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Note: the steps we go through this how-to include modifying low-level system files and imply that the readers know what they are doing. If you can’t understand some bits or think you might break something, you might want not to try this hack.
Interested in further customization of your N900? Then let’s take a look at how to change that “Swipe to unlock” screen that appears when you press the powerkey with screen locked.
The files we’re interested in are located under two directories:
 /usr/share/themes/alpha/backgrounds/
and
/usr/share/themes/alpha/images/
Now, the files are lockslider.png, which is a background image located in the first directory mentioned; LockSliderTop/Bottom/Left/Right.png, which are the backgounds for the slider itself and are located in the second directory mentioned; and, finally, LockSliderThumb.png and LockSliderPortrait.png, which are the images for the slider button in landscape and portrait mode. These are also in the second directory mentioned.
You know the file names now, so you’d want to get creative and make substitutes for those originals! Back them up, if you need it.
Use the original files as a base, you need to be sure the image sizes match. That is, lockslider.png needs to be 800×480, other files need to be the same size as their originals. Check out this custom set for further example.
As soon as you finished creating your files, drop them all to their respective directories and reboot your phone.
  cp -f lockslider.png  /usr/share/themes/alpha/backgrounds/
cp -f LockSlider*.png /usr/share/themes/alpha/images/
sudo gainroot
reboot
Enjoy your new custom Swipe-to-unlock screen!

Getting bored with the old look of your SMS and chat screens? If so, open nature of Maemo allows you to tweak the look to your own preference.

Configuration files for Conversations And Contacts themes reside under the /usr/share/rtcom-messaging-ui/html/ directory. Backup the files if necessary.
First make your own theme with html-css-javascript or find one that suits you made by other enthusiasts on Talk Maemo or here.
In case if you downloaded the theme, unpack the downloaded archive to any directory, for example, ~/MyDocs/theme
cd ~/MyDocs
mkdir theme
Then, copy all files in the archive to the directory mentioned above:
cd ~/MyDocs/theme
sudo gainroot
cp -f * /usr/share/rtcom-messaging-ui/html
Because many downloaded themes include only files for SMS interface, copy them for chat interface:
sudo gainroot
cd /usr/share/rtcom-messaging-ui/html
cp -f MessagingWidgetsSMSConversation.css MessagingWidgetsChatConversation.css
cp -f MessagingWidgetsSMSConversation.js MessagingWidgetsChatConversation.js
cp -f MessagingWidgetsSMSConversation.html MessagingWidgetsChatConversation.html
Finally, reboot your phone,
sudo gainroot
reboot
Or kill the process:
sudo gainroot
killall rtcom-messaging-ui
 
Enjoy your new interface!

I’ve been away for quite some time, some of you may remember me from before, for the rest… I’ll leave this mistery unsolved for a while. But I’m back, with a bit less time than before, so I’ll be visible only time-to-time with my thoughts on Nokia in general and N900.
The qutote from Cicero in topic is not accidental, after Nokia made some astonishing decisions about future of Maemo, MeeGo and (yuck!) Windows Phone 7 I doubted in all of this community gibberish. I’m Open Source fan for quite some time and Nokia’s idea to abandon mobile Linux of their own, made me think it will be forgotten. But as we see from activity in Community SSU repositories on Gitorious, people are still interested in developing something new for N900 (and Maemo). So let’s have a look how is it going right now…
Since first release of CSSU we’ve already seen 9 major versions, including bugfixes, improvements and new features. The most wanted ‘portrait mode’ is already implemented for some parts of user interface, like status menu or Settings panel. Even task switcher automatically rotates available applications if available (and pretends to rotate if not), reorganising switcher to be usable in portrait mode.
Okay, so we have something new, but there was no update since May, so why the big words about hope and such? I’m following Community SSU activity feed and for July only commotion is like for April, May and June in total. I think that’s good forecast for another CSSU release soon.
Summarizing, there is still hope for N900, but we shouldn’t look for it in Nokia, but in community, as long as it exists. And since I’m still breathing, maybe i can find myself useful, do you have any ideas?
–
MJ

Good rivals, each are trying to get to the top of the market but Nokia is much ahead.
The Nokia N900‘s dimensions are 110.9 x 59.8 x 18 mm, 113 cc while the iPhone’s dimensions are 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm making the iPhone the winner.
The N900 comes with a TFT resistive touchscreen while the iPhone is equipped with a TFT capacitive touchscreen so both device’s draw here but I was expecting the N900 to be the leader in this section.

