Nokia N900 Blog

RaeMote Lets You Remote Control Your Macs from N900

bltzkri3g — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:00:13 +0000

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.Demo Video-

Isn’t that a cool Macbook Pro in the background there? Coming back to our forte, Nokia has traditionally been guilty of over-looking the Mac platform but things are changing for good with Mac support coming to several of Nokia suites and the developer community is not lagging far behind either, as seen with RaeMote, an excellent use of the CIR port, which most of the manufacturers have written off from their top-line smartphones. Well Nokia did have the heart and brains to keep this port on their N900 and thanks to developers, we now have some really cool apps maxing this port.

MeeGo Coming to an N900 Near You, Sooner Than You Might Expect!

bltzkri3g — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:52:13 +0000

When Nokia and Intel announced their strategic partnership to forge their open source platforms: Maemo and Moblin into MeeGo, during the Mobile World Congress that concluded last month, I was excited and disappointed at the same time. Excited as it meant the availability of a wider range of applications but disappointed as I was afraid N900 would be left out of the domain of MeeGo devices.

Nokia PR didn’t help much over the next fortnight, refusing to divulge any details on the possibility of N900 getting MeeGo and I was losing hope over seeing some Moblin apps on N900 but then, the official MeeGo blog was put-up and Valtteri Halla of Nokia, made it clear that the MeeGo repository is infact headed to N900 and that too as soon as towards the end of this month! What does it mean to your N900s? Find out after the break.

If you are a Linux hacker/ developer this news would open new avenues for you for you now have a wider range of applications to play around with but for a non-geeky end user like me, this news is of little to no significance for:

There’s is still no word on whether N900 will be eligible for the upgrade to MeeGo 1 as and when its released
There are presently no usable MeeGo apps that end users can try and appreciate the power and usability of MeeGo on a mobile device

I may sound a little sceptical but that’s just because MeeGo is still in it’s conceptual stage with both Nokia and Intel getting the foundation ready for the MeeGo platform to take off. They have set the pathway and going by the deadline of March-end for the release of MeeGo 1 repositories for Intel Atom Boards and N900, I am more than assured that they are indeed working hard and at frentic pace to assure that N900 users are not left out of one of the most interesting developments in the mobile computing industry. I just hope developers and hackers come up with some great apps for MeeGo over the due course of time.

Get Offline Maps on N900, Maploader Supports N900, Finally!

bltzkri3g — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:15:20 +0000

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

Screengrab showing N900 support on Ovi Maps-

The latest version of Map loader supporting the N900 can be downloaded for free from Nokia USA website. The 27 MB file is no less than a messaiah for N900 fans, who have had an aweful lot to complain about the GPS services on this platform. While the support for offline maps is a great addition, it has to be noted that the Maemo version of the app still doesn’t support voice guidance and hence may still not appeal to users of symbian devices. But, the app is rapidly evolving and voice guidance may be added in the near future.

Face Detection and Tracking on N900!

bltzkri3g — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:46:25 +0000

Face Detection, Tracking! Looks straight out of that James Bond or Jason Bourne movie, ain’t it? But yeah these technologies are so cliche now that even our N900 can boast of one. Seriously no kidding, as demonstrated by German developer Johannes Kuhlmann, with his unique game based on face detection and tracking- Burger Face.

The concept of the game is pretty simple, your face is the controller and you have to dodge the knives and eat the burgers. While game may not be that impressive with graphics and the like, what really impresses me is the innovative control technology. Based on face detection and tracking, this is another contactless control technology successfully implemented on the N900. Catch the demo video and further details, after the break.

Demo Video-

Isn’t that cool? Definitely is! Well I was totally bowled over by the concept and though I didn’t like the graphics aspect of it, I just love the face tracking thing. And yeah, who doesn’t like burgers? Everyone sure loves them and kudos to Johannes for making such an innovative game out of this technology.

Since the game is still in development stage, Johannes (the developer of game), would be more than happy to read about your comments and improvise the game before the final release. So do leave your feedback with Johannes.

