Video demo after the cut

Because of that, it’s not exactly a usable implementation; in fact it’s more a very slow proof-of-concept rather than anything else.  According to Nikkanen, it took over an hour and a half to boot and get to the “About this Mac” dialog shown above, and he had to do some heavy editing in order to avoid viewers falling asleep during the video below.

We’d plump for a Maemo/Android mixture, then, over OS X, but we bet there are Apple-lovers eyeing up this project and wondering what might need to be done to shave OS X 10.3 down to a more usable size.  Nikkanen is also the same guy who got Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 3.1 running on the N900.

[via Engadget]

It’s also designed – like the N900 – to be used not only as a “portable computer” but as a phone.  Under the hood there’s an ARM-based 806MHz Marvell PXA310+ processor running the show, along with 128MB RAM and 256MB ROM, while connectivity includes WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, 3G EVDO (obviously with voice and data support) and GPS.  You also get a 3.2-megapixel camera, a VGA webcam, 4.3-inch WVGA resistive touchscreen and a 2,600mAh battery.

That’s all strikingly similar to the first non-Nokia Maemo device we saw, Optima’s OP5-E, though Aigo have sensibly slotted some hardware controls onto the N500′s front panel.  Most interestingly it’s already on sale – albeit in China – for 3999 RMB ($586); Aigo devices have previously shown that they’re capable of crossing over to Europe and the US, so we’re quietly hopeful that the N500 will too.

[via Pocketables]

In addition SIM cards from UK network 3 are now supported, larger mailboxes are handled better, Ovi Maps is improved, and there have been various modifications made to optimize CPU and battery use.  The rest of the changes are mostly tweaks and improvements: you can now silence phone ringing by flipping the N900 face-down, WiFi stability is increased, camera thumbnails load faster and task alarms are now synchronized.

OTA updates will be rolling out in the next 24 hours, so don’t be surprised if you don’t have the option straight away.  There’s a full software changelist for Maemo 5 PR1.1 here, and it’s also possible to flash the N900 rather than use the OTA update.

[via Nokia Conversations]

Video demo after the cut

The OP5-E squeezes in GPS, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth and a 2,600mAh removable battery.  There’s a microSD card slot (16GB cards supported), a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back and a VGA camera up front for video