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.

Screenshots-

All screenshots courtesy of ZOMG

If you thought bringing 360 degrees rotation to the N900 was a big deal (that should explain why the firmware upgrades haven’t bought this feature yet), you are in for a shocker for the daemon is a mere 9kb file. Can you believe that? A file so insignificantly small can really play wonders with your N900! The screen transitions are fast and you don’t have to anything other than installing this daemon file. It keeps running in the background by default and the only way you can stop it from doing what it does is to uninstall it!

Given the early build of the daemon, there are a few bugs the most annoying being the one with third party apps with built-in rotation sensors. Things start getting funny here as two competing tasks strive to achieve the same end result, leaving the N900 hardware so confused that it eventually reboots! Other than that faux, the daemon works like a charm and should suffice most N900ers.

RotateDaemon can be downloaded from Extras Devel repository within the Application Manager.

]]> http://www.nokian900.tv/rotatedaemon-brings-landscape-mode-to-menus-and-more/feed/ 2 http://www.nokian900.tv/rotatedaemon-brings-landscape-mode-to-menus-and-more/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NokiaN900Blog/~3/T8QKz7LhksE/ http://www.nokian900.tv/hermes-updated-to-0-8-2-now-sports-find-as-you-type/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:51:46 +0000 bltzkri3g http://www.nokian900.tv/hermes-updated-to-0-8-2-now-sports-find-as-you-type/ 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.

Demo video-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_6ZC8n9nKs

Image and Video Courtesy of The Nokia Blog

As you can see in the video above, Hermes is all about synchronizing your phone contacts with those from your social networking profiles. With support for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Gravatar, the app covers some of the most popular networking services. While the app has been one of my favorites, just for its auto-addition of birthdays and anniversaries of my friends into my N900 calendar (thanks to Facebook sync), the app did have a few downfalls in its previous iteration. The most nagging one was the matching of contacts which the app failed to sync. However the latest version does a much better job at matching and with find-as-you-type, searching a contact is way faster and intuitive than it ever was.

So do update Hermes on your N900 and if you still haven’t installed this app, make sure you get this one from the application manager.

While there are many social networking services out there, NRC is cashing-in on the reluctance of some users to connect to the web from their phone. Instead of relying on network operators to provide mobile internet, Nokia Instant community creates ad-hoc network using the device’s Wi-Fi radio. The network in absence of any mobile internet plan, nor does it need bluetooth or InfraRed port for interacting with other devices. How exactly does this work out? Let’s find out after the break.

Demo Video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6bHggX6TD0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bV-zoiHKwc&feature=player_embedded

The stellar technology was conceptualised in Tampere University of Technology (TUT),  where university created the concept user interface, while NRC worked on developing the underlying communications technology that allows users to connect with an infinite amount of devices across a huge geographical area.

While privacy and piracy is definitely an issue with this technology., the technology has the potential to totally transform they way we interact in social networking websites. To know more about the project, please proceed to the Nokia Conversations blog.

The release though is not a full release in the sense that it’s not ready for the end users. It’s more for the developers and hackers and the core version of the platform, which is available for our N900s doesn’t yet support the phone functions. Find out what goodies are actually included in the package, after the break.

Apart from N900, the platform is available for: Intel Atom-based netbook, and Intel Atom-based in-vehicle devices. While the netbook version includes a wider range of features, the core version which is available for N900 is packed with:

• Kernel based on 2.6.33
• DeviceKit and udev for interacting with hardware devices
• Modern 2D / 3D graphics stack including Kernel Mode Setting, non-root X
• Voice and data connectivity with Connman connection manager, Ofono telephony stack and BlueZ Bluetooth
• Qt 4.6
• Universal Plug and Play (gUPnP)
• Media frameworks
• Next generation file system BTRFS, as the default file system

If any of these things mean anything to you, you should be heading to MeeGo website to download the appropriate version for your device. End users like me will be keeping our fingers crossed till October this year, by which the version 1.1 of MeeGo will be (hopefully) released.

//

Then the fire doused for a while, only to re-emerge in early May, with an unofficial release in torrents and other file sharing services. Nokia insisted it was an incomplete release and went on to warn the N900 community against installing this update. Finally laying to rest all the build-up to the v1.2 firmware, Nokia officially announced the availability of the firmware update over “Over The Air” channel, first in UK, followed by phased launches in other parts of the world. I know you have seen the changelog on more than one occasion of this firmware, but those were mostly unofficial compilations. Let’s see what Nokia has to say in their changelog, after the break though.Changelog-

• First up – new games join the veritable arcade already on offer in Ovi Store. Jurassic 3D Rollercoaster, Zen-bound, Angry Birds (level pack), Sygic, Kroll, Weatherbug, and GoGadget are all available to keep you entertained. Important to note though that Ovi Store will do a full switchover this week Thursday, May 27, so these games and other for-purchase apps will show up then.
• Next are the improvements to communication. Email has been improved with the ability to accept or decline an event invitation right there in your inbox, and Facebook IM chat has also been bundled in. The release also brings with it video calling, allowing users face-to-face chatting anywhere.
• An additional update you will be pleased to hear about is portrait browsing on the internet is a-go on the N900. Ovi Maps also gets the update treatment with changes to the UI, improving the experience of finding your way around. And finally, there’s also a change to the menu system UI with the first level now customisable.

