I’ve posted a couple of deal alerts for the Nokia N900 and we again have another deal that knocks $50 more off of the device so you can pre-order now on Amazon for $509.99, after $50 rebate. I canceled my preorders from Amazon and Newegg a couple of times as I wait until the device is actually closer to release and with the price drops we are seeing this may turn out to be the best strategy. Picking up the N900 for $510 is excellent, but I think I may continue to hold out since I have the evaluation device until January and may see it get down even further by then.

If you have already preordered this at Amazon, then it looks like the rebate will apply to your existing purchase since the rebate is valid until 31 December. Great news for prospective N900 owners. If you preordered with Newegg or another source, you may want to jump back over to Amazon now.

UPDATE: A reader stated this rebate is also available on Newegg so you may get this with a pre-order there too.

I just read this article titled 15 ways the N900 is better than the iPhone and 5 ways it is not and have to say it is quite a well presented argument. Obviously at this time, the available applications for the iPhone beat just about any platform, but as I have said before the extremely strong browser on the N900 makes having many apps a moot point. I have a preproduction N900 and an iPhone 3GS and admit I do keep switching back and forth because there are some key apps for my usage that I find appealing on the iPhone. I also think Apple has the user interface down so the common user feels comfortable with the device. Then again, no one ever said I was common and I really enjoy the geekiness and power of the N900.

I like the N900 for the following:

• Powerful web browser
• Hardware keyboard
• Awesome camera
• Prop up kickstand
• Standard microUSB for charging and connecting to PC
• Notifications (Apple can’t even touch these or the Android model)
• VoIP/IM integration with easy calling/chatting via Skype, Google Talk, SIP, etc.

I like my iPhone 3GS for the following:

• Applications for Twitter, Facebook, Bible reading, and GPS navigation
• Ease of getting media content on the device through iTunes

Hmm, I guess there isn’t much about the iPhone I like over the N900. They both have mediocre battery life, but at least the N900 has a removable battery and standard microUSB port for charging. If the N900 can get support for Amazon Video On Demand added to it like the Nokia N97, then that will address my video content issue. The N900 also needs some good social networking apps and I am sure we will see more as developers continue to work on Maemo and the device gets out into more people’s hands.

What do you like about the Nokia N900?

To answer some reader questions and get some visibility for the N900 in the enterprise world I just posted this article over on my ZDNet blog and think you will be pleased to see Google Docs and more Google services work just fine on the Nokia N900.

In all of my previous posts on the N900 (found in my Definitive Nokia N900 Guide) I was using a pre-production N900 running firmware 1.2009.41.10. I understand that the firmware shipping with the N900 devices is later than this one I have. Nokia stated that these pre-production devices would eventually get a firmware update so I connected via Nokia PC Suite this morning and ran the Nokia Software Updater to discover an update was indeed available. I just downloaded the 161.4 MB file and updated the Nokia N900 to firmware 1.2009.42.11.

I thought it would have been like some of the more recent Nokia updates where all your apps and settings remain in place, but it appears everything was wiped out. I wanted to start over anyways so didn’t mind having to reinstall apps. All of my photos were still on the 32GB drive so that is good. I plan to test this out extensively this weekend to check on any battery life improvements and try to find anything else out that might have been updated. I cannot find a changelog for this firmware update anywhere and if you happen to find it, please do share it with me.

I will update this post as I setup the N900 again and discover changes. So far, it really does appear to be snappier, but that could be a matter of having a fresh device again. I also plan to avoid enabling the Maemo testing repository since some of those apps are in alpha and could be messing up the battery performance. I want to give you a new user perspective so will stick with Maemo Extras instead.

Clarification: I just wanted readers to know that these N900 units sent out early were a bit special and needed to use NSU to update while future/shipping versions of the N900 should have the same OTA support you expect in new Nokia devices.

We all know that the N900 is starting to ship out to retailers now so should hopefully be coming to buyers soon as well. Things are starting to happen around this latest Nokia Maemo project and we now see that applications are appearing on the Maemo Select site with links to download directly to your N900. I already have most of these apps loaded on my test N900, but it is good to see this site start to have content available. I am still looking for new themes and wallpapers to appear as well.

I tried going to the Ovi Store app on the N900, but it still goes to the website saying it is coming soon so that is not live yet. I also understand that there is a later ROM than the one I have on my test unit and I was told the update for this unit should be on the device software updater soon. Thus, I have my T-Mobile SIM card back in the N900 and am checking regularly for the update.

After now having had the N900 for a few weeks, I have to say I am quite disappointed in the battery life with the current ROM. I can go further than I did with the horrible T-Mobile G1 battery, but for my regular, moderate usage I can only go a half a day before I need to charge it back up. This is with background apps and updates at a fairly minimal level, surfing for 30 minutes, calling for about 20 minutes, WiFi on for occasional usage, and MFE push email going. You can always carry an extra battery, but is sure would have been nice if Nokia had used that sweet E71/N810/N97 1500 mAh battery in this device.

