A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

A thought just occured to me, Ive just finished a typical day with my n900. A couple of skype video calls, recieved a few SIP calls with multiple providers, downloaded a film from thepiratebay using transmission and watched it on the multi codec built in media player, downloaded a book from irc and read that on fbreader. Can you imagine a Steve Jobs-style-Nokian with a N900 and why oh why dont they tell peeps what their phones can do?

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Because the phone has so many bugs they don't want the average person to buy it.

Evidently they also do not want you to have a replacement one if your usb port falls off which is why a few of us here have been waiting for a replacement for over a month.

And although Apple is the most annoying company in the whole wide world and Steve Jobs is the most annoying person in the history of mankind it cannot be argued that they have done more than any other company to change how we view phones and they are now doing the same with internet tablets. Also many people love them because they just want a device that works rather than one where you need to spend half your day on an internet forum to get your device to function the way it should have from the outset.

Hmmm who started this thread. Seems I am the one doing the rambling rather than you.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Yep.. haters be hatin.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

It really can be argued. Whatever issues you might have with Nokia (and we all have plenty), but to ignore the contribution of Nokia to the mobile market is foolish. Without Nokia we would have a very different landscape. And without Apple we would probably just now really be discovering touch screen handsets, who knows. That's pretty much it.

Furthermore i feel offended as a techie that you consider a larger iphone an 'internet tablet'. :mad:

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Oh god yes, I spent hours getting my phone to be what it should have been out of the box. If it wasn't for the Maemo community I would have returned the phone ages ago, but then again that is Linux by nature.

So much potential .... wasted.

They can't market a Ferrari you have to put together yourself.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Just imagine:

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7...95nokia.th.jpg

:D

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

i dunno, transmission worked out the box so does skype so does sip so does fbreader and the media player. Not as big a learning curve as proclaimed.
BTW marxian im amazed that nokias marketing team havent grabbed you yet!

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

i was doing all of that with my n95 YEARS ago.

apples are for people who, according to steve, dont want to think. they can pick it up and all is fluid and natural and looks good. but if steve didnt say you can do it then you cant do it.
n900's philosophy is more "heres some kick *** hardware, do what you will with it."
i dont want someone telling me i can do umpteen things i was doing years ago. i want umpteen people telling me they've jus found something new and cool they can do, and with a little effort i can do it too.
if theres something i cant do, i know i want to do, and i think theres a way to do it, i dont want to petition developers to make and release an app for it, its so great to say "hey TMO i want to be able to blablabla" and ilovenokia3968 reply with ten lines of code that would let me do exactly that.
with the right people working on the software n900 could have been so much more, but being more of a 'stepping stone' than a 'destination' the marketing etc wasnt there, low market share means low developer potential, and we havent been able to keep hold of the best ones we had here, and no one to take the place of those who've moved on either.
my rant done.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

N900 has become the ultimate "would of, could of, should of"

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

I agree with gerbick, and yet I still adore the little brick.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Lol. Well because of the ipad the whole world now knows what an internet tablet is and now even Next and Dixons are releasing internet tablets to get on the band wagon. So whatever shortcomings the ipad may have it clearly is a trend setter.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

You do know that Apple have hardware problems too? In my work i sometimes come in contact with people using Macs. I have discovered that Mac or specifically MacBook Pros can have a lose USB-contact. Also Mac users needs forums too.. there are a couple of them to help Mac users with problems. Apples products are mostly just overhyped and overpriced products.. If you make an comparason.. you could get the same juice but at half of the price Apple charge.

With Linux i get it cheaper with more power and pretty much no problems. I can configure it how i like.. and are not bound to any programs.

It's funny to talk with people with Apple devices.. they think that you will envy them... but they pretty soon realize they envy you ;)

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

I think we should make a thread called "The Great Nokia vs Apple Debate" and just throw all these craps there.

@AlMehdi: I own Apple and Windows notebooks (currently: the latest MacBook Pro 17" and an ASUS G73JH screamer) and although I get more hardware out of the ASUS (Quad core i7, 8GB ram, 2x 500GB hdd, ATI 5870M) at slightly more than half of Apple's price, I still ponied up the money to get a macbook pro and I think it's worth it. I'm not going to go on a point by point comparison, suffice to say that you can't always quantify the value of a product by just going on its spec sheet and thru hearsay/imagining how it would work.

