Yesterday I had the great pleasure of partaking in the first of what I hope will be more Mobile Geeks Meetup.

The event was organised by Tom who you may recall hooked me up with an N900 a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially since I’m more of a geeky phone user rather than a developer but I went, thinking I might learn something new and go figure, I did.

The night started with a presentation from Samir, a Nokia expert (I think – it was so loud I missed his formal introduction) who started off by wowing the crowd with the N900 and its various features. From the built in social networking aspects (like integrated uploading to services like Flickr and Facebook) to multitasking and the awesome browser which plays in-browser flash (meaning you don’t need to open a new application to watch YouTube videos and the like). It seemed a few folks in the crowd were pretty familiar with the device even if they hadn’t actually seen one (though I did get a couple of over the shoulder looks while I was tweeting away before the meeting started – mind you, with the new red protective case, it’s hard to tell what phone it is).

Samir then continued with an overview of MeeGo, the recently announced new platform Nokia is helping to develop. My non-geeky understanding of things is that MeeGo is a sort of cross device open source OS which will allow users to run the same system on all of their devices from their cell phones to their connected TVs. What that means is that rather than running one set of applications on your phone or pocket pc, your netbook, laptop and whatever else you might use on a regular basis – you’ll be able to run the same applications on all devices. The bonus for developers? One set of APIs with only minor user experience changes for each device.


From here the discussion moved into some “above-Marina’s-head” talk about development, DRM and cross platform integration (there was some muffled chat about Android application on MeeGo devices).

One of the major highlights of the night was news of the first MeeGo device to be released later this year. I’m excited to see what that new device and what MeeGo has to offer. It may mean another upgrade next year but from my limited reading so far, it looks like there will be a MeeGo install available for the N900 later this year. We’ll have to wait and see what it offers over the current OS and what sort of applications I have to choose from.

Tom also had some cool toys on display including a couple of E72s and the two Booklet 3G mini laptops which are really spiffy. I’d love to play with one of those for a few days. If all the new info wasn’t enough, I also walked away with a bit of swag – a great new bag and one of the coolest USB sticks I’ve ever seen.


Thanks again to Tom for organising and for extending the invite my way. I’m looking forward to the next one!

I've been doing some research the last few months in preparation for a new toy, namely a new cell phone. I've pretty much outgrown the use of my N95 and am looking to upgrade this time, without the limitation of signing a contract. I'd been looking at the N97 until a few weeks ago when I stumbled on a video of the N900 in action. I wanted it. Badly. I'd looked around, had almost made up my mind when I discovered that the phone isn't fully 3G compatible with my Rogers service. I started to worry. In comes 1000heads.

Vancouver mobile guru Roland put me in touch with Tom who in turn did me a solid and hooked me up with an N900 to play around with for a few days, a gesture which made my week.

Anything new comes with learning curves but the curve here is much bigger than I expected. The N900 is very much more a computer and secondly a phone, something I like but which is taking some getting used to. Here are some initial thoughts, from a girl who is definitely NOT an expert:

Things I love:

1. The size and build: a little thicker than the iPhone, it's a slick, sturdy, well built machine. It feels super solid and I love the keyboard feature. If a few grams extra weight and a slightly wider build is required, I'll take it.

2. Camera: awesome 5MP camera. My N95 also has 5MP camera but this takes much better pictures. I'm thinking Nokia has updated their software.


3. Maemo browser: what really caught my attention about this phone is its ability to play flash in browser, the first mobile phone to do so and it's a thing of beauty. I tried a couple of embedded You Tube videos yesterday and it works like a charm. This morning, at Roland's recommendation, I checked out grooveshark.com which is, essentially, completely flash and it worked like a charm.


4. Multiple desktops: like Linux, you can multiple desktops each with a different background and different programs, link etc. for quick launch. Going from screen to screen is as easy as swiping your finger across the screen.


5. Speed: the application speeds is insanely fast in comparison to my N95 (though it's a little unfair to compare the two). It really is like a mini computer.

6. Keyboard: soft and easy to use. Still getting used to typing on a keyboard and often find myself triple clicking a letter. Oops - old habits die hard.

Things I'm having issues with:

1. No 3G support: admittedly, this isn't Nokia's fault but it is a drawback. The phone is running on the Rogers networks at between 2 and 2.5G which I'm sure makes way more sense to a tech head. For me, I do notice a different in that the browsing is a bit slower but then, the browser is in full mode and not "mobile". Will have to see if it's as noticeable when browsing mobile versions of sites. On the upside, YouTube videos load at a good speed and when using Wifi, the thing is a monster!

2. Music/Photo transfer is messy: at least it has been for me. Windows 7 isn't recognizing the bloody thing as a mass storage device which is making it difficult to sync the phone with any of my desktop music apps. The fight continues tonight.

3. Limited Apps: this isn't the iPhone. There isn't an app for everything. But then, it's also a relatively new device and one with an active and passionate development community. I'm sure at some point I'll have an option of an App for everything but for now, it's a bit slim.

That's it for now. More updates to come as I maneuver through the phone and, I'm sure, find new successes. I'm also uploading loads of pictures with details to Flickr rather than constantly updating the blog. If you're looking for more, check out my N900 Flickr Set.