I was using Ovi Maps on N900 for routing today and was largely impressed by the app. The GPS lock-on was fast, and so was routing. The all new “Track Me” feature is what appeals to me the most. It auto-rotates the map and makes sure that you are reading the map in the correct direction. However, with no onboard digital compass, the task of orienting maps is based largely on your movement. If you happen to come to a halt, be it for a traffic signal or for refuelling your automobile, the map gets disoriented (Check out the Ovimaps-9 screenshot for traffic signal scenario) but it will auto-rotate and set in the right direction once you start moving. Overall it accounts for a decent navigation experience though.

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.

What Hermes does is it synchronises your contacts with saved contacts from user’s twitter and facebook accounts. This may sound too simple but the practicality of this app is just amazing. Imagine getting all the contact info, including the date of birth, web page, addresss etc at just one go, thats it! Hermes is all that and more. Take a look at the demo video here to know what to expect from the powerful contact sync tool.

I was rather fortunate to unearth this video from the web for Nokia Conversations had just demoed the video in continuation of their ongoing Explore N900 under 30 seconds campaign. I was about to write at lengths explaining the methodology of the syncing the contacts, but the YouTube clip above makes it more lucid than I can ever get with my text instructions. So I will let the video do all the explanation, while I set back and give my verdict on the app.

I gotta give Hermes a special mention in our list of must have applications as this app is one of the most innovative apps, I have seen on the Maemo 5 till now. If you have like 300 friends, you should definitely not miss this app.

Hermes can be downloaded for free from the Downloads section of the app manager.

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.

Can it get any simpler than that? Infact I find this image sharing so intuitive and easy to use that I have never used either the bluetooth connection or the data cable to manually transfer any of the photos or screenshots that I keep uploading in this blog here. Incase you have noticed, most of the screenshots I have embedded in this blog are softcoded to my Flickr account, to which I directly uploaded from N900. This saves me a lot of time in copying and pre-processing the photos, that I had to previously in absence of a decent sharing service. I totally dig the multiple sharing and sort by tags for uploading my photos.

Once you get your N900, you should definitely try its sharing services, which by default includes Flickr and Ovi. Further the Pixelpipe plugin, along with Facebook and Evernote apps only enhance the usability of this service. So make sure you give this sharing feature a spin on your N900, as soon as you get one and I promise you that you will just love it and you might as well forget PC Suite or the Ovi Suite for all your image sharing needs.

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.

Screenshots-

The widget is very easy to customize and one of the most intuitive apps that I have seen so far on the Maemo platform. Ofcourse there are not many apps yet but getting this app/widget working is a no-brainer. While one can find some of the most popular cities in the side panel, the app description says it can relay live weather forecast for as many as 140,000 locations across the globe. Further, the info displayed on the widget is soft coded, meaning clicking on the widget, will take you to the Foreca webpage for finer details related to the forecast.

As you know when it comes to weather forecasts, the info is only as useful as the units that they are displayed in and in this app, you can chose the system of units of your choice, so that you don’t have to pull out your hair trying to figure out the temperature in the unit systems of your choice after a glance at the N900 Foreca homescreen.

The bottom line is this is one handy app and a must have on your N900, if you already have one and mark this app in your “must have” list, if you still haven’t got your hands on a N900 yet.

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.

Unlike anyother smartphone, N900 is capable of managing its own recovery system, meaning you don’t have to connect to a PC/Mac to create/load your backups. If you ask me, this is one of the coolest features of the N900. Many a times you play around with your phone only to realise that you messed up with some setting and are not able to fix it. This is where you would start hunting for a backup image on your PC/Mac if it were anyother smartphone. Not with N900 though, you can create and restore a backup right from the device itself. Creating a backup takes around 3-4 minutes, depending on your contacts and other data (like calendar entries, bookmarks etc) you select to backup. Restore is pretty swift as well. So make sure you create a backup of your N900, once you have loaded all your contacts and other relevant data.

This is just another reason why the N900 is not just a smartphone but a computer in your hands.

If you happen to have a N900 at your disposal, head to menu->More-> Backup for creating/restoring N900 backups

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.

Check out the slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. This is the N900’s answer to existing Blackberry and similar slide phones that give the user a complete feel of a full keyboard. Although this isn’t new in the market, this is just one reason why you should be getting this phone by the end of the month.

The N900 boasts of a 3.5 inch wide screen touch display with 800 x 480 pixel  resolution. This feature is carried over from one of the company’s first touch screen offerings – the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone.

In portrait mode, the N900 is glossy and displays information clearly.

Carry your music with the N900. Sporting a new album display, you can enjoy your tracks complete with the Nokia Stereo Headset (WH-205) which comes with the unit. Sweet!

Slide that cover and you’ve got yourself a 5-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss optics Tessar lens with a CMOS sensor. Take a photo with a Dual LED flash for those low-light photo opportunities.

The Nokia 5800 had a separate stand, which came with the unit. Apparently, the N900 already comes with a stand built right in the phone’s body that you can just take out any time you like. No need to carry anything around to enjoy your music or watch your video.

The Nokia N900 is temptingly good to look at in these pictures. The unit should be released to the public around October 19, 2009 throughout Europe. Release dates for Asia and other continents are to be announced. The level of anticipation is rising and the internet cannot wait to have their hands on this latest leap of technology.

Tune in to the blog for more Nokia N900 photos, images and news.