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Nokia makes Qt port to Maemo 5 and N900 official (video)
Hey developers, Nokia's got a special treat for you today. It just announced the official port of the community-driven Qt for Maemo project. That means a common framework for writing native applications (and web apps and services thanks to Webkit integration) across Maemo 5 and future Maemo 6 releases, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. That's a broad reach in terms of devices (including the hotly anticipated N900) and marketshare and a smart move by Nokia in an era where devices are differentiated not by hardware and OS but by their ability to run apps and connect to web services. A "technology preview" release is available now and scheduled for final release (based on Qt 4.6) in Q1 of 2010. Click through for a wee taste.
Nokia shows off N900's sweet web browsing skills on video
Eager to get your pulsing palms around Nokia's N900? Yeah, we feel your pain. As if the phone itself and Maemo 5 haven't been talked about enough, Nokia itself has published a new video showcasing the Mozilla-based web browser. Only time will tell if said browser lives up to the hype, but if the video posted up after the break is any indication, we'd say things are looking good. Six minutes may be a long time to look at something you can't touch, but we're guessing you'd listen to six minutes of the host saying anything. Have a listen -- you'll see.[Via HotHardware, thanks dafrabbit]
Nokia N900 undergoes extensive preview, N97 found sobbing in a corner
Our amateur sleuthing skills tell us there might be a tiny bit of excitement about this N900 device. With the Maemo 5 environment already measured up, it's the turn of the hardware to get exhaustively previewed. The My Symbian team took a look at a prototype unit and were immediately impressed by the 800 x 480 display and relatively compact dimensions for such a loaded phone. The resistive touchscreen was on par with the N97, though it picked up scratches too easily for their liking ( a screen protector is recommended), while the keyboard was deemed small but still a major improvement over the N97's. Internals rated well, with the 600MHz Cortex-A8 CPU and "superb" video recording grabbing plaudits. Perplexingly, there was only 256MB allocated to application installs (see image after the break), which can be altered by those with Linux knowhow, but this may draw plenty of ire from mainstream, app-hungry consumers, considering the device is capable of holding 48GB of total memory. On the outside, the camera cover was found to scratch the case around the lens (but not the lens itself like on some N97 units) while sliding, and removing the stylus from its slot revealed some bare electronics, both of which rather undermined the overall feel of a well-built device. They did find connectivity on the device a pretty dreamy and trouble-free affair, but we're still only scratching the surface here -- hit up the read link for the whole enchilada. [Via MobileTechWorld]Update: Nokia has expressly stated that the retail phones will come with repartitioned memory, which will provide "plenty" of space for app installations and obviate the storage issue noted above. [Thanks, sockatume]
Video: SNES runs beautifully on N900, makes out hearts flutter
We've already seen Nokia's Maemo 5-powered N900 pull off some pretty fanciful tricks, but without qualification this is the one most dear to our hearts. Somehow or another, Konttori managed to get his palms around an N900 of his own, and rather than testing out the social networking abilities or battery life, he simply installed an SNES emulator, tweaked it to accept Wiimote controls and even connected it to his TV for a staggeringly authentic gameplay experience. Vicarious living is just a click or two away, so hop on past the break for a video of the action. Oh, and don't mind the baby -- he's not in the corner or anything. [Thanks, Sathish]
Video: SNES runs beautifully on N900, makes our hearts flutter
We've already seen Nokia's Maemo 5-powered N900 pull off some pretty fanciful tricks, but without qualification this is the one most dear to our hearts. Somehow or another, Konttori managed to get his palms around an N900 of his own, and rather than testing out the social networking abilities or battery life, he simply installed an SNES emulator, tweaked it to accept Wiimote controls and even connected it to his TV for a staggeringly authentic gameplay experience. Vicarious living is just a click or two away, so hop on past the break for a video of the action. Oh, and don't mind the baby -- he's not in the corner or anything.[Thanks, Sathish]
Maemo 5 reviewed in breathtakingly granular detail
