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Hands on with the Nokia N900 running on Maemo Interface

May Maemo ako

nikia_n900_PH

The Nokia N900, seen wild in this blurry camera phone pic, is in Manila. Yesterday was Nokia’s Christmas Party and apart from winning a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone (!!!) at the raffle I got the chance to take a peek at the new N900. I only got the better of 4 minutes with the device so here are my first impressions in bullet form. These are general impressions on the N900 as well as the new Maemo user interface.

The N900 is beautiful. It is a sturdy messaging phone, light to the touch with fast UI response.

  • The multiple desktop functions of the Maemo UI is similar to the iPod / iPhone’s. You are allowed to have four desktops which you can scroll through using your thumb. Imagine combining the widget home screen interface of Samsung and Apple’s iPhone and this is what you get. It works.
  • The “apps menu” icon has been changed to resemble a series of squares on the upper left. Pressing that opens the application menu. One noticeable difference is that “Messaging” has been changed to “Conversations” which is really the move to threaded messaging. When you have multiple messages open, Maemo shows this ala Expose for Mac OS X with each window (let’s say, two message threads and the main Inbox) all neatly aligned. You can delete a window using the big “X” on the upper right hand side. The N900 is highlighted by its really good integration of messaging applications.
  • The new UI is fast. Essentially, the changes are really aesthetic. I can compare it to how HTC made their own interface (before the SenseUI of the HTC Hero) over and above Windows Mobile to compensate for the slow and rather outdated UI. Maemo is Linux based so it does feel lighter.
  • I noticed that Maemo doesn’t have a back button. I could be wrong but going back to previous functions entails using a hidden button on the N900 which I discovered by accident. Again, I’m not sure if this is a feature of the N900 per se or as a part of Maemo.
  • No pricing yet. This phone isn’t even OFFICIALLY out yet locally.

By Jayvee Fernandez

Jayvee Fernandez is a tech enthusiast and sitting Techbology Editor for The Philippine STAR.

He is also an EAN certified SCUBA Diver and underwater photographer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. His photos and videos have appeared in various international and local publications including Random House Germany, Discovery Channel Canada, and CNN.

6 replies on “Hands on with the Nokia N900 running on Maemo Interface”

Properly I’ve been addicted to flashing, on account of VZW not wanting us to have access towards GPS on our phones. So I identified the threads that tought me to flash my telephone. Can even cook a tiny, but you can find very much greater chefs available, so I’m pleased to toast their function. I at this time am running Lioryte’s 23529 assemble from the WinMo 6.5.1 on a Samsung Omnia with VZW. So now I’ve won the Behold 2 from Samsung, been playing with it for a couple of months.I’ve it rooted, I’ve BusyBox on it and aHome UI. looks excellent, functions excellent, but too very much bloatware. (The Cube and much more) Tried the Galaxy trick, really rapid and complete of useable memory. It is Android 1.5 pure. I would rather update the B2, not revert to Galaxy, and develop from that. I will if that’s the only way, I’ll check new Odins for that B2 and do whatever help I can to support the B2 community advance the excellent of this mobile phone.I’m looking forward to helping make the B2 the finest Android cell phone available.

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