You're right!
It also have the N900 on the front page~ (which captures my attention)
Imported mag, cost me RM16.90 (if I remembered correctly), got mine from MPH.

This post has been edited by Andy214: Mar 16 2010, 12:32 PM

If you've been following maemo-talk forum, you should know who are the more experience people who gives more sensible/logical comments plus pretty often now, the word FUD is used.

Currently, it's still not 100% confirmed for anything, and based on Nokia previous devices and support, I don't think they will just drop N900. MeeGo or not, they will still at least make sure the Maemo OS gets updates up to a certain level which is acceptable, fix the bugs and so on. Even till today, you can find updates for > 2-3 year old Nokia devices. I'm not sure about older, unless there's known bugs/problems.

The important things is not to have whatever that is latest, but to get something that is GOOD, STABLE and USEFUL. If they can fix up Maemo OS and make it stable, smooth and all the current weakness or features which is missing, I think it's already good enough; But of course, if there is an option to "change" to MeeGo OS "officially", it'll be great! Nonetheless, the N900's hardware is just this much, probably even if we upgrade to MeeGo, we might not have the chance to utilize every part of MeeGo, thus why not improve on the current OS unless the new OS works great on the N900.

Anyway, as mentioned, there's no confirmation whether MeeGo is available for N900 or not "officially". Instead of FUD, why not wait for the real final official statement from Nokia themselves?
If the N900 sells well, from a business perspective, it's not logical to just let go N900 and loose most of it's customers, right? Think logically instead of trusting news immediately.

Here's a post by qgil which I think he's involve in the development of Maemo6 (aka Harmattan) or now rebranded as MeeGo (1st instance):
Making MeeGo work on the N900 is costing money already now. There is a team working on this as we speak, and as MeeGo first code release is taking shape.

The N900 was announced as official ARM hardware platform for MeeGo. This means that you can expect an open source operating system working on the N900 working on the N900 with a MeeGo API allowing you to install and run MeeGo applications.

The open source evolution path of the N900 is quite clear and looking good.

What Nokia hasn't announced yet is the commercial evolution path beyond the Maemo 5 official updates that it is granted that will keep coming. Yes, this is the same old question "Harmattan / MeeGo officially supported for the N900" and the same answer still prevails: http://wiki.maemo.org/What_can_we_re..._Harmattan_.3F

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Also read this:
http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2010/...responsibility/

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Added on March 16, 2010, 2:26 pmHaha, I try, but... is it "legal" hahaha

This post has been edited by Andy214: Mar 16 2010, 02:26 PM

In terms of capabilities or technical terms, many phones already outrun iPhone.

But in end user or for normal user, iPhone might still be the best up till today mainly because of it's apps available and the usability/usage of the phone/device.

Really depends what you want or looking for. Find out yourself what you want and which phone suits you the best. N900's Maemo OS is totally different from the rest, is what I can tell you, and it's also the only device running Maemo 5.

Some people prefer Android OS design, WinMo, iPhone's OS, Symbians, etc. Other than OS, it also depends the design of the phone, and what are the factors you look into, e.g. the cameras, multi-touch, keyboard, etc. and how important is each to you.

As an end user, if you're looking for a true multi-tasking device with pc-like experience web browsing. The N900 is no doubt the best you can find. It's amazing when you can use to surf net and multi-task at Starbucks or anywhere just like having a laptop with you. My friend who owns the iPhone also have his eyes wide-open and "wow-ed" by it and started to pay attention to this device.

But if you're someone who uses the phone a lot, needs very stable phone and make frequent calls, or are very particular with camera functions; you might want to re-condsider or think carefully and review the phone in detail first.

I haven't really encounter crash so far; lag probably when the processor usage is high or when something is running the in background. If you know what to do, you can kill/close the application from X-Terminal (MS-DOS alike for Maemo/Linux). If not, just simply restart your phone.
It's best if you install the "System Info Widget" which allows you to view the processor and ram usage on your desktop, thus if you notice your processor is using up constantly and you're not running any programs, you can suspect something hidden is running.
Nonetheless, the N900 Maemo 5 OS is still very fresh and new, many things to be improve and bugs to fix. Eventually it'll get better.