The game can be downloaded for free from Johanne’s blog

Rubic Cube on N900, Courtesy Offscr’s Cube Touch

bltzkri3g — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:38:20 +0000

Missing that Rubic Cube of your childhood or whatever age you were in when you toyed with it? Now, thanks to Offscreen Technologies, one of the best known names in games and applications for the Symbian platform and now in the Maemo platform, for this amazing adaptation of the popular puzzle into the touch platform.

Rubic Cube as you may know is a 3D mechanical puzzle and is so popular that there are world championships held every year and world rankings are maintained by World Cube Association. There are all sorts of variations of Rubic cube with people playing blindfolded, feet etc and the cubes come in different grid sizes as well ranging from 2×2 to 7×7. Enough of introduction now, let’s now dive into Cube Touch on N900:

Screenshots-

Offscreen Technologies are sticking with the most popular 3×3 grid size for this version of Cube Touch and frankly speaking this is best suited for the screen size of n900. Since our N900 is no cube or not even square, anything more than 3×3 will be a difficult implementation. Not surprisingly, Offscreen have restricted this version at 3×3 and they have done a great job indeed. Sliding across the faces is intuitive and easy and so is sliding individual plates. The bottom line is this one addicting game and you are gonna spend hours on this one.

The world record for 3×3 Rubic cube is around 7 s. How close can you get to it? Better, if anyone can beat it!

Rapid File Transfer Coming to N900 via Nokia Explore-N-Share

bltzkri3g — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:18:17 +0000

The folks at Nokia Research Center (NRC) just can’t help making things easier for us. While there has been a lot of speculation about Symbian Foundation going open source and Symbian^3 demoed, even our Maemo brothers have got new company with MeeGo, the researchers at NRC thought it was time to flaunt some hardware technologies to the world. So here it comes in the name of Nokia’s Explore and Share technology which at this stage is still a concept but I see it coming on the mainstream N900 soon.

So what really is this Explore and Share Technology? It’s a new wireless data transfer concept which promises blazingly fast transfer speeds. How fast? Imagine transferring an entire Bruce Springstein album in less than 10 seconds, that fast! Seems out of bounds? Check out the demo video after the break.

Demo video-

So now that you saw Jyri’s demonstrations, you should raking your brains on what really device, which they refer to as “writer” is? Honestly, I have no idea what it is but all I care about is that it makes things look so easy, I am starting to wonder why didn’t anyone else figure this out. Would have saved a week if not a month’s effort of loading my music collection into my N900.

Here’s how Nokia Conversations defines the technology

Explore and Share is based on new radio technology. This demo unit sees you place your device on a ‘writer’ which is connected to a separate touchscreen monitor. This new radio tech forms a short-range connection between the writer and the device, and doesn’t use any other radio networks – the writer is immediately paired with and recognizes your handset, and instantly brings up relevant content that is available for it on the large touchscreen monitor. From here you simply tap to transfer the apps, music albums, games, apps, videos and other extras you fancy, direct to your phone in a flash.

So, to make sure this technology does end up on our N900s, please participate in the the discussion over at Conversations blog.

It’s Ubuntu Mobile v9.04’s Turn on N900 Now!

bltzkri3g — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:51:37 +0000

First came Windows 98 and then the Android and even Mac Os X paid a visit to our N900, but now it’s the turn of none other Ubunto Mobile the popular Linux distribution for mobile devices, to boot on the N900.

First attempted by YouTuber lifenexus, this is one of the most complete attempts at loading a foreign operating system on the N900. It’s fully functional and more importantly there is no lag, even when the OS is booted from the memory card. Now that must have gotten some Linux geeks excited out there, so this one goes for you guys. Catch the demo video after the break.

