How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

I've been reading all the "N900 is dead" threads, thinking I'd quite like to keep mine alive for a couple or three years, until something truly better comes onto the market.

So, this is a "what's changed since you bought your N900" thread, I'd like to know what you have done, or are doing, in the name of keeping your N900 for longer than you otherwise might - whether new hardware add-ons or improvements to software.

In my case, the list looks like this:

1) Reflashed a month ago to de-crap the phone and reinstall only what I know I need. Works much better for it.

2) More vicious overclocking than I'd have dared a year ago, we're stable at 1000MHz - on the basis that I can replace the whole phone via eBay these days and Nokia's warranty is all but irrelevant now. Seems to work fine.

3) Finally replaced Microb with Opera and used the browser-switchboard to make default. Works better than last time I tried, rather pleased with it now.

4) Added mBarcode - I didn't even know we could handle QR codes - then found a menu to launch Flashlight, Camera or mBarcode on opening the lens cover. Why didn't I know about this before?

...and now onto the hardware, which is where I'd really welcome any thoughts on what's new...

5) the battery life still bothers me on occasion, and whilst I've read dr_frost's works with interest, I'm not sure even a Scud will cut the mustard. The advent of iPads means that USB external batteries have come on in leaps and bounds and I've just ordered up a 7000mAh pack that should itself be compatible with charging from the N900 charger. Had similar before, but they've improved...will post back when it arrives.

6) the speakerphone functionality is sincerely shite, callers complain whenever I use it. Wondering about adding a dedicated BT speakerphone glued to my monitor... anyone do something like this?

7) 32GB Class 10s from a variety of manufacturers are actually in real physical stock at retailers. If truth be told I haven't filled 16GB, but I could use far more if I had some half decent headphones.

8) Marketed in parallel with the N8 (ugh), the Nokia BH-905i headphones have just taken a nice fat price cut and they start to look very tempting. Anyone have any practical experience with these on an N900?

I reckon with a few new toys, I can turn the N900 into a much more functional media machine and simultaneously fix the battery and hands-free issues. Couple that with such software optimisations as have been developed over the last couple of years and I probably have something I really WANT to keep alive...

So, those of you planning to still have your N900s through the 2012 Olympics and beyond - what have you discovered recently that's new since you bought the phone?

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

cleven - thanks to saturn and co.

free unlimited browsing via tmobile

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

I do not understand this post yet I am so intrigued by it.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

Well i just enjoy the freedom of my n900, i can make it look the way i want it and more importantly use/abuse the crap out of it. I have dropped my n900 quiet a few times but its still going strong.

Currently running at 1100mhz stable, i get standard one day battery life thats with constant 3g data connection, logged into facebook chat listening to music via head phones and a few desktop widgets running aswell.

Modding wise got cssu, hardware vsync, overclocked, shortcutd, swappolube and custom transistion just the usual stuff. I love to test new stuff so im gonna give nitroid another try yet again, also myt see whats new with meego and kubuntu.

BUT sometimes i do feel like smashing my n900 into a million pieces cause it will refuse to behave and just work properly e.g never ending lag lol. However i will keep mine untill it explodes and dies on me or if there is phone THAT REALLY TAKES MY FANCY.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

why do you want to make calls for? I thougth you are dead...

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

just get an iphone

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

They're still all virgins? Man, if I had 72 virgins, none of them would still be virgins after a week. ;)

Disclaimer: Only if the virgins in question are post-pubescent females, not old and not ugly.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

FYI: Nokia N900 is not a phone, its an internet tablet with phone functionality.

I don't own a BH-905i headset but I do have its older sibling known as BH-905. I have had some ups and downs with the said headset, for starters is that its prone to freeze. When it freezes one will need to reset the device every so often.

The next set of issue is the range, with the lack of antenna on the said headset, the range is rather poor and signals can be easily blocked by some other object when using bluetooth mode.

Last but not least, the headset is somewhat fragile despite its high quality looks. When one extends their headset to fit across their head, there's a few small plastic bits closer to the bottom of the headset, those are prone to breaking.

For 32GB Class 10 MicroSDHC cards, I know you weren't asking for any recommendations, but I personally would recommend a few things:

1) Make sure you purchase one with lifetime warranty/guarantee. They cost more but their price are generally its weight in gold when you have a reputable manufacturer.