Yes, I still use linux (ubuntu and debian), solaris and freebsd for different things on my arsenal. The ASUS is mainly for gaming.

ps: I rarely envy people for their technofaith or their possessions.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

HI where did u download books?

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

s/of/have/g

Please use a verb in clauses, instead a homophonic (due to lazy pronunciation by many people) preposition.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

I have had my beautiful N900 for all of 19 hours and I love the thing. But I'm a big fan of Apple in the laptop dept. I had Windows laptop after Windows laptop and since buying my MacBook Pro in 2007, I've never looked back. But friends with the iPhone, well, I've just always looked at it and thought, nah! Where's your real qwerty, and more to the point, why isn't it a Nokia?! I've always had Nokias since 1995 with the grey and massive 101, and now I have moved into 2010 with the amazing N900. And I'm happy with it. But just because Apple have turned mobile users into sheep with the iPhone, doesn't necessarily mean all of their spawn are dumb idiots. By the way, is there REALLY an app for throwing your N900 into the air??! Why on earth...?!

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

The thing is that Mac users and Apple say that "It simply works" even though it isn't like that. Macs got their fair deal of problems too as do Linux. I have not found any reason why Mac would do better than Ubuntu except Photoshop but that is about to change so is gaming. If i like i could make my Ubuntu machine look like OSX.. some part does.. but i have taking it a step longer (so it looks even better).

So why buy something that cost double as much but don't give anything extra?

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Agree with you.. My ubuntu completely transforms into MacOSx with some themes..and not to mention the new gnome 3.0 .. and all! its sweet!

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

of course you can't. but with unnamed product it is kinda cute that official forums cannot be used if you have issues. tmo would be totally pro nokia site if it would enforce similar moderation to apples forums.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

I am too lazy to use correct grammar/spelling most of the time on these forums, but I have to admit this bothers me too.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

I think you meant:

s/\(ld\) of/\1've/g

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Why don't they 'simply work'?
I've found them to 'work' with less 'work' (on my part) and with very high reliability.

And might you elaborate on these 'fair share of problems'?
I've found my users to complain much much less when they've been moved to OSX; while they can do more.

Btw, when I mention UI/UX, it's not about how things look. It's about general user interaction, from setup, usage, maintenance, migration, etc. \To me, it's not about how they look... so a simple wm/theme change will not do.

That would make more sense if TMO's domain ends with nokia.com....

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

The N900 is a great phone/mobile computer. No other device comes close. iPhone is nice and easy - even grandma can use it. Android is cool and teckie - perfect teenager device. But the N900 is alone in this world being a tiny Linux box that actually works and works better than most "homemade" desktop Linux boxes.

To even compare this with grandma and teenager devices is so - wrong.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Sooo... it makes you feel more like a man the more time you spend tinkering with your gadgets?

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

My typical "wow thats impressive" day throws in using the camera for an audit and the GPS to get there and recall to take meting notes.

the moment of utter despairer come in with the 3-4 hour battery life.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Don't know about that, but it definitely makes me feel less grandma :)

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Well i work at a government agency where one of my tasks is to help people with technical support. The ones with most problems are Mac users especially if you take in count how big percentage they are.. One guy wanted to reformat and reinstall cause it was to slow. I asked if the computer was old.. he told me it was about 2 years. He was running OSX 10.4. He had bought it to use it as he was an musician and designer. He didn't want to upgrade due to cost. Last week i had three with MacBook Pros that had problems with their USB's. There is always something. But then i moslty just come in contact with those that have problems. I have never owned a Mac myself but have not understood the deal when i have tried others. It is pretty much the same as to use my Ubuntu machine exept in a much much more expensive package.

But true.. it is subjective. I have gotten both my brother and father to switch to Ubuntu. They have so far not have had any problems. They are just happy everything works. My brother is a hobby musician and had a couple of devices i never thought would work with Ubuntu..... but it was pretty much just to connect it. The only "hard" bit was his printer (an wifi pixma mp560). But i just surfed to the company page and downloaded the driver and installed.. no real fuzz.

