N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

I will be on the road in 4 hrs, kind of finishing up on my packing while my kids and wife still nagging this and that, I would like to get some advice on taking the N900 on my 1st field trip.

1) WIFI
Did not buy any phone contract yet, so, internet is on wifi whereever I can get. Starbuck has wifi with free membership, MacDonald has wifi w a ridiculous expense fee, Bojangle Chicken has totally free wifi. So, there are my wifi connection on the trip and sure, they will get my business on the road.

2) Ovi maps
a) Where can I find the most info/FAQ/forum on the Ovi maps? I have about 10-15 min goofing around then I will have to offline get ready for the trip :(
b) Bug1: Touching the screen does NOT bring out the Onscreenkeyboard, one has to slide out the hardware keyboard. Of course I have setting taken care of and Onscreenkeyboard pop up in all my apps except OVImaps.

c) How to adjust route, once you set the route? I cannot find anyway to delete or save route, so I exit the program and get back it. It is strange.
d) They remember your last route, but there is no function to save your route, so this is a one route map?
e) Everytime I click on Ovimap to start the program, as if it is starting new, is that your experience? It gets on a prgress bar and then it works. Is Ovimap a compressed app? Or anyway I can make it more handy? The only I know, is to leave it on desktop.
3) GPS
I have given up on the GPS, one I have not learned how to use it, two I have not been able to log it without being online; Anybody has any experience with using a BTGPS and how does it function with OVI maps? If you are online, say, has 3G service, will maeMap with geolocation able to get one around, like locate in 1 to 2 min, and kind of update? I know, it is not a map, just wondering anybody has tried it.

4) I am going to use the camera, and or maybe video and see how it goes outdoor.

5) Bug2: I think when the BT is on, my sip phone will NOT answer. I will try to characterise it more and file a bug report.

6) Oh, the N900 sip phone quality is excellent, much better than the N800. I know, it depends on a lot of things, wifi bandwidth, locations etc, but I think the N800, even with the optimum conditions, still lacking the hw to do a quality job with the sip phone.

Anybody takes their N900 on a field trip yet? Please send your dos and donts and tips.
I will be checking this thread, every now and then. And I will take my beloved N810 along as it has the famous maemomap!

Ovi map step by step here, http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...868#post479868


Merry Xmas and a Happy new year to the community,

bun

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

sipPhone:

I doubt I can buy Tmobile on a Xmas day...., maybe

How do you make your sip phone ring? I can make it answer phone call by vibration, I am sure it can ring somewhere, yes, I know I run out of time, just to see if anybody using the sipphone. Apparantly the phone menu will NOT open with a cellphone plan or sim card?

Anybody configure the google talk to use video yet? Or it is not yet availble? I can only config google talk to answer in a vibration mode, http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=437178, and does not know how to turn on the video part.

Yes, I am in kind of a hurry, before getting into another serious 'domestic' argument with my mrs :(

TIA,

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

Have fun and have a safe trip, I would not bother with Ovi Maps at all. It's terrible.

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

1. settings/text input/virtual keyboard :) not sure why it doesnt work on maps

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

Yup, I have it set and worked in all my apps, except the OviMap.

Now, somebody should know this, ...by heart, :), where to file bugs for N900? The same maemo.org or a special N900 bug place? I may be able to take care this in Starbuck with my N900. On the road, soon.................... with bunwife, bunkids, buncar and bunN900, and my lovely bunVacation, YAH!

bun

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

FM transmissiions work RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX!

Go play some music file, then Settings>FM transmitter, check "on" and Save, and tune your FM station to 88.1, VOILA, music comes right out from the car stereo. WOW, SO DIFFICULT................

I am very happy with this N900!

bun

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

video call works.....not N900 though :(

In air with free wifi, video call using google talk works on N8x0, you see video and voice. Quality is ok. while cellphone has problems in the air, Nokia tablet wifi rules!

N900 doing fine with google talk, but no video. program crashed when attempt to open camera.

yup, postings directly from N900

bun

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

Ovi map,gps,battery field trip after PR1.1 update

Ovi map is very useful now after the update. I have dl ALL usa map, which is a total of 5.39 MB, see here. And fully charged the N900 before the trip.

Ovi map took me from one city to another city, function dutifully with zero surprise. It works very smooth and zoom and track fine. I did not get the route before leaving the house. In the car, I manually set the destination on the map, it generate route spontaneously, no internet connection.

GPS, today it worked perfect, lets see whether this is going to be the situation from now on. It locked with eCoach, under 1 minute, throughout the 5 hrs trip. I constantly took the N900 out when strolling on the street, and walking inside shopping mall, gps did not even blink, worked 100% all the time. To save battery, I occasionally turned N900 offline, and when needed, I started the map and eCoach, it locked under 1 minute, no internet connection. I was too inpatient to check whether eCoach is necessary.

