If navigation is one of your top priorities, you must be wondering if the N900 would do you any good in finding you way around the town. Guess what, you are in luck, for Ovi Maps onboard the N900 is one of the best navigation apps that you can see on any mobile platform today.For users of symbian phones, Ovi Maps needs no introduction for Ovi Maps has been the default navigaiton app on symbian smartphone for over a year now (It was called Nokia maps initially and then rechristened to Ovi Maps). It was one of the first navigation apps to come up with the concept of downloadable maps on phones, drastically reducing the data consumption on compatible phones. The navigation app has been a great success on the symbian platform, and now debuts on the Maemo platform with the Nokia N900. Let’s now see how it pans out for my routine navigation needs.
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You may be wondering what’s all the big deal about mobile browsers, but let me tell you that the mobile browser is one of the most important part of a smartphone. For one, the very concept of having a smartphone is to be in touch with the world and we need to access the web for that and that comes by via a browser. The hardware limitations imposed by the form factor of a smartphone is another roadblock in accessing web pages on smartphones which now come in screen sizes ranging 3″-4″ . Add 3G and Wi-Fi data reception hiccups to that and you know how many hurdles there are in bringing web browsing to the mobile platforms. But developers worldwide have been working on this for long and I must say they have come a long way for we can now access almost every feature available on a desktop browser on the Maemo browser on N900. But I also wanted to know how it measures up to the competition and hence the test and today I will give my verdict.
We did see some blood on the battle field yesterday and am now pitching them in a YouTube round to find out which browser packs the strongest punch. Which browser would you bet on? Safari? Maemo? Android?. I am afraid you will have to hit on the read button to see if you got it right?
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A lot has been talked about the browser capabilities of the Maemo browser on N900 and that of its closest rival, Safari on the iPhone. Being an iPhone user myself, I gotta say that it accounts for one of the smoothest mobile browsing experiences, but the N900 browser’s capability to render the pages in desktop like resolution takes the competition to the next level, all by itself.
To zero in on a winner, I put them through several tests and threw in HTC Hero, which according to me is the best Android phone in market (as of now) and HTC G1, the legendary Google phone which gave the world the first feel of Android. Eager to know who is the winner? Hit on the read button to find out.
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What is like the biggest roadblock that you face when you change your phone? Getting your contacts on the new device right? If you are shiting within the same platform, there is some hope as there will be one or the other contact manager built-in within the PC/Mac sync suite that came bundled with the device.
In case you are shifting across platforms, for someone like me shifting from iPhone to N900, there is no easy way out and just when I was running out of ideas, I stumbled upon this tiny little app called Hermes available for free from the Download section of the app manager.
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With a 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens onboard the N900, am really digging the imaging capabilities of this beast. What is the next logical step after taking amazing photos? To share them with the world right? Atleast that’s what I do after I frame a masterpiece (kidding, almost anything that I capture). Thats where Maemo 5’s sharing feature comes into play and am really amazed at the simplicity of it.
Having played around with Nokia 5800, N97 and iPhone, I have gotta say, image sharing has never been as easy and intuitive as on the N900. Hit on the jump button to see what makes me say so.
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When Nokia N97 was released in June early this year, the widgetized homescreen was one of the main drawing point of the then flagship device from Nokia. One of the main stays of the widgetized homescreen was the accuweather widget pulling in weather forecast data in real time from the web.
Ever since I got my hands on the N900, I was wondering if I could get something similar working on one of its homescreen for this comes in very handy especially for a people like me who have to often work outdoors and at very short notices. Now I know exactly what gear to chose before setting my foot out of my residence. Thanks to Foreca, an amazing weather forecast widget for N900s.
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More the time I spend with N900, the more am amazed by its capabilities for it just blows me away each time I explore the device. After playing around with the onboard backup and restore function, I was in mood for some fun today and subjected the N900 to media compatibility test and guess what N900 comes out with flying colours.
I threw at N900, some of the most popular media file formats and each time it amazed me with the video and audio quality that was rendered from the onboard media player. I didn’t any of the files whatsoever either to set the resolution right or fiddle with the file formats. What all formats do you think you can dig with the N900? Hit the jump button to find out.
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In case you were wondering where I disappeared after promising some hands on experience of N900, I can only say that people are really getting restless to get their hands on a N900. I almost got mugged walking around the city, toying around with N900. These are the desperate times and no am not talking about the economic recession or the recent market crunch in Dubai but I am referring to the severe market shortage of Nokia N900s.
Not to mention the canceling of pre-0rders from Amazon, Dell, NewEgg and other online dealers, N900 enthusiasts are just losing their patience and I got some first hand experience of the same when I was mobbed this weekend, after being spotted with N900. However, I put up a brave fight and managed to keep the N900 with me but only after letting my attackers have some hands-on feel of the device. Yeah, I was just kidding about being mugged, my attackers just wanted some first hand experience of the device. I was traveling on work over the weekend and hence was not able to update the blog here. Anyway having missed out on the black Friday, I realised that a lot of N900 buzz has been doing the rounds, which by now you should have already read. So, I thought I will cover something which no other N900 blog has touched upon so far- Data backup and Recovery on N900.
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Look what I found at my doorstep today:
A Nokia N900, no less. Looks like Santa dropped me an early Christmas present this year. Those big stockings I have been hanging at my doorstep paid off, a bit early though!
Enough of the teasers. This is the review unit I received a couple of hours ago from WOM World Nokia. Stay tuned for updates.
If you have been worrying about the battery life of the N900, let me assure you that you are in safe hands when it comes to power management of Maemo 5 and N900. Being powered by the same BL-5J battery that powers some of the most popular Nokia devices like the 5800 XpressMusic, battery life of N900 is something that has always bothered me.
Having played around with 5800 for almost a year now, I know that the battery drains at an alarming rate when one uses 3G and with the features onboard the N900, I just can’t imagine using N900 sans the 3G. I was hoping that Nokia would go for a higher capacity battery for there flagship device the N900 but Nokia’s strategies continue to baffle me! Even their previous flagship device N97 had a bigger 1500 mAh battery (BP-4L). However looks like the folks at Nokia Conversations are aware of these battery woes of N900 and have released this latest N900 Explored video, which you guys can catch after the break.
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