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Nokia N900

Hey!

It’s now been about two weeks since I got my new “cellphone”. It’s more like a small tablet PC with calling function. That’s a better way to describe the N900 if you ask me. Anyways I figured I’d write a small summary of my experiences with it so far.

First impression

After taking it out of the package and turning it on first time, you don’t really know what to expect. It’s quite light, despite it’s size. It may feel alittle heavier than other cellphones you’ve held, because it weighs 180 grams. That’s quite much for a cellphone, but it’s not bad at all for this monster. The size of it is 11,09 x 5,98 x 1,8 cm with a 3,5″ LCD touchscreen and a resolution of 800×480 pixels. It has a very sharp display and is also very responsive as a touchscreen phone. Since the N900 was released before the OS was done, it may behave weird sometimes, but I have yet to experience it. If you’re gonna play around with alot of applications which are still under development stages, be sure to take backup of your phone before you start installing. You never know when your phone goes “kaboom” and you have to restore it to default settings or a rollback.

Media support

This is something which probably everyone is interested in.  It supports alot of codecs so you should be able to play most of what you want to play on your phone. It supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA, WAV, WMV, MPEG4, Div-X, Xvid, 3GP, H.263, H.264. You can also download codec packages from the program manager for matroska MKV and OGG support. Quite cunning. Movie playback is also very nice! The picture is sharp and you rarely notice any framerate drop. You may notice some from time to time, but it’s not so bad. It only lasts for a second or less at a time. It doesn’t support FM radio out of the box, but you’ll easily fix that if you download a FM radio application. There are several in the application manager which you can install.

Nice applications

If you’re like me, then you got this phone because of the possibilities with it, and not because it’s the latest model. The main sellingpoint for me was the support for multitasking. This is something the iPhone can’t do. Not that I would buy a iPhone anyway, to much hassle simply because of iTunes.  Anyways, in the application manager you’ll find alot of programs. Some are very nice and I’ll list those I’ve taken a liking to.

Hermes

Hermes is a application which simply updates your already existing contacts with Facebook and Twitter if you use those social networks. This seriously is a great way of filling in information about your contacts. I use it myself and I love it. I highly recommend it. It also adds information to your calendar with stuff like birthdays and so on, if it finds any information about it.

MaStory

This application is for you bloggers out there. It works with several services such as WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal and Drupal. I’ve tested it and used it with WordPress, and you can do everything you’ll want to do with this application. Awesome.

OpenSSH Client and Server

As the name says, it’s openSSH client and server. Very nice for you technicians out there.

OpenVPN

Another nice application for you technicians out there.

VNC Viewer

Another nifty and very well working application. If you don’t know what VNC is, it’s something similar to RDP in a way. It’s a program which allows you to connect to another client and see that clients desktop etc. The main difference between VNC and RDP is that VNC is streaming pictures so you can interact with, when RDP is integrated into the OS itself and is much more reliable.

RDP – Remote Desktop Protocol

The N900 has a RDP application, but this still isn’t found in the verified applications. It’s probably still under development so if you want to install this, it’s on your own risk. I have it installed and tried and tested it. It works like a charm, so if you want it, here’s how to get it.

First off go Menu > More… > Program Manager. While there press the Program Manager tab and go to “Program Catalogs”. While there add this information:

Application manager –> Application catalogs –> New
Catalog name: Maemo Extras-devel
Web address: http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel
Distribution: fremantle
Components: free non-free

After you’ve added this information simply browse “All” applications. Scroll down to R and install rdesktop-client. Voila! You got RDP!

Last words…

Hope you found this info useful. I’m really satisfied with this phone and I look forward to when they have finished the OS, Maemo 5. The Maemo store isn’t open yet, but it’ll be in the near future so there’s more to look forward to. If you have this cellphone, what’s your thoughts about it ? Write a comment!

Just your stereotypical nerd with a lust for technology and video games. Been a IT consultant since 2008 and have no intention of changing occupation anytime soon. Loves to play videogames, fiddling with webdesign and so much more!