I have words hyperlinked in post #1, best solution in my opinion is the Nokia CA-101D (101D = short, 101 = stock) and a female-female adapter.

I've tried these cable combinations which all work:

From top to bottom:
1) CA167 + female-to-female USB adapter
2) CA101D + female-to-female USB adapter
3) CA157 + micro-AB female to micro-B male USB adapter (alternative to filing corners)
4) female to micro-B male USB adapter

The only place I could find a "micro-AB female to micro-B male USB adapter" was on ebay so this is a bit more expensive than the other options (although I found one at CPC/Farnell afterwards).
I prefer to use cable (4) as this is the most direct one which I bought (also from ebay) thanks to iDont's post #399 in this thread.

Edit: obviously if you use cable (3) with the adapter then you must always keep the adapter and cable connected together when using with an N900 otherwise you could stress the port as has been stated on numerous occasions in posts about the N900's usb port.

I think it is going too far to say that it will damage without any extra force applied. But any accidental force applied will be most likely be magnified by an order of magnitude or more due to the lever effect.

If you want proof then how much money are you willing to contribute to buying enough N900s to doing a statistically valid study on this? (the money going to buy all the N900s needed for the study) Because without a proper study, all we have to go on is educated guesses based on fairly simple physics knowledge of how levers work.

Anecdotes, no matter how many of them you have, never add up to statistically valid data, but if you want a vaguely related one, I have a 3G USB dongle for my netbook, this had no cable so just stuck out of the port putting strain on its connector it broke several times in the 18 months I was using it, fortunately it was easy to fix, but it kept happening, until I got fed up and stuck a short USB cable on it, bear in mind when reading this that the connector on the USB dongle should be stronger than the USB port on the N900.

Now we know the N900s USB port is prone to breaking, the question is are you really prepared to risk yours for a little convenience?

While everyone else is busy discouraging you, I just want to say, that's exactly the connector I use. (Well, mine's black, and I didn't buy it off Amazon, but it's almost the same exact shape/build as the one in the picture looks to be - those little grooves on the side are different in number, but that's an aesthetic thing.)

My 'war stories' amount to: I'm careful with my port, if I REALLY believe it's in danger, I have a usb-male-to-usb-female cord I can use to extend the reach from the little adapter, so that the bulk of the weight rest s elsewhere.

Just remember you're working with a pretty strong lever. Keep that in mind, and be careful, and the risk of your ripping your port out isn't that bad. On the other hand, it depends on how careful you are, how prone you are to accidentally doing things that you'd define as clumsy, that might result in you hitting whatever you've got plugged in.

What I do, is when I hold the N900, I thread whatever I have plugged in between my fingers of the hand on the side it's plugged in to. So my hand takes the weight of whatever's plugged in to the port through the adapter, by letting the adapter rest in it. I would not stick a usb stick and leave it just supported by the port through the adapter, if you get that kind. If you do though, it's really not that bad so long as you don't do it constantly, don't jerk your N900 around sharply, etc. But I wouldn't push it just to verify that, because you never know if your port happens to be having a weak moment.

I say, the main deciding factor is, how confident are you, knowing your dexterity, as much of the laws of physics as you know, and generally your own carefulness and physical competence at controlling and being mindful of your body, that you won't end up accidentally pressing the very tip of some USB stick, or leave the entire contraption supported by just the port on the N900?

No one can really answer that for you. I got this usb adapter, I'm happy with it because it's small enough that I can easily stick it in my pocket without any folding/twisting of wires, and it's fine for what I use it for (IE, I don't need to be running around with USB dongles attached to my N900). I'm careful enough and trust myself enough that I can say that for my use cases, I'm not really taking any more of a risk with it than I would be with a longer cord adapter.

Well, just to be careful, I got this puppy for just 2.92€:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...m=230571682098

A tad longer than I had hoped for, but still more convenient than the extra long cable that shipped with the N900 combined with a female-A-to-female-A adapter that I bought at Conrad's.

Good move.
for the Conrad info. Last time I checked they had no USB AF-AF

cheers
jOERG

... and here is a link:

http://www.conrad.de/ce/de/product/9...archDetail=005

They can be, but it also depends on how you use it. I purchased such a module and applied foam tape around it so that when lying on a table, it's the exact same height off of a flat surface as my N900 with it's case on. I also ONLY use it no a flat surface with plenty of space. So they are usable, but may not be the best option if you're not used to working with thing delicately.

On a side note: Has anyone ever seen any microUSB plugs suitable for use with mylar cable? All I can find are cable-based connectors and 90° angle via or surface mount parts. The cable ones are nice, but are far longer than they need to be to compensate for the plastic casing.

My idea would be to make a mylar ribbon based USB extension cable that I could run UNDER my case and out a slit on the side. If done properly it could lead to a docking station like thing, or a magnetic plug like the mac power cords... could be nice, if I could just find a supply for the connectors.

The two data wires are a twisted pair, and the four together are shielded, so it's basiaclly going to have to be cylindrical AFAIK.

tuned impedance flat wires for differential signals exist. http://www.conrad.de/ce/de/product/941628/
It's not like twisted pair is mandatory for USB, it's just a means to achieve a certain electrical property. There are other means to achieve the same. On PCBs for example you are doing this all the time: differential signals need parallel traces (you hardly can twist them ;-D ), and shielding can be done by placing these parallel traces between two layers of ground plane, and running a ground trace in parallel to left and right of the diff pair on same plane.

/j