Another gadgets for N900 homescreen and another ways of customization. Let’s see what’s new in Lens Cover Reminder, how to bring snow to Nokia N900 and how to check WiFi signal strength.
Lens Cover Reminder is small gadget for those who often forget about closing lens after taking pictures. The time I’ve mentioned Lens Cover Reminder I must have used version with no settings , but now there is possibility to customize the way it works. You can make N900 lock when cover is closing, change vibration pattern and turn on LED notification using one of available patterns (more information on patterns can be found in article here).
I know it’s a bit too early for Christmas, but I was amused with small xsnow application that brings snow falling on your homescreen. PR1.2 update introduced live wallpaper feature, which is nicely used here. When you install and run this small application you will see snowflakes falling on your widgets and shortcuts and Santa moving around homescreen from time to time. It’s over 6 months until christmas but I’m well prepared now
Another nice thing is Wi-Fi Signal Applet that shows signal strength in simple 1-10 scale. I was missing that, since default indicator shows only 3 states: none when no connection, blinking when connecting and on when connected. This small applet helps me predict how far can I go not to loose signal completely.
That’s it for today, if I find some more interesting things I will certainly share with all of you.
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MJ

Just as the last time, when new firmware update appeared there might be a problem during installation. Let’s gather some tips how to cope with this process smoothly.
First things first: Before you start updating using any of described methods it’s good to update your data! One of users (thanks Stan) advised to backup everything and restore everything but ‘settings’ (so restore contacts, messages etc. but no settings) not to make N900 ‘sluggish’.
Over The Air (OTA)
First way to install PR1.2 update is the easiest one, it includes running App manager and updating package that appears as Maemo 5. People that have clean PR1.1.1 update installed (without any additional packages) say it’s going smoothly without problems.
If OTA update fails there is possibility that you have not enough space on rootfs, you can have a look at maemo.org wiki page for the solution. Another option is to go to terminal and try to run apt-get upgrade command, which should show you existing problems and conflicts of packages, then you can remove or install problematic packages when you know which it is.
Nokia Software Updater (NSU)
Most of Nokia devices can be upgraded using this windows software, I advise to download the latest version before trying to update. Then all you have to do is run the application and follow the steps displayed on computer screen.
One of users (thanks lee) noted that he ran into situation when NSU stated that he has the newest software and was unable to run update OTA. There is option to reinstall this ‘current version’ (which is PR1.1.1 most probably) and after that device should be ready to update OTA to PR1.2 without any problems.
flasher (flashing device via USB on Windows and Linux)
You can flash device manually using latest binary images for N900. First of all you need flasher itself, available here, available for Windows or Linux and for Mac OS X. The second thing is flash image and most probably eMMC image, available here after putting your IMEI number (you can find this by going to settings ‘About product’ page). I strongly advise to check md5 sums after downloading any …

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

As I mentioned in previous news N900 was released in Hong Kong with PR1.2 software, just a day after Chinese websites announced leaked update, that you can flash to your device.
Changelog according to user who tried this update includes smoother scrolling, FM transmitter forcing for devices without hardware, new app manager and flash version and working USSD codes without using additional widget. Image to reflash N900 was uploaded to several sharing servers and are still available for download. Nevertheless Nokia reacted to this quite fast and tweeted warning message:
@nokconv Be careful! Unofficial #N900 v1.2 firmware on web causing damage to devices! Don’t download! Follow @nokconv for official announcements
This is the main reason why I won’t give you any links to download or try this unofficial PR1.2or not even trying myself. Normally I encourage to use software from extras-devel and extras-testing, but this time it’s different, flashing device with firmware from uncertain sources, completely detached from Maemo community, is far more dangerous.
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For more info on devel and testing catalogues visit Application catalogues tutorial
Please visit Nokia N900 Forum

This time let’s have a look what’s going on all over the world.
N900 with PR1.2 available in Hong Kong!
We’re all waiting for new update but apparently Nokia wants to make us wait for PR1.2 some more time when users in Hong Kong will test it in the wild. During last few days it was released in there and some time after Jussi Mäkinen confirmed that it will be released soon for the rest of the world. I hope that ‘soon’ is a little bit closer than the one mentioned on maemo.org wiki. In the mean time we can watch (below) and get more and more excited.

Motion controlled games on N900
While looking all around the web you may have found johanneskuhlmann’s youtube channel. There you may see some exemplary videos of what can we do with front camera and some software used for face recognition or movement tracking. If games will look at least a little like this I’m really interested. After some productions using accelerometers to control action (for example Bounce Evolution) this will be nice step ahead and I’m looking forward to see at least good demo on my N900. Have a look at videos on youtube.

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For more info on devel and testing catalogues visit Application catalogues tutorial
Please visit Nokia N900 Forum

If you follow software updates frequently you may have noticed some new updates in extras-devel and extras-testing catalogues which cannot be installed because of unresolved dependencies. I’m fully aware of the date today, but I cannot take everything as a joke and this time I think it’s not a joke. If you follow Maemo 5 development and this blog, you should already know that new system update is almost ready to be released, application developers already have SDK PR1.2 to adapt their applications to this new firmware.
Let’s have a look into App Manager and maybe some of my installed applications. As you can see Maepad 1.5 is available but trying to install it causes error, and going to details shows unresolved dependency of libhildon1 (>= 2.2.10). This package is one of base of Maemo 5 UI and it comes with system. If you’re a little skilled with console and APT you can easily check current version of this package installed (which is for me 2.2.3-1+0m5). Similar situation with QtIrreco 0.3.1-1 update with unmet dependencies of total 5 libqt4 packages (>=4.6.2~git20100224) making update unable to install.
As we know Qt 4.6 will come with PR1.2 update and I assume the same goes to Hildon 2.2.10 so I think that broken updates are not to be afraid of this time. It’s part of good job done by developers, making their packages ready for Maemo 5 PR1.2 update!
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For more info on devel and testing catalogues visit Application catalogues tutorial
Please visit Nokia N900 Forum

Few weeks ago I was writing about PR1.1.1 update and honestly I was expecting next big update to come in really short time, just like two previous updates PR1.0.1 and PR1.1 but apparently I was wrong. Nevertheless we can already have some look at the features that will come with expected PR1.2 update. If you are familiar with development for N900 you may be already aware of SDK PR1.2 existance. And today you can see which changes from SDK will be included in actual update.
So what’s the difference exactly? SDK changes (you can find more at maemo.org Talk) are quite wide. Virtual keyboard will have new look (not big for me, since I never used it), few updates in browser making it even faster than before (judging from opinions) and more customizable. Moreover, we will most probably have one of the most desired features, rearrangable menu without ‘More…’ element. Phone settings will be enriched with video calls and blocking SMS for landline numbers. In addition to that thee are few more minor updates.
And finally which of that is true? Apparently most of this features will be soon available, if to belive one of the most reliable sources – maemo.org wiki  (or to be exact PR1.2 wiki page) you should know what is the full list of features and bugfixes for upcoming update, just have a look. There is still no release date, but I’m sure it will come in time…
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Please visit Nokia N900 Forum