the N900+ superphone

I am the very happy owner of a Nokia N900 phone, the best phone / pocket computer available today. The only product that compares to it is the Pandora handheld, which is not a phone, but is better for gaming. Nokia ships the N900 with the Maemo OS (Debian GNU/Linux) and an xterm app on the menu. They positively encourage people to hack this phone! The N900 is by far the best phone for Linux enthusiasts and coders; it is easy to install gcc, perl, python, ruby, tcl/tk, even the Java JDK. Nokia's GUI and apps use mostly GTK+ and QT, just like my Debian / Ubuntu systems. I was never a fan of mobile phones before, but I love this one.

So, why the fanpage? I am offering to purchase an N900 phone on your behalf, upgrade it as you wish, then send it to you. The Nokia N900 is truly an excellent phone, the best on the market; but when I am done with it, your phone will be twice as fast as a stock N900, the battery will last longer, and it will be much more capable.

I call this the N900+ superphone. You cannot buy a better phone or pocket computer from anyone, anywhere:
this is the best.

I can do this for the cost of the phone, plus shipping, and $50 for my work (which is partly automated). The N900 cost $900 when it was released in August 2009. You can now buy them for around $450, or less for a 2nd-hand phone.

AUD $550 USD $530 GBP £335 EUR €390
PHP 23300 JPY ¥44300 convert currency

This is the total cost for a new, unlocked N900+ including shipping.

Here are some of the features of the basic N900 phone:
• OMAP 3430: 600Mhz ARM Cortex A8, Neon DSP, PowerVR SGX530 GPU
• runs Maemo 5 (Debian GNU/Linux), X11, a nice multi-tasking GUI
• Mozilla browser, Player, PDF, Maps, XTerm, IM, VOIP, Email, Flash, games
• 3G, wifi, bluetooth, infra-red, GPS, usb / usbnet, FM radio IO, accel
• 800 x 480 touch display, 2.5 times the pixels of an iPhone
• phone speaker and mic, stereo speakers, headphone / TV out
• full usable slide-out QWERTY keyboard with symbols, stowable stylus
• 32GB storage (+ micro SD up to 16GB), 256MB RAM (+ 768MB swap)
• 5MP Carl Zeiss camera, with 848 x 480 video @ 25fps
• second camera for video chat / mirror, VGA quality
• 110.9 x 59.8 x 18 mm = 113 cc ; 181 g
• full root access is allowed, just install a simple package

Here are some of the enhancements I offer, for $50:
• maemo.org power kernel: clock the ARM from 125MHz to 1.15GHz
• the best programs from Nokia, maemo.org, Debian, and elsewhere, e.g.:
    apps: FM radio, pidgin, xchat, abiword, finance, metronome, torrents
    games: Quake 3*, Doom*, Tuxrace, Worms*, Boggle*, Enigma, Gweled
    emulate: qemu-kvm, scummvm, Amiga, Atari ST, PS, S/NES, GB/A, MG
    lang: gcc, g++, perl, python, ruby, lua, tcl, erlang, go, JDK, scheme
    tools: ssh, GNU, bash, vim, less, gdb, dh7, rsync, git, svn, vim, screen,
     vnc, rdesktop, adblock, espeak, ffmpeg, mplayer, gpg, groff, TeX, httpd,
     GTK+, QT, strace, ltrace, mad-developer, make, openssl, sqlite, mysql,
     dictd, tsocks, telnet, nmap, netcat, socat, rtorrent, mutt, irssi, fuse, man
• easydebian - a full debian chroot system with openoffice, gimp, firefox
• extra codecs for ogg vorbis/theora, flac, full avi support, flv - the lot!
• extra browsers in addition to the N900's excellent microb browser
• a recovery DVD, including images, tools, PC support software, SDK
• a N900+ superphone manual: hardcopy, on the phone, and on the CD
• some special scripts, utilities and apps written by myself and others
• a free login to my server, nipl.net, with ssh, web, email & whatever
    (I offer nipl.net logins for free in general to almost anyone / any purpose.)
• free N900+ software updates from me in future (over the Internet)
• free support from me (within reason!)

Even if you are a Linux expert, and can do these things yourself, you may wish to save many hours and gigabytes by getting your N900+ from me. It is going to be much easier than upgrading the phone yourself, and more economical too unless you get paid $1 / hour. I am experienced at this, and will do a good job, without bricking your phone. You can pay when you get the phone (in person), or before I ship it.

You can install extra software from the OVI store, from the maemo.org apt repositories, from Debian, any portable open source software, stuff that you write yourself, emulated retro-games, etc. This phone is pretty much as capable as a laptop or desktop PC running Debian or Ubuntu; but it fits in your pocket, has a touch-screen, and can also make cell-phone calls!

For about $550 I can give you an enhanced N900+, which is much better than any phone you can buy from Apple, Google, Nokia or anyone else. I claim that what I am offering here is the absolute best phone available, especially for Linux enthusiasts and coders, but also a brilliant phone for their non-geek friends.

The N900, coming as it does with a xterm, permission to use the root account, and no need to jail-break it, is quite unlike its poor rival the Apple iPhone, on which you are not allowed to run Flash or any other interesting language. I want to know, what does apple stand to gain by alienating 3/4 of the world's coders? One thing they have lost is my support - I'll never buy a computer or phone if I'm not allowed to hack it in any language. And why do they use fragile glass to cover the screen? To encourage upgrades?

If you are interested in my N900+ offer, or you'd like to chat, please contact me.

Sam Watkins
sam@ai.ki
sam.ai.ki

September, 2010

note: * some of the free-software games I mentioned are in fact named differently for trademark reasons: e.g. the Quake 3 program is actually called "openarena" and Doom is called "prboom". Otherwise, they are very similar to the commercial versions - and very good games indeed!