And i don't know if it become more simpler than open a program -> chose the program you want to install -> install it. Updates can be done with one push of a button or automatic for that matter (you know what i mean as you have used it).

Sure linux does not support all hardware but pretty much works out of the box. I have never encountered a problem since 9.04. Earlier (like in 2006/2007) i had problems with dual screen and bluetooth keyboard.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

I haven't had much problem getting the N900 to do whatever I wanted to do, ever. But I guess I don't have unrealistic expectations.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Yes, it really does plunge me into despair when I have to spend ten seconds putting a new battery into my N900. I can't imagine a more woe-inspiring moment.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

@ etuoyo
i bought my N900 18th december 2009 and had no problem at all .
as far as i can tell my usb is still in place , i understand ur frostration bout your N900 & the delay of nokia in delivering you a new N900 , but that doesnt make it a rule . u had a faulty one you'll get a new one hopefully .

for the iphone the way i see it , the n900 and the iphone are both great phones , i LOVE the way iphone4 looks , i like the simplicity of UI but i dont want to own one . let me put it this way , if i was going to buy a device today i would buy me an N900 , if i was going to buy my girlfriend a device i whould get her an iphone4 , simple as that .

same more or less with the OS frontier u started ..
it all comes to WHAT you want to do and How you want to do it ..
although i like linux and all the freedom it offers , the list of application available , the device support etc i hate it cause it doesnt support games , or let me put it right GAMES do not have support for linux , so i have to have windows installed in some other partition .. which makes me think why have 2 OS's installed when i can just have windows and do what i want to do .

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Soon Wine will have support for Directx11 and i would recommend you to try Playonlinux (is in the repo).. but you are right. When it comes to games on linux you can not be in a hurry. A lot works but not the latest ones.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Would it have pleased you more if s/he had said, "woulda, coulda shoulda"?

And BTW, what does that "s/of/have/g" mean? Is that some sort of European annotation, perhaps?

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

It's American, but if you have to ask...

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Oh, I see, those are abbreviations of words seperated by slashes. An odd form of annotation, I've never seen or used it before, myself. (I'm US American, BTW).

So if what was meant by that was "should of have gotten", then it's still incorrect. There is no "of" in that expression; people who say or write "of" are slurring the "have". It is only, "should have gotten" (or in that abbreviation style, "s/have/g").

:)

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

It is a string substitution command used in ed, sed, vi, perl, and likely other utilities.

Substitute have for of, the g means globally. That is all "of" on the line are changed to "have". Without the g, only the first "of" in the line.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

That might be "my" fault. Recaller by default uses AAC recording which is very CPU (and therefore battery) intensive. You might want to try encoding in WAV or FLAC (change in the settings), might save some battery (no scientific tests available) at the price of more storage needed.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

Ah, I see. Thanks for the explanation! So there was no error in that poster's comment, all the better.

Re: A couple of ramblings on the N900
 

No, I can't imagine being able to pirate both a movie *and* a book on an iPhone/iPad/iPod touch in the same day. I can't imagine why that's not in the Nokia sales pitch for these things.

I could see legally downloading (and paying for, if commercial) movies, video podcasts, and tv shows via itunes, legally streaming movies and TV shows via netflix movies, and reading hundreds of thousands of books via the kindle app on an iOS device, so we do have some problems there feature wise, if we're going to stay on the legal side of the street. For all but us techies, being able to do that is a lot more of a win.

Don't get me wrong, I am really excited about meego - it's the way to go platform-wise, and it has the potential to be better than both android and iOS. But it's GOT to be at least in the ballpark of drop dead simple to use as iOS. Because 99.99% of the people aren't going to screw around with their devices to just get stuff they want when they want it. They'll gladly give up bittorrent to be able to watch a netflix movie, or read a book, or any of a thousand other things it's POSSIBLE to do on an n900, but simple to do in iOS and/or android. Even if its somewhat limited/constrained - not being able to figure out how to do something is even more constraining to most people.

But yeah... it's great you can do all that.