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328 points yaky | 24 comments | | HN request time: 0.395s | source | bottom
1. seba_dos1 ◴[] No.46239655[source]
Why go through that device-breaking battery dance when you can still get a BL-5J battery pretty much everywhere?

Booting from an SD card, while possible, is rather impractical on N900 because it gets disconnected whenever you open the back cover.

The N900 that lays next to me right now still works as a phone. I have to replace its screen though, as recently it took some damage in my pocket and got a small crack in its bottom middle. Touch still works perfectly though, so I'm not in a hurry :D

replies(4): >>46239809 #>>46239931 #>>46240422 #>>46242568 #
2. j16sdiz ◴[] No.46239809[source]
> The N900 that lays next to me right now still works as a phone.

It soon won't be. 3G and 2G network are being depreciated quickly around the world

replies(4): >>46239851 #>>46240842 #>>46241050 #>>46242442 #
3. seba_dos1 ◴[] No.46239851[source]
Should still be fine for at least a few years here.
replies(1): >>46240748 #
4. yaky ◴[] No.46239931[source]
Where's the fun in that?

Maemo wiki states that Maemo Leste should be run from SD card. I am actually surprised that the phone can use the SD slot at high enough speed.

replies(1): >>46240474 #
5. Retr0id ◴[] No.46240422[source]
> it gets disconnected whenever you open the back cover

Does it? I don't recall mine doing so.

replies(2): >>46240465 #>>46242258 #
6. seba_dos1 ◴[] No.46240465[source]
Yes it does (based on a hall sensor), though looking up it turns out that it's actually the Nokia's kernel that does it, so other OSes may not do it.
7. seba_dos1 ◴[] No.46240474[source]
I agree that fun is enough of a reason, but treating the battery contacts with 5V seems like a rather sadistic kind of fun to me :P
8. gbil ◴[] No.46240748{3}[source]
Depends on the country and provider but is sooner than later in Europe and I hate it that 2G is going away since all my old devices are not going to work again…

https://onomondo.com/blog/2g-3g-sunset-2/

replies(2): >>46240977 #>>46242668 #
9. LeoPanthera ◴[] No.46240842[source]
Can I broadcast my own 3G cell inside my house with some magic radio device?
replies(3): >>46240932 #>>46240972 #>>46241485 #
10. yaky ◴[] No.46240932{3}[source]
I've only heard of doing so for 2G: https://hackaday.com/2025/10/06/2g-gone-bring-it-back-yourse...
11. bigiain ◴[] No.46240972{3}[source]
Not legally. Where I'm from they sold off the old 3G spectrum and frequencies, mostly (all?) to established telcos to use in 4G or 5G mobile services. They will not be happy if you start interfering with their customers there (especially not after the money they spent at the auction for those licenses).

There are some weird bits of the 900MHz band that cross into the fairly free-to-use ISM bands in some countries, and I recall a CCC talk where someone demonstrated a SDR setup doing mobile phone base station stuff by sneaking into what were ISM bands in Germany where he was that handsets would talk to because they were allocated as cellular phone spectrum in other parts of the world. Here in Australia we are limited and can't use the upper end of the 920MHz ISM band with LoRa devices, because Optus bought that spectrum for their phone network.

(Here in Aust4ralia we have other cellular spectrum and phone network problems, where a lot of older devices that support some 4 and/or 5G cannot reliably call 000 (our equivalent emergency number to the US 911), because the fall back to 3G when roaming onto other networks... A few people have died recently, and all the telcos are busy blocking a growing list of phones, mostly older Samsung ones if the noise in mainstream media here is accurate. I know my old but still otherwise functional Galaxy S6 Edge is not on the banned list.)

replies(1): >>46241945 #
12. bigiain ◴[] No.46240977{4}[source]
Here in Australia 3G is totally gone already. 2G went years ago.
13. daemonologist ◴[] No.46241050[source]
I apologize for being that guy, but they are being deprecated. To depreciate is to decrease in value.
replies(1): >>46241251 #
14. jjtheblunt ◴[] No.46241251{3}[source]
but then, deprecation causes depreciation in this case, for extra fun.
15. kilpikaarna ◴[] No.46241485{3}[source]
Not sure about 3G, but here's an example of 2G: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMWvA4Ty1Wk

Edit: same as already posted hackaday, oop!

16. 71bw ◴[] No.46241945{4}[source]
The last paragraph definitely sums up how much of a bureaucratic and dystopian joke Australia is. Should have kept 2G up!
17. tetris11 ◴[] No.46242258[source]
Yep, I remember there being a magnet hack placed on the kickstand so that it would be detected properly
18. secult ◴[] No.46242442[source]
In Europe we keep 2G as a failsafe, deprecating only 3G.
replies(2): >>46242630 #>>46242632 #
19. cl3misch ◴[] No.46242568[source]
I think OP wants it to be an always-on device. The last sentence in the post is

> Nokia N900 enjoying its new life as an online radio device using Open Media Player.

But I agree with your sentiment. Using supercaps seems overengineered to me if the device is connected anyway.

20. gbil ◴[] No.46242630{3}[source]
nope, check the link I posted in another comment: https://onomondo.com/blog/2g-3g-sunset-2/#europe

please note that the list is not fully up to date, eg. in Germany Voda and Telekom have said that they will sunset 2G in summer 2028.

21. SahAssar ◴[] No.46242632{3}[source]
Not true, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G#Phase-out

Many countries/carriers in europe have already shut down 2G, many will shut it down in 2027. A few will keep it a few years more.

replies(1): >>46242942 #
22. daveoc64 ◴[] No.46242668{4}[source]
That article is full of made up slop - at least in terms of Europe.

Most of the dates stated are just plain wrong.

The UK dates are completely wrong - by 5 years in most cases.

All of the UK's 2G networks are still running, and the last won't be switched off until at least 2030.

23. officialchicken ◴[] No.46242942{4}[source]
It's a hot mess too. When you have an American carrier / phone number on an international plan and they shut down all radios in the case of an emergency in the EU, you still get 2G/3G service abroad while everyone's phones around you is dead.
replies(1): >>46243046 #
24. SahAssar ◴[] No.46243046{5}[source]
What do you mean? They are shutting down the radio transceivers for 2G/3G, how would an American number/carrier get a signal in countries that have shut down their 2G/3G networks? Or are you talking about plans to do direct-to-cell satellite service, cause none of those are 2G/3G as far as I can tell?

The whole point is to free up spectrum, how would that work if that spectrum is still in use for the American carriers in countries that shut down the service for domestic use? Why would service be maintained for such a niche usecase?