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Nokia N900 Necromancy

yaky.dev

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Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#151

Post by fragmede »

Tor3 wrote: post #67
sollewitt wrote: post #41

The N900 was my peak “mobile computing is awesome” device. I went to see District 9 in the cinema in Helsinki. Uh oh, the alien parts are only subtitled in Finnish and Swedish and my Finnish is not up to that. I installed a BitTorrent client, found the release on Pirate Bay, successfully torrented just the subtitle file, and used an editor to read the subtitles for scenes with a lot of alien. The N9 had much better U…

My N900 (Made in Finland, an early one) was great. I would have used it still if it wasn't for the fact that after 3G disappeared it was useless. The battery could be replaced (as others have mentioned), so it was perfectly fine still. Mechanically it was as good as new as well. As it was basically like Debian Linux inside I could do what I usually do - write hobby projects and run it on the N900. I had my minicomput…

Have you seen the GPD pocket 4? There's a 4G option, but unfortunately not one for 5G (yet?)

https://www.gpd-minipc.com/products/gpd-micropc2

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#152

Post by pessimizer »

carlosjobim wrote: post #128
Sharlin wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was such an incredible phone. Easily rivaled the iPhones of the time and was light-years beyond any Android.

Not directed at you, but what kind of person would [flag] and [dead] the other reply to your comment? Talk about not having a life! As for the N9, it still has the most modern and beautiful GUI of any smart device, 15 years after being discontinued. It will take at least 15 more years for iOS or Android to reach that level, if ever. The physical design was also very nice and refined. For those who don't believe me: h…

I always thought that flagging would get the comment put into a review queue (one that would put even your ability to flag at risk), but it seems that mass flagging gets you an automated flagkill of late. People can get flagkilled for not sufficiently loving particular products or for not being orthorexic enough.

As for the N900, I just wanted one or two more hardware iterations (the design flaws were annoying, and a couple mentioned in the OP.) The N9 looked great, but I couldn't get over the loss of the keyboard (although of course that was our dictated future.) The Meego transition seemed unnecessary and annoying (not the UI changes, but everything else), especially the move to rpms from debs. They were just hostile to Debian mainline for some reason; if they had been less hostile, their work would have survived without a break even after Elop intentionally tanked the company. That proprietary moat is just irresistible.

iOS and Android literally grabbed the designers of Maemo/Meego and WebOS to update their horrible UIs. Back then, they were still even refusing to multitask. Android copied WebOS almost exactly.

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#153

Post by pessimizer »

Arch-TK wrote: post #32
yaky wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was Neo900, abandoned in 2018. The site is still up though: https://neo900.org/#main

It wasn't really abandoned so much as killed by PayPal. The project used PayPal to gather downpayments, PayPal decided to lock the funds for months (almost a year or maybe longer IIRC) because they saw money coming in but no confirmation of goods coming out. And, you know, when it comes to big companies, no explanation is sufficient, you are guilty of something because some heuristic said so, so the funds were locked…

This seems like weird revisionist history or I missed something. I never got a dime back that I spent on the Neo900, which I assumed they spent on their personal lifestyles and travel while trying and failing to design and manufacture a board.

If there was actually a holdup of funds that killed the project, and eventually the funds were released, that's an even worse story. I didn't think there could be a worse story. It would mean that the project fell apart while they were waiting on cash, then when they got it they just treated it like a personal windfall. IIRC I ended up out $1.5K on the thing.

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#154

Post by jrmg »

rcarmo wrote: post #75
antran22 wrote: post #38

I'm just wondering if there is any real modern pocket cyberdeck with the form factor of those old phones, with a slide out physical keyboard.

The folk who left Psion tried to resurrect the Psion 3/5 form factor a few times as an Android phone with a fairly decent keyboard, but I don’t think they’re still around (or that it’s cheap enough to justify getting one).

Seem to still be around!

https://store.planetcom.co.uk/collections/all

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#155

Post by pessimizer »

yaky wrote: post #20
internet2000 wrote: post #5

Buddy, just buy a replacement battery https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=BL-5J

I looked, but TBH, not sure what to make of "genuine" and "OEM" claims for a battery for a 16–year-old device (or 10-year-old if you count compatible Lumias). Descriptions usually do not mention manufacture dates either.

> not sure what to make of "genuine" and "OEM" claims for a battery for a 16–year-old device

They're lies, but the batteries work. There were Chinese lines manufacturing knockoff BL-5Js, and there may still be one or two, or just a bunch of crates filled with old ones. Source: still use an N900, but just for podcasts.

> 10-year-old if you count compatible Lumias

Worse, those Lumia BL-5Js aren't actually compatible. The slots cut into the battery aren't wide enough to fit into the N900. Unless you're willing to cut apart the battery itself, they're useless.

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#156

Post by burnte »

sollewitt wrote: post #41

The N900 was my peak “mobile computing is awesome” device. I went to see District 9 in the cinema in Helsinki. Uh oh, the alien parts are only subtitled in Finnish and Swedish and my Finnish is not up to that. I installed a BitTorrent client, found the release on Pirate Bay, successfully torrented just the subtitle file, and used an editor to read the subtitles for scenes with a lot of alien. The N9 had much better U…

To me it was also a huge disappointment. I had the N810 and it was amazing, I still have it. I wish I could get a new board for it. But the N900 was all cheap plastic, no metal like the 810, the magnets fell out all the time, the software was janky, and several promised features never arrived. It could have been awesome, but Nokia had already been distracted in their 5 device plan that the N900 was part of. We never got the follow up and Maemo was abandoned.

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#158

Post by TimByte »

sollewitt wrote: post #41

The N900 was my peak “mobile computing is awesome” device. I went to see District 9 in the cinema in Helsinki. Uh oh, the alien parts are only subtitled in Finnish and Swedish and my Finnish is not up to that. I installed a BitTorrent client, found the release on Pirate Bay, successfully torrented just the subtitle file, and used an editor to read the subtitles for scenes with a lot of alien. The N9 had much better U…

It wasn't just a phone, it was a little pocket computer that assumed you were allowed to solve your own problems

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#159

Post by TimByte »

dtj1123 wrote: post #94

Sincere question: Can someone explain how you develop the skills and knowledge required to pull this off? I'm no genius, but I'm reasonably sure I'm not a slouch either. I've got a masters in theoretical physics, I've worked with and written software for four years, I take an interest in anything techy I come across. I've picked up the basics of population genomics and molecular genetics without assistance. I still f…

A lot of this looks like black magic from the outside because the learning path is mostly invisible

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#160

Post by asveikau »

internet2000 wrote: post #26
specialp wrote: post #22

I remember when the N900 came out other phones including the iPhone could not process a web page with AJAX or most javascript and Flash. It truly gave you a desktop experience on a phone. You could open a terminal and ssh into a server or do whatever you want. Another funny thing people forget: It had another Finnish company's game for it that later became wildly successful: Rovio Angry Birds

Web browsing wasn't a particular strength of it. I remember the N900's browser came with a version of Gecko around a year old by the time. Flash support was a downside. And of course, contemporary iPhones ran circles around it in smoothness.

I seem to recall they received criticism for going with gecko when the rest of the industry was getting behind WebKit.
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