As for N97, the initial firmware has quite a lot of problems too, it's not smooth and laggy too. The latest firmware is pretty stable and smooth too, also have kinetic scrolling.

There's another more annoying problem on the Symbian, which is you can't make calls and you keep get "Connection Error". And another is the call didn't get through and goes to some voice operated like "The number you have dial...." and keeps repeating, you can't cancel, you can't do anything, just can wait until it automatically stops. That's more annoying, but after some firmware updates, the problems seems rearely or never happen again, can't even remember.

Don't worry, software issues can be fixed, as long as it's not hardware, then it's more of a headache. These are very complicated software/OS, thus there can NEVER be any perfect one; it's through testing, user's feedback, etc that the software/OS gets better and better.

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Added on March 16, 2010, 7:57 pmFor people who're interested in iPhone, please understand about the battery replacement issues.

And make sure you take good care of the battery. I mean, REALLY!


This post has been edited by Andy214: Mar 16 2010, 07:57 PM

Correction for my previous post, the total page include front and back is more than 7 pages.

I've attached the mag front page, the first page of the review and the final page of the review.

No problem. Don't worry, nowadays update is very easy, just download the NSU (Nokia Software Updater), connect your phone via USB and it will check and download latest firmware and update it. It also works for older N series which supports USB connection. I've been updating my previous N series myself via the NSU.
Or for faster and safer way, just send to Nokia Care to update it (if you bought authorised set (Zitron/Avaxx), you can update it for free if it's still under warranty.)

By default N900 media player have Internet radio, which of course rely's on the network or wifi.

Theres's another option which is FM Radio app, which you need to have a headphone/headset with Antenna.
Then you can use the app to tune to the frequency you like.

Is there receiver? The app asked to plug in a headphone/headset with FM Antenna receiver.
Without it, can't receive any signals.

Check MeeGo official website, you can see N900 being used as the main picture.
http://meego.com


Another site mentioned:
http://www.nokian900applications.com/nokia...versy/#more-545

Quote from the above website:
"For Nokia the error of this holder of CNET is the way in which is written. From the Finnish company has been clarified that MeeGo yes can work with the Nokia N900, but that the update to MeeGo can not be from Maemo 5. The process to change of Maemo 5 to MeeGo, can be a little more complicated, but not impossible.

But until they officially launch the new platform for Nokia and Intel, surely we’ll find more rumors of this type by the network."

Those rumours or FUD news is more like they're trying to kill the N900 or cause some havoc or make people stray away from N900. Why not wait for official statement from Nokia themselves. Logically speaking, even if really they don't allow "official" change to MeeGo, it's still unlogical that Nokia will just throw away and leave N900 aside. They're not any Tom, d*** or Harry who just do business for one time then run away with the income.

The truth is, the N900 (or more specifically Maemo) has make a great entrance and scene, just like when iPhone first appeared. But since it's Nokia and most people are very brand conscious, they will have a tougher path to make their device famous even how great it is.


Is it? That's cool~ Must try later, hehe.

Actually, since the N900 supports Flash v9
you can basically access to tons and tons of Flash apps, videos and games online. There're just so many to list.

Some great Flash sites:
http://www.newgrounds.com (so many FREE videos, games, etc; it's a very old and long Flash site)
http://www.popcap.com (some games might require Flash 10)

There're so many types and interesting Flash games you can play, or great Flash videos you can find (movies, cartoons, fan-made videos, MTVs, etc). The best is check out newgrounds, there're many professional flash creator there, including one which I know who used to work for Disney, his animation/work is superb quality.

Here is a video previously I created (btw, you can activate the mouse which can be useful for some websites/games):

Yup, some games/videos consume quite a lot of resource/memory, you need to change the quality to lower quality, while some is simply too lag. Old or more simple games should work great. The games and videos I show are all very very old already haha but they're great ones and nicely done.

Flash 10 is said to optimize the GPU, not sure what difference will it make on the N900. If there's much improvement, possibly can play Cafe World on FB; currently it will hang the mozilla browser most probably due to too much resource consumption.