With the fast processor, large display, and internal 32GB flash memory I started thinking the N900 could serve as a great base station for a full computer experience. Could I connect my 37″ LCD TV and a Bluetooth keyboard to the N900 and use it as a mobile PC? I turned on the Bluetooth radio and selected to add a device. I then enabled searching on my Think Outside BT keyboard and voila the N900 found it and identified it properly and they were paired together. I also used the Nokia TV-out cable and plugged the yellow cord into my TV port for instant video appearing on the large display. It seemed to all work together out of the box with no additional utilities or tweaks.

I then went about seeing what I could do with the BT keyboard and found it does not work for navigation or controlling anything on the device, but works pretty well inside text entry fields. I was hoping that some of the application buttons on the keyboard would launch apps, but that support is not yet present. There is not yet any Office software so I went into the Notes program to test out the functionality.

You can use the keyboard for entering all letters of the alphabet, navigate within your note using the directional arrow keys, enter a comma and a period, and activate the shift, caps lock, backspace, tab, and enter buttons. There is no support for the number row, other punctuation or symbols, or any other keys that I could find. The predictive text capability of the N900 is supported and may be helpful for some, but I type quite fast and am a good speller so don’t really need it.

If you are planning to write a novel or other long email or article with the N900, then the BT keyboard solution works pretty well. It is quite helpful that the N900 has the kickstand for propping itself up too. I also used the TV out last week to show off the N900 with a projector and that works flawlessly, even showing off video. The display on the N900 looked better than my projector output, but the 37″ LCD looks quite nice.

Good news people, the Nokia N900 is now shipping and should be available soon at retailers here in North America. The current pre-order price at Amazon is $559.99 so this might be the best deal going at the moment with their return policy flexibility compared to other stores. I still have my pre-production unit and don’t have a pre-order in place at the moment because I need to see how the shipping software performs. Unfortunately, I still have an early version of the software and Nokia has not provided an update for the device.

There is no word on whether T-Mobile USA will ever pick this up, but I am doubting it since we haven’t seen any substantial rumors yet. I think it is quite strange though for Nokia to include the 1700 MHz frequency in all the N900 units without some kind of major deal with T-Mobile since they are the only ones using this band.

Any readers order a Nokia N900? Where did you purchase one?

It was a dark and very rainy night in Tacoma, Washington, with heavy traffic on I-5 and for the first 30 minutes it was just myself and Peyton eating pizza and chatting about the N900. We then added another and then four more so we had a total of 6 people, and myself, in the room checking out the Nokia N900 and all the other gadgets I brought along. Everyone was pretty excited to get some hands-on time with the N900 and it looks like 4 out of the 6 will be buying the N900 when it is released. We took a few photos with the N900, N97, and N86 8MP that you can see in the gallery below, along with the Qik video shot with the N900. I had the N900 hooked up to a projector via the TV out cable and it worked like a charm.

Peyton actually taught me a couple functions that will make the N900 even better for me and that is to use the volume button for zooming in and out in both the photo viewer and web browser. I couldn’t figure out how to zoom in while viewing photos and also found the volume zooming option in the browser to be much faster. Thanks for the tip!

Full screen YouTube video watching in the browser was awesome. We found the connection to be pretty slow on T-Mobile and maybe the Sprint store next to the restaurant was blocking us out. People threw some heavy sites at the browser and I think the connection had more to do with the slowness than the browser, but the browser did prove to be pretty capable. Overall, I think people were pretty impressed with the N900 and a desire for more marketing of the device and launching on T-Mobile was expressed.

I had six things to giveaway from my gadget closet so everyone who came received something. Thanks to Nokia for paying for the pizza and pop. Maybe we’ll try to plan something bigger and with a bit more notice in the future to show off a Nokia device since I had a great 3 hours chatting about mobile tech with folks who drove quite a ways through the foul weather to see the N900.

Hopefully you all read about my Nokia N900 meetup in Tacoma, WA tonight. I also dug around my gear closet and found something like six prizes to giveaway to attendees. Sorry, they are not Nokia devices (one Nokia Bluetooth headset actually is included), but there is some cool gear and it is FREE. Nokia just let me know the meetup is live on their N900 meetup site too so check that out and bring a friend tonight.

I will have at least the N900, N810, N800, and N97 to show off, along with some other pretty hot mobile devices. Come on out for some free food and mobile device talk. I’ll post some photos and thoughts after the event so you can all see what you missed

I read about this deal on the Nokia N900 and then found out the extra savings expired or it would have been priced way down at $441.99. I decided to then cancel my Nokia N900 order over at Newegg and wait out until we see more of these deals. Since I have the pre-production unit until January I am sure I will be able to find the N900 for less than $500 by then. Were any readers able to score the N900 for just $441.99? That was one heck of a deal and I wish I would have scored that one.

Note that 3-5 day shipping is also free. I used to buy my devices from Dell and they used to have an excellent return/exchange policy that still looks to be in place.