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 »

The N900 Hackathon continues! After Android and Windows 98, it’s now the Mac OS X 10.3 aka Panther, which has made an appearance on N900. Thanks to Finnish hacker Toni Nikkanen, who takes the distinction of successfully porting OS X on to a mobile device.

While there are plenty of Mac fans out there who would just love to have this OS on their mobile phones, the present port is of little to no practical use for an average user. But, that’s not gonna stop enterprising geeks from trying this hack, now does it? Before, you take the dive into the hack, do take a look at the demo video. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you wondering where is all that battery juice of your N900 disappearing? If you have to plugin your N900 after like every 6-7 hours, then let me tell you that you are bitten by one of the software bugs either of one of those applications you recently downloaded or those in Maemo 5 itself!

A number of users have been complaining about less than average battery performance on their N900 and was wondering what was all the hype about, when I was able to get about average battery performance from my trial unit of N900 from WOM World. So I headed straight to the abode of Maemo 5: Maemo.org and the N900 forum there infact had all the answers to my queries.

Before I dwell into the battery tweaks of N900, let me add a few spoilers here so that you can skip the read, if you have already made these tweaks on your N900. Tweaks related to Wi-Fi settings and disabling some of the data intensive widgets on the homescreen. If you haven’t, then hit on the read button to know more about these tweaks. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have been using the Ovi maps or any of the GPS based applications on the N900, you would have realised by now that it takes frustratingly long time to get a GPS lock. Is it the fault of the GPS radio onboard the N900? That’s what I first thought but then the Maemo community suggested this little setting tweak, which unleashed the true GPS capabilities of N900.

Do you have to code or type a few gibberish commands in the terminal? Obviously not, unless you prefer doing so! It’s a simple setting where-in you need to change the location server from the default of supl.nokia.com to supl.google.com. And where exactly do we do the change? Find out, after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have been trying to access that Ovi store from your N900, you know thats it’t not live yet. But guess what, folks at talk.maemo have found their way around it and caught Nokia offguard who it is now known were testing the store among their inner circles.

Even you want some hands-on feel of the Ovi store? Head to store.ovi.mobi from your N900 browser and you can very much see for yourself, what am about to show you guys here. As long as you don’t try to download anything, the ovi store experience will be no different from that on any symbian phone. Here comes the tricky thing, download option is not yet available off the store, but there is a way around it, which though not advisable for Linux newbies, the junkies will adore. Find your way here, while I give you a screen-shot tour as I walk through the ovi store on N900. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most important things you expect your smartphone to be capable of doing is to function as an efficient email client for you. While BlackBerry’s Push E-mail is the market leader in providing email-on-the-go services, competing smartphones are not lagging far behind with their email clients either. The only faux being the absence of a true push email services from any of the competitors. While Nokia does have its Nokia Messaging service, its not as widely available as the BlackBerry’s.

Coming to N900, I was delighted to see how easy it was to configure an email account on Maemo 5’s default email client. Very much like the email setup on iPhone, you don’t have to bother about SMTP/POP server names if you are syncing one of the popular email services like that of Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, Ovi mail etc. Infact its so simple, I wish my outlook functioned in a similar fashion. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the screenshots that I took as I configured the ovi mail account, after the break though. Read the rest of this entry »

If navigation is one of your top priorities, you must be wondering if the N900 would do you any good in finding you way around the town. Guess what, you are in luck, for Ovi Maps onboard the N900 is one of the best navigation apps that you can see on any mobile platform today.

For users of symbian phones, Ovi Maps needs no introduction for Ovi Maps has been the default navigaiton app on symbian smartphone for over a year now (It was called Nokia maps initially and then rechristened to Ovi Maps). It was one of the first navigation apps to come up with the concept of downloadable  maps on phones, drastically reducing the data consumption on compatible phones. The navigation app has been a great success on the symbian platform, and now debuts on the Maemo platform with the N900. Let’s now see how it pans out for my routine navigation needs. Read the rest of this entry »

A lot has been talked about the browser capabilities of the Maemo browser on N900 and that of its closest rival, Safari on the iPhone. Being an iPhone user myself, I gotta say that it accounts for one of the smoothest mobile browsing experiences, but the N900 browser’s capability to render the pages in desktop like resolution takes the competition to the next level, all by itself.

To zero in on a winner, I put them through several tests and threw in HTC Hero, which according to me is the best Android phone in market (as of now) and HTC G1, the legendary Google phone which gave the world the first feel of Android. Eager to know who is the winner? Hit on the read button to find out. Read the rest of this entry »

With a 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens onboard the N900, am really digging the imaging capabilities of this beast. What is the next logical step after taking amazing photos? To share them with the world right? Atleast that’s what I do after I frame a masterpiece (kidding, almost anything that I capture). Thats where Maemo 5’s sharing feature comes into play and am really amazed at the simplicity of it.

Having played around with Nokia 5800, N97 and iPhone, I have gotta say, image sharing has never been as easy and intuitive as on the N900.  Hit on the jump button to see what makes me say so. Read the rest of this entry »

In case you were wondering where I disappeared after promising some hands on experience of N900, I can only say that people are really getting restless to get their hands on a N900. I almost got mugged walking around the city, toying around with N900. These are the desperate times and no am not talking about the economic recession or the recent market crunch in Dubai but am referring to the severe market shortage of Nokia N900s.

Not to mention the canceling of pre-0rders from Amazon, Dell, NewEgg and other online dealers, N900 enthusiasts are just losing their patience and I got some first hand experience of the same when I was mobbed this weekend, after being spotted with N900. However, I put up a brave fight and managed to keep the N900 with me but only after letting my attackers have some hands-on feel of the device. Yeah, I was just kidding about being mugged, my attackers just wanted some first hand experience of the device. I was traveling on work over the weekend and hence was not able to update the blog here. Anyway having missed out on the black Friday, I realised that a lot of N900 buzz has been doing the rounds, which by now you should have already read. So, I thought I will cover something which no other N900 blog has touched upon so far- Data backup and Recovery on N900. Read the rest of this entry »