For those interested and didn't know, you can actually download the SWF files, you can put into your N900 or micro sd and play it offline with your phone anytime. Though some flash files the developer put in some controls to make sure the flash files is execute from certain websites or so.

How nice if the N900 is pack with 1Ghz processor and true 512MB ram or even better 1GB ram
(current ram is 256MB + 768 (virtual memory))
When the ram or processor is used up, the phone will lag or slow to response; the processor is quite often showing 100%.

Read that the rumoured HTC HD3 will have 4.5" screen, 1.5Ghz snapdragon...
But... also read that the new Windows Phone OS will not have multi-tasking?

This is the same old stuff, same source. Nothing is confirmed yet, and it's been mentioned many times.

Anyway, check out official MeeGo website, they're using N900 in the main page picture itself.

Of course, there's still no confirmation whether it will be officially available for the N900 in the future.


GPS yes of course. There're also Infra Red (which many devices do not have, long forgotten features) and also FM Transmitter (another cool feature).

Currently the phone functionality is very very basic; You can't even assign ringing tone to individual contacts, no contacts grouping, etc. It's very basic phone function, basically it's an Internet Tablet (think laptop with touchscreen; hence Tablet) with "added" phone functionality.
These are softwares issue, sure it can be improve and updated. As long as it is not missing the hardware (e.g. camera).

When new iPhone launch, N900 is long outdated, lol; You might want to consider MeeGo devices VS Android 3.X (or higher) devices VS iPhone.

Anyway, actually for now, so many phone has already beaten the iPhone. When iPhone first launch, no doubt, it was a "WOW!!!!!" and really make a BIG difference to the smartphone market, like a big difference in technology. But then, think again, iPhone 2G -> iPhone 3G -> iPhone 3GS, actually it's like minor/small updates, nothing exciting and more like squeezing people's money. Imagine bought 2G, then come out 3G, the SAME THING just with 3G, then 3GS, again like a small "facelift" model with some improvements. All this I call rubbish, pardon me.
They should drop and come out with TOTALLY NEW and again WOW the market, not keep doing minor updates,... (e.g. 3GSS? 3GX?)
And another major problem with iPhone... the battery!!! Try watch YouTube and see how risky and hard it is to change the battery, it's really stewpid and totally unfair to do this to the consumers.
Another thing is that it is very very "CLOSE" or very "restricted" device, and tell the truth, would you not want to jailbreak it?

Now, I think the Android devices are moving really fast, and the community support and participation is superb. They even have overclock Moto Milestone processor! And the apps and games are coming up like crazy and fast, not to mentioned great ones. In Malaysia, probably it's less well known to the public as many might not be tech conscious and many are brand conscious, but I think with Sony brand bringing in Xperia X10, that would make a difference.
Besides, seems some Android devices already have flash support!

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Added on March 19, 2010, 11:05 amActually, for now, many app is simply ported to N900~ Which makes it even faster.

We have PSX emulator, N64 Emulator, in the works.

PicoDrive ported (Sega Megadrive Emu)
SNES
GBA
GB

There's also other apps from older Maemo ported to Maemo5, and so on.

But I think the issue now is... the next major updated which will sort of change the structure of current Maemo OS? Wonder what will happen to all those apps currently available.

I think there're many apps/games ready for the next update, we just need to wait for the next major update to be released...
Oh darn! It's been so long....

This post has been edited by Andy214: Mar 19 2010, 11:05 AM

Would be even better if allow us to adjust shutter and aperture
Oh oh, and manual focus would be nice too.
Video should have manually activated focus during capture, that's be nice.

Still no news about ringtone contacts, contacts grouping? Official MMS? SMS storing/archiving and other features available to most phones today.

To be honest, with technologies moving so fast, if you want to keep update to the latest, it's very hard; One thing you can do is decide the best device for "yourself" not others.
Every phone design is different, even they may have very similar design, like the N900 and Motorola Milestone, but still there're some people prefer N900 while some prefer the Milestone.
If design is not a factor for you, then look at what's important for yourself and what fits you most.

The N900 and Milestone only have 5MP camera for example, while the X10 have 8MP cam and have 1Ghz snapdragon processor. The X10 seems more updated than the other 2, but it lacks qwerty keyboard; it depends how important is each to the buyer/owner.