2) Avoid TopRAM, their microSDHC is woeful. I have two of the said cards in both my N900 and I can't repartition, and format. It just spits out error. It seems like the card is optimised for FAT32 filesystems and at which corruption rate is rather aweful.

3) Don't buy a microSDHC card from any old stores, make sure that you can return the product if its faulty and/or does not meet your requirements. There are a fair amount of fake microSDHC cards floating around carrying legitimate brand name but in actual fact are fake (in terms of stated capacity). There's a tool under linux known as f3 which you can use to test to see if the cards are genuinely as stated by their respective manufacturer what their capacity is.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

I've heard of incompatibility between the original BH-905 and the N900's bluetooth stack. I don't know if the BH-905i resolves that.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

Thanks, this is all useful... a few remarks inline...

On one level, you're preaching to the converted - my servers are FreeBSD, my desktop is Debian, my router is DD-WRT and I didn't buy a Linux phone by accident. :-)

That said, I can pay for one contract SIM at a time, so the N900 is most definitely a phone - in fact, it is now my only phone, being the only GSM terminal I carry and also the SIP phone that fields all my landline calls when at home. So, as much as I appreciate the tablet functionality, I need it to work well as a phone, whether out and about, or at home. I'm not griping, just thinking it's time I spent the money on meeting those requirements as best possible.

Regarding the BH-905i, there are at least a couple of reports on here that they are compatible and work better than the 905 - what I'm finding harder to decide is whether they are what I want, and that's rather subjective. I'm not a regular user of Bluetooth headsets and don't really know what my criteria are, just fishing for any experiences of them. It's between those or the full-blown over-the-ear Sennheiser MM-550, and I'm as interested in call quality / convenience / practicality as music listening.

As for the memory card, all noted and agreed, I'm likely to go via Amazon, play.com or one of the usual suspects, probably for the Lexar judging by the existing reviews.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

"FYI: Nokia N900 is not a phone, its an internet tablet with phone functionality."

Your joking right? there is no way the N900 is a tablet... please go look at all the mobile phones on the market today as they all have more or less the same size screen and in fact some are bigger than the N900 and are still not classed as an internet tablet.

It is 100% a mobile telephone that kinda half works, could have been a lot lot better if Nokia kept up with the Maemo development.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

WARNING - OFF-TOPIC - SORRY!!

I have DDWRT at home too with Asterisk on it and it's working fine with VoIP ATA but can't find a configuration to make it work both ways (receiving audio and speaking) when connected to wlan and outside via HSDPA.

I know I could have spent more time debugging but actually is on my low-priority list.
Maybe you have some suggestion or a working config for me to test it?

Thanks and sorry for off-topic.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

I'm afraid I haven't gotten round to playing with Asterisk yet, it's not included in the DD-WRT build for my (cheap and nasty Virgin Media freebie) DIR-615, so the SIP is all from third-party providers here.

As a statement of general principle, I haven't been able to get any form of VoIP to work over 3G on any of the UK mobile networks - I'm not sure if that's a network restriction or a purely technological one. SIP works fine over my home WiFi, and not at all over very much else.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

To preserve the device for a long time it' surely necessary to handle the usb-port with care.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

well ive recently got one with another two years warrenty. so if it breaks am asking for an N9 :D

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

I've found that this is usually is a restriction with most mobile plans that come with unlimited internet. If however you pay for mobile broadband the restrictions on speed and SIP are lifted.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

I have used sip with '3 UK' and it works fine. I dont use it very much because it kills the battery very quickly.

Not sure about DIR-615, but if you can get openwrt on it then you could use asterisk packages which come along with it.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

to preserve it as long as possible.

Take care of it :)

i don't overclock mine. i have a screen protector from day 1. i filed the usb connections on the cables so they won't pull it out. i say the battery will need to be changed. my warranty is up in feb 2012 so hopefully it lasts until then. i will probably be getting the N9 so will not use the n900 as much but i want to keep it as it's a one of a kind.

Re: How do you plan to squeeze another year out of your N900?
 

Hehe... to preserve it as long as possible, store in a cool, dry, dark place away from direct sunlight and strong odours, and out of the reach of children! All good points, I do use a screen protector, I'm careful with the USB and there's a Scud on the way from Lucia Lui at present.

My purpose in this thread, though, is about fixing the minor niggles, keeping up to speed with hardware and software developments and making it something I want to preserve as long as possible. If I can figure that out, and have confidence in my ability to restore from a bare-metal backup, I may just buy a spare N900...