Fri, 02 Oct 2009
nokia n900 & maemo summit 2009
I have been looking for the "perfect mobile companion device" already for a while. Basically I want a "pocket PC that can do as much as possible over which i have as much control as possible so I can do things my way, but still fits in a pocket and which can do gsm and such"
So, something like a netbook, but really portable, and that can also do telephony stuff.
Nokia's recently announced n900 seems to be very close to what I'm looking for.
It could have been a tad bigger (to make typing easier) but other then that it looks perfect: powerful, high resolution display, Linux with a "usual" userspace (unlike Android) to give me all freedom I'm looking for, keyboard, plenty of space and many goodies such as wifi, a-gps, fm receiver/transmitter, IR, bluetooth, digital camera, tv-out and so on.
This device has ignited my interest in Maemo and all things related so I'll be in Amsterdam on October 9-10-11, at the Maemo summit 2009. I was lucky enough to score a place in the ibis hotel Amsterdam, as Nokia has reserved more rooms then they could fill with invited speakers and own personnel ;-)
I'm hoping it will be possible to buy a device at the conference. The timing would be perfect. Nokia seems to be a really cool company and so far, they haven't disappointed yet...
Somewhat related: a Mer (maemo alternative) developer told me he was very interested in making uzbl available on Mer, so he did just that. I'm curious myself how usable uzbl will be on the n900. Only one way to find out :)
posted on Friday, 02 Oct 2009 17:40 - link - tags: real life - path: / - 5 comments
Comments
Posted by Jacob Godserv on Sat Oct 3 17:27:26 2009
Actually I did consider it (see linked thread to archlinux forums). In fact I have been on the verge of ordering it but was eventually put down by the lack of gsm support (and the community effort to do it seemed stalled). It's definitely a cool device, but the n900 has more features I wanted (gsm, digicam, gps, ..)
Posted by Dieter_be on Sun Oct 4 04:48:34 2009
I'll be in amsterdam for the maemo conf too maybe we can have an arch meetup? hoping they will have the devices available for purchase at the conference. Its like its the device I've been waiting 15 years for :)
Posted by realitygaps on Tue Oct 6 11:06:50 2009
an Arch meetup? with 2 Arch users? don't see much point in that, but anyway if you see a guy with an Arch polo that's probably me. feel free to shout when you do ;)
Posted by Dieter_be on Tue Oct 6 15:32:42 2009
I know a few more arch users that are going also :)
Posted by realitygaps on Tue Oct 6 17:31:05 2009
You might consider the OpenPandora handheld too. It doesn't have all the features, but it has all the open-source support a Linux user would want.