When Nokia and Intel announced their strategic partnership to forge their open source platforms: Maemo and Moblin into MeeGo, during the Mobile World Congress that concluded last month, I was excited and disappointed at the same time. Excited as it meant the availability of a wider range of applications but disappointed as I was afraid N900 would be left out of the domain of MeeGo devices.

Nokia PR didn’t help much over the next fortnight, refusing to divulge any details on the possibility of N900 getting MeeGo and I was losing hope over seeing some Moblin apps on N900 but then, the official MeeGo blog was put-up and Valtteri Halla of Nokia, made it clear that the MeeGo repository is infact headed to N900 and that too as soon as towards the end of this month! What does it mean to your N900s? Find out after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

There have been a lot of rants and raves about the navigation experience on N900 via the default Ovi Maps for the Maemo platform. One constant nagging issue has been the absence of offline maps, a feature which has been the USP of Ovi maps on symbian platform, so much as to push it to the top spot in the favoured navigation device in Europe.

However, the very feature which catapulted Ovi Maps to the top position has been missing from the maemo version of the application on N900. But all that is history, as Nokia have now updated the Ovi Maps loader with support for Maemo version of Ovi Maps, meaning you can now download and save maps on your N900 and be able to use the app in absence of data connection.  Catch more details on this after the break Read the rest of this entry »

Face Detection, Tracking! Looks straight out of that James Bond or Jason Bourne movie, ain’t it? But yeah these technologies are so cliche now that even our N900 can boast of one. Seriously no kidding, as demonstrated by German developer Johannes Kuhlmann, with his unique game based on face detection and tracking- Burger Face.

The concept of the game is pretty simple, your face is the controller and you have to dodge the knives and eat the burgers. While game may not be that impressive with graphics and the like, what really impresses me is the innovative control technology. Based on face detection and tracking, this is another contactless control technology successfully implemented on the N900. Catch the demo video and further details, after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

The folks at Nokia Research Center (NRC) just can’t help making things easier for us. While there has been a lot of speculation about Symbian Foundation going open source and Symbian^3 demoed, even our Maemo brothers have got new company with MeeGo, the researchers at NRC thought it was time to flaunt some hardware technologies to the world. So here it comes in the name of Nokia’s Explore and Share technology which at this stage is still a concept but I see it coming on the mainstream N900 soon.

So what really is this Explore and Share Technology? It’s a new wireless data transfer concept which promises blazingly fast transfer speeds. How fast? Imagine transferring an entire Bruce Springstein album in less than 10 seconds, that fast! Seems out of bounds? Check out the demo video after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

First came Windows 98 and then the Android and even Mac Os X paid a visit to our N900, but now it’s the turn of none other Ubunto Mobile the popular Linux distribution for mobile devices, to boot on the N900.

First attempted by YouTuber lifenexus, this is one of the most complete attempts at loading a foreign operating system on the N900. It’s fully functional and more importantly there is no lag, even when the OS is booted from the memory card. Now that must have gotten some Linux geeks excited out there, so this one goes for you guys. Catch the demo video after the break.

Demo Video-

Doesn’t that look cool? I just love the LXDE desktop and the fact that there is no lag means you can as well use Ubuntu as the main OS. What a pity, that there isn’t room for phone functions in this OS, which otherwise looks very promising as a mobile OS. So Linux hackers: can any of you get some phone functions on to the Ubuntu Mobile? Not that we are complaining about Maemo 5 but having options is always better and plus it pushes the competition to come up with better solutions.

Our friends at Nokia have been keeping up with the good work as evident from the third firmware update for our dear N900s. The fact that the third update comes just a month after the second update goes on to show the commitment from our friends in Espoo in improving the already impressive feature set of the device.

While the official changelog is not out yet, it is highly recommended that you update the firmware as firmware updates generally contain bug fixes and optimizations necessary for functioning of device software. Find out how to update, after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you been finding the kick-stand on N900 not as handy as you wished it would be? I definitely do and so does “Fake” of Maemo talk, who thought he should do something about it and designed this awesome looking stand for N900. Armed with a laser cutter, Fake has built a sturdy yet classy looking stand for the N900.

Not only has he accounted for the phone stability but also a place for stylus which makes it rather handy for handsfree usage in the landscape mode. Before you start exercising your grey matter on how exactly this stand would look like for your N900, do take a look at the demo video released by Fake, and did we mention? Fake is apparently taking orders for this stand; details of which you can catch after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

Maemo 5 is known for its seamless integration of Social Networking Services and VoIP clients within it’s OS and guess what it just got better. With addition of AIM, Facebook and MSN Live, Maemo 5 now covers almost the entire spectrum of the available VoIP services.

Before you get all excited about these services, let me tell you that these can be added via Extra Protocol Plugins for Conversations and Contacts, which are presently available in the Extras-testing repository in the N900 App Manager. So yeah, you can head there straight to get these plugins for your N900, but do take a look at some screenshots and more bits of info on the latest plugins. Read the rest of this entry »

Now we have already told you how BlueMaemo lets you use your N900 as a PS3 controller, but what if you want to do the other way around? That is use a PS3 Sixaxis controller as an input device for emulated games on N900: its possible now. But it’s no simple app that can let you do that but it involves a bit of fiddling around with the kernel and installing a SixA daemon. So unless you want to get your hands dirty, this hack is not for you.

But you don’t have to lose heart. What if you are not brave enough to poke your finger at the core of the OS-kernel, you can always admire the work done by others. So let’s first do that, by taking a look at this demo video released by Tomasz Sterna aka Aberration, who takes the credit of being the first person to connect the PS3 Sixaxis controller to N900. Read the rest of this entry »

Foursquare! What the heck is Foursquare? That’s exactly the same question I asked myself, when I first read about it at Nokia Experts. Apparently Matt from NE has been testing the beta version of the app and has been given the thumbs up from the developers to spill some info on the app, ahead of its release.

So what is this Foursquare all about? Well its a cross-breed between an augmented reality and social networking apps. Confused? Get it clarified, after the break though. Read the rest of this entry »