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Nokia N900 Necromancy

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Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#171

Post by pmarreck »

cvak wrote: post #123
ZenoArrow wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish the N950 was fully released, there were some produced but I don't think it was commercially available. It was the true successor to the N900, it would have used the N9 software but unlike the N9 it also had a physical keyboard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N950

yeah I scooped n950 on some online marketplace for very cheap since it was bricked, fixed it and resold it for profit, but what a beauty of a phone, I wish I kept it.

wow dude, a new 950 in the box is a mere $50,000 on eBay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154469885901

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#172

Post by mbirth »

gspr wrote: post #62
girvo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gosh I loved my Nokia N9. Such an amazing little phone, and it's depressing a little that I can't use them anymore where I live

Here's what I don't get: why can't we have a modern one? It doesn't need to blow flagship smartphones out of the water. It doesn't even need to have a GSM baseband – I'd rather just connect through my "normal" smartphone than deal with all the complications of having a whole extra computer in there. Surely this is getting close to realizable by hobbyists or a niche company?

Planet Computers Gemini? Or their Cosmo Communicator? (To be fair they’re more Psion 5-sized.)

Or do you remember the Beepberry/Beeper?

OTOH, your phone is more than capable, so maybe a small bluetooth keyboard is all you really need. There are apps like iSH on iOS or Termux on Android that give you a Linux shell.

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#173

Post by Fnoord »

mpol wrote: post #96
henearkr wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any keyboard or stylus in that Jolla. For me that is not even in the same league than the N900.

There is the Gemini PDA from 2018 which has a physical keyboard. I heard it was mostly a disappointment. There was another phone with keyboard around the same time, but I forgot the name. That was claimed to be very much in the spirit of the N950 and its cancelled follow-up, the Nokia Lauta. All with Sailfish, the spiritual successor of Meamo/Meego from Nokia.

Mostly a disappointment? The keyboard is fantastic. I can tell because I have a Cosmo Communicator (successor with 4G) and Astro Slide (successor with slide mechanic and 5G). The keyboard of these is great, but... they got barely no support, and the company who build these is like AWOL. Either way, like the GPD Pocket series, the keyboard is larger compared to the Nokia N900 (3G) and Nokia N810 (WLAN only)

> There was another phone with keyboard around the same time, but I forgot the name. That was claimed to be very much in the spirit of the N950 and its cancelled follow-up, the Nokia Lauta.

Probably F(x)tec and their successors. Those have a similar small keyboard as Nokia N900 and Nokia N810

There's also the Hackberry. This device uses a real Blackberry keyboard, with custom firmware. It works together with a 3D printed case, and a RPi CM5. This keyboard, while small, is very ergonomic.

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#174

Post by best_answer »

mrmlz wrote: post #70
imp0cat wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen the Jolla preorder? It was on hn a few days ago. That is the spiritual successor of the N9XX line. https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-preorder

I loved my N9. But i'm somewhat hesitant on preordering that one. I need wireless charging.. And i still dont really get if Android-apps actually work or not, i.e. swedish Bank-Id/Swish etc.

Here you can see Sailfish OS banking app compatibility: https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/banking-apps-on-sailfish-os/1...

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#175

Post by Fnoord »

Nextgrid wrote: post #105
gspr wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you're right. But at the same time I feel (based on nothing) that even the performance of an entry-level Android phone, coupled with libre hardware and software, and a tiny little keyboard like the N900's, running an ordinary Linux distro, actually would find a market. A small market made up of us weirdos who find this HN thread interesting. But then again, experience shows I'm wrong.

A bit on the larger size, but this already exists: https://www.gpd.hk/gpdpocket

I recommend against GPD, since they're from Hong Kong / China and their warranty is terrible.

If you do decide to buy one, the hardware (of the Pocket 2 at least) is OK. Easy to open and such. You can even buy replacement battery. Buy one from Amazon in EU if you can, they have to provide 2 years warranty, at least.

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#176

Post by Fnoord »

spankibalt wrote: post #131
Nextgrid wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is absolutely doable by a niche company. The problem is that you need to run this as a business . What plagues every free/open/libre project is that they're not run as a business; so they get distracted in all different directions trying to cater to ideals about free/libre licensing and so on, and end up missing the big picture. You need to operate this as a business first , with the freedom part being a nice bo…

> "You need to operate this as a business first , [...] Make a competitive product." Not only that, but you should not get suckered down into overcomplicating things by chasing complex novelties, e. g. integrated slider- or clamshell-implemented keyboards, silly and outdated form factors (clamshell UMPCs, OQO already showed the way), etc. You want a good, small keyboard? Design it to be attachable . This is possible…

> You want a good, small keyboard? Design it to be attachable.

Get one of the BB + USB-C keyboards available.

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#177

Post by psyclobe »

Oh I had that phone I recall trying very hard to browse to the Landon website while driving just to play some music heh.

I recall having to spin with my finger in a spiral to zoom in.

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#178

Post by uecker »

jack_tripper wrote: post #149
fragmede wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back then, absolutely. But the long tail of the Internet, which is far more pervasive these days compared to back then, means that such a device could exist. Which arguably it does, with the GPD win max 2, if you install Linux on it. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2467566.The_Long_Tail

>means that such a device could exist That was never the problem. The problem was how could Nokia stay competitive to Apple and Google when their focus was selling Linux devices aimed power users.

I owned the N9. This was a phone which was perfectly good also for average users, and it seems it sold very well in the few markets where it was actually sold (sadly no major markets). But when it came to the market, it was already decided that Nokia will kill their own OS development in favor of Windows Phone, which then flopped spectacularly. A decision which many people called out for being stupid before the consequences had fully unfolded.

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#179

Post by uecker »

0x457 wrote: post #167
carlosjobim wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux was not a mistake on these devices. And I say that as the foremost hater of open source and Linux you can find around here. In fact, the N9 Linux phone was a huge success among everyday people in several countries. Farmers, teenagers, everybody got an N9. You couldn't go to any small party without at least two people having the N9 phone. Everybody loved them. It was in no way a hacker device for nerds. What kil…

> You couldn't go to any small party without at least two people having the N9 phone. Everybody loved them. It was in no way a hacker device for nerds. I don't think I ever saw N9 or any of the N9XX phones in real life.

The N9 was not sold in any major country. I ordered mine from Poland (from the US at that time).

Re: Nokia N900 Necromancy

#180

Post by uecker »

Nursie wrote: post #111
larodi wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is amazing Nokia missed on the mobile revolution as n900 predated iPhone if I remember correctly. But Nokia did one massive mistake and it was to bet on Linux for this device. Even when they already had lot of Symbian experience, which also was week though when it came to user apps. The modified BSD on the first iPhones was simply blazingly fast.

Good god no. The iPhone was out two years ago before the N900. Nokia was already fucked because it had set up a system in which internal divisions designed competing phones, as a result it had flooded the market with similar but-not-quite-the-same handsets with overlapping features, and it had missed out on usability advances that iOS had made. Symbian was undergoing an overhaul which would eventually lead it to be ’…

The N9 could have saved the company in my opinion. It was great. I had it for some years before it broke and then found the Android I had afterwards to be poor compared to it.
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