Today I got the Nokia N900 I ordered. I decided I wanted to get one as soon as they came out, but there were the usual ordering shortages, early-adopter angst, and all the rest. Besides, watching other early adopters has convinced me that the best thing to do is read all the reviews and then wait a few months.
The Eyrea normally has a strict policy of not upgrading gadgets unless and until there is a damn good reason. "A newer, shinier one got released" is not a damn good reason. The N900's predecessor, the still-working N800, eliminated the MP3 player from the "stuff I cart around in my purse" list, plus gave me a simple word processor for when inspiration struck and I was standing up on a TTC bus. Turns out it's handy for other things I find of value, like keeping a calendar, making a usable calculator handy, and surfing the web at Starbucks. Plus, erm, Mahjongg and Tetris. Games don't seem important until you realise they're the only thing between you and the overwhelming urge to throttle the annoying person three seats away from you on the subway.
The N900 does all the things the N800 did (the only loss seems to be handwriting recognition, which I probably won't miss in the long run), plus it has GPS and a built-in phone. So now I can quit carrying around a phone, too. It also has a camera with a flash and Zeiss lens. Maybe I can quit using my little digital camera too.
A phone. That means I can ditch my old cell phone and just use the N900 as a pocket wireless gadget, a simple word processor, a calendar, and all that other stuff.
But before all those gadgets can be shed, the ugly stuff has to happen. The data transfers.
Sure, the N900 has a USB cable connection, plus Bluetooth, plus WLAN, plus of course the phone connection, plus a microSD slot. Sounds pretty connected, right? Not quite.
The USB only shows the microSD card.
The microSD slot on the device is internal, right beside that nice Zeiss lens on the phone.
The Bluetooth.... works like Bluetooth. All the usual "sure this device is wide open but I can't see it la la la", or "I can see it, but I'm not going to talk to it" inanity that besets Bluetooth. Or else the Nokia is willing to talk, but the other device won't, even thought it's wide open and can recognise the Nokia is trying to talk to it.
I'm not picking on the N900 here. I'm not even surprised. This is what often happens when older gadgets get folded into a single gadget, or even when you just do a straight one-to-one upgrade.
The good news is they're getting better all the time. The bad news is they weren't better before.
At any rate, I'm sure I will get everything figured out eventually. When I do, I'll post about the solutions here, rather than the first-night-of-acquisition problems.
Update: Aha! I gave up for the night, and powered down the device, but left it charging on the USB from my computer. The laptop detected both the microSD card and the main storage! This would probably be highly boring if I just read the manual cover to cover first instead of just browsing the index. It would also be less fun.
So if I can get it on my laptop, I can get it on the N900. Okay.