Demo Video-

Doesn’t that look cool? I just love the LXDE desktop and the fact that there is no lag means you can as well use Ubuntu as the main OS. What a pity, that there isn’t room for phone functions in this OS, which otherwise looks very promising as a mobile OS. So Linux hackers: can any of you get some phone functions on to the Ubuntu Mobile? Not that we are complaining about Maemo 5 but having options is always better and plus it pushes the competition to come up with better solutions.

Photo Translator- Your Personal Translator

bltzkri3g — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:41:10 +0000

Have you ever found yourself in a foreign country with little to no knowledge of the local language? Sounds very familiar right? Most of you will definitely will relate to that lost feeling and guess what you don’t have to anymore. Thanks to Photo Translator- an amazing translator tool for our N900s.

You would have probably used the translator services of mighty Google, which I covered previously but that doesn’t really help when even the script is as alien to you as the language you are trying to decipher. That’s where Photo Translator pitches in with its OCR based translator engine. OC what? Find out after the break.

Demo video:

Doesn’t that translate screen look familiar? You are right it it is, for its based on the Google Translator API. What CyberCom Channel, the developers of the app have done really is added a OCR (Optical Character Recognition) based engine on top of the Google Translator API to let you just snap a message and get the translation on your N900s. Isn’t that totally cool? Sure it is, but the app is still not available for download yet. So do drop by the developer’s blog and let them know how badly you need this app on your N900s.

N900 Gets Third Firmware Update: v3.2010.02-8 aka PR 1.1.1 Released

bltzkri3g — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:11:21 +0000

Our friends at Nokia have been keeping up with the good work as evident from the third firmware update for our dear N900s. The fact that the third update comes just a month after the second update goes on to show the commitment from our friends in Espoo in improving the already impressive feature set of the device.

While the official changelog is not out yet, it is highly recommended that you update the firmware as firmware updates generally contain bug fixes and optimizations necessary for functioning of device software. Find out how to update, after the break.

Screenshots-

How to update?

Well you have two options:

OTA (Over The Air): I would recommend this feature as this is no frills (read no cables) method to upgrade your firmware. This feature can be triggered by just launching the Application manager and clicking on update. You should see a download prompt for a 16.2 MB file.
NSU(Nokia Software Updater): If you prefer doing things the old way, you can plug in your device to a PC, select the PC Suite option, and click on update firmware. Though the N900 supports UDP (User Data Preservation), there is no harm in making a backup of the device before updating.

While the update has been out for over a day now, users across the world are still complaining of not being able to access the update. Are you one of the fortunate ones or still waiting for the update? Please let us know.

Get the Android version of Google Buzz on N900

bltzkri3g — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:46:22 +0000

If you have been all excited about the Google Buzz announcement and release yesterday, I have another reason to cheer for you guys. The android version of Google Buzz (which packs in more features) has now been hacked on to our mighty N900s. Thanks to Abhista for finding a way around it and that in less than a day since the service saw the ray of light! We are definitely impressed both by Abhista and our N900’s capabilities.

So what exactly is this hack all about? Well, to put it plain words, you are fooling the Google servers into believing the N900 browser to be the android browser. Simple and yet effective. Details and demo video after the break.

Demo video-

Now if you prefer to read through a set of instructions, I won’t disappoint you either:

Install Hide User Agent from Application Manager
Go to Control Panel and open Hide User Agent
Set user agent to
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1; en-us; dream) AppleWebKit/525.10+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0.4 Mobile Safari/523.12.2
Click on the Set
Then the browser will be restarted
Now go to the browser, open http://buzz.google.com

Ain’t that simple? Infact it’s one of the easiest hacks that I have seen on the N900 and yet it’s so effective. Now you must be asking, “Yeah, that’s great but why the heck do we need the android version when the N900 browser has the capabilities of a desktop browser?” Well saving on data usage is one advantage and the other being the android version is optimized for mobile usage and comes in with several additional features (Check out the comparison at Google Blog post here and you would know what we are talking about).

So what are you waiting for? Get buzzing on your N900s and do let me know what you think of the above hack.

[via ZomGitsCJ via Abhista ]