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A nice quick video has come up on YouTube lately showing off the upcoming Nokia N9.  Why is this one any different from the many many others that are swarming the waves?

Well, beyond the short sharp and shiny nature of this video, showing us all the great swipe-tastic features of our beloved Maemo lovechild, they slip in a mention at the end that Australia will be the first market to launch the device.  I find this intriguing, as although us Aussies down here may be a day ahead of the rest of the world, we are usually last to get our tech.  Take the N900 for instance, where they wouldn’t even tell us if it was even coming to Australia.  After 7 odd months of waiting, I finally got my lovely little device, but 7 months is a long time.

So there’s something to look forward to, an Asia Pacific launch at a decent time, although it still is up to carriers to release the Nokia N9, so they may still be pooping on my party when the time comes.
 

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I know that this Game Gripper for Nokia N900 have been around for some time and I’ve had mine as soon as I could manage to get one shipped to Australia.  But I just wanted to give it a quick spotlight, for those that aren’t aware of it. I enjoy the occasional game on my trusty N900, even more so when I know I have a charger on hand.  One of the best parts of gaming on my little mobile computer, over something like an iPhone, is that is has real buttons.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now, given that it has real buttons, a smart bunch of fellas thought they could make a neat little overlay to cut down the clutter and give me a direction pad to boot.  All of this while still allowing me access to my charging port, and headphone jack.
Now all of a sudden my amazing gaming machine is reminiscent of a Super Nintendo controller, and my favourite games like Doom, Jazz Jackrabbit, Duke Nukem 3D and Super Mario War are awesome to play.  Not all games need one of these, but for the ones that can make use of them, and can remap their keys, these things are ideal.
Maybe it’s me showing my age, but who doesn’t like reliving their childhood through the games we played. You can buy the Game Gripper for Nokia N900 at Amazon for 16.99$.

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“We will support Nokia N9 for years and release several SW updates” is the twitter message that Nokia just put in their page. This means that if you buy Nokia N9 you will have updates for, at least, 2 years, according to Nokia boss: Klas Ström. This is not a simple message, it comes from Nokia and they are making a comittement on stading with a support to a solely device: Nokia N9, the only Meego Open Source Nokia phone.

The same person, Klas Ström, makes a “not to worry” message with this tweet as many people are disappointed with Nokia leaving Symbian and many more (essentially developers) would be if Nokia got off Open Source and focused on Microsoft Windows Phone only. This is also a message to investors that could be thinking that a better mobile would be coming featuring Windows Phone 7 Mango which could tell us that Nokia N9 wouldn’t be that good. Another thing one can be sure: You can install Meego on Nokia N900 and get it updated whenever you want. So Nokia is supporting Nokia N900 for years too!

For those who are fancy with Nokia Windows Phone, we already have a look on how would be that phone: It is Nokia Sea Ray that Stephen Elop presented in June. When will it come? Will it kill Nokia N9? Will it be a sucess? Will it fail? We have to wait to answer those questions. Will it be released in November? A Portuguese website called PT10G is saying that Nokia will release Nokia Windows Phone in November 2011 (before Christmas) so we can say that Nokia N9 will be making the sales by September this year.
 
 

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After the release of the Nokia N9 Meego 1.2 Harmattan, I was tempted to install the Meego 1.2 on the N900 device. After hours of trials and errors managed to flash the raw image and kernel into the phone’s EMMC. Which means now I’m booting into Meego without Maemo.
Installation guide would be provided but please be warned that ” ONLY FLASH IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING ” does apply here. It might brick your N900 and bring it to Nokia Care Centre for warranty replacement. I was lucky to be able to flash back to the Meego image and here is the preview.
Meego 1.2 Harmattan Pros:
New Interface. The interface flows gives a very new feeling and it is fresh but it has traces of Maemo. Multitasking button is similar to the one in Maemo. The switching between opened apps feels like the one in Windows 7.
Smoothness:
At some point the settings menu was really smooth. It was easy to scroll, responsive and there were no complaints about it. But you only get this half of the time
Meego 1.2 Harmattan Open Sourced:
For it being open-sourced, much modification could be implement and it could be something new.
Lock-screen:
The lock screen is something new, where you drag an icon over to an empty space where that space could be regard as a unlock space. It definitely differs from the slide to unlock or entering codes or drawing lines to unlock.
Meego 1.2 Harmattan Cons:
1. Still very buggy. Most of the applications seems to take awhile to load and settle down before you can start using. It started lagging after a few apps were opened to multitasked.

