The Nokia N900 is the first mobile phone to run the sweet Maemo (GNU+Linux based) OS. What does that mean? It means that tens of thousands of Free and Open Source software developers have been collaborating to bring you an All-In-One mobile device that meets all the needs of the ditigal era.
Music playback file formats: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
Ring tones: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
Bulit in FM transmitter for listening in your car
GPS
QWERTY tactile keyboard and touchscreen keyboard as well.
Essentially, it’s a fully customizable portable computing phone that encompasses everything you’d want to do, digitally, without tying you down to the proprietary software that the phone makers force upon you. Because it’s Linux based, everything is completely changeable and modifiable.
I’ve been hesitant to buy a Smart Phone because so many of them are bogged down with DRM limitations which hinder what you can do. This thing is a Phone, a Video Camera, a Digital Camera, a GPS, a Web Browser, a Music Player, and a Video Player. It’s a phone sized computer with open standards.
Oh Noes! Xander has been brainwashed by the evil phone advertising threads a couple of days ago! :o
A perfect opportunity for assassination and a leadership coup! For the good of the site, of course…
That thing has a huge amount of features. I assume, what with finding a way to fit a very small kitchen sink in there, they had time to put phone functionality in?
I’ve been disappointed with the Android phones, to be honest. Although they were certainly a step in the right direction. I was considering an HTC phone up until I heard about this.
I just want to call people with my mobile phone.
I'm so 'nineties!
Ishkur Cinderhat
you can call people from cell phones? hrm... and here I was using texts, emails and instant messaging. while driving my flying car Ish ;)
I have my BB pearl, and it's 'ok' though I want to call, complain, get a new curve or something (I heard the Storm is kinda... iffy), then research a really good one.
Xander has been discussing (aka, sending link after link) to me over the last couple days. seems decent. :)
No accelerometer = no sale. An accelerometer/motion sensor or compass/magnetic field detector means that very intuitive interfaces are possible: point the phone at something, possibly track with it, ID it with video camera, etc.
The future is augmented reality and you won’t get that without additional onboard doohickey. Sure, you can approximate it with the vid cam, using software to track elements within the field of view, but that’s going to be very dependent on CPU intensive algorithms, be affected by lighting conditions/focus et al. Easier, cheaper, more usable to have on-board sensors that can be used in many new ways.
I’d be impressed with those stats if I had the cellphones from 5 years ago, but not today.
(I’m an iPhone 3G user and see no reason to give it up yet. The android phone only beats it on one issue IMO, the electromagnetic field sensors, but its physical keyboard, slide out screen make it worthless IMO.)
Anyway, the overriding thing with cellphones in this day and age is the contract/plan to use it. That’s where we need to improve things, especially in Canada. Signing up for a cellphone package with this many features basically means going to a company, bending over and if you’re lucky, they’ll put some KY on the deal before activation.
It has flash and the ability to download your own apps for free, so it has that over the iPhone. It has GPS, not clear if that includes an accelerometer or not, but probably not. As a tiny notepad, it is great, especially with expandable memory and the ability to plug it into a tv. Portable movie player, with all the more unusual formats. As a phone replacement it seems a bit chunky.
I’m guessing that the really useful stuff like multi-touch is left out due to patents (they are supposed to be non-obvious!). The number of complaints i’ve heard about the iPhone keyboard means I’m not too sure if the inclusion of a physical one is good or not. If the lack of one made it thinner and lighter then I’d probably go without one and replace my razr. The iPhone isn’t on a reliable network, which kills it instantly for me. I probably won’t be able to even consider something this expensive for another year anyway, and then they will be something better.
the iPhone 3G is one reason why I’m so accessable here, because I can check the site at any point and have been able to since I joined CDO in the summer of 2007.
Essentially, it’s a fully customizable portable computing phone that encompasses everything you’d want to do, digitally, without tying you down to the proprietary software that the phone makers force upon you. Because it’s Linux based, everything is completely changeable and modifiable.
Xander
I’m with you here to a point, but knowing what company you are leveling this at… to break it to you people don’t care they just want their phone to work…
The iPhone isn’t on a reliable network, which kills it instantly for me. I probably won’t be able to even consider something this expensive for another year anyway, and then they will be something better.
cornixt
You make calls on your phone? Last thing I use my iphone for. ATT isnt as bad as the “Verizon-ites” like to make it out to be. On top of that there are areas where Verizon has crap coverage as well. In the US the four major carriers are a case of the lessor of evils, because they all suck in some way.
Yes! Go out and buy many of these! Hordes of them!
That Nokia is a Finnish company and that I'm a stockholder has nothing to do with my enthusiasm... :~:~:~
Think on the 1/10,000 of a cent that goes STRAIGHT INTO MY POCKET when you buy one of these! :cheers:P
snowblizz
Ahahahaha, your post is well worth a couple of slaves.. I have a Nokia, so 1/10,000 of 39 Euros I paid is yours.... :P
From the cost of my phone you understand Im totally out of phone market... I phone, I text... and I'm done! :hat off
of course if Khunag phone would be on the market this would be an exception! Cool steam punk mobile!
the iPhone 3G is one reason why I'm so accessable here, because I can check the site at any point and have been able to since I joined CDO in the summer of 2007.
Willmark
Someone needs to explain this to me. Any mobile phone with a webbrowser and datacapability can do this. I could with my 6 year old 2,5G phone if I wanted to. It'd be hellishly slow and expensive but I COULD do it. What supposedly makes the Iphone so fantastic in this regard?
EDIT: Same goes for the Blackberry, as far as I can tell it doesn't do anything that a similarly equipped mobile phone (well mobile device as my professors like to call 'em) could do. But still you can't turn around without people trying to pretend it is somehow exceptionally special.
I have made an image demonstrating the resolution of the N900, and why the N900 is even better for viewing websites:
It’s more than twice as big as the iPhone’s resolution, and both are on a 3.5 inch screen! That’s some pretty impressive fidelity.
That’s the same as DVD resolution. This allows you to display websites very effectively, and also record and view DVD quality videos. It’s enough of a preview of snapped pictures that you will know whether it’s a good picture or not without seeing it on a computer.
Xander- you and I both know that won’t matter. Oh sure until the next iPhone is launched, then the next Nokia, the next Sony, etc… and so it goes. Microsoft tried the feature barrage tactic with the Zune and it hasn’t made a dent.
Snowblizz- the ability to have everything all wrapped in one device, that is CONSUMER centric. Plus everyone is familiar with iPods so its a natural progression.
And the single biggest thing Applications; Apple is so far out ahead on this its not even funny. The SDK kit is easy, its a free and despite the grumbling of some people the distribution is exceptionally easy: iTunes; whether you love it or hate its one of the largest digital mechanisms on the face of the planet. Palm Pre is trying to replicate this and is getting hammered over it.
Oh sure until the next iPhone is launched, then the next Nokia, the next Sony, etc… and so it goes. Microsoft tried the feature barrage tactic with the Zune and it hasn’t made a dent.