It's one thing to read a product preview here and there, but if you really want the Maemo 5 experience before you're even able to set foot in a store and buy an N900, look no further than mobile-review's characteristically exhaustive look at the platform. From the endless array of screenshots, you quickly get the impression that this is an attractive shell -- evolutionary and familiar for owners of the 770, N800, or N810, yes, but significantly freshened nonetheless. Here are a few big takeaways from the War & Peace-esque compendium: There's apparently an N920 in the works that lacks a QWERTY keyboard. We've heard rumors in the past that the N900 will remain Nokia's sole Maemo 5 phone for at least a few months, so we might look to see this in 2010. Process management invokes a curiously webOS-like card view which looks great. Helps when you have a beefy OMAP3 in there, doesn't it? The call log effortlessly aggregates GSM and VoIP calls -- a neat trick, and a tip of the hat to Maemo's roots as a VoIP-friendly platform. MMS isn't supported, strangely, though the platform's SMS support handles both threaded and traditional views. While chatting up Maemo's calendar services, Eldar specifically says that he "Palm's WebOS-powered organizer much more enticing and promising." Lack of Google Calendar synchronization sucks, but we're not sure what that's all about -- Maemo does support Exchange ActiveSync, after all. Eldar his the nail on the head regarding Maemo's Mozilla-based browser: it's always been good, just way too slow. The N900 cures those ails on better hardware, though "it hasn't caught up with the rest of the pack yet." Flash support seems wonky and performance isn't always great -- it depends on how many apps are running. The music player is pretty bare-bones (typical Nokia), though anyone happy with the N97's sound quality will feel right at home here -- it's the same hardware. The integrated Maps app apparently lags way behind the bar that Ovi Maps has set over on S60 -- super slow and "resource-hungry." Of course, the beauty of Maemo is its wide-open philosophy, so many of the niggles here that aren't corrected by Nokia proper will hopefully be handled by the community at large -- and the good news is that by the time you get done reading this review, the N900 should be on store shelves for you to try yourself.
Nokia grabs the Windex, clears up 'erroneous' Maemo carrier customization claims
We aren't too sure where a number of outlets overheard that Nokia was planning to pass on customizing its Maemo-based devices, but one of two things has happened: either Nokia is lying to our faces and has secretly had a change of heart, or everyone was just misinformed from the get-go. Regardless of the hows and whys, Nokia has now come clean and stated that those very reports -- you know, the ones that "erroneously suggested that Nokia will not support operator customization for Maemo devices" -- are "simply incorrect." A long winded explanation follows, but the long and short of it is that the suits in Espoo are (at least now) very open to letting operators "tailor future Maemo devices to suit their needs," which may or may not be a positive in your eyes depending on the carrier you're chained to. Now, aren't you glad we had this little talk?[Thanks, Dallas]
Nokia putting foot down on Maemo, won't allow carrier customizations
Google and Apple have both managed to wrest a great deal of control over the mobile user experience from carriers over the past couple of years -- cheers to that, by the way -- and now Nokia's decided it wants a piece of that action with the introduction of Maemo 5 and the N900, which it says will be free of the branding that Symbian products frequently get subjected to. It makes total sense that Nokia would be looking to come play in that rarified air that Android, iPhone OS, and webOS are all playing in -- a place where ARPUs are high, UIs are slick and modern, and the apps (and data) flow like water -- but since the majority of customers for these types of devices rely on subsidies to justify the purchase, they'll still need carrier buy-in to pull this off effectively. At least Palm and the gang have all proven that there's precedent for it, and it's definitely a noble fight to wage -- no one wants a bright magenta interface, right? [Via Phone Scoop]
Video: Nokia N900 used to control British art installation
The new Nokia N900 is only a week old, but it's already being put to some interesting uses -- like this nifty little video wall commissioned by Nokia at the onedotzero adventures in motion festival in London. A custom Maemo 5 app sends messages to the display, and then the phone's accelerometer can be used to control the animation. Sure, it's not the most super-original phone+art installation we've ever seen, but it's certainly quite pretty -- check the video after the break.