To me, even tough I've known the N900 lacks of capacitive touch screen, multi-touch capabilities, AMOLED or SUPER AMOLED, could have been better with 1Ghz processor and also more RAM; but most important is whether it is good and efficient. No point a phone have 1 Ghz processor if it's slow and laggy right? Most important is it works fine, the resistive touch screen works fine for me too (who care if it's resistive or capacitive; if one does not know, he/she just care whether it works nicely), the display is OK too altough would hope it can do better under sunlight condition. The key point here is whether the things work fine or good enough. Of course, more is better and always welcome.
Besides, the N900 have Infra Red, FM Transmitter, which isn't commonly available. You don't always find a device with these available; I'd say it's a great device.

Ok, to make it simple and short:
If you're worry about outdated, then get the latest phone and NEVER follow up news of any new phones
If not, go check out the real thing yourself, you might get yourself an answer if you really like the phone.

This post has been edited by Andy214: Mar 19 2010, 11:51 PM

In web browser?

Just slide your stylus or finger from the left side of the screen (non-display area) to the display area.

thanks! just hope it helps, most important if you like the phone, suits you and don't regret later.
whichever phone u get, learn more about it and utilize it, make it worth. each phone also have it advantages or appealing points unless we're rich and don't mind carry many phones, maybe we can get each hahaha. too bad nobody come out with the best of everything, so we can just chnoose the closest thing that is best for us.

in terms of gps, n900 currently really lacks of great gps software especially those we use often like garmin or papago. not sure how long or will it be available in future as this maemo5 os is only available on 1 phone now. i doubt those companies will want to specially develop or port one for the n900... so if gps is the top priority, u might want to consider again.
wifi is no problem, touch is not a problem too plus is super accurate and u can use ur nail, its less sensitive but i kinda prefer like this, too sensitive can be annoying too depends on individual or probably need some time to get used to.
camera is decent, need to play around with the settings to capture better quality,its alsohave quite some noise and the white balance needs some improvements. but all these i suppose can be improve/fix through software updates. would be great if it has more advanced settings.

smootheness... oh yes, it's great! i mean, its sick! it has nice and smooth transition, look and feel nice. the user interface looks sick too, very nice desktop concept and design, like no other phones in the market.

problems?
well, sometimes the phone can get quite laggy due to some app taking up the processing power or when u first connected to the internet and all the updates and login running in background. the thing with smartphones (any smartphones) is tha u have too have some patience and understand whats going on and adapt to it. if hyou see its laggy, find out whats wrong and don't keep press and press or reset the phone, just like a computer, some ppl just hit the power buttom.

other problems are mostly software problems which can be fixed/improved in newer updates.
like the lack of contacts grouping, individual contacts ringtone assign, basic phone funtion, etc.
lack of apps and updates
seeing android getting so many updates and cool apps/games is really uneasy hehe, making me more impatient with the next update for n900.

for hardware part, i just wish it comes with more ram and also faster processor. but it's still a great and awesome device nonetheless.

oh btw, this is posted through n900.The beauty of having a qwerty keyboard!
p/s? forgive me for any spelling mistake.

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Added on March 20, 2010, 11:46 amcheck out N900 push technology and what they're doing. it's simply amazing!
thwy're controlling ao many type of thing using the N900!

This post has been edited by Andy214: Mar 20 2010, 11:46 AM

Basically others have given very good and detailed information/advice to you.

As you're new to this "smart"phone thing, then whichever "smart"phone you get, you got lots to learn and discover, you can take your time slowly and learn the phone.
Basically, N97 mini runs on Symbian OS, which in my personal opinion is pretty good itself, and it's easy to use and learn. Though, the Symbian now is different from the Symbian long ago, it's not much more restricted unless you hacked it and install some apps. But if you're just a normal user, it's good enough and the latest firmware is pretty stable and smooth, also have kinetic scrolling.

N900 is having Linux based OS and it's much or far far more powerful, it's "VERY" open and you can do sooo much with it. But then, to a normal user, it might mean nothing. So, you really need to find out what you "WANT".