Call and messaging have to be ironed out. Can only receive messages after a phone reboot
Incoming calls couldn’t be received. Any incoming calls would crash the phone itself

2. I wouldn’t say this is much of a big con, but it still have traces of Maemo in it. Maybe is due to the community contribution but if Meego were to be somethine fresh, it would attract more people. For example, the browser used in it is Fennec from Maemo and the …

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The new Nokia N9 have been released today at Nokia Connection in Singapore. Nokia N9 is like a transformation from its N8, remaining an only touchscreen phone but this Nokia N9 has Meego and not Symbian^3. It’s a good news from Nokia as this is a Meego phone (for developers) and better than that we will have a Nokia N950 that have some hardware changes and keyboard specially sold for developers.
For developers these are the best news that could come from Nokia right now as they are investing on us by releasing a Nokia N9 and a Nokia N950. For investors these are also good news: Due to Nokia N9 and N950 nokia Shares up more than 3.5% (NYSE: NOK).
Here are the Nokia N9 specs:
Nokia N9 (consumer device) also known as Nokia N9 Lankku:

ARM Cortex-A8 OMAP3630 1GHz, PowerVR SGX530 with 1GB RAM
3.9? AMOLED 480 x 854 pixels with Gorilla Glass Display
Nokia N9 features an 8MP Camera, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, dual LED flash
Unibody Touch Screen ( Multi Touch )
Nokia N9 is MeeGo OS powered, v1.2 Harmattan
720p recording at 30fps
16/64 GB of storage
MicroSIM card support only
SNS integration
Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
TV-out (720p video) via HDMI and composite
Dolby Digital Plus via HDMI
The Nokia N9 holds Predictive text input (Swype)

Nokia N950 (Developer Device) Specs:

All the Same except for a few noticeable ones :

4? TFT 854X480 resolution
Physical QWERTY with slide tilt screen
Aluminium body, N9 is polycarbonate
No NFC
1320mAh battery compared to N9′s 1450mAH

For this Developer device, it is only available through this methods:

Nokia Developer Launchpad
Meego Device Program

Release notes for the developer device can be found here
Stay tune for more updates on this highly anticipated release of the new Meego handset by Nokia, the Nokia N9.
Source: Nokia N9 Blog

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The Ovi Map N900 have been enhanced for quite sometime and now the community is happy to bring you some of these features such as turn by turn navigation with voice guidance. Tutorial after the break.
TURN BY TURN NAVIGATION WITH VOICE GUIDANCE TUTORIAL:
I would recommend you do all this through SSH on your N900. Tutorial on how to SSH your N900 is here.
Warning : This script have been tested and use it only when you know what is the content all about
For those who want to try the fastest method can always download this script from here.
If you are going to use this in your car, get an N900 car holder and an N900 car charger to go with it. They ship for free to everywhere.
For those willing to do the long way on your phone or through SSH on your Linux/Mac machine, here are the ways step by step

Change your device language to English (USA)
Go to terminal and login as root using the command “sudo gainroot”
From now on is all command lines :

apt-get install espeakgui espeak libespeak espeak-data wget unzip
cd /usr/share/nokia-maps/html
mv index.html index.html.nokia
gzip index.html.nokia
wget http://www.pittnerovi.com/jiri/hobby/electronics/n900/maps.tar.gz
tar zvxf maps.tar.gz; rm maps.tar.gz
cd /home/user/MyDocs; mkdir navigation_sounds; cd navigation_sounds; wget http://static.s2g.gate5.de/maploadervoice/english_us.zip
unzip english_us.zip
cd /usr/share/nokia-maps/html ; ln -s /home/user/MyDocs/navigation_sounds/english_us
nohup ./speak_02.py >/dev/null &
wget -O /dev/null http://localhost:9999/hello ; wget -O /dev/null http://localhost:9999/:g5ann_001

Start your Ovi Map now and you should hear a voice telling you welcome to the enhanced Ovi Map.
 

