Till we meet in November.

Sorry to break this to all those who are expecting the release of the highly anticipated Nokia N900 phone. According to Peter Schneider, head of Maemo marketing, Nokia has decided that it is moving the release of their newest handset from end of October to anytime in November 2009.

It seems that the folks of Nokia sent out 300 pre-production test units to different people all giving different feedback. Perhaps there have been some unfavorable reactions to the unit and the new Maemo operating system. Of course, we can only speculate this. Due to these reactions, they have pushed back the release date and is now making some tweaking.

I am sure many feel bad about the delay. But it is something of a welcomed disappointment. We can see that Nokia is doing its very best to make sure it will roll out their best product yet. They are gearing up to butt heads with the competition especially Apple’s iPhone.

The Nokia N900 is dubbed as “RAW COMPUTER POWER” with the description – “Experience the speed and raw power of the high-performance Nokia N900 mobile computer.” Among other things, the N900 boasts of a 3.5 inch wide screen touch display with 800 x 480 pixel  resolution, full QWERTY keyboard, Wi-fi and Bluetooth, a 5-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss optics Tessar lens with a CMOS sensor camera and other hot features.

So we need to wait another month before we get our hands on the Nokia N900. Will it be worth the wait?

Rumor has it that the highly hyped Nokia N900 phone will not allow mobile carriers to customize the handset’s user interface. This will not permit mobile operators worldwide to tailor the graphical user interface (GUI) of the N900 handset according to their needs and specifications.

This is NOT true.
Maemo’s GUI can be customized.

Nokia denies any intent of locking the customization capabilities of the Maemo software. In fact, the Maemo operating system welcomes the idea of harnessing the power and the uniqueness of the N900 to satisfy the appetite of the consumers, application makers and communication carriers.

What will be the advantage for the mobile carriers? For one, they can modify the look and feel of the graphical user interface according to their color scheme and put their patented logos, icons and familiar markings. They can even install proprietary software that enables their customers to download ringtones, wallpapers, mms picture messages and the like. The possibilities are endless.

This news gives a sigh of relief to those who have been praying that the Maemo platform will not be as limited or locked as the iPhone operating system.

However, more questions pop-up.

Will this open platform also open a door for malicious use? Can Maemo be opening its doors to scoundrels who will take advantage of the Maemo’s architecture for cruel purposes?

How will this affect the end consumer? Perhaps it will not be much unless the customers complain of their carrier’s version of the N900 user interface. However, this still remains to be seen since the phone is practically a mystery to most of the world. And will the customers of these mobile carriers accept or complain about their custom-made interfaces or will they prefer the original Nokkia N900 look-and-feel?

The answer to these questions will emerge soon. And you will be able to read them all here at the Nokia N900 blog.

We know that you like to watch videos of the Nokia N900. Here’s another one from Nokia Conversations giving us a sneak peek of the Maemo 5 software that provides the pristine graphical user interface (GUI) of the N900. This wonderful piece of technology is based on the Debian operating system and is a linux software platform developed for smartphones and internet tablets developed by Nokia.

Video highlights include web browsing, gestures, dashboard widgets and multiple screens.

If you want to know more about the software, read our article entitled “What is Maemo?”

Enjoy the Maemo video below.

Nokia N900 desktop.

You might be curious about the operating system of the Nokia N900 phone. Look no further. We have the 411 on the Maemo.

Based on the Debian operating system, the Maemo 5 (also known as Fremantle) is a linux software platform developed for smartphones and internet tablets developed by Nokia. This open-source code software derives its graphical user interface (GUI), frameworks and libraries from the GNOME project.

The Maemo’s interface can be manipulated in different ways. You can use the directional pad of the phone or, for the reason why it was invented, use touch interface. The Maemo 5 can also recognize handwriting and other gestures. This is the next step in touch-interface tablet technology.

Maemo 5 gives the user four (4) desktops similar to the Spaces feature on the Apple Mac OS X. These desktops can be customized with different backgrounds, shortcuts and widgets. Widgets are little applications running on the desktop. Basic widgets include a clock, calendar, news and notes. You may add or subtract any widget on your desktop. By swiping the screen, you can move from one desktop to another.

A breakthrough in Nokia web technology is the inclusion of a Mozilla (Firefox) based MicroB web-browser that comes with Adobe Flash and can display websites in a 800 x 480 display resolution. Compared to previous version of the built-in Nokia web browser, this is a breath of fresh air.

The following formats are supported by the Maemo 5 software:

• Video: MPEG-1, MPEG-4 ASP (H.263), RealVideo, AVI, 3GP
• Audio/playlists: MP3, RealAudio, MPEG-4, AAC, WAV, AMP, MP2, AMR, AWB, M4A, WMA. OGG/Vorbis (requires addon package), M3U, PLS
• Image/Animation: JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG, SVG Tiny, ICO
• Text/layout: text files, PDF, HTML.

Your Nokia N900 will include this very powerful Operating System, which is said to be open and available for people to use and create new applications. If it does perform the way it is written, then Apple does have good competition in the lucrative mobile phone market.

For more information about Maemo, visit their official website at http://maemo.org/