Nokia N900 now up for $649 preorder in the US of A
Nokia fans know the drill -- if you happen to live in the vicinity of the New York or Chicago flagship stores, you're almost certainly better off holding out and camping in front of the store as the launch date draws near -- but now that they're being taken, the rest of the States might strongly consider filing an preorder with Nokia USA's official online store if they want an N900 as soon as humanly possible. That's a good deal less than the US equivalent of $860 currently being asked by the company's German and Italian outposts, so we guess we should be thankful -- provided, of course, that the US launch isn't delayed into oblivion by some combination of T-Mobile drama, firmware issues, distribution problems, or swarms of locusts destroying trucks as they attempt to make deliveries. A pessimistic way to look at it, yes, but remember: a pessimist is never disappointed. [Via Cell Phone Signal]
Video: Nokia N900 put through its paces... in Italian
We're sure to see a whole lot more of the Nokia N900 as Nokia World gets underway this week, but in the meantime we're super into this video walkthrough posted up by Kiamanokia.it -- and not just because the Italian narration makes using the N900 seem absolutely delightful. Nope, we're much more into the extremely-responsive interface, the rotary-zoom gesture in the browser, and the overall slickness of Maemo 5. We'll withhold judgment until we spend some time with an actual production N900, but things are looking promising -- head after the break to check the video for yourselves. [Via The Nokia Blog]
Nokia N900 running Maemo 5 officially €500 in October (update: video!)
In backwards order, Nokia has finally launched the N900 after we've already seen a review and countless leaks. Nevertheless, it's good to have the new Maemo 5 Internet Tablet out in the open and official-like. The specs include a 3.5-inch 800x480 pixel (resistive) touchscreen, sliding QWERTY, 32GB of on-board storage expandable to 48GB via microSD, GPS/A-GPS, FM transmitter, TV-out, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, 1320mAh battery, and 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash. Better yet, this monster MID brings the power of the ARM Cortex-A8, up to 1GB of application memory, and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration to make quick work of polygons and what Nokia promises will be a "PC-like experience on a handset-sized device." It also brings a Mozilla-based Maemo browser with Adobe Flash 9.4 support. As expected, it'll be on display at Nokia World next week before this quad-band GSM/EDGE, 900/1700/2100MHz UMTS/HSPA handset heads to select markets in October for €500 (pre tax and pre carrier subsidy). And by the looks of that 1700MHz band, this baby's heading to T-Mobile USA.Update: Videos added after the break.
Nokia N900 puts on makeup, does hair for leaked press shot
Normally, we'd take a look at something like this and say, "yeah, could be real, could be fake." Goodness knows there are enough mega-talented graphic designers in the world with the free time to craft this. Here's the thing, though: this phone / MID hybrid -- the latest in Nokia's Internet Tablet series -- has already been outed enough times so that we know this has to be a genuine press shot. If we had to guess, Espoo fashioned it in preparation for its Nokia World event in Germany early next month where the N900 will presumably be announced into officialdom; there's no sign on when or how the T-Mobile USA version will be unveiled, but we're getting pretty amped for it. Update:Here's another N900 press shot, courtesy again of BeGeek, after the break. [Thanks, Allen!]
Nokia's Maemo 5 RX-51 / N900 tablet gets exhaustively previewed
Eldar Murtazin at mobile-review teased us with that shot of Nokia's RX-51 / N900 Maemo 5 tablet earlier today, and now he's back in force with a detailed preview. We're talking tons of hardware pictures and screenshots of what stands to be the standard-bearer for all Nokia devices going forward, and while we'd love to tell you all about how impressed we are with what we're seeing of Maemo 5 and how disappointed we are in the Rover's resistive touchscreen, we won't hold you back -- hit the read link and dive right in.