If you're not sure or bother which OS is better, maybe you can test and watch some videos; All these OS give different look and feel. See which you like because you will be LOOKING and using it everyday.
N900's Maemo OS is really unique from others, it has Desktop which allow you to customize and design your own desktop based on your own creativity or your preferences, thus you will see many many types of desktop design from everyone.
Perhaps you should try and check out YouTube videos on each OS, or check out the VIDEO reviews of the phone you are interested in, there's also UNBOXING videos which lets you go though opening the box of the phone untill the first BOOT UP of the phone. If you watch N900 boot up video, it's very interesting and unique.

GPS:
Basically, over here, I think the MAP is more important. As others have mentioned, malsingmaps & malfreemaps are the best or in terms of community support; Malsingmaps is more trouble as they have some terms, malfreemaps, as stated, is FREE.
So, for the above said maps, they supports Garmin, Mapking and Papago (sorry only for PAPA).
Garmin is good, so is PapaGo, but for mobile version, PapaGo in my opinion, is better, it already have JUNCTION VIEW for X3.
Garmin v5 is kinda slow and have problem on mobile devices, probably due to the higher resource it use? Before I upgrade to v5, the last version of v4 is stable, fast and accurate. V5 have better graphics but have several issues when I use it.

I think Android OS have PapaGo software. If yes, then you might want to consider the Motorola Milestone, which is cheaper than the N900, or Sony Xperia X10 if you prefer Sony, plus it's also more powerful but also cost much more.
The Motorola Milestone have very similar design with the N900, with added advantage where it's more slim, bigger display, and seems better build quality (metal). The performance looks great too, so many videos of it in YouTube (promoting superb 3D android games).
The drawback is the internal memory is super little... have to use micro SD...
N900 have 32GB (2GB reserved + 768 for Virtual Memory)! You can put in another 32GB micro SD = 64GB in total!

Don't rush it bro, take your time and slowly do your research; Make sure you check out each and every phone you have interest in and choose carefully~


Bros, I think harold123 actually mean that if someone get so powerful hp but only use for call and sms, then better seek other hp. Not saying the N900 only can call and sms, hehe

If you don't care about the technical or full capabilities of the device, but care about apps/games and support, I think Android would be a better choice.

The Maemo5 OS is only used by Nokia N900, no other device, and when it's launched, it's only available in US and EU. Now coming to more countries. With little users, less companies invest to develop/port app/games to this device, future is still uncertain, possibly it will BLOOM if it gains it's popularity and people start to appreciate this device, else it might STILL get it's supports mostly from the community, just like now (beauty of OPEN SOURCE).
The N900 is very "OPEN" and there's so much one can do with this phone; but to normal user or user that don't use those features, it means nothing to them.
Above is IF you're into app/games and supports.

Some owners might look into the OS Design, because you're USING and LOOKING at the device everytime, so if the OS design isn't appealing, then it might turn the owner off. If you prefer Maemo5 design and it's desktop, but you end up buying an Android design, you might feel the "darn, I should get the N900" feeling (just like you order food, you know you want this food, but then you get another for another reason, then when you're eating it, you regret you didn't order the one which you wanted). Similarly, if you prefer Android OS design, LOOK and FEEL, getting N900 might cause the same feeling. Of course, that's IF the OS design is so important to you. It is to me, I like the Desktop concept, where I can customize and make my Desktop look nice to my preference, I just love to look at it everytime I unlock my device. And because it's so customizable, it looks different on every user's N900, depending on their preference and creativity. It's unique and I don't see this concept on other mobile OS.

The Moto I like it's metal build quality and slim design, but it lacks quite a few things, especially internal storage memory... N900 comes with 32GB built-in storage, with expandable micro SD up to 32GB = 64GB. Some people might say, who needs so much storage. But as I've said before, everyone have their importance of each feature; I do use up as many storage as possible, I can just dump as many FULL movies I like, to tell the truth, it's never enough if you really use it.

haha, yea
basically to put it short, jusy need to know what the buyer is actually looking for and weights out the important features. basically, if apps and games is very important, then Android might be a better choice especially now.