Did you heart just skip a beat seeing the landscape menu on the N900? Mine did the very moment my eyes fell on this screenshot! As you must be knowing Nokia for reasons unknown decided to leave out the landscape mode for the default menu and the third party developers obliged by leaving out the same in their apps that found their way into the Application manager and the beleaguered Maemo Ovi store.
With over 6 months since it’s launch, Nokia seems to have forgotten about this much requested feature. Thankfully that won’t leave the N900ers like you and me brooding over the absence of such a feature. An enterprising developer going by the name of Robin Burchell has decided enough is enough with the Nokia’s Engineering team and went ahead to code this little daemon called Rotatedaemon, which as you would expect brings 360 degrees screen rotation to our N900s. Find out how to get this daemon working on your N900 and more, after the break. Read the rest of this entry »
Remember Hermes? That handy little application I reviewed way back in December last year? It turns out that the app has been just updated to v0.8.2. So what are the additions in the new version? Well, I let one out in the title of this post and am afraid you will have to hit the read button to find about the rest. Read the rest of this entry »
Remember JoikuSpot, that I covered way back in January this year? Well, if you should know, the maemo version of Joikuspot has been in market since early February and if you haven’t already invested on a license of JoikuSpot, I found a free alternative with does just the same (well not the entire range of functions).
The app is called Mobile HotSpot, and its still in it’s stages of infancy and is presently available as a free download in Extras Devel repository. What features does it offer and how does it compare to JoikuSpot? Find out after the break. Read the rest of this entry »
The mobile version of Firefox also known as Fennec has now been updated 1.1 beta. If you have been using Fennec 1.0 on your N900, you would agree with me when I say that the handy tab management and Weave is something, that we N900ers can’t live without now, what say?
Well, the best mobile browser by a mile, is about to get better, much better than any mobile browser can ever dream about: with options like save to pdf (directly from the web page)! If that’s not urging you to head straight to Mozilla webpage to download the latest browser, I don’t know what will! Changelog and more screenshots after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Is your N900 battery running out of juice faster than you can get back home after work? Blame it on the power hungry apps constantly pulling feeds from the web via 3G or Wi-Fi, depending on whatever is within your vicinity. But these are the very feeds that differentiate our N900s from iPhones and the like, for not many smartphones boast of a widgetized customized homescreen.
Is there a way to have the best of both the worlds? Fortunately for N900ers, there is: its called AutoDisconnect, which is still in its early stages of development but looks impressive nevertheless. How effective is it? Let’s find out after the break.
Screenshots-
The first screenshot shows the settings screen of the app and as you can see, you can monitor either or both of Wi-Fi and 3G/GPRS data connections. Further, you can play around with Interval and Max Idle Traffic to your liking to suit your needs. Coming to how effective it is, calvin_42 of maemo talk tested battery performance using battery-eye, a battery status monitoring app and found that the battery lasted 5 times longer with AutoDisconnect enabled. Now if that doesn’t push you to download the app, I don’t know what will.
AutoDisconnect is available for download in Extras-Devel repository.
Have you been smitten by the Live Wallpaper of the Nexus One from Google? If you are and are looking forward to seeing something similar on your N900, I have some good news for you. Vasvlad from maemo community has developed a live wallpaper app for the N900, which is still in beta stage at his moment. Though the app is not as interactive as the one on Google Nexus One, the app does a smooth transition of wallpapers in the background giving you the feel of having a time-series wallpaper on your N900. If this is something you fancy, hit the jump button for a demo video and download link!
Read the rest of this entry »
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last month or so you would have probably heard of the latest toy from Apple, yeah I am talking about the iPad. While there are a hundred things that iPad lacks when compared to our N900, what’s important is that it boasts of a better eco-system and big wigs like Google have launched a customized version of their popular email service just for this tablet. How does that matter to us N900ers? Well, for starters the iPad version is more optimized for large touchscreen devices and two we can fool the gmail servers to render the iPad version of GMail to our N900s. Do I have your attention now? Am sure you are now reading between the lines and let me tell you how to get this hack working, after the break though. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, if you have been yearning for some chrome action on your N900, you don’t have to wait for long for our friends at MeegoPortal have found a way to get this awesome browser onboard our N900, without having to wait for the Google guys to release the Maemo version of their popular browser. Whether Google will ever release an official version of the Chrome browser for Maemo is not known yet but then our linux gurus have already found their way around the system. Hit the jump button for more screenshot and a brief tutorial on installing Chrome on N900.
Screenshots-
Now that should disperse any second thoughts you had about the flash experience on Chrome. I will not waste any more words and blurp out the instructions for the installation:
- Download libxss-1.1.3.deb and chromium-5.0.369.2.deb from this site ( and thank Jace Kowski for all the good work!)
- Make sure you have root access and launch Terminal
- Type the following commands:
cd “wherever you downloaded the packages into”
dpkg -i libxss-1.1.3.deb
dpkg -i chromium-5.0.369.2.deb
That’s it.. You are now ready to browse the web the Chrome way from your N900!
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It may be a while before Google releases their chrome OS to public and it eventually landing on N900 but till then enjoy the chrome browser on your N900!
Just shelled a couple of grand (probably more and am talking about USD here) on that unibody Macbook or Macbook Pro? It does burn a hole in your pocket and it hurts especially when you haven’t got a deep one to start with. Anyways, lest you be thinking of getting that Apple remote which unfortunately isn’t part of the standard package, let me save you 20 bucks (that’s like 1/10th of the Macbook, but then still it’s money saved), by suggesting this amazing desktop widget going by the name of RaeMote, which lets you control your Macs (Mini, MacBook and MacBook Pro) via the N900’s CIR (consumer infrared) port. It’s available in the Maemo’s Extras repository and before you jump there, let me show you the widget in action, after the break though. 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 »
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