It's not just American companies in this case: Nokia reports that, while they have a lot of interest, most carriers are also complaining that Nokia won't let them "customize" it either. As for said American companies, this device is designed to work on T-Mobile USA's network as far as 3G (UMTS/HSDPA) goes (AT&T's band plans are different, I guess--for the same reason my AT&T/Cingular V3xx won't do 3G on T-Mobile if unlocked), but since they can't lock it they won't sell it, and this was confirmed by a sales rep in a store yesterday (a week ago they didn't know what I was talking about, so enough people must be asking around the country that they put out a general memo to all stores). OTOH, he confirmed that, while they won't sell it, they have no problem putting a 3rd party phone on the network (even 3G portions) as long as it's compatible. Of course, all this is moot if you're die-hard on a CDMA carrier and the far better coverage they usually provide (along with ridiculously locked-up phones). My problem is that, while my inner geek is drooling over this, my financial sense is saying, "Whooaaa, boy!" about blowing more than a paycheck (for me) on this when I have a working cell phone and laptop. I've been wondering about gaming on this for a while, so I did some research: the GPU in this thing is a PowerVR SGX530, capable of OpenGL 2.0, DirectX 10.1, and 14Mpoly/s (from Wikipedia). After a whole LOT of research, which led me to a whole slew of devices with very similar core architectures (iPhoneGS, Palm Pre, the Beagle Board, and the Pandora as a small sample), it looks like it has a good chance of playing Open Arena, but not more advanced games like Urban Terror (with more textures, bigger maps and memory footprint, etc). One big problem: it does indeed have NTSC/PAL TV-out, but no VGA for a monitor--got to wonder about THAT choice! For regular (non-gaming) purposes, I'm guessing one of those USB->monitor dongles may work if the kernel in this thing supports it. Oh, and Bob, thanks for the link: I see why my search over my PLUG mail folder didn't find it: I used "n900", but no one mentioned it by name! Finally, everyone is taking pre-orders. Wikipedia says the expected US ship date is the 27th, while mobilecityusa.com says their expected arrival date is October 12th: at least the wait is almost over. Mike On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:04:47 -0700, "Stephen" said: > That's because American cell companies won't sell a phone that has > been locked into crappyness for some reason > > If ever anyone does the unlocked phone freindly network they are going > to have a boggleinh influx of tech users > > > On 9/25/09, huertanix@gmail.com wrote: > > Actually it was last month. :P I said I wanted one to make iPhone users > > jealous of my flash playback. Alas, there's no sign of when if at all it > > will be available stateside. :( > > > > Sent from my BlackBerry Slowphone provided by Allfail > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: storkus@storkus.com > > > > Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:46:03 > > To: Main PLUG discussion list > > Subject: Nokia N900 > > > > > > I'm very surprised no one has brought this device up for discussion yet! > > It would appear to blow away the current Android and OpenMoko devices > > by packing a 600 MHz ARM proc, 256MB DRAM, a huge wad of flash, 802.11bg > > AND bluetooth, and--biggest of all--quad-band GSM AND a 3G radio > > compatible with T-Mobile USA. It also has USB2 and, curiously (I don't > > know exactly what it is) "TV-Out". On the software side, it runs their > > distro called Maemo which, GUI-wise, has Qt at the core, though you can > > still run GTK apps like its predecessor the N810. It's almost entirely > > free software and hackable, one of the biggest ones that aren't is > > macromedia flash being included (presumably so you can play Youtube > > video--I couldn't see playing flash games on an ARM...). > > > > The way I (and a lot of others) see it, this is like the early OLPC's or > > eeepc's in terms of horsepower and (somewhat) memory. More than one > > person out there has suggested it could be used as a sort of hand-held > > file server. The geek in me is going even more nuts over buying this > > than the Sheevaplug since I could obviously do so much more with it. > > The few reviewers that have gotten their hands on it so far were mostly > > morons that obviously couldn't fathom the potential that could be > > unlocked from it. For instance, the keyboard gets griped at a lot. So? > > Get one of those roll-up USB keyboards from Thinkgeek: since it's a > > lightweight distro (Busybox was explicitly mentioned) and (hopefully > > full) kernel in there, I would presume that USBHID hasn't been neutered. > > > > So what do you all think? My current phone (a Motorola V3xx) is still > > working ok, and the N900 is nowhere near cheap...but, damn, it's making > > me drool! Should I get it or not? Are one of you planning on it? > > > > Mike > > > > P.S. Another thing not discussed here: Slackware-13's out. :) > > --------------------------------------------------- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > --------------------------------------------------- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > -- > Sent from my mobile device > > A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from > rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button. > > Stephen > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss