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Here are some “new” shortcuts which I discovered since my last post about Tips and Tricks. Of course, some of you will already know these ones, but it is just another addition for our list to complete.

Caps Lock: If you want to use capital letters not only at the beginning of a sentence, lets say for a headline, press two times on the shift key, and it will turn on the Caps Lock. To turn off, just press the Shift key again.
The same can be done with the secondary keys, which are accessed by pressing the blue arrow, the “Alt” key. Press two times and lock the blue symbols and numbers. To turn off, just press “Alt” again.
To access the Additional Symbols Menu just press “Alt” and “Ctrl” at the same time. From there you can insert symbols, that are not found on the keyboard.

Highlight text from websites in the browser: Swipe your finger from the left site of the screen. A white arrow will appear. Tap on this symbol and you will get the “Mouse” arrow like you are used to on your personal desktops. With this function you can copy and paste text from websites for example.

Scrolling in the browser is also possible with the Space Key of your keyboard. This will automatically move the page several rows down. Of course the Arrow Keys can be used to scroll down slow, line by line.
You have heard of the browser history, which is activated with a swipe from the right of your screen, being in the browser. But maybe you haven´t heard about pressing the “Back” button on your keyboard, which instantly brings you back to the previous page.
If you have multiple tasks open and you want to go to the Multitask View of your phone fast, use “Ctrl” and “Back” at the same time. This will bring up your open applications thumbnails instantly.
That´s it for this time. If you have any suggestions, please post them as comments, so I can add them the next time to complete the Tips and Tricks posts.

- sam …

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As the headline already tells you, this is a continued blog about Tips and Tricks on the N900. As in some comments in the last post was mentioned, that most of you already know many of these hints, and others are also findable in the manual, the meaning of this information gathering is just to have all interesting material in one place shareable. I’d also like to get Tips and Tricks from you, so I can add these to our collection.

So here are the next ones:
Selecting text: hold the shift key and use the arrow keys
Selecting text with stylus: double tap for a word, or triple tap for all words (this is like the mouse double-click you are used from the pc)
Shortcuts used in web-browser:
. Ctrl + N: opens a new window
. Ctrl + R: reloads the current page
. Ctrl + B: opens a bookmark
. Ctrl + D: adds a bookmark
Shortcuts used in Email:
. Ctrl + Enter: send message
. Ctrl + R: reply to message
Taking a screenshot:
. Ctrl + Shift + P: captures current screen and saves it to the images folder (this one is for tricky fingers ).
 
Have you also known, that taping with one thumb on one side of the touch-screen and alternately with your other thumb on the other side of the screen while releasing the former finger almost at the same time, lets you swap your desktops in a horrendous speed. It needs a little bit practice, but if you got the hang of it, it is really a cool thing.
So this is it as much for today. To be continued …
- sam | visit our Nokia N900 forum -

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If you search the internet for some special functions of your Phone, you will find a lot of things, useful and useless just in a subjective point of view, of what you can do with your N900. Of course you will find tips and tricks on several sites described and discussed, but I will try to gather them all step by step here in our tips and tricks blog, so all these informations can be found easily, all in one place. It also will help to keep them in mind refreshing your memory from time to time.
Today I will start with some keyboard shortcuts, which make specific actions really handy. If you are used to work with your keyboard on your PC, you might find quite much similar actions.
These are used in text applications, email, sms, etc.
. Ctrl + C: Copy text
. Ctrl + V: Paste text
. Ctrl + C: Copy text
. Ctrl + V: Paste text
. Ctrl + X: Cut text
. Ctrl + A: Select all
. Ctrl + O: Open
. Ctrl + N: Create a new item
. Ctrl + S: Save
. Ctrl + Z: Undo
. Ctrl + Y: Redo
. Ctrl + F: Open search bar
. Ctrl + Right arrow: Move the insertion point to the end of the word
. Ctrl + Left arrow: Move the insertion point to the beginning of the word
Have you also known, that opening the keyboard and simply starting to type a name, opens the contacts and filters them in alphabetic order. It’s called smart dialing.
So this is it as much for today. To be continued …
- sam | visit our Nokia N900 forum -

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While browsing the web I’ve seen some discussions on what the N900 actually is. Some say it’s ‘obviously’ a smartphone, pretty advanced, based on Linux, but still smartphone. On the other hand it may be considered very small computer with phone application and hardware. All of this opinions have one mutual concept: Nokia N900 is mobile device. If it is, battery life is one of the most significant characteristics that people pay attention to.
Doing nothing with mobile device is the best way to let the battery live longer but I don’t think any of us bought N900 to let it be in stand-by all the time. Some of applications or widgets drain battery more when working in the background, for example:

instant messengers – most of them remain constantly connected to the internet, sending and receiving data and using CPU, so having many accounts connected al the time will drain battery faster
frequently updated widgets – similary to messengers if you have lots of widgets using your internet connection
bright screen backlight – more light is more battery drained
applications running in the background – some of those applications may use your processor and subsequently baterry
frequent e-mail accounts synchronization – especially the exchange account may cause battery drain if synchronized to often because it causes significant CPU load

So how to make your battery last longer? Let’s try few simple things:

lower screen brightness and backlight time, turn on energy saving and turn off screen vibrations (Settings, Screen)
swich IM status to offline when you don’t need to use it
change synchronization interval of your mail accounts to longer
prevent using frequently updated widgets, if you have the possibility change update interval to bigger or to update on demand or homescreen switch (like in Personal Dataplan Monitor widget)
turn off Bluetooth if you don’t use it (I find it also safer to remain hidden)
close application if you don’t need to use it for some time

If you need to check what is the best for you, try some of options and use battery-eye or BatteryGraph application to compare energy usage on your N900. As for me it works quite well, sometimes …