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It *is* A Phone! (Hello N900, Goodbye Internet Tablets!)
11 September 2010
Well, I finally got an N900, and at a bargain price too! 
I've used all the previous generations of Internet Tablets, and it was getting a little wearying having to explain that they weren't phones. "What kind of phone is that?" - is a difficult one to field when you've just been spotted talking into an Internet Tablet when making a Skype call via WiFi or a Bluetooth connection!
Not only is the N900 based on an open operating system, but it runs the same one that keeps the Internet ticking. There's a wealth of software out there that has been honed over decades that can be easily ported to it (except someone has probably already done this for you), without you having to "reinvent the wheel".
First impressions? Well, even better than I'd anticipated, a real classy job! Everything the earlier Internet Tablets could do with a lot more room to do it in. Only the screen, at 3.5", is smaller; but as a pocket-able phone it has to be. But if you do want BIG screen it does that too via a supplied video lead straight into your HDTV.
I'm going to describe my experiences in using the underlying Operation System on this blog. On a closed system this would be described as "breaking" the phone - in the sense of breaking into the closed operating system. But with the Maemo 5 operating system it's not really that, as just enough barriers are put in place to stop the computer illiterate from "bricking" his purchase. The philosophy is: if you know where & how to walk around the Maemo barrier and get into "the works", then you likely know enough to use the device fully.
I've used all the previous generations of Internet Tablets, and it was getting a little wearying having to explain that they weren't phones. "What kind of phone is that?" - is a difficult one to field when you've just been spotted talking into an Internet Tablet when making a Skype call via WiFi or a Bluetooth connection!
Not only is the N900 based on an open operating system, but it runs the same one that keeps the Internet ticking. There's a wealth of software out there that has been honed over decades that can be easily ported to it (except someone has probably already done this for you), without you having to "reinvent the wheel".
First impressions? Well, even better than I'd anticipated, a real classy job! Everything the earlier Internet Tablets could do with a lot more room to do it in. Only the screen, at 3.5", is smaller; but as a pocket-able phone it has to be. But if you do want BIG screen it does that too via a supplied video lead straight into your HDTV.
I'm going to describe my experiences in using the underlying Operation System on this blog. On a closed system this would be described as "breaking" the phone - in the sense of breaking into the closed operating system. But with the Maemo 5 operating system it's not really that, as just enough barriers are put in place to stop the computer illiterate from "bricking" his purchase. The philosophy is: if you know where & how to walk around the Maemo barrier and get into "the works", then you likely know enough to use the device fully.
