Mobile Wuchtln

There’s a Thing in my Pocket, but it’s not one, it’s many. Remember this Line? Sounds familiar? If you follow Nokia for a long time, like i do, this line will pop straight up in your Head. This was the main advertizing line for the late great Nokia N95, a true Flagship in it’s own Right. Since then, and of course N82 Times, Nokia has almost always disappointed. From the chrome-pealing N76, to the Disaster named N85, to the latest so called Flagship N97. Most of you know that i don’t use a Nokia Handset as Main Phone anymore, i’ve switched to the HTC Hero some Time ago. If this isn’t an Indication of how Nokia messed up recently, then i don’t know what is.

But, it seems like there is Light on the Horizon, a new Breed that i think brings back a lot of disappointed Users to the Nokia Ship again. What i’m talking about is the Device on the left Side, waiting to unleash Hell – The Nokia N900. Equipped with Maemo, the linux-based Open Source Greatness that i was able to try on the N800 3 years ago. and boy, Maemo has changed – to the better. For the first time its featuring Phone Features, which makes the N900 not only a great Internet/Media Device but a PHONE as well!

Nokia has done a Lot of things right on the N900. My Lists is what i personally thought of the N900, what appealed the most to me, what made me happy about the Device. This may not cover all Features, as i wanna keep it personal. It won’t appeal you as mindblowing Factor, but what i’m about to mention is what i enjoyed the most. Ready? I like the N900 because…

• …of the Formfactor: Full Touchscreen with slide-out QWERTY keyboard. My next phone needs to have this form factor, period. Having a huge, brilliant Screen like the N900′s 3,5″ resistive Touchscreen with WVGA Resolution (800 x 480 pixels) plays along nicely with the Keyboard, whenever you need it. Resistive Screen? Yes it is, and let me say this: The N900 has the absolute BEST resistive Touchscreen i’ve ever tried. It’s extremely responsive, reacts quickly and what matters the Most, i never had to use my Fingernails. This is a Way i HATE to use my Phones and i’m glad it stopped here. Another nice little Gimmick that my Hero misses: The Screen automatically turns off if i make a Call and the Phone is on my Cheek.The whole Device is well built, the Slider to open the QWERTY Keyboard is rock solid and does not feel like it’s turning wobbly anytime soon, opens and closes with a noticable Snap, that further enhances the solid Feel. The Buttons provide a good Feedback, a lot better than on the N97 i have recently trialed. I still dislike the N900′s Keyboard Design, i want to see more than just 3 rows, which should give more Space to have Special Keys on both Sides. (Ever tried to type ”123″ on your Phone? Horror!). Apart from that Stereo Speakers, a better Cam Shutter than on the N97 (scratch is the word) with a Kickstand, a 3,5mm Audio Jack and a whooping 32 GB on-board storage are definitely accelerating the Heartbeat.

• …it can connect with TVersity: This was definitely one of the biggest WOW-Moments i had with this Handset. In Case you don’t know, Tversity is a PC Application that allows you to stream Movies or Music to your Playstation 3 via WLAN. Now it was one of those Days when i was playing around and suddenly found a small Link for TVerstiy like you can see in the screenshots below. Let me tell you this: Watching Episodes of my favourite Series on the N900 via WLAN rocks, especially while sitting in the next Room having Dinner  

• ….because Maemo is awesome: Yes, awesome may not be the most professional Word to describe Maemo, but it describes my Feelings for the N900 the Best. I won’t go completely in-depth because almost everything about Maemo can be found around the Net, so i’m just picking a few Things i love.First off, the new Standby Screen. While the N97 had only one Screen and just a few Slots, the N900 gives you almost complete Freedom. It feels great to customize not only one, but four Home Screens, without any Restrctions. There are Lots of Widgets available already, and the growing Maemo Developers Community is helping to make it even better. Weather Widets, Dataplan Monitor, Application/Bookmark/Contact Shortcuts – it’s like Nokia is saying: Do whatever the Hell you want! Everything is redesigned, polished and looks just great. A Status Bar on Top of each Screen gives you a quick Look at the most important Settings like Clock, Battery, Data Connection, Profiles or Bluetooth. The Menu Button on the left upper Corner is multifunctional, not only launching the Menu, but also gives you an Overview of the Tasks you are currently running on your N900. This happens not via the old Icons like on S60, but in small Preview Windows, which looks great. Also in the Task Menu are the Notifications: Whenever something happens, it shows up in your Task Menu, after disappearing in a small Popup. It doesn’t stay as a “1 New Message”-Tag anymore on the Home Screen, which i definitely like.The Menu itself appears S60 like with Icons like in the old Menus, which is okay, since every former S60 User can feel right at Home. Going back to the previous Screen happens via a simple Click in an empty Area of the Screen. This works in almost every Application and is a very easy Way to get back.The Contacts are redesigned and have a separated Link to Call/SMS. With a 3rd Party Application called Hermes, you can even pull in Birthdays and more Informations from Twitter/Facebook like in the HTC Hero. Unfortunately this is the only Glimpse of Social network integration we have so far in the contacts app.

