For a geek like me, the Nokia N900 is paradise on earth: It’s full Debian Linux in your bag. It has the best IM integration I have ever seen on any mobile device. It has the best VoIP (Skype, SIP) integration I have ever seen on any mobile device and it has one of the coolest multitasking implementations I’ve seen on any mobile device (the card-based task/application switching is fantastic).
Unfortunately, there’s one thing that prevents me from using it (or many other phones) to replace my iPhone: While the whole world agreed on one way to wire a microphone/headphone combination, Apple thought it wise to do it another way, which leads to Apple compatible headsets not working with the N900.
By not working I don’t just mean “no microphone” or even “no sound”. No. I mean “deafening buzzing on both the left and right channel and headset still not being recognized in the software”.
The problem is that I already own iPhone compatible headsets and that it’s way easier to get good iPhone compatible ones around here. I’m constantly listening to audio on my phone (Podcast, Audiobooks). Having to grab the phone out of my bag and unplugging the headphones whenever it rings is inacceptable to me, so I need to have a microphone with my headphones.
Just now though, I found a small adapter which promises to solve that problem, proving once again, that there’s nothing that’s not being sold on the internet.
I ordered one (thankfully one of the international shipping options was less than the adapter itself – something I’m not used to with the smaller stores), so we’ll see how that goes. If it means that I can use a N900 as my one and only device, I’ll be a very happy person indeed.
gnegg 