My first real experience with the N900 was using Nokia Maps on the device on my way home. The UI is fairly different to the UI on my N97 but it located me very quickly! - Paul Jacobson

The N900 runs Maemo 5 which is a Linux-based operating system. While some of the application icons are the same as S60 devices, the UI is very different and I am slowly getting used to how to do stuff on the device. - Paul Jacobson

There are a couple things I really like about the N900: email handling (presets for various email services and easy mail account setup), conversations view for IM and SMS (combines both into a seamless messaging flow) and the fact that I can run Firefox with Weave (can't figure out how to make that my default browser though). - Paul Jacobson

The N900 now is a little like the iPhone in its early days. There isn't nearly the wealth of apps you see on the iPhone or Android devices and not even as many as I have available on my N97. That being said, there are quite a few apps available although clearly with a tech/geek bias. - Paul Jacobson

I moved a couple .mp4 and .mov files across to the N900. It picks them up but won't play them for some reason. - Paul Jacobson

That's certainly a turnoff. Tell us about the screen and keyboard :) - Mitch

The screen is great. The viewable area is roughly the same as an iPod Touch/iPhone. The resolution is pretty good too. I have seen video playback on the N900 and it looks great too. I don't know why these videos are not playing. I thought the keyboard would be a bit difficult to use after the N97 but aside from getting used to a different layout, I find it to be pretty easy to use. I have also enabled the onscreen keyboard and it works well too. - Paul Jacobson

Now if only I could figure out how to change ringtones ... - Paul Jacobson

Paul .. change ringtone on your N900 .. http://karoliinamaemoblog.blogspot.com/2009... - Marius

As a Linux person I would love to get my hands on a N900 .. have been playing around with the Maemo 5 SDK and development environment .. - Marius

the .mp4 and .mov not playing is a codec issue .. since those are both licensed formats you will have to add the codecs yourself ... Nokia are not allowed to distribute it by default .. - Marius

Marius: Thanks for the ringtone link. I didn't notice that I could scroll down to expose the other options. How would I add the additional codecs to the device to support mp4 and mov playback? - Paul Jacobson

Although I realise the N900 is Linux based, I am not familiar enough with Linux to understand whether other Linux apps would run on the device and, if so, which ones. - Paul Jacobson

will see if I can find link to the mp4/mov codecs .. Maemo is just Debian with another GUI .. like Ubuntu is Debian with Gnome .. apps that does not use a GUI (ie command line) can mostly be used as is ... other apps needs slight changes to run .. you can add the maemo-extras repository and then have lots of other maemo based apps to install ... lots of extra apps is added each day ... crap .. I need one of these to play with ... - Marius

Oh, wait, I saw something about enabling the extras repository somewhere ... In the meantime, I am transferring some media to the device now using Salling's Media Sync which can also be used with other devices. - Paul Jacobson

It isn't a very easy transition from S60 to the N900's Maemo interface, at least not from my N97. I can imagine it could be that much harder to transition from an iPhone (assuming anyone would want to make that transition). - Paul Jacobson

i am more interested in the fact that it is a linux device which would mean it would interface much better with my linux desktop/notebook than other devices - Marius

Marius: Well that is an interesting prospect. I don't know nearly enough about how Linux works to appreciate how the N900 would interface with a Linux machine. It would be pretty cool if the N900 somehow sync'd with your Linux machine on your desk, allowing you to use the N900 as a sort of hub away from your office. - Paul Jacobson

I have this persistent feeling that no matter what my impressions of the N900 are, I am just grazing the surface of what the N900 is capable of. In a way it feels like the N900 is wasted on me! Haven't been able to say that about a mobile device before. - Paul Jacobson

i think since at the base the n900 is the same as an other linux machine, it would interface much better than say a Symbian, Windows, iPhone or RIM device ... I only just have to look at how easy I find to to move stuff between my laptop and other linux based machines. But then I am speculating here since I cannot try it out and it looks like we in SA will not get the n900 - Marius

The battery life on the N900 is terrible. i am barely making it through a day (as in daylight). - Paul Jacobson

ouch - Mitch

I just switched back to my N97 while the N900 charges. Just want to see what it feels like to go back to Symbian ... - Paul Jacobson

I switched back to my N97 again this evening while the N900 charged (notice a pattern?) and I'm back home, about to switch back and I'm feeling a little reluctant. When I use the N900 I miss Google Maps, better Nokia Maps, working Exchange sync and Gravity. On the N900 I really appreciate a better UI, better geotagging for photos and video, better shared services integration and much better Web browsers ... - Paul Jacobson

Any comment about the use of Skype with the N900?...Thys - Thys Mouton

I didn't use Skype all that much when I had the N900 but it is very nicely and tightly integrated into the OS. Very nicely handled. - Paul Jacobson