Battery is the problem. I have the N900 on almost continuously, it ran from freshly/fully charged to down to 7 % after 5 hr continuous use. No wifi/BT/audio/video. Brightness was set to 3 blocks, kind of in the middle from zero to 100 %. And GPS and eCoach was on all the time, eCoach was on Record. N900 was warm to touch, not good, it is warm, not hot though. I did not like the warmth, I momentarily turned off gps for 1 minute, it cooled down.

In surmmary, with the current status, 1.2009.51-1, the latest update, GPS and Ovi, maybe with eCoach, is functioning. Battery use, 5 hrs only on continuous gps use, has to juggle with continuous gps use.

Any other users post any tips/experience on field trip,


bun

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

5 hours gps use from a battery rated at just over 1300mah with a screen that is 3.5" and being run by a 600mhz omap3 is pretty dam good if you ask me

most sat nav units that cost 150 pounds of less have a battery life quoted at around 3-5 hours

garmin units quote 5 hours max most others are 3-4 hours

so according to your test the n900 has doen extremley well indeed

i have noticed lock on times have increased with the new update and the improovements have made it better however we need full voice guidance big time

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

... could somebody explain to me in very simple terms how I download the maps for the UK? ... where I would find them? ... etc? ... does it need to be done to a computer or can they go directly to my phone?

.. I haven't tried the ovi maps since the firmware update, but this sounds promising!

ETA ... just been having a bit of a play ... am really liking the updates to maps, seems so much easier to use ... but ... it would be nice if a contact's address was linked with Ovi Maps ... so that you could click through from the contact card and add it as a destination ... is this possible?

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

in the demos it was possible mate , i saw video clips of them opening a contact and then navigating to them via maps so if it isnt possible now id hope it was in the future

ill see what i can dig up

to load maps up , use map loader i think it works with the n900 , download map loader from nokia ,install it onto pc etc , connect phone in pc suite mode , try to use map loader :-)

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

... thank you! ... will give it a go tomorrow ... actually, may need to find some wifi before tryin to download a shed load of maps ... but I shall hopefully try it sometime this week!

... t'would definitely be good if you could use contact addresses with ovi maps ... seems really silly not to be able to ... I think a number of features were ditched between the demos and the release of the n900 ... I notice in the video demo on the phone it suggests you should be able to navigate away from a video in the media player while it's still playing to get to the multitasking page ... which I certainly can't do on my n900 ... aaah well! ... not complaining too much, I really do love my n900!

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

loading Ovi, step by step here, http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=38872

bun

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

in my taskmanager if i have say liquid flow running and i open the taskmanager , liquid flow is still moving around like it was in full screen it looks awesome , taskamanger open with the apps running in the background

i havent tryed it with movies yet , maybe they decided pausing the video when taskmanager was open woould be better so you didnt miss any of the film , program etc :-) if it carried on playing you may misss something important while you flick through the taskmanager :-)

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

Might I direct you to the Brainstorm in my sig? Have a look, see if any of the suggestions meet what you're after and, if ot, add one of your own,

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

hello guys.!
just a query, does it need an internet connection once to connect to gps/.?
cant the gps connect without internet.!??

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

you needed the internet connection to download the maps before the update.

if you download the maps on your pc and transfered it to your phone (see the "step by step" guide mentioned above) you can use the maps offline on your phone.

no internet connection required. just gps. :)

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

LOL! I still haven't tried liquid flow ... should give it a go one day I'm in need of entertainment!

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

I have not thought about it this way, you are totally correct. I keep on thinking this is a pda, and it HAS to last at least 1 day to be called a pda, so one plug it in when home at night. That was what I am thinking with the N900. If you compare to a dedicated stand alone gps, you are right, the gps I have barely last 3 - 4 hr when NOT plug in. The bottom line, I can always plug it in the car. I just want to stress the battery and see how it goes - continuous use, no wifi/video/audio, only gps/eCoach - 5 solid hours, and it is called good. From this, if it can cut down on the brightness, say the built-in night mode, you should gain another 30 min or so. PR1.1, nice upgrade, Nokia.

bun

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

... oooh, liking the brainstorm ideas ... I was just after a simple able to select address destination from contact card (either through maps, or from the contact card) but some of your suggestions sound really nifty!

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

Exactly! It's especially strange because when you look on the destination page, there's some city destinations like they were saved? I haven't been to Paris recently so it wasn't me!

Must be something in the "future". The problem I see it with Nokia's future play is that "Phone Cycles" are getting shorter. We really LOVE our phones. If it takes a year to get basic Maps functionality and he the phone functionality that is still needed, the EOL of the phone is already nearing. That would be an argument for not buying N900 and waiting for the next one IMHO.

