Kurt Stephens

UPDATE:

I ended up returning the N900. I thought I would give it a try as just a super-portable computer, but the media player would skip and often stop when using A2DP headphones. I hope some of these issues get resolved — I will certainly reconsider this device in the future, if it could replace a phone.

UPDATE:

I really overreacted by posting my frustrating first impressions of the N900, and a bunch of people set me straight on my lack of research, over-assumption and errant expectations. I spent many hours trying solving a few issues.

I’m gonna leave this post up for now, with annotations and corrections, as a reminder to myself: how not to approach technical problems with a new device. N900 is a very promising, cutting-edge phone/computer/device, and is not really comparable with many other offerings out there, which is why I gave it a try… It might not be the best choice for me right now — I need a solid email/calendar workhorse with a good camera.

I’ve been a supporter and developer of open-source software for a long time.

I was looking for a BlackBerry replacement. Every Nokia phone I ever had in the past was pretty damned reliable and easy to use. I was really excited about the N900. Its hardware specs are impressive: nice camera, fast CPU, sharp display, connectivity devices, ssh, true multitasking, open SDK, etc. and it’s built on Debian Linux. I love Debian.

The N900 is fun to play with for the first couple hours, until you try getting “real work” (emails, calendaring) done with it:

• Mail app does not recognize .ics files as calendar invites, lack of this simple feature makes calendaring with the rest of the world impossible.
• There is no OpenVPN or VPNC client that works out of the box. I had to hack it to get it to work. (fixed: add OPTARGS=”—script-security 2” to /etc/defaults/openvpn, when using the /etc/openvpn/maemo-update-resolvconf script; change the script in put the VPN’S DNS IP first in /etc/resolv.conf)
• Battery life is terrible, lasts at most 2-3 hrs. (fixed: firmware/app updates, remove some apps)
• Mail for Exchange does not work as advertised. Can’t get it to work at all. Very vague errors messages. (still not working)
• There is no ability to search email.
• No ability to search across all data in all apps; even PalmOS has this back in 1994.
• You cannot delete an email without opening it. (i was uninformed)
• The standard Jabber client will not connect, but the hacked-up Pidgin client will.
• Too many competing mechanisms/apps/conduits to sync email/contacts/calendar.
• Cannot import .ics files or .vcard files (i was uninformed), so you are stuck using some other conduit or 3rd party, if you can find something that works.
• Does not support any “standard” sync protocols except Exchange, which doesn’t work.

• I could go on and on.

This is a hand-held Linux computer for hackers. It’s an amazing device if you wanna spend time working on it, and not with it. The N900 is not a phone or a PDA. The N900 hardware is fantastic, the eye-candy is everywhere, but the PIM/Internet software is practically unusable, when it works at all. This is not a iPhone-killer or Android competitor.

I’m a hacker but I need a phone that can do at least what a BlackBerry can do. The N900 doesn’t work as marketed, because the marketing materials are about as vague as error messages burped out by the Maemo 5 software. The wiki is full of out-of-date information. The community forums are full of the same complaints about the same issues for months.

If you are considering the N900 instead of a BlackBerry, iPhone, or Android device, don’t. The rave reviews for N900 do not make sense. Will any of this get fixed? The rumor is that Maemo 6 wont be out until Q2 or Q3 2010. Who can wait that long for standard smart phone features? Why wait? If you need a phone to actually get work done, buy something else. This is not a smart phone, it is an expensive toy. Move along, nothing to see here.

Disappointed,
Kurt Stephens