What broke the camel’s back?
Meego. That’s what.
Or actually the promise of Meego — on the N900.
Ever since the N900 came out last year I’ve lusted after it. But there were rumours about Meego phones so I thought “no no, I have to wait and see.” The rumours haven’t stopped, and there also haven’t been any Meego phones yet, but recently I’ve been seriously wanting a new phone; I’ve even been looking at HTC devices for something to play with while waiting for the next big Nokia. The N73 has been working a little slowly lately — of course I could update it, which I probably will soon, but all the lovely touch screen phones (Nokia’s and HTC’s mainly) out there have been beckoning me.
Now that they released information that an up-coming firmware update on the N900 will allow dual-booting with Meego, I jumped at the chance: Today I walked to the Nokia store, said “I want an N900″ and the sales person said, “in that case, you should have one.”
And now I have one!
The only thing I regret now is not checking the accessories before heading to the store. They only had white Bluetooth headphones (the earbud kind) and I asked if that’s the only colour, to which they said yes (apparently meaning “yes, what’s available here right now”). I’m now checking the Nokia site and there should be a grey one, too. I would much rather have tried to find that somewhere. The white’s so… iPod-y. *shiver* (And I dress in black so the white cords and stuff are very visible.)
To the uninitiated, Meego is a Linux-based OS (for many devices and things) that Nokia and Intel are developing. It is based on Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin. The N900 is currently running Maemo 5.
[Update]
Here’s a photo:
My N900
The theme is Pleego variant of the Black Plastic Theme from maemo.org. I’m still experimenting; haven’t found my favourite theme yet.
Ooh.. pictures?? The critters are so cute btw
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Updated the post to include a picture (taken on my N73). I accidentally stumbled across a “Meego theme” which I’m using now because it’s quite crisp and clear. I used the Matrix theme for a while.
Yay
. Very visually appealing. Very clean I see! The matrix one is very nice too. Do you know when it will be launched? I heard there’s going to be a Meego tablet too 
I have no idea when it’ll be launched! It was supposed to come with the next version (1.3) but that was published yesterday, and no one has mentioned Meego… (I haven’t upgraded yet, although I will of course.) Not that I mind; I’m having loads of fun with Maemo.
I think I’ve heard rumours about a tablet, too. They’re creating the OS for several uses (netbooks, handhelds, TVs, vehicles…).
Well, now the first version is released (just yesterday). Haven’t installed Meego yet but will have to check it out this weekend.
Ooh awesome! I wonder how the tablets will be like
…
Mmm gadgets! Looks nice!
Although I’m still trying to stay of the opinion that a phone should just be a phone… (And therefore bought an iPod Touch this week.)
But I wanted to write about headphones. I wouldn’t worry about or care for the accessories Nokia offers.
I really liked Sony’s Fontopia MDR-EX70 earbuds — best ones I had ever gotten so far (and pricey, too). At the time I had an Archos MP3 player that was very lacking in bass, and the Fontopias deliver more than enough. I still have them. Then I wanted a second pair and discovered I couldn’t get those anymore (isn’t that how it always is with everything).
I ended up with Sony MDR-EX85LP instead. I must say, the sound is even better (more clarity, meaning better high frequencies, but still the good bass response that I like). The only minus is that they have a pointy thing sticking out of your ear that prevents wearing them while lying down on your side (well, you can work around it, if you really want to).
I could never go back to Apple’s iPod earbuds (I have 3) or any other earbuds that came with the portable devices I’ve had.
Of course, I don’t use a phone to listen to music, and on my phone I use a Nokia handsfree mono earbud which is fine for phone use. I would never imagine using it for music…
Now that I think of it, I’ve somehow ended up with Sony headphones for everything: I’m using Sony MDR-7506 most now, as well as an MDR-V600 set (different locations; don’t care to carry these around). I also have a Sennheiser HD600 pair, which costs almost four times as much as the Sonys, and nowadays gets very little use. Price doesn’t seem to be an indicator of the sound quality…
(No, I don’t have golden ears. In fact, I have some “city dweller” hearing damage from the ever-present background noise…)
I used an mp3 player for a while, but then I got the N73 with a proper music player and enough space for songs (with an SD card); I’ve been using a phone as a music player ever since. (Don’t like carrying several gadgets around.)
The default earbuds are usually horrible! The ones I got with the N73, my mp3 player (a Creative Zen), and a couple of old walkmans never even fit in my ear. The ones that came with the N900 are one of those in-ear buds (and came with 3 difference sizes of “cushions”) so they are a little better.
The old accessory I had used Pop-Port and new phones tend to have a 3.5″ jack. Also, I was interested in getting a Bluetooth device this time. Now that I have the BT receiver, I can use it with any headphones I like. (I carry my gadget(s) in my handbag so the wired headphones are pretty uncomfortable.)
I haven’t actually ever even thought that headphone manufacturers would make wireless headphones compatible with phones, but with Bluetooth there must be some available. I don’t know if I would’ve managed to find any that I like, though… wouldn’t know where to look.
Currently I don’t have any monster headphones (like those MDR-V600 and MDR-7506 you mentioned) [whoops, I didn't realise there is a brand name Monster headphones, I just mean big, heavy headphones] because at home I never use headphones (anymore, because now I’m not bothering anyone) and “monster headphones” aren’t exactly portable… People do use them when out and about, but I don’t understand that — I like to hear if a car or a bike is about to run me over. (Proper noise-cancelling headphones would sometimes be very much appreciated after a long day at work and there’s a screaming baby on the bus…)
I use the in-ear ones. I find they stay inside my ear better than those stupid buds and they also prevent everybody else from being forced to listen to my music. I do like the big ‘sit on top of your ear’ type of headphones but not to take anywhere. They’re too big and bulky to drag around in my purse.
Oh yeah, I use in-ear ones, too. I thought those were also called buds.