The Nokia N900 in use, a perspective.

I’ve had my Nokia N900 for almost 48 hours, and while I’ve have a few frustrations, I’m equally satisfied with the product. And so to keep it geeky and simple:

• I’ve logged into the device (not really a phone) with SSH from my desktop. And it just looks like a standard Linux system.
• I’ve logged in to my Opensolaris from the device shell (X Terminal) with SSH and that works like normal.
• I’ve connect to the VLC server on my server, with VLC, from the device, and while the navigation of the screen size differences will be ‘fun’, it works as expected
• I’ve Blogged from the device using MaStory.
• I’ve sent SMS and received SMS’s, I received Phone calls. (gee)
• I’ve been fetching emails, full html support (must turn off images)
• I’ve found my location with GPS.
• I’ve loaded up some songs, and they sound great with the stereo speakers
• I’ve listened to internet radio, that works great.
• I’ve used the keyboard, and I’m getting faster the more I use it.
• I’ve browsed the internet, and it’s amazing, although my blog identifies it as a PDA (must fix that)
• I’ve used the device to diagnose a neighbors laptop WiFi connection
• I’ve taken a photo, not so great on the first try, no image stabilization, but relatively sharp
• I’ve managed to post a photo to my Flickr account.
• I’ve synced up my calendar and contacts with my Nokia 6300 backup using the Nokia PC suite (as OVI suite does not work)
• I’ve connected to AOL and Yahoo IM with the Pidgin application.

However there is another list, of frustrations;

• Battery life really sucks, mostly because I’ve had everything turned on (default) and have not found all the places to ‘tune’ them to better setting.
• I can NOT get the Twitter application Mauku to connect to Twitter
• I can NOT get the weather with OMWeather it won’t connect
• I couldn’t get the MaxRoam SIM to dial anyone, though I could SMS
• Some Apps from the App Manager WILL NOT DOWNLOAD no matter what I do, and there no indication about why they won’t download
• I can’t get the FaceBook application which came pre-installed, to actually install, or function. It’s the same with several of the ‘pre-installed’ apps, they just don’t work without being ‘installed’ and they won’t install.

I am currently using a Vodafone Pay-as-you-Go SIM and it does indicate that I am connected with 3G. I have NOT tested it for dataroaming, or performance. The MaxRoam SIM did indicate that I was connected to a 3.5G O2 network But like I mentioned, I couldn’t call anyone, only SMS. I assume that it was my ignorance of setting for the MaxRoam SIM.

As for the phone itself, I like it, it’s a bit heaver than I thought, but a great deal smaller, it is not really any wider or taller than a Samsung Tocco Lite, but it’s almost twice as thick.

The keyboard is very small and not really thumb friendly, I started out using my fingernails to type. Now I can feel the contours of the keys, it sped up my typing a bit. I have a clear snap on case I bought from Amazon a month ago, but the screen section obscures the upper row on the keyboard, so I don’t have it on, so just the back is attached.

The resistive touchscreen is very sensitive. I have a Palm T/X and I know! It is nothing like the resistive screens of the past. There is virtual NO give to the surface, and while you can tell that it is ‘softer’ than a capacitive touchscreen, it has a great deal more precision. Just try and draw something in the ‘sketch’ app or better yet, the XJournal application.

Overall I could say that it’s a keeper, a Geeky keeper, and looks like it will be a learned love. It does do what I need it to do, be a computed device, with a phone in it.

I’m sure there will be other revelations, but I may be too busy playing with my new toy.

UPDATE : I’ve managed to get the missing FaceBook App to install and Mauku and OMWeather are working after I changed some of the connection setting on device to fixed ip addresses on my WiFi router.