. Try a local station, maybe you have routing/latency/bandwidth/quality issues.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

No they are all perfectly valid complaints. As already mentioned, the sound DOES stutter, it seems to be pot luck if it happens to you or not. It likely depends on what other daemons, widgets and how much music/video you have installed, as they all cause additional CPU usage that cannot be predicted. I myself get sound stuttering but its not so bad as to be a deal breaker to me as my Xperia X1 running Windows Mobile was far far worse.

The problem is people will naturally compare music playback and surfing at the same in the iPhone to the N900.

The iPhone of course is doing a lot less, its a cut-down OS (far fewer daemons, no other applications running other than music when web browser is open but N900 could have anything stealing CPU cycles in the background) plus many web pages detect iPhone and switch to iPhone formatted versions which are easier on the CPU. It also has more limited support for music formats and enforced iTunes, so it doesn't have to periodically probe your music library for changes like the N900 does which again triggers stuttering and slowdown if it happens to do so while you are using the N900 at the time.

Basically, the N900 has a lot more hard work to do than the iPhone due to the multitasking and other freedom. Its the very reason the iPhone forces you to use iTunes and disables multitasking. If/when the iPhone enables multitasking then Apple are going to have a real hard job on their hands to prevent the same problems the N900 suffers.

At the end of the day, the iPhones forces you to behave yourself and not run things at the same time that would interfere with each other, the N900 however expects you to take some responsibility with what you do at the same time. That's why I bought the N900, I don't want someone to tell me how to use my device.

Same goes for the App Manager. I too agree package names and in fact the App manager itself is not as friendly as it could be. Just today I searched for Petrovich and it gave no results, I had to search name AND description, even though that IS the name. Plus if you search for example for Bluetooth as name and description, it brings up a list of applications but its not at all clear what most of them even have to do with bluetooth.

This however is a problem desktop Linux often also suffers, because the packages are pretty much open to all you are relying on the community to give you enough details in their description which often they do not, you are expected to "just know" what it does.
I am speaking as a long-term Linux user btw and its exactly why I am subscribed to Linux Format, as they often point out software I did not know existed because its not all that easy to know what is really out there.

As for iPlayer, you can blame that on the N900 having a desktop web browser but not desktop CPU power and the BBC not adapting to detect the N900. It tries to load the full desktop version on the N900 which understandably is overkill. This hopefully will no longer be a problem once Flash 10.1 is released as you could also blame this on Adobe being too slow to implement GPU accelerated video playback in Flash. Its a current flaw with the N900 that Nokia could not have fixed, as its up to either Adobe to get Flash updated or the BBC to adapt their site. I doubt Nokia are allowed to write an iPlayer application without the BBCs blessing either, plus why would they spend the money for "only" the UK when they have a bigger picture to think of, and Flash 10.1 should fix the problem anyway.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Nice post, but it's not that complex, really (regarding stuttering), they just need to up the priority (Linux users: lower niceness) of the media player and sound subsystem. If a war breaks out between a web page and the media player, I want media player to win, because I can't notice 0.1 seconds delay in a web page, but I can win media player.

Also, given how buffers work, I don't think it's a player fault - a player freeze would give less quirks with longer recovery time. I think it's the sound subsystem (or whatever you have replacing an audio driver/mixer).

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

It's nice to see the majority of people on here can give an adult response to the above poster thanks for explaining the bbc iplayer problem.

My gf likes the phone just a fww things put her off she loves the phone for the browser and social networking :)

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

this is a bit weird:

1.) havent tried iPlayer so i cant help.

2.) i always multi-task, nothing is hanging, lagging or stuttering in my part. The phone might get slow BUT it is expected (coz i ran more than 5 apps with music and streaming)

3.) I am also confused with the apps....and that's the reason why this community and all the people are here IMHO. to help us and get information about everything related to maemo and other stuff (and those apps that we get confused with)

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

wife has iphone 3gs, i have n900

she admits n900 video/photo/chat accounts/sip/keyboard is better

I admit iphone is better at music/slick and smooth ui

we argue about which browser is better. Hers is usually a little faster to render, but of course mine has more features.

All in all, iphone suits her, n900 suits me, there is no better or worse absolutism, everybody gets along fine :)

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Guys I don't wanna be a pain the ***...but the music sometimes stutters when I open up or close a window.
I just tested it
I started a FLAC (CD rip) in the default player and opened up the browser. I browsed to a site and when the connection manager is gonna pop up the music stutters.
When the site was loaded and shown the music started to stutter and when I closed the window the music stuttered again.
I have no other extra apps running so there is a problem....

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

I'm flicking between this site and another forum and it stutters :(

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

Well I had closed all my browser windows and it still kept stuttering...Maybe the 3G connection is making the player stutter?

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

I think that you forgot the biggest thing and that is resolution. Actually only reason why i use zoom on webpages is that i can zoom out and scroll faster :) I dont need zoom at all but I understand that text might be too small to some people on default zoom level. Lets hope that new fw makes default browser even faster. At least js speed is terrible right now.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

I love this phone (n900) but the only thing I hate about it is the stuttering music while browsing. It sometimes makes me so mad that I am thinking about switching to some android phone :(

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

restart your phone an leave it for 2-4 minutes(startup triggers quite often tracker) and test again. I'm having weird problems after 3-6 days uptime as everything just starts to slow down.

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

My N900 has only been up for 1 day. Maybe the stuttering was cause because I didn't use headphones (too lazy to get them), but I will try restarting...

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

please guy's vote for this bug: https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7190

This is far more serious than 23 votes!

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

@devrim,
actually music player/mixer uses less cpu when using headphones :|

Re: My GFs top 3 issues which stops her getting this phone.
 

it is definitely not about using headphones.