The Nokia N900 screen is 800 x 480 pixels, 3.5 inches while the highly praised iPhone comes with a 320 x 480 pixels, 3.5 inches display making the N900 more suitable for small writing, speaking about small writing, the N900 comes with a QWERTY keyboard and the iPhone doesn’t.

The Nokia N900 was released in November last year while the Motorola Charm was released in August but also released the same month which shows that Nokia is falling behind. The Charm comes with a TFT capacitive touchscreen with the size of  320 x 240 pixels, 2.8 inches and the Nokia N900 also comes with with a TFT but a size of 800 x 480 pixels, 3.5 inches considering the size, the Nokia N900 wins this round.
The Nokia N900 comes with a QWERTY keyboard as well as the Motorola Charm.As usual, both the devices have a 3.5 mm audio jack. The Charm comes with 512 MB internal memory but the Nokia N900 comes with 32GB internal memory. The rival comes with Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair) which is not as good as the Maemo 5. The Nokia N900 is great to capture images with 5 MP, 2576×1936 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, Dual LED flash, video light, the Charm is far behind with 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels.
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The Nokia N900 comes with 278 h (2G) and 250 h (3G) while the Motorola Charm comes with 267 h (2G) and 334 h (3G) which is a really big issue for me but I don’t know for others.

Both are good devices but are also rivals. The N900 was released in November last year while the Samsung Wave was released in April, this year.

The N900 is really big with 110.9 x 59.8 x 18 mm, 113 cc dimensions while the Samsung comes with 118 x 56 x 10.9 mm. The N900 is most definitely the brick here. The Samsung Wave comes with something new called Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors which normally is used in the Nokia’s but the rival comes with a regular TFT resistive touchscreen, 65K colors,. The Nokia N900 comes with Proximity sensor for auto turn-off, Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and a full QWERTY keyboard which the Wave lacks but in return comes with much more Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, Multi-touch input method, Proximity sensor for auto turn-off, Scratch-resistant surface, TouchWiz UI 3.0, Handwriting recognition and a Smart unlock. The Samsung Wave comes with 1.5 GB system storage but the N900 comes with 32GB internal memory beating the Wave by far.
Both camera’s are good with the Nokia N900 having the advantage of Carl Zeiss optics beats the Wave. The Nokia N900 comes with Maemo 5 which makes It very good for the Linux user as it is Debian-Linux based but the Wave comes with Bada OS which is not so bad after all.
The Samsung S8500 is beating the Nokia N900 with 600 h (2G) and 550 h (3G), the Nokia N900 has 278 h (2G) and 250 h (3G).

The S60 software platform is slowly ageing away with Maemo covering it up. So I have to say, that the S60 users have to now get used to Maemo. You’ll hear me say this a couple of times here at our Nokia N900 blog.
Maemo 5 is currently present on the Nokia N900.
The Maemo OS which is based on Debian Linux and the GUI which is derived from various frameworks and libraries. The software uses the window manager, and GTK-based Hildon as its GUI and application framework..
Maemo 5 actually has nice 3D games cooking up for us with a new Twitter app.
Here is something that you can expect for the Nokia N900 :

So you can see that Maemo is actually better than Symbian but only in a few ways. The best thing is that you have the terminal to fix problems and awesome games e.g the roller coaster game in the video is really testing our patience.
At work/home and your laptop or computer stops working? Then use your Nokia N900, it is a mini computer in your hands.
With (Maemo) Debian Linux based, Mozilla, the internet browser technology and the Nokia N900 deliver a extremely good mobile experience. The device shows where Nokia is going with software and Nokia should continue to work with the community to unlock the new software capabilities.
Maemo is something that is fuses the power of the computer, the internet and the mobile phone, which is great to see that it is evolving marvelously. If you have any different opinions, let us know at the Nokia N900 forum.

Announced in August, 2009 but available 2 months later? I am surprised. Read on this Nokia N900 review for more.
The Nokia N900 has really big dimensions of 110.9 x 59.8 x 18 mm, 113 cc. But it actually makes sense as the device is a mini computer. with 181 grams, it is heavy. These are the reasons that the Nokia N900.
The huge screen has 800 x 480 pixels, 3.5 inches which makes it great for gaming.

Both are rivals and both yet are just wining each other by 1 or 2. They are called the Nokia N900 and Motorola Droid X.
Both devices are giants but yet very good.
The Nokia N900 comes with Maemo 5 which is very good considering the responses about it much looking at the Android 2.0 OS responses, the Nokia N900 is better. If you want to see which one is the best than you have to look at the responses about it.

The Nokia N900 looks very good with its clean lines and classy finish. It measures 110.9 X 59.8 mm in its face and is 18 mm thicknesses which that makes it a good reason to call it a brick phone. The weight of 181 g feels like a big block of solidness.
The Motorola Droid X measures 115.8 mm in length and 60 mm in width which makes it look bigger than the Nokia N900 but it is a lot slimmer than N900 at 13.7 mm. The weight of 165g is also lighter than the N900. The device has a smooth look and a feel.
If you want memory than the Nokia N900 is the better choice as it already comes with 32GB internal memory plus the advantage of adding 32GB to it making it a total of 64GB memory for the user while the Motorola Droid comes with a 256mb internal memory with a possibility of just adding a 32GB MicroSD card.
Have a look at some of the dimensions I have listed and that the Nokia N900 is the official winner : Apple iPhone 3GS: 165 PPI, Nokia N97: 210 PPI, HTC HD2: 217 PPI, Motorola Droid: 265 PPI and the Nokia N900: 267 PPI <– WINS !
Some users haven’t noticed the amazing capabilities of the Nokia N900, it comes with full internet meaning the capability of opening any web page because of the Flash Player 9.4 (Flash Player 10 in the future) while the Motorola Droid doesn’t have it. Adobe did announce that would have the Flash Player 10 for this phone.

Google Navigation is about some interesting and complementary GPS features that helps a lot when it’s about going to some …

Meet Xournal, another type of a writer but its only problem is that it is a prototype like so not everything is present unfortunately.
It is an application for note-taking, it keeps a journal using a stylus and you can sketch with it but of course, it can also be used to add notations to PDF files.
I am sure that you noticed that Xournal does have similarity to other programs developed for Linux such as Jarnal, Gournal and Windows Journal.
Xournal is compatible with Maemo 4 (OS2008) which is running on the Nokia N800 and the Nokia N810 Internet Tablets including Maemo 5 which of course is being used on the Nokia N900.

We’re all waiting for PR1.2 update for quite long time. Some people say it’s way too long and Nokia doesn’t really care about users. On the other hand there is no point in releasing partially tested update with more bugs than previous version and I think this is good point of view.
While waiting I’m following all of the news I can find. Yesterday there was another speculation about when PR1.2 will come. At first I’ve had mixed feelings, varying from hope to irritation. After PR1.1.1  it was said to be released ‘soon’ and we all found out that amount of time given in such unspecified way may be highly relative. I hope Nokia worked really hard while ‘soon’ was growing.
Apart from speculations I’m frequently checking maemo.org wiki PR1.2 page, at least every morning and… Surprise! According to the latest news our long awaited update will be released to public today (May 25) in UK and tomorrow (May 26) for rest of the world. For most of users this it should be available Over The Air, so you can check App manager for Maemo 5 updates, alternatively there should be possibility to use Nokia Software Updater (for Windows users) or flasher (for Linux users). If you have any problems with this update feel free to ask, I’ll try to point solution for any problem.
What else can I say… Finally!
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For more info on devel and testing catalogues visit Application catalogues tutorial
Please visit Nokia N900 Forum

Many times during my studies I was in urgent need of small, primitive computer-like device that would help me solve simple math problems, device known as calculator. Many phones have built-in applications for really basic calculations, so what can we expect from N900?

Maemo 5 has it’s own built-in calculator, rather simple, with basic look-and-feel. There is possibility to switch to ‘scientific’ calculator, but still number of operations you can perform is relatively small, but it may be enough for everyday use.

If you don’t really need any sophisticated math algorythms you will probably prefer something simple that will allow you to sum, multiply or divide floating point numbers. NCalc is such application (available in extras-devel and extras-testing), clear, simple, easy to use, good solution for less demanding users.

On the other hand, if you want to use advanced math, like trigonometric functions, logarythms etc. you should be satisfied with free42 (available in extras). Look-and-feel emulate plain calculator, with classical buttons and simple LED screen. By default free42 runs in portrait mode, so it’s easy to operate with one hand, while taking notes with the other. In my humble opinion it’s enough for most of math of physics classes, even if you want to fiddle with ‘black magic science’ like quantum mechanics.
Variety of calculators doesn’t end on this three, you may already know some other applications, feel free if you’d like to share your point of view.
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For more info on devel and testing catalogues visit Application catalogues tutorial
Please visit Nokia N900 Forum

