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 »

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 »

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 »

N900: Powerful Phone

The Nokia N900 boasts of a powerful ARM Cortex – A8 superscalar microprocessor core running at 600 MHz. This gives the phone enormous speed in processing information inside your unit. This enables you to fire up all your applications quickly without hesitation. With the processor comes with a generous serving of memory – 1GB of application memory. This is a huge step. This means that you can load different applications all at the same time. This is good news for multi-taskers. The 1GB memory will provide great possibilities to get more work done in less time.

The Nokia N900 has a PowerVR SGX with OpenGL ES 2.0 support 3D accelerator. This will make the phone’s graphical user interface non-clunky and very smooth. You will be able to see graphics displayed vividly and in full color. The animation is superb. You will be making all those swiping of screens, placing widgets on the desktops and playing of games more enjoyable.

This is the heart of the Nokia N900 phone, which aims to be the best phone available in the market. It is positioned as a powerhouse of a phone. Don’t think about bringing that clunky and heavy laptop. The N900 will be your mobile computer especially with the awesome muscle inside its little frame. Together with the Maemo 5 software, the 600 MHz ARM Cortex – A8 superscalar microprocessor core will make multi-tasking a breeze letting you more work to be done wherever you may be.

The Nokia N900 is the phone that can put a dent into the mobile market currently being hyped and dominated somehow by Apple’s iPhone. Will we see any real competition from these two giant tech companies? We shall see.