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

but my gps doesnt connects without GPRS or Wi-fi,,~
the 'antenna' icon keeps on blinking and it doesnt get fixed,
while if im connected to internet..it connects within 5 seconds!

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

I find that the GPS is useful for finding where you are. However, the routing is still terrible.

I used it to navigate through downtown Toronto and it was a huge headache. It didn't know that roads were "no left turn" and there wasn't any automatic rerouting if I went off course.

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

More info here, to connect without wifi, http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...868#post479868, thread #12

bun

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

After doing the above. The gps doesnt connect at all. The 'Antenna' icon keeps on blinking for ages. what do i do?
pls help. I reside in India,

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

We are still experimenting with the gps, so some of these tricks are by experience, I have NOT tried to turn off the antenna, but some post said it should be off when not with wifi. My own experience, wifi or not, it catches within less a minute...when eCoach turns on. I am in USA, and switch to supl.google.com:7276 is NECESSARY for me to catch. You are in India, I would NOT know where is the cell tower :( Maybe some of your Indian fellows can help, Sachin007?

I am have under 1 minute lock with my setup so far after the PR1.1 upgrade., I got it more than 20 times and hope it is going to stay that way.

Before PR1.1 upgrade, I used location to get lock. Now I am using eCoach to get lock. And wifi is NOT need, so far for 2 days already and gps is very behaving.

Open Ovi, turn on eCoach, click Rec, and my N900 will lock in under 1 minute. I hope I am not going change this statement.......Oh, the eCoach has to check the Auto Centering.
I have station changed to supl.google.com:7276 (I found out the 7276 is NOT necessary though)

I also notice, when N900 is into power saving mode, gps lock lost. It was a big deal in the past, as gps lock is so difficult to get. Now, no sweat, open ovi, turn on eCoach, bamp, it locked again.

Tomorrow, I will see whether eCoach is needed. I know, I am trying the gps like a witchcraft....

bun

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

So far, my experience with gps lock, in the last 24 hr, 8 locks, all under 90 seconds, And I am in US, internet or Agps is NOT required:

1) Settings>Location>Network postitioning check Enable and Location server: switch to "supl.google.com:7276"
2) Desktop menu>Add widget>Location

Open Ovi map, (step by step installation here, http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=38872)
go to Location wideget, click the power button at the bottom, this turns it from grey to bright white.
Go back to Ovi, map, if you can see the sky, it locks in 60 second. Inside my house, it locked in 90 second.
None of the above requires Agps/internet.

Now, to save battery, when you are done with Ovi map, you can turn Ovi map off, and as long as Location stays, Ovi map locks in 1-2 minute, (depends on whether you are indoor or outdoor) upon hitting the power button at the bottom of Location.

A cold lock, sometimes will take 5 min, but after a cold lock, a warm lock always under 1 minute when the power button of location is pressed, occasionally it is instant.
Oh, I also found out Location tracks, and it moves too, surprise. Pic enclosed, see the red dot, it actually animated from small to large and track your location as long as map is there. I know, location means tracking, but, seeing it actually work excite me.

So far, this is the best way I can get a GPS lock and is within practical time use.

The bottomline, with Agps locking is fast, we all know that. Because NOT everyone has 3G/data plan, I think knowing how to get it work without internet is also interesting to me.

Please post your experience, so we can sort out the best way to get lock. Complain about a gedget you already bought gets you no where.

Edit: In the last 2 hours, I have turn on and off Ovi maps, I mean completely OFF, and start Ovi map, I did it 8X, they all locked within seconds upon hitting the power button of Location! This is the most reproducible experience I ever have with my N900 GPS. This is ALL done under NO internet. Internet is completely turned off during the tests.

bun

How to landmark your home address?
 

Ovi maps 1.01

From here, http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...649#post487649, thread #51

================================================== ===
to landmark your home address, here, Right lower corner arrow>Places>any business (for e.g. pizza city state) and click the icon i > return to your map. You just created a POI/landmark of that place, it stays even if you close and reopen Ovi maps

Yes, works only with business with the icon 'i'.

To create a landmark of your home address?
1) use the above method ONLY if you home address is a business :rolleyes:
2) find any business, restaurant or anything next to your home, and mark it. DUH, you just created a landmark for your home address
================================================== ======
enjoy,

bun

Re: How to landmark your home address?
 

Ok, so how do you get rid of these bookmarks?

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

Been on the road with Ovi Maps on the N900... oh how it sucks. In fact, the order of sucktitude is even greater than that of the original suckfest, WayFinder. :D

My tip... and what works for me is to use Maemo Mapper on my N810 BT tethered to the N900. The N900 never leaves my pocket. With the 3G connection now finding addy's with Maemo Mapper is a breeze.