Most of you probably know sudoku, logic game of placing numbers in 9×9 grid following few simple rules. This games comes to almost every phone or mobile device in general and it’s no different for N900, even more, at the moment you have four alternative applications.
First of all we have EightyOne already available in extras, so it appears as pretty stable and well written piece of software. It has few difficulty levels, so everyone may be satisfied with playing. On exit current progress is saved, so you can take hard level and little more time in few parts. I also think that interface is quite good, numbers placed initially are different color than placed by player, you can easily tell how far you are from the beginning. Also gives few intresting options like statistics, tips or solving all game to check if you’re following good trail.
Another sudoku-based game is masudoku, for now available in extras-testing and extras-devel. It’s also equipped with few difficulty levels, but I find it more difficult to play because of one-colored numbers, only wrong placed pieces are shown in different color. It also gives you possibility to solve all, check if you can still solve the game and take hints. Unfortunately no option to save, so you have to start from the beginning every time.
masudoku – levels, marks, tips, devel&testing
Third I’ve found is gpe-sudoku (in extras-devel) and I was pretty confused seeing it’s interface, not so intuitive to be honest. It lacks level distinction, description of basic functions on screen, but also has some neat functionalities, like saving game or placing checkpoints to which you can go back to specified point.
The last one is Thumb Sudoku available in extras-devel. Following the name, it can be played using only your thumb, because runs in portrait mode, so it’s easy to operate with one hand. Nice interface, large grid, good visibility and comfort to play anywhere are most obvious pros. Save on exit is another useful thing, but unfortunately it doesn’t give you choice of difficulty level. Nevertheless still in devel, so it can improve soon.
As you see …

IMPORTANT UPDATE: one of users, Huschke, insisted on putting reasonable info on reliability of applications from extras-devel and extras-testing. I agree with what he is trying to say, these repositories are created for applications not yet approved by Nokia and Maemo community, even if hosted by Nokia and Maemo. These software packages are considered unsafe for your device! Before you add these catalogues please be sure you know what you’re doing.
Before I get to the point let me remind you about previous word on catalogues, where I’ve covered most of general informations about where to find packages I’m writing about. I will also remind that applications from extras-devel and extras-testing are there because they’re not completely ‘safe’ for your N900. This time I will give you step-by-step tutorial how to add them to your device. This thing was mentioned here and there many times, but some of you may have missed it.
First of all run your App manager as usual. Then open menu from toolbar and choose Application catalogues option, which will give you possibility to add new software download sources.
When you have it opened look if you already have extras catalogue, should be installed by default but may be disabled.
Open catalogue settings and uncheck Disabled field. If you don’t have this catalogue(s) add new with one of following settings:
For extras:
Catalogue name: Maemo Extras
Web address: http://repository.maemo.org/extras/
Distribution: fremantle
Components: free non-free
For extras-testing:
Catalogue name: Maemo Extras-Testing
Web address: http://repository.maemo.org/extras-testing/
Distribution: fremantle
Components: free non-free
For extras-devel:
Catalogue name: Maemo Extras-Devel
Web address: http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel/
Distribution: fremantle
Components: free non-free
You can check weather package you’re looking for is available in extras, extras-testing or extras-devel using maemo.org Package Interface, which I’ve mentioned before. Just type word from package name and examine findings, package details will give you clue on where to look releases of what you need.

From now on I will try to include link to this tutorial every time I post info on extras-testing or extras-devel packages, I hope it will help you.
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Please visit Nokia N900 Forum

As most of you may already know, N900 operating system is actually Linux. Maemo is based on Debian, to be exact, distribution well known in IT industry. When I was completely green with open source solutions the newest Debian version was 3.1 ‘sarge’ in testing branch. To be honest I was a little scared after first try and switched to something simpler. After some time someone said ‘lets make Linux distribution for everyone’ and Ubuntu came to daylight, taking lot of it’s internals from Debian and became very popular. In my opinion, taking backstage solutions from Debian to make user friendly mobile device was really good choice. But to the point…
One of the most vital advantages of Debian is it’s packaging system. Every piece of software is enclosed in file with deb extension called simply Debian Software Package. Such package is created for specific hardware platform if it contains application or library (in case of Maemo for ARM processor), or for any platform if provides graphics, text configuration files or documents. It also encloses information about packages needed to be installed before or the ones which collide. So called Advanced Packaging Tool or apt in short does all of checking and installing automatically and, what’s most important for us, it’s included in Maemo.
Ok, no more babbling, lets focus on how to use it. The simplest way you may want to try is downloading the package from the internet when it’s not yet available in catalogues. I’ve found that Maepad, note-taking application was updated recently but because of one bug is not available in extras-devel yet, so I’m still hanging on 1.1, when 1.3 is ready to download. If you want to install just open N900 browser and follow link to file maepad_1.3_armel.deb (name of this file contains package name – maepad, version – 1.3, and platform for ARM processor – armel, which is common for packages). After you click the link you will be asked how to open, use App manager and from this point everything goes the same way as in Ovi store, few more seconds and you have …