On Wed, 26 Aug 2009, Bob Rudolph wrote:
> I will have to look again as I didn't see a photo of the front unless I missed > it.
Ooh nice shiny eye-candy Maemo goodness:
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/08/n900.jpg
Aj.
On Wed, 26 Aug 2009, Michael Robbins wrote:
> I have had a N810 for a year or so and it is pretty good at playing video, > but quality video needs to be converted / recoded in order to play properly on > the N810. (For the N810 I record Terrestrial Digital TV onto my PC in MPEG2
> format and then recode into Xvid format). Unfortunately the N810 is not able > to handle 800x480 videos25fps, due, I believe, to a lack of CPU and dedicated > graphics processing power.
Yes that was rather annoying for me too. That said, the N900 should have
an OMAP4 processor in it for multimedia duties and ARM core(s?) for
everything else.
Ive owned the N770 and N800 and still using my N810 right now as a mobile terminal and web surfing device. Love them but dont use them as multimedia devices.
> Connects to WiFi easily, Reads Ebooks, Has
> built in GPS and Maps, Reasonable Email and will VNC into
> my Windows boxes easily & has a great touch screen.
I have 2Gb of ebooks on mine on an 8Gb microSD card so I love reading
books on it.
The amazing sensitivity of the WiFi antennas is a major plus point much better than most Apple laptops!
> Lacks any kind of PIM (Diary/Agenda, To Do lists), lacks Word processing (yes > you can take notes but transferring them to other systems is not easy you > might as well write an email!),
Yes those are major gaps in the software. And the developer community
didn't really step in with a nice cohesive solution (I mean, they exist
but they are limited and downright ugly to use!). Im glad Nokia is
stepping in and finally giving them decide PIM functionality. The more I
think of it, the more I think Psion should have gone in this direction...
> No (mobile phone) SIM card (so no connectivity when outside of WiFI
Though there was the short-lived WiMax edition of the N810 that was
available for a few months before being yanked off the market (I guess
Nokia decided WiMax was the wrong horse to back). Assuming the rumor
that the N900 is coming to T-Mobile is true, Im assuming Ill be able to
drop in my SIM and surf away.
> unless you use your mobile phone), Keyboard is OK but
> not Touch type (short email yes long letter no).
Works for the usual thumb-typing technique us Psioneers are used to...
> As far as the N900 goes I like the spec, but experience with my N810 has
> taught me a) To wait at least 6 months (for the inevitable software upgrades) > and b) To Try & Try again before Buying try it out as much
> as possible before parting with the cash!
I knew what the N810 could and couldn't do when I bought it. But so far
Ive had over a year of useful use out of it so Im not going to complain
about paying top dollar when it was released. I assume these devices have
a couple of years of solid use in them before something better comes
along but that's fine by me.
Ive have waited for years and years for the right devices to come along
that would make me buy a smartphone or something like N900 device and it
seems we're finally getting there. I feel its been a long tortuous journey
but I think I will have to post a long article about it later (I recently switched from a dumbphone to the HTC G2 / Magic / MyTouch so I need to
write a reviwe for you guys :-).
Aj.
Att.: Paul Bishop
Re.: to Keith cell phones I think the "roaming" on mobile phones of one European country in another one is still very expensive. True they have come down somewhat but more legislation will be needed before the phone Companies will be force to stop milking their clients on the roaming charges.I think the cheapest will be to use an unlocked phone and buy sim cards without phones in each country.
Att: All
Re. Netbook A lot is being written about new netBooks. Just wanted to say that I still use my Psion netBook although mainly for the digest, abp5 and Money. It is still a great machine !
Best regards,
Itamar
Att.: Chris Handley
Re.: Nokia N900 goodbye Symbian, hello Maemo! Hi Chris, I wonder what that means for Symbian as a Company. If Nokia, a miain shareholder, would stop using their software would they cease to exist and would the Psion/Symbian platform totally disappear ?
Best regards,
Itamar
On Wed, 26 Aug 2009, Chris Handley wrote:
> If all true (*), it appears to be virtually a fully-fledged computer, > and should be pretty awesome at DivX
>
> video playback or anything else you care to throw at it. It might
> also be a large nail in the Palm Pre's
>
> coffin, going by the multi-tasking ability & general "iPhone-ness".
Actually the Pre and the N900 both have the OMAP3430 processor so they are quite similar. Both machines run Linux too.
> (* = I'm suspicious of the Firefox 3 claim, given Maemo already has a
> good browser. And 1GB total RAM, even if
The MicroB browser on the N810 uses the same Gecko layout engine as FF3 so I would not be suprised to see the next iteration on the N900 be closer to FF3.5.
> 768MB is "virtual", seems slightly silly.)
Why is it silly? Its more like a laptop...
Aj.
Looks like an October release for 500 Euros. Quad-band and one of those frequencies is for T-Mobile US (great news for me :-)
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/27/nokia-n900-running-maemo-5-officially-500-in-october/(Check out the video of it in action this is some seriously sexy kit).
Also see:
http://flors.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/software-freedom-lovers-here-comes-maemo-5/
Remember this is a Linux machine running mostly open source.
Aj.
