Sunday, November 15, 2009

Nokia N900, first impressions.






DHL delivered my N900 on Friday night at about 8:45PM. Needless to say, I was up with it most of the night. I have had many Nokia smartphones, all using Symbian, and I have also bought the N770, and N800 internet tablets that run early versions of Maemo Linux, like the N900.

WOW! What a difference. The previous internet tablets were geek linux, but Nokia really pulled out the stops in making the N900 "consumer ready".

Most people that buy the N900's will not even know or care what is under the hood, although is supercharged, injected, cammed, and rumbling with power. What they will see is an integrated theme of communication. The N900 is really a window to the digital world. Unlike the previous internet tablets, everything about the N900 is seamlessly woven together to bring many forms of interaction with the outside world together. You can make a call using the cell carrier, or with SIP (like Gizmo), or Skype, or Google Talk, and they all work the same. In "Conversations" your SMS, Google Talk, Jabber, MSN , Yahoo contacts are all aggregated into one seamless page.

The conglomeration theme continues with 4 desktops that let you arrange links and widgets to area's that suit your needs. The hardware is fast, and scrolling through the desktops has no hesitation whatsoever.

The whole "Window to the digital world" theme is so well integrated that the N900 is hard to describe as one thing. It's not a phone with computer functions. It's not a computer with phone functions. It is what the future of digital comunications will be.

I have been involved with the computer industry since the early 1980's when I worked for a small Japanese computer company called SORD Computer. SORD was years ahead of it's time, but was overshadowed by the big companies of the time. Nokia is a big company, and the N900 is a true milestone in digital comunication.

The N900 will end up in the history books with things like the DEC PDP-11, Morrow S-100's, Kaypro Portables. The N900 WILL change the direction of digital communications.

I am truly impressed.

For those that wonder if I actually have one, here is the DHL tracking:

Click to see!


Short video I took with the N900 outside the Chicago Nokia Store

Another thought. The iPhone crowd keep whining about capacitive touch screens. The resistive touch screen on the N900 is not only very responsive to the fingers, but it lets you use a stylus for exact work. Try drawing something on an iPhone, try writing kanji. The iPhone capacitive touch screen is great for smudging big buttons and things around with big fingers, but I am GLAD Nokia went with a high quality resistive screen on the N900. I think it is better!

One more thing. Do not compare an N900 to an iPhone. If you want a comparable Nokia product, that would be the N97.

The N900, as I said before is a totally new concept in digital communication. It is not strictly a phone.

I changed the picture. I installed an app called "x11vnc" on the N900, and then with a VNC client on my Mac, I can have control of the N900 through my laptop. Answer calls, change settings. How kewl is this!

23 comments:

  1. Post some photos with that DHL package, box and actual manual, and I might start believing you...

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  2. Hi Kurt,

    Just one question, what date did you preorder the phone from NokiaUSA?

    I'm curious when my phone will arrive.

    Thanks,

    -chris

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  3. Kurt, thanks for the clarification! I now have more faith to get my own soon :)

    Is it the final version, any thoughts about that?

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  4. I won the N900 at the Chicago N900 Meetup. The "Wonderful" Katja from Nokia sent it to me from Finland. I don't think Nokia is shipping production models quite yet.

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  5. Thanks for a great review. But I hate you

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  6. I also Hate you .... dont come to Miami, Trust me.
    .... lol j/k

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  7. Hey, I too got hold of the N900! I left my name with the flagstore in NYC. I received a call on Fri (11/20), bought it over the phone and picked it up yesterday (11/21). It is fantastic. I was weary of the touchscreen but I am very impressed with it! My husband, who is an iphone junkie is pretty taken with my phone, though he won't admit it. LOL I totally agree with you about the phone. I love it!

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  8. I'm enviously awaiting my N900 to come out of "pre-order" stage. While I'm waiting, can anyone with an N900 comment on the ActiveSync feature? Will I be the ONLY person to sync my N900 with Outlook on my laptop? I'm an "office" kind of guy--been waiting for something like the N900 since my Palm Pilot died a few years ago.

    Cheers!

    Brad

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  9. Brad, I have lots of computers around here but none of them running Windows. The N900 has an "Exchange" email client, but I never set it up. Sorry.

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  10. Hi, Kurt. Well, it looks like it's my job to test the ActiveSync feature. :-) Whenever I get the device that it! I'll post something up on my own blog.

    The other feature I'm curious about that doesn't get mentioned much is the FM radio tuner. I know the hardware is there, but did Nokia ship an FM Radio Application with the device?

    Cheers!

    Brad

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  11. The FM radio transmitter works fine. Yeah!

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  12. The FM reciever is the same as on other Nokia products. It uses the earbud wire as an antenae.

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  13. The vnc thing is really cool, and just convinces me even more that this is the right phone/computer/digital assistant for me :)

    Did you know that you don't even need a specialised vnc-client on the mac? Finder has vnc functionality built right into it. Just 'Connect to Server...' (cmd+k) and enter as address: vnc://[ip address to connect to].
    Did you check if that works? 'Cause that's the way to do it between macs with Desktop Sharing enabled. Works with my linux setup, too. :)

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  14. Brad,

    Does the mail for exchange support activsync with subfolders....

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  15. Hi,,,

    any one plzzzzz help me..i took N900 3 days back in oman muscat and i found the main majore problem is ..characters r not working in dial phone…

    if i enter *102 hash

    or *115* rechargenumber hash..it is not taking.

    i gave the mobile to nokia customer care and they said it will not work and give alternate suggesion
    1.call customer care to know the balance
    2.recharge you mobile from internet


    can any one help me plzzzzzzzzzzzz
    lohith4u@gmail.com

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  16. Hi all,
    I also have N900. It's really good, except some bugs (cannot dial *121# to check prepaid balance, Ovi suite not supported yet, SMSC address doesn't set by default, cannot see SIM menu). but still it's great!
    I have few questions, hope you'll answer...
    1. where did you get x11vnc app for N900? I actually have VNC client installed on N900, but not VNC server?
    2. there is no FM radio app. can i download it from somewhere?

    Thanks

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  17. Hi all,
    I also have N900. It's really good, except some bugs (cannot dial *121# to check prepaid balance, Ovi suite not supported yet, SMSC address doesn't set by default, cannot see SIM menu). but still it's great!
    I have few questions, hope you'll answer...
    1. where did you get x11vnc app for N900? I actually have VNC client installed on N900, but not VNC server?
    2. there is no FM radio app. can i download it from somewhere?

    Thanks
    Atique

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  18. Idle, install the Extras-testing repository, x11vnc is there, actually lots more. meamo.org has instructions.

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  19. Can't get x11vnc to start. It just sits there, spinning the circle, and eventually quits. Anything special one needs to do to get it running?

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  20. Nice phone, but us Windows mobile users have all of the "control" you've been going on about for ages. The keyboard on the HTC touch pro 2 owns the n900s.

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  21. wow. this is very advanced, is awesome.

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