Nokia's Maemo 5 tablet shows up again, ready to play
We're calling it: this N900 / Rover / whatever it's called is the best looking device yet in Nokia's Internet Tablet line, which is an encouraging thing to be able to say considering we haven't seen any ultra-polished PR shots yet. Granted, we might be influenced a little by the rumored HSPA support with voice, T-Mobile USA availability, and Maemo 5, but really, what's wrong with that?
New Maemo 5 screen shows fascinating, unique array of settings
Nokia may have shot down rumors that it was planning to completely replace its Symbian OS with Maemo, but that hasn't taken all the shine off the mobile OS, and a new, lone screenshot has now surfaced to further stoke those flames of anticipation (it's okay, you can admit it). As you can see above, however, it's not exactly the most exciting of screens to capture, but is supposedly the real deal and not just another SDK sourced image.[Thanks, Eric]
Nokia RX-51 tablet captured in the wild
Not long at all after that mysterious Nokia RX-51 passed through the FCC comes shots from Indonesian message board Kaskus of the tablet-like device in the wild. The blurred box shot and the label behind the battery clearly say RX-51 prototype, and the design is unmistakably similar to the rumored press photo for the Maemo 5-powered Rover from back in May. We can't help but notice the 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens and, more importantly, SIM card slot and an ear piece, which would be perfect for placing calls on, say, T-Mobile's network. Few more shots after the break, and hit up the read link for the gallery of photos. [Via Mobile Bulgaria; thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Nokia device passes FCC for T-Mobile USA, looks an awful lot like a new Internet Tablet to us
Every week, random, seemingly anonymous Nokia handsets quietly pick up FCC approval. Most will never see the light of day on an American carrier, and the ones that do have usually already been announced so that by the time we figure out what the FCC filing refers to, it's uninteresting. Today, though, we noticed a Nokia RX-51 get certification, and we were immediately intrigued; standard Nokia phones have an "RM" designation, so "RX" has us thinking that this is no ordinary phone. Taking a peek at the SAR documentation reveals that it rolls deep with AWS 3G, just the kind that T-Mobile USA needs to do its thing. The final piece in this amazing puzzle has to be the ID placement doc, which shows the outline of a device far wider than your standard dumbphone. Where are we going with this? You might recall MobileCrunch's information from a while back suggesting that T-Mobile USA would be getting a Maemo 5-powered superphone codenamed "Rover" -- and, well, we're pretty sure this is it. Stay tuned -- things are about to get interesting.
Nokia next-gen "Rover" tablet unveiled?
After the spec rundown this morning of the long-rumored Maemo 5 tablet from Nokia, we've now got ourselves a potential name and image to pair with the wonderful promise of 3G and OMAP3. According to this shot obtained by Cellpassion, the next-generation Internet Tablet device is taking quite a bit of an N-series turn, with that 3.5-inch WVGA screen (instead of the 4-inch display on the N810), three-row QWERTY keyboard and other refinements making this look to be much more a smartphone than a tablet -- which is presumably exactly what Nokia is going for. Naturally, we can't vouch for the source, and there are enough oddities to the image -- which seems to be gleaned from a presentation slide of some sort -- to voice caution, but if this is truly the marriage of Maemo with handset we've always dreamed of, it's going to be a little difficult to rein in our enthusiasm.
Maemo 5 Beta SDK released into the hands of an eagerly waiting world
Sure, you've seen the alpha SDK, and you've even seen it in pre-alpha, but if you're really serious about your Maemo 5 development you gotta check out the beta release. This should be music to the ears of all you crazy kids who are hard at work developing software for Nokia's next-gen Internet tablets. And "Maemo 5 Beta SDK" is not only fun to say, but it also brings several new features to the table, including: support for widget development, a new version of the Modest open-source email app, OMAP3 support, HSPA data connectivity, hi-def camera support, and hardware-based graphics acceleration. Lastly (though certainly not leastly) you'll finally be able to get your hands on a Maemo 5 Development Manual. We hear that one's a real page-turner. Hit that read link and get to work.[Via Brighthand]