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For those who always wanted remote control Nokia N900 through their Linux or Mac machine can always opt for the SSH method.
You would need to install the following in your N900 device using the Application Manager:

You would be prompted to enter your password. Enter the password of your choice and remember it or take it down somewhere safe for future reference. After installing all this package, go to your Status Menu and you would be able to see a SSH column like this:

You would see SSH STATUS: OFF if you haven’t turned it on. Just click on it and you be able to SSH into your N900 through WiFi. For example SSH-ing using Terminal in Mac and Linux machines:

On the first line you would see an error. This error is caused by not turning on SSH on your phone.
Once SSH is turned on then you could see that you can connect to your phone. Usually the command is
ssh root@”ip address written here”

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Now there is a new Foursquare app for Nokia N900 for those who wants to check in anywhere they go. Pretty much new and still in development plus it is a bit buggy when I was using it to review this Nokia N900 application. Here it goes for the review of FourCircle
Features:

A simple interface for those who wants a fast check-in. Takes a short time to load.

The check in interface. It shows you where are the check in points nearby you. The nearby estimation is way off I would say considering my nearest point is 3km away when my closest is like 2 metres away. I hope they can take a good look at this. But you can still check into the place you want.

Ranking that shows your current point accumulation

The ranking board system. Somehow I feel that it follows the interface adapted from iOS device Foursquare app

GPS detection is not accurate and other features such as Tips Nearby and Recent Check-ins require some in-app bug fix

The Tips Nearby seems to be working properly for awhile.

This was the bug I encountered with Recent Checkins. I pressed the button once and it wasn’t responding and it didn’t give any response too. Realised this event when I wanted to switch to my SMS. So i think if this bug is fixed this app could turn out great. Score: 6/10

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Always needed an easy way to install your webOS games on Nokia N900 without going through all the commands? Now for those who have the .ipk files for the corresponding games should get this webOS Games Manager.
What it does?
An automatic installer and uninstaller that uses your .ipk files and install the game and applies all the necessary tweaks and creates a desktop launcher for you. It also restore/back up game saves
Cool features:

Easy install/uninstall
Applies all the necessary hacks
Multitouch dependant games such as N.O.V.A and games that requires you to move and shoot are adapted for keyboard controls.
Simple procedure for adding new games
Can choose installation directory

How to install?
Install “WebOS Games Manager” from Application Manager or from the terminal [ apt-get install wgames ]
How to use?

Copy your .ipk files into MyDocs/Downloads directory in your phone. Create this folder if it does not exist. Make it capital D
Run WebOS Games Manager from the menu, select game and install

Screenshots :
 

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Today, I would show you guys how to install the Meego 1.1 on the N900 on an external memory card. We have already looked here on how to Install Meego 1.1 on Nokia N900 for Mac. You would need a 4gb MicroSD card and also it must be class 6 or higher. I am having a class 4 MicroSD card and it seems quite unresponsive towards a lot of stuffs. Here are the steps for installing it using Windows. Currently I’m running Windows XP SP3 32-bit.
You would need to download the correct files and corresponding kernels from http://repo.meego.com/MeeGo/releases/
meego-handset-armv7l-n900-1.1.80.0.20101001.1-vmlinuz-2.6.35.3-8.5-n900
meego-handset-armv7l-n900-1.1.80.0.20101001.1-mmcblk0p.raw.bz2
Download the Win32DiskImager.exe program: https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download
1. Unzip the meego-handset-………mmcblk0p.raw.bz2 file
2. Run W32DiskImager.exe
3. Select the MeeGo image file (note you must write *.* in the file name box to see all files)
Note: Do put in .raw at the back to write the file. For example:

4. Select the drive letter which corresponds to the microSD memory card.
5. Click the “Write” button to byte-copy the image to the microSD memory card.
6. Now pop in your MicroSD card and close the back cover. YOU NEED THE BACK COVER TO BOOT UP the MEEGO.
Remember the kernel you downloaded? Now it is time to use it to load your Meego. You would need to do this everytime you want to boot up Meego.
First cd (change directory) to where you first installed your flasher-3.5
For example cd ”C:\Program files\maemo\flasher-3.5″
Remember the quotes are needed to specify the whole directory
Then type in the following command

flasher-3.5.exe -l -k <kernel> -b

Where <kernel> is the location of your kernel file.
Wait for the message “Suitable USB device not found,waiting” then turn off your N900 and hold onto the button “U” while connecting your N900 to the PC using the USB cable. Your MeeGo would be booted.
We will be looking into more stuff about Meego during this weeks. Also, check this Nokia N900 Otterbox case with discounted price – never forget about protecting the N900.

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Hey guys is been long since I gave an update on an alternative OS for the N900. Today, I would show you guys how to install the Meego 1.1 on the N900 on an external memory card
You would need a 4gb MicroSD card and also it must be class 6 or higher. I am having a class 4 MicroSD card and it seems quite unresponsive towards a lot of stuffs. Here is the Steps for installing it on a MACOSX. Will update on the Windows and Linux part next weekdays.
You would need to download the correct files and corresponding kernels from  http://repo.meego.com/MeeGo/releases/
meego-handset-armv7l-n900-1.1.80.0.20101001.1-vmlinuz-2.6.35.3-8.5-n900
meego-handset-armv7l-n900-1.1.80.0.20101001.1-mmcblk0p.raw.bz2
Insert your MicroSD card with the adapter into your Mac and run this on the MacOSX Terminal
diskutil list
??This would be the example

/dev/disk2 would be my MicroSD partition in this example
Then type this

bzcat <raw_image>.bz2 | sudo dd bs=4096 of=/dev/diskX

Where X is the number of the disk where in this example it is 2

Most of you or maybe all of you would get this Resource busy error. To solve this you must unmount your /dev/disk2 using this the Disk Utility app.

Select the SD card and click Unmount. Try again the command and you should have something like this

Where the square thing would blink until the whole process completes. And you would receive this message

475136+1 records in 475136+1 records out 1946157057 bytes transferred in 2606.033611 secs (746789 bytes/sec)

or something similar.
And also you will get a popup message of The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer. Just click ignore.
Now pop in your MicroSD card and close the back cover. YOU NEED THE BACK COVER TO BOOT UP the MEEGO.
Remember the kernel you downloaded? Now it is time to use it to load your Meego. You would need to do this everytime you want to boot up Meego.

sudo flasher-3.5 -l -k <kernel> -b

Where <kernel> is the location of your kernel file. For example this

Turn off your N900 and hold onto the button “U” while connecting your N900 to the Mac using the USB cable. Your MeeGo would be booted.
 
 
 

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Well for those who have been downloading Youtube videos as past time, I’m sure you guys have come across this app in the N900 called Cutetube. It is a nice little app where you can watch and download videos from Youtube directly onto your N900. Now it has been upgraded into another app and it is called CuteTube-QML. Well here is the comparison.
CuteTube

The Main Page of the Cutetube.. Simple and like any other app it has the settings bar on top.

Oh wait there is an error. Yeah. The old Cutetube has an error signing into Youtube accounts even though you entered all your information correctly

The settings bar that I was talking about.
Note: I was so frustrated with the old Cutetube that I didn’t want to do any more screenshots of it. So for now, let’s go to Cutetube-QML. By the way, after installing Cutetube-QML, you would definitely want to uninstall Cutetube as Cutetube seems very well not-functioning correctly.
Cutetube-QML

Well this is the new Cutetube-QML with much smoother interface and nicer design and also works very well. In fact you can sign into your Youtube account properly this time

Since I was unable to sign into Youtube using the old Cutetube therefore unfortunately I can’t show you how the My Channel part looks like. So here you are the My Channel menu for the Cutetube-QML

Here is where they list down the videos that you previously favourited under Favourites

Here is the Uploads section

Here is the search menu. One tip for you guys set the search preferences to Relevance to get the videos you want.