***

Also, I have no on screen keyboard. This makes entering something as simple as a destination postal code with the slide out keyboard a giant PITA. Is there a setting I'm missing or is this a "feature"?

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

ahhhhhhhhhhh I want all the features of ovi map 3.0 on n900! i know some people who are flaming over this feature but hell coming from a n95 8gb with ovi 3.0 features puts this one to shame but i love my n900 :). I would appreciate more if they would improve ovi map

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

How do you manage to turn on your 3g all the time?

If I turn on my 3g all the time within 1/2 day the battery will be "flat".

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

That happens to everyone :)

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

Why do one want to turn on 3g "all the time"? Maps are preloaded. Gps does NOT need 3g. To search for "pho" (He said he wants some pho :rolleyes:) takes 15 second the most, or for people dont have 3g, I would find it with wifi bookmark it before leaving the house. I am curious what do you need 3 g "all the time" :)

bun

Re: How to landmark your home address?
 

Dont put it in then you dont have to get rid of them...........just kidding.
I dont know, I guess a good maemoer can:
xterm
dpkg -L bookmarks ?

dont worry, I have NEVER seen anybody get upset about too much POI, right?

bun

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

I've downloaded all the corresponding maps, but the Location widget will complain that it is "Unable to download maps".

Ovi Maps does not complain, so it would seem that the widget and the application use different maps. Does anybody have any other data about that?

The other thing I'm curious about is about the map format. I've read it is bitmap, but given that Ovi Maps can tell the street and the number without an Internet connection, I'd guess it comes in some kind of vector format. Discuss. ;-)

Re: How to landmark your home address?
 

Kinda clutters up the map. Most GPS you can turn them on and off for the same reason. Or filter by category.

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

That's right. And there's a bug for it - feel free to vote if you'd like to see this fixed.

For those who'd like to be able to get a GPS lock in Ovi Maps without a network connection and without having to fiddle with the Location Widget or eCoach, you can vote for bug 5337.

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

I don't really use the phone for navigation. But nice to know it's there in a pinch.

I use the phone as a mobile computer (literally with VNC). To this end it's friggin great. (Can you hear my enthusiasim?) Really this is the best phone I've ever used.

Although I will comment that a additional battery pack or charging solution is needed if you will be away from a power outlet for a while.

To put things in prospective, there isn't a device on the market that will allow me to do what I want to do for as long as I want on a single charge. It's that simple. The iPHone 3gs would eat up just as much battery, and probably die faster, using a VNC with ssh tunnel all day.

I had an OQO 02 which was a real x86 computer running Vista Business, and got 2 hours out of a single battery on that. (granted different beast as it was a full OS) But with VNC I have access to a real computer, that can perform real computing tasks. (Compiling for x86 and x64 apps, 3d modeling, and even gaming (need to change skills in Eve)) Locally I can work on files natively in the pgykeditor and then just upload them to the vnc server computer for compiling.

I play quake 3 on it, runs wizardry 7 in dosbox, and enjoy my SNES collection anywhere. (I own the games I play)

Seriously, this phone fits my needs. My needs are pretty specific and I'd say a little above the average smart phone users needs.

That said I can see why some would find this phone below there needs. You really do (at this point) need to know what you're doing with it.

Edit: or be able to ask someone does know what their doing for help.

Edit Edit: Let me add, that I think the attention navigation is getting on the n900 is ridiculess. I don't give a flying rats hind quarters if this phone can do navigation. If you bought an N900 and your BIGGEst complaint is navigation... well you should of bought a navi and not a phone.

2d

Re: N900 on the road, please share your experience and tips
 

Navigation is not there, at all...
Thought I'd fire up Ovi maps today after downloading the latest maps with the map downloader (which doesn't work on vista or win 7 :@)

Unusable IMO. Tried a simple route from GPS position to my workplace. First of all there was no GPS lock as I expected as was inside my house. The location it started from was the other side of a river I live by, in a field (!). The route started the other side of the river to where the red dot is so if i was where it said i was I would have to swim the river.

Then it directed me onto a dual carriageway and to do an illegal u turn at the next set of lights.

And to top it all off the business park where I work is incorrectly named.

I haven't even bothered using it whilst on the road, would be if anything, dangerous.

So even if it had turn by turn, voice guidance, route alternatives, traffic info, POI's, ability to store favorite places and home, it would still be unusable. Also the satellite view virtually locks up the device its that slow. So thanks Nokia for making a useless Navigation tool free to all.

The TomTom on my N95 which is several years out of date still works flawlessly apart from a few new roads not being on it. One good reason to keep hold of it for a while yet...