  The Messaging Application is also heavily redesigned and is now called Conversations. All your Messages are threaded now into contact-based Thread, with an own thread for every Contact you texted with. Cool Thing here is, that here’s not only your SMS Messages, but also your Nokia Messaging Chats. A much better way to handle your messaging Way of Life in my opinion, and i just hope there will be more Options integrated soon!

  The Photos App got a really nice Overhaul as well, with its probably best Feature – Tags! You can now edit your Tags right on the Phone, which get stored in a Tag cloud, so you can use them quickly over and over again. Great Feature, which hopefully comes to ALL future Devices. Pixelpipe is already available for the N900, so sharing is quick fun. The Browser handles almost every Site without any Problems, even flash-heavy Sites went very well. However, i thought the Browser is too desktop orientated, not being recognized as Mobile Phone Browser anymore. More on that in the 2nd Part.

  To give you a little Example how well Maemo works as an eye-catching, new OS is the Story when i met my best Friend a Week ago. We usually meet every Week or so and discuss the latest Happenings, tech talk included. I remember he was quite excited to lay his Hands on a N900 (although he’s not as far as tech-fanatic than i am) and after playing a bit with it, i noticed him really enjoying this Handset. He actually noted that “even i can use this”, which i found really impressive, since he’s the typical Guy for basic Phone Usage.

• …you don’t need a Stylus anymore: I know this would be suited in the Maemo Part as well, but i just wanna point it out separately! Whatever i did on the N900 (3rd party Apps excluded), i never needed a Stylus. The only Time i “needed” it was, when i pulled something out of my Teeth had a Look at how the Stylus looked like. Seriously, Maemo is what Symbian S60 5th Edition should’ve been from the beginning.

• …the Camera doesn’t disappoint either: Dual LED Flash asides, the N900 Camera delivers. We’re talking about Nokia’s well known 5 MP Carl Zeiss Snapper with the questionable DUAL Led Flash and, here comes the news, 16:9 Ratio Pictures. Shot at 3,5MP resolution you’re now able to insert your Pictures in your Youtube Videos without those stupid black Fields on each Side. Combined with the 32 GB built-in Storage and microSD Slot, your Holidays can’t be long enough to run out of Storage!

• …i don’t need to convert Movies anymore: Yes that’s right and i couldn’t be more happy about. Sure, the Nokia Internet Tablet Video Converter was pretty handy on S60 5th Ed, but isn’t it much better to just send the raw avi file to the phone and thats it? Exactly what the N900 does, i did a short Video about it (still hate to see/hear myself on Video) to show you that it works!

• …Maemo and Nokia could soon be what i want: Maemo is completely open-source. Basically everyone can go on and develope an Application for the N900, publish it on the Repositories and us Users are good to go. I’ve seen the Hermes Application, which takes User Informations from your Facebook Contacts and adds them to your Contacts. A good Mail Application like Profimail, Gravity (are you reading jan ole? ), social networking Integration and i’m good to go. The N900 may be bulky, but i could live with that. I still dislike the keyboard design but i could live with that. Given that Maemo 5 is just the beginning (Maemo 6 will be live in 2010) and i’m still hoping that Nokia decides to bring out more Powerhouses like the N900, i may sell my Soul again to Nokia. If Maemo 6 gets more social networking integration and better mail handling plus a high-end N900-like Handset, Android will have a hard Time in keep me staying.

So do i enjoy the N900? Yes i do! I’ve had an awesome Time with this Handset and enjoyed exploring the shiny Maemo OS. It was almost every Day something new, which was super exciting. I think Nokia is on a very good Way with Maemo, and if they listen to us Powerusers (the targeted Audience of the N900), they could really score big Time. Is the N900 made for Joe Average? No, i don’t think so. I believe for a not-so-techy User it might be very complicated to work with the Phone, maybe even too feature-rich. Again, i believe the N900 is made for Powerusers, who prefer high-end, open sourced Greatness and here’s where Nokia showed us a Glimpe of Things to come, and i’m excited to see more of it!

Of Course the N900 has some Downers as well, which i will list as well, so keep your eyes around for more soon

Check out my N900 Picture Gallery which will get an Update soon with some Camera Shots!