When downloading a video this is what you get. You have to start the download yourself. Just click on it and there is a DOWN button just click on it
So there you have it. Things have changed quite abit in here. Help and questions would not be answered in the comment box anymore. Please head over to our FORUM and start asking there. If there is no topic created for your question feel free to create one. See you there

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Always wanted to edit photos on Nokia N900 without having going through Adobe Photoshop and all those complicated multi-functions editing software? Now you have Ansela on the N900 – the Photoshop for Nokia N900.
Brightness/Contrast Edit

It is a simple photo editing software and also quite useful for creating different tones and colour contrast. The controls are made simple with scroll bars to make things simple for newbie. Photos can be edited on a go.
Easy File Selection and File Info
Well no more hassle to find where all your photos are kept. The photo browser at the startup assist you in choosing which photo you want. It also tells you when the photo was taken and the application used to take the photo. Sweet.
Desired Rotation Angle
Photos can be rotated at fixed right angles or can be rotated with a wheel up to your own likings. However the degree of accuracy on rotating the wheel might not be so desirable as it is a resistive touchscreen. It might be off by a degree or two but the defects are practically negligible.
Do try out this Ansela Photoshop app for Nokia N900 and give us your feedback on the comment area. Do send in your edited photos and I might choose a few favourite and post it in the next post. Do stay tune. Cheers

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The folks from Supertooth have been releasing some accessories compatible with almost all mobile phones and one of them is the Supertooth Disco, that works with all phones that have Bluetooth, and of course, it works with the Nokia N900. Besides that, the Supertooth Disco can be connected with a cable with your MP3 and other audio devices so that you can output the sound with the Disco accessory, this way you can have both bluetooth and non bluetooh devices working with the Supertooth Disco.

What is indeed the Supertooth Disco and how can I plug it on the Nokia N900?
The answer is very clear. This accessory allows you to connect your Nokia N900 with this powerful column (28 watt). Thus, you can play your music library and hear the sound coming from this column, wireless and with a very powerfull sound. Honestly, that’s the best bluetooh column I have ever been with: it allows you to make a party at home, in the beach, in your boat, in the forest. It’s fantastic.

How to connect Supertooth Disco and Nokia N900?
In very simple steps:
1) Turn on your Bluetooth on the Nokia N900;
2) Click during 5 seconds on the play button on the Disco accessory;
3) Search on your Nokia N900 for the Supertooth Disco link;
4) Insert the code: 0000;
5) Start playing music. Voilá!
Supertooth Disco Price
You can purchase directly the Supertooth Disco from our Nokia N900 Store link. It’s not that much cheap, but you will be more happy with the N900 buying it! It’s 84.22£=95.15€ right now. I’ve personally reviewed this accessory at our main portal: PhoneRPT. Check it Out!

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Since my 2 weeks here, it had been fun and I have been receiving lots of comments and emails on a few problems about the N900. The Nokia N900 users want more. Here is the summary:
Facebook Games:
Lots of you guys have been wondering whether I can play Facebook games on the N900. The matter of fact it is a yes and no. Yes if you happen to find a game that runs Flash version 9.4 and no if the version is higher. From what I know, addictive and popular games such as Farmville or Backyard Monsters are not playable just because they are running Flash version 10.1. Nevertheless you can still try your favourite Facebook games on the N900 using the following tweak. Tweak Flash Plugin Version V0.4.0-Maemo1
This is what the tweak does : “Tweakflashver alters the Flash plugin so that it reports a custom version to sites. This will NOT magically give you functionality not already in the plugin, but will allow to use sites that ‘require Flash 10′ even though the actual content works with Flash 9.”
Give your favourite Facebook game a try and do tell us in the comments box which game works and which doesn’t. Might compile all of them and post it in a single post
Video Calling Using 3G:
Everyone is happy that the N900 has integrated GoogleTalk and Skype as its IM service and video calling service. But what about 3G? It seems that it is not implemented on the device itself at the first place. So far there are no stable implementation for 3G video call just yet. If happened to find one, feel free to drop by in the comments box.
Multitouch Screen (Capacitive Touchscreen):
Everyone’s wish for the N900. If it were to have multitouch support, it would been a killer phone. So many new things could be implemented on the device itself. Playing games on the NITDroid or even ported webOS games is so much easier. It would attract more developers and end up being a phone hardware and software (hopefully) sufficient to beat the iPhone and other smartphones.
Simple Usage:
Mind my words …