As you can see Nokia has decided to skip our N900s for the much hyped Meego2.1 update.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3v4YC9RT-g

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygK8iiMY61o

As can be seen in the above videos, Damion has managed to get the physical keyboard as well as the mouse pointer working on this project. While we wish Damion to get the nitty-gritty of the project figured out, enterprising hackers can get their hands dirty and get their doubts clarified by Damion himself at this MaemoTalk discussion.

Looks like Eclairs is the flavour of the day! Yeah, am talking about the latest version of Android and before you think about HTC or any other android manufacturer, let me tell you that our very own Nokia N900 is man enough for this beast of an OS! Thanks to dj_steve of Maemo Talk, you can now get the season’s hot favorite Android 2.1 on your N900. I know you are getting restless to see this in action, and am I am not going to keep you from it for long. Hit the jump button and the demo video and hack details are all yours.Demo video-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxCemtVEIUo

As of now dj steve has managed to get working: Touchscreen, Keyboard, Bluetooth Drivers Load but no android support yet, wifi drivers in kernel, sd and internal storage detected but not set to mount yet, while the following are in the works: Sound, Bluetooth, Charging, Battery Status, Phone, Accelerometer, Unlock/Lock switch on the right side, Microphone, FM transmitter, and FM Radio.

You can follow dj steve’s work at NitDroid, yeah that’s what the genius calls it and Maemo Talk Forums

1. Carakan : The latest Javascript engine from Opera which offers a definite speed advantage when compared to other javascript engines
2. Vega rendering library: This is the very library which is responsible for rendering CSS3 rounded corners and shadow effects m making Opera Mobile 10 on Maemo the first mobile browser to be equipped with this library

Opera maintains that this is an unofficial release, which came out of just 6 man weeks, more out of an hobby than a full release and warns that there may not be a full official  release. Not surprisingly, it has its share of bugs, which may or not may not be fixed when the next build is released (if ever):

• Adobe Flash and other plugins are not supported.
• Screen tearing may be visible when panning, especially in portrait mode. We expect to fix this in a future update.
• The built-in on-screen keyboard is not supported. Use the physical keyboard or the on screen keyboard included with Opera Mobile.
• There is no power management support. In practice this means that if you open a page with animations and leave Opera running, you will soon be using a payphone. Power is drained even when Opera is running in the background and/or the screen is turned off.
• If you set Opera as the default browser, for example by installing the Browser Switchboard, an extra empty tab will get opened every time you open a link from an external application.

I totally love Opera for it’s one browser which I can use on all of my gadgets: netbooks, laptops, desktops and smartphones and the bookmark and speed-dial sync is one killer feature I totally dig on all my browsing devices. I hope Opera gets more serious on Maemo5 platform and releases an official version. Even in it’s absence I am happy toying around with the preview build.

Download Opera Mobile 10 for free on your N900.

]]> http://www.nokian900.tv/opera-stages-a-maemo-comeback-with-opera-mobile-10-says-its-an-unofficial-release/feed/ 0 http://www.nokian900.tv/opera-stages-a-maemo-comeback-with-opera-mobile-10-says-its-an-unofficial-release/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NokiaN900Blog/~3/COfjpEoCSj0/ http://www.nokian900.tv/mypaint-brings-out-the-painter-inside-you/#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 14:26:39 +0000 bltzkri3g http://www.nokian900.tv/mypaint-brings-out-the-painter-inside-you/ Do you miss that trusty Paint Application on your desktop/notebook when on the move? Well, if you have a N900, then may be you have been trying your hands at the onboard drawing app, but as you may have realised by now it ain’t as powerful a paint client as the one you are used to on the bigger screen. So here comes MyPaint, an open source paint application for the Maemo platform which can put any paint client even on a desktop platform to shame. No kidding, this is one of the most powerful drawing clients that I have seen on the mobile platform. Don’t believe me? See for yourself in the demo video after the jump.Demo video-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAUcrUO8rQQ

Ain’t that sweet? Before you head to download this app, let me highlight some of the features of this app:

• exists for several platforms
• supports pressure sensitive graphics tablets
• extensive brush creation and configuration options
• unlimited canvas (you never have to resize)
• basic layer support

The brush collection with a highly customizable brush engine is one of the most exhaustive I have seen on any paint app. To give you an idea of what this app is capable of take a look at this MyPaint wiki gallery and you will know the true potential of this app.

MyPaint is currently available as a free download under extras devel repository.

[via]

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.

Well, Mobile HotSpot is pretty simple to use with a very simple and effective UI. You can set the network name and WEP key to restrict the access to your ad-hoc network (highly advisable). There is a huge Stop button to pull the network off the plug anytime you want. JoikuSpot in comparison has a more streamlined UI with more features like a customizable WLAP IP address among other things, but all those features come at a price of EUR 9 (USD 11.55) for a single license. If that price is too steep for you, Mobile HotSpot offers almost the same features for free. I am sticking with Mobile HotSpot for now and I hope it gets better when it graduates from Extras repository.