Nokia's first Linux phone rocks

http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/

by scharan • 17 years ago

44 32 17 years ago

maemo.nokia.com

So is T-Mobile the only carrier in the US that this will be available to?

I believe that the phone doesn't have support for the frequencies on which AT&T's GSM network runs, but it does have support for T-Mobile's GSM network. So for now, T-Mobile looks like the only carrier in the US that this will be going to (with Verizon and Sprint both running CDMA and not being able to carry it).

trezor• 17 years ago

Off-topic, but still: In the US you seriously need some thorough regulation to make this bullshit go away.

You are acting like this is how a normal market is supposed to work. To help you gain some perspective I welcome you, and your standard GSM phone, to any country anywhere in Europe to see how mobile phones, networks and service-providers are really supposed to work in a competitive market.

fno• 17 years ago

If it was not so darn expensive, I would be psyched. But this way I will wait for the OpenPandora for my mobile mini-PC needs (for a telephone I love my Nokia 6310 and will use it until the day it ceases functioning).

_glass• 17 years ago

Hm ... according to 1, 3, 4, 5 around 718$, pre tax and pre carrier subsidy, to 2 750$. I don't think this is too much of a prize for market entry. Remember the 1st iPhone, with all of its specs.

1 http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10319133-94.html 2 http://www.nokian900.com/nokia-n900-internet-tablet-rumors/ 3 http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/08/nokia-evolves-aw... 4 http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n900_is_now_officially_outed_a... 5 http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/27/nokia-n900-running-maemo-...

ars• 17 years ago

Seems quite a lot to me. It's basically the price of a desktop or notebook.

I wonder if I could hook up an external (bluetooth?) keyboard, and a monitor and basically use this thing as a full daily computer.

I saw it has video out (NTSC/PAL), but I wonder if it can do monitor out - hopefully at a higher resolution than 800x480.

dryicerx• 17 years ago

Now that my infatuation with the apple app-store has died down (to the point where I am only using Phone+SMS+Browser+Maps) I think this would do.

code_scrapping• 17 years ago

Seems like Nokia internet tablet n810 + Nokia 5800. Would like to see it's performance before even thinking of buying (it always sounds nice on paper).

btw. Linux instead of Symbian, finally!

j2d22• 17 years ago

Is this an android phone?

dtf• 17 years ago

Maemo (pronounced mime-oh) - it's a bit more of a traditional Linux platform than Android, built on Debian and Gnome. The browser is based on Mozilla.

joezydeco• 17 years ago

Qt is coming into the platform as well.

j2d22• 17 years ago

Wow! It has flash!

christefano• 17 years ago

The N810 does, too, and it's the one big thing I miss since giving my tablet away. The landscape keyboard is also great (especially with the LCARS sounds), but for better or worse I've adapted to my new device.

bad_user2• 17 years ago

The phone looks really cool.

As a programmer I'm lusting for one of these last-generation smart phones as I have some cool ideas I need to try out. Unfortunately I couldn't afford one (got lots of other expenses that have a priority).

iPhone bothers me because you need to have a Mac to develop software for it, and I don't. And iTunes is awful and you're bound to it (I have an iPod Touch, and it's the worst experience I've had with any player ... the codecs are limited, the battery can't be replaced, you can't use it as a storage device, and you can't install third-party apps that aren't on the iTunes store unless you crack it). I've also heard of horror stories related to getting your application approved in iTunes Store.

Android seems interesting, but there's only one device from HTC with Android on sale and it's not that great. I'm waiting for other brands to release Android phones (like Samsung). Also their choice of developing their own VM with incompatible byte-codes seems awkward. Surely it's optimized, but it would have been better if they slimmed and extended the current JVM ... that way libraries depending on byte-code manipulation wouldn't have to be rewritten for Dalvik. And in 3 years from now those optimizations won't matter anyway, and we'll be stuck with an incompatible VM.

There are a couple of interesting devices with Windows Mobile, but the OS is awkward to use ... you need to have a stylus, and the responsiveness is just bad. Maybe that will change with 6.5 / 7.0.

Nokia N900 seems really interesting. It has Flash integrated and Maemo kicks ass when it comes to developer support (GTK+, Qt, multitasking, and you can even install Mono on it). Nokia phones are also solid and I've always been under the impression that it's the only company able to compete with Apple.

I'm waiting to see if N900 delivers.

dejb2• 17 years ago

There are actually 3 HTC Android devices on sale Dream, Magic and Hero. Check ebay. Not sure what the deal is with your carriers though. But I'll be eagerly checking out the N900 as well.

robin_reala• 17 years ago

Samsung have already done an Android phone:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_I7500

grigory• 17 years ago

Contrary to the popular trend, they aren't using a WebKit-based browser - site claims that the phone comes with a Mozilla powered browser engine.

If this phone does take off, I wonder if it could distill WebKit's mobile monopoly (disregarding RIM's rather fair efforts with their in-house browser for having a marginal market share, and Opera is a bit of a different story)...

blasdel• 17 years ago

That's not going to last long, considering that they bought Trolltech and will be switching Maemo from GTK to QT.

GeneralMaximus2• 17 years ago

Another day, another cool phone, another long wait until it's available in India :(

I would buy either Nokia N900, HTC Hero or Palm Pre the day one of them is released in India. Unfortunately, we're stuck with the crappy iPhone :(

thirdusername• 17 years ago

Why don't you import one?

GeneralMaximus2• 17 years ago

Sounds like a good idea. So, eBay? Or someplace else?

weavejester• 17 years ago

This looks pretty interesting. The touch screen not as good as the ones on the iPhone or the HTC Hero, which is a shame, but the CPU is faster than the Hero and on par with the iPhone 3GS. The Maemo interface looks more like a proper OS than Android on the Hero or the iPhone's OS. Like the Hero, the N900 also has Flash, but probably runs it a bit better due to the faster processor. The N900 also has a 800px screen, which I believe is better than both the iPhone and the Hero.

Some people like hardware keyboards, but I don't like the additional bulk they require. The Hero and iPhone are consequently slimmer, and have less moving parts that can break. The Hero also looks like it has a better quality case. The N900 and Hero are both unlocked, which is a welcome change from the iPhone.

Overall, I think I'd still buy a Hero over an N900... but I admit Nokia's offering is tempting.

gtufano• 17 years ago

The phone will be cool for sure. The venerable 700 and the N810 I have are both very cool. The phone section will work very well for sure (hey, it's a Nokia phone, who use Nokia phones knows that the phone section is very good). The real points are: coolness factor outside "very geeky"/"hackers" people and the presence of a real "ISV" ecosystems. The risk is the same risk of Ubuntu: everyone praise it, we all have it installed on one (or more) computer (or VMs) but the computer we normally use have OS X installed on it.

bad_user2• 17 years ago

> the computer we normally use have OS X installed on it.

I don't as I'm using Debian on my workstation. It beats OS X for development purposes (I've worked on a Macbook for 2 years prior to this).

Other than that, saying that Linux is ready for the desktop is just wishful thinking. It may be for grandma that only surfs the web, until one day when she receives a webcam from her nephew.

But we are talking about a phone released by Nokia with Maemo, a Linux distro sponsored by Nokia, on top of hardware that's designed to work with Maemo, with components picked or developed by Nokia.

The chances of success are great. And Nokia even started an iTunes Store equivalent (www.ovi.com).

I don't know, I'm hoping this leads to something because a lack of competition hurts the market.

lsc• 17 years ago

I'm wondering how I could attach one of these to my forearm. I've got a nokia n810, and it is a nice device, but I've not found a reasonably decent holster for it. (personally, I think for portable computing devices like this, 'draw time' is key to usefulness. If I've got to dig it out of a bag, I might as well whip out a laptop.)

gjm11• 17 years ago

Could some thoughtful editor please delete the shamelessly advertorializing word "rocks" from the title?

Nervetattoo• 17 years ago

The UI looks nice, and the specs are over acceptable. I will definitively go for this if its snappy in real life use, so can't wait to try it. Would be nice if my phone was built on the same OS that i use on every computer every day.

ianbishop• 17 years ago

"Database Error: Unable to connect to your database. Your database appears to be turned off or the database connection settings in your config file are not correct. Please contact your hosting provider if the problem persists."

Oof.

symesc• 17 years ago

Everything operates in landscape mode except the phone?

On my iPhone, landscape mode usually means two hands, whereas portrait means one, using my thumb to point or scroll.

It's not a huge thing, but an important feature for me. My phone is on and working about 80% of the time I'm on the move and either not driving or talking to someone. So whether it's drinking coffee, carrying stuff into work, or handling toilet paper (hush!), all of these require effective single-hand operation.

Yeah, thinking about it here, I'd estimate large percentage of my iPhone operation is portrait and single hand. YMMV.

This Nokia Linux phone looks great, however, and I'm nitpicking. I am looking forward to choices in the marketplace.

sharjeel• 17 years ago

Stallman still won't use it .. bloody propriety icons they've used without releasing their photoshop source code which has stopped all innovation in the market!

Nokia's first Linux phone rocks

Related Stories