I will be on the road in 4 hrs, kind of finishing up on my packing while my kids and wife still nagging this and that, I would like to get some advice on taking the N900 on my 1st field trip.

1) WIFI
Did not buy any phone contract yet, so, internet is on wifi whereever I can get. Starbuck has wifi with free membership, MacDonald has wifi w a ridiculous expense fee, Bojangle Chicken has totally free wifi. So, there are my wifi connection on the trip and sure, they will get my business on the road.

2) Ovi maps
a) Where can I find the most info/FAQ/forum on the Ovi maps? I have about 10-15 min goofing around then I will have to offline get ready for the trip
b) Bug1: Touching the screen does NOT bring out the Onscreenkeyboard, one has to slide out the hardware keyboard. Of course I have setting taken care of and Onscreenkeyboard pop up in all my apps except OVImaps.

c) How to adjust route, once you set the route? I cannot find anyway to delete or save route, so I exit the program and get back it. It is strange.
d) They remember your last route, but there is no function to save your route, so this is a one route map?
e) Everytime I click on Ovimap to start the program, as if it is starting new, is that your experience? It gets on a prgress bar and then it works. Is Ovimap a compressed app? Or anyway I can make it more handy? The only I know, is to leave it on desktop.
3) GPS
I have given up on the GPS, one I have not learned how to use it, two I have not been able to log it without being online; Anybody has any experience with using a BTGPS and how does it function with OVI maps? If you are online, say, has 3G service, will maeMap with geolocation able to get one around, like locate in 1 to 2 min, and kind of update? I know, it is not a map, just wondering anybody has tried it.

4) I am going to use the camera, and or maybe video and see how it goes outdoor.

5) Bug2: I think when the BT is on, my sip phone will NOT answer. I will try to characterise it more and file a bug report.

6) Oh, the N900 sip phone quality is excellent, much better than the N800. I know, it depends on a lot of things, wifi bandwidth, locations etc, but I think the N800, even with the optimum conditions, still lacking the hw to do a quality job with the sip phone.

Anybody takes their N900 on a field trip yet? Please send your dos and donts and tips.
I will be checking this thread, every now and then. And I will take my beloved N810 along as it has the famous maemomap!

Ovi map step by step here, http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...868#post479868


Merry Xmas and a Happy new year to the community,

bun

sipPhone:

I doubt I can buy Tmobile on a Xmas day...., maybe

How do you make your sip phone ring? I can make it answer phone call by vibration, I am sure it can ring somewhere, yes, I know I run out of time, just to see if anybody using the sipphone. Apparantly the phone menu will NOT open with a cellphone plan or sim card?

Anybody configure the google talk to use video yet? Or it is not yet availble? I can only config google talk to answer in a vibration mode, http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=437178, and does not know how to turn on the video part.

Yes, I am in kind of a hurry, before getting into another serious 'domestic' argument with my mrs

TIA,

Have fun and have a safe trip, I would not bother with Ovi Maps at all. It's terrible.

1. settings/text input/virtual keyboard not sure why it doesnt work on maps

Yup, I have it set and worked in all my apps, except the OviMap.

Now, somebody should know this, ...by heart, , where to file bugs for N900? The same maemo.org or a special N900 bug place? I may be able to take care this in Starbuck with my N900. On the road, soon.................... with bunwife, bunkids, buncar and bunN900, and my lovely bunVacation, YAH!

bun

FM transmissiions work RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX!

Go play some music file, then Settings>FM transmitter, check "on" and Save, and tune your FM station to 88.1, VOILA, music comes right out from the car stereo. WOW, SO DIFFICULT................

I am very happy with this N900!

bun

video call works.....not N900 though

In air with free wifi, video call using google talk works on N8x0, you see video and voice. Quality is ok. while cellphone has problems in the air, Nokia tablet wifi rules!

N900 doing fine with google talk, but no video. program crashed when attempt to open camera.

yup, postings directly from N900

bun

Ovi map,gps,battery field trip after PR1.1 update

Ovi map is very useful now after the update. I have dl ALL usa map, which is a total of 5.39 MB, see here. And fully charged the N900 before the trip.

Ovi map took me from one city to another city, function dutifully with zero surprise. It works very smooth and zoom and track fine. I did not get the route before leaving the house. In the car, I manually set the destination on the map, it generate route spontaneously, no internet connection.

GPS, today it worked perfect, lets see whether this is going to be the situation from now on. It locked with eCoach, under 1 minute, throughout the 5 hrs trip. I constantly took the N900 out when strolling on the street, and walking inside shopping mall, gps did not even blink, worked 100% all the time. To save battery, I occasionally turned N900 offline, and when needed, I started the map and eCoach, it locked under 1 minute, no internet connection. I was too inpatient to check whether eCoach is necessary.

Battery is the problem. I have the N900 on almost continuously, it ran from freshly/fully charged to down to 7 % after 5 hr continuous use. No wifi/BT/audio/video. Brightness was set to 3 blocks, kind of in the middle from zero to 100 %. And GPS and eCoach was on all the time, eCoach was on Record. N900 was warm to touch, not good, it is warm, not hot though. I did not like the warmth, I momentarily turned off gps for 1 minute, it cooled down.

In surmmary, with the current status, 1.2009.51-1, the latest update, GPS and Ovi, maybe with eCoach, is functioning. Battery use, 5 hrs only on continuous gps use, has to juggle with continuous gps use.

Any other users post any tips/experience on field trip,


bun

5 hours gps use from a battery rated at just over 1300mah with a screen that is 3.5" and being run by a 600mhz omap3 is pretty dam good if you ask me

most sat nav units that cost 150 pounds of less have a battery life quoted at around 3-5 hours

garmin units quote 5 hours max most others are 3-4 hours

so according to your test the n900 has doen extremley well indeed

i have noticed lock on times have increased with the new update and the improovements have made it better however we need full voice guidance big time

... could somebody explain to me in very simple terms how I download the maps for the UK? ... where I would find them? ... etc? ... does it need to be done to a computer or can they go directly to my phone?

.. I haven't tried the ovi maps since the firmware update, but this sounds promising!

ETA ... just been having a bit of a play ... am really liking the updates to maps, seems so much easier to use ... but ... it would be nice if a contact's address was linked with Ovi Maps ... so that you could click through from the contact card and add it as a destination ... is this possible?