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GadgetsIt: I took your advice and got an N900. Thank you. Loving it. :) AMA (self.gadgets)

submitted ago by osirisx11

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http://www.reddit.com/r/gadgets/comments/d7rqy/askgadgetsit_best_open_cell_phone_i_am_picky/

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[–]jaogiz 0 points1 point ago

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Have you left the WiFi or the 3G internet connected and your battery ran out in a few hours?

The terrible, terrible battery life is what kills me on this thing. The 'AutoDisconnect' program helped with that, but if you use the internet at all on it your battery will drain very quickly, even if you turn the connection off right afterward.

I wish it had a Google Maps app the most. I don't like the Ovi app and I don't like the Maep app. The GPS is too slow to connect and sometimes doesn't connect at all (when an iPhone or Evo right next to me connects in a jiff).

Sorry, I just complained all over your AMA.

[–]mgedmin 0 points1 point ago

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I've got one too (and love it to pieces). WiFi/3G on makes the battery die in ~10-12 hours, which, I agree, is too short. The GPS connects very quickly for me, when the SIM card is inserted. If I take it out, I can say goodbye to getting a GPS fix in any reasonable time.

I actually like Maep, and get a warm fuzzy feeling from using OpenStreetMap. But I see how its extreme simplicity (i.e. lack of features) may be a disadvantage.

[–]yenemy 0 points1 point ago

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This may be an obvious answer, but is the discrepancy there due to the method the phone uses to obtain a GPS fix? I assume that when the SIM card is inserted, it either uses cell-tower triangulation to fix its position, or uses that to assist the actual GPS chip -- whereas without a SIM card, it actually has to look for satellites.

At least, that's kind of how it worked on my old N810 (R.I.P... sniff); connected to a wi-fi network, it was able to use A-GPS to pull down a location much faster than when it only had the satellites to work from.

[–]osirisx11[S] 0 points1 point ago* 

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I just got it, so I can't report on battery life yet. I will update this and PM you when i do.

edit: update: Seems to last about a day or so for me.

[–]jaogiz 0 points1 point ago

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You just got it? You're gonna have so much fun poking around. There are a bunch of posts in this reddit along the lines of "I just got my N900, what should I install?" I found a lot of good apps/tips in those threads.

[–]osirisx11[S] 0 points1 point ago

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ty

[–]kdesu 0 points1 point ago

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If you install the kernel-power package, you can set the minimum frequency to 125 MHz (stock is 250). That boosts battery life by a good bit. Of course, I'm on AT&T, so I don't know how much 3G affects the battery.

[–]jaogiz 0 points1 point ago

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I have the kernel-power package installed. I'll give this a try, thanks.

I use T-Mobile and I try to keep my phone on 2G until I need to use the 'net. I'm assuming this helps with battery life, but I'm not positive.

[–]Bluebag 0 points1 point ago

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Is there a real CLI and does it work well?

[–]mgedmin 1 point2 points ago

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An xterm app is included in the base firmware image. It's quite good (the terminal emulator is the same libvte as used in GNOME Terminal), and by changing font sizes you can get full 80x24, if your eyesight is good.

The keyboard lacks some characters used for CLI (less-than, greater-than, pipe, tilde), and those have to be entered using a pop-up virtual keyboard. The hardware Ctrl key is nifty and lets you, e.g. use Ctrl-A/E instead of Home/End, or Ctrl-I instead of Tab. I use vim to edit text on my N900 (available from the Extras repository; stock image has only a limited busybox vi).

You can use a Bluetooth keyboard (I haven't bothered, although I have one), but I seem to recall some issues with missing X keymaps, with the result that most non-alphanumeric keys don't work. I don't know if that's been fixed in later firmware upgrades.

[–]osirisx11[S] 0 points1 point ago

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yes. I was also able to easily install OpenSSH client and server (after enabling an additional "extras" repository)

[–]TejWC 0 points1 point ago

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Few questions:

  • If you live in USA, which cell carrier are you using?
  • How good of a "phone" is it? How complicated is it to manage contacts, etc?
  • How easy/hard is it to tether with a laptop?
  • If you are a developer, how hard was it to use Qt 4.7's Qt Creator with it?

I am really considering getting a N900 but rumors of the N9 is actually preventing me from doing so.

[–]osirisx11[S] 1 point2 points ago

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I live in the USA. T-Mobile.

I've found everything on it to be really easy and intuitive. There are multiple ways to tether including bluetooth, usb, and wifi broadcasting. The USB into an ubuntu pc I think is the easiest as it is automatically recognized. Second easiest is bluetooth dial up networking.

i am a developer. i haven't developed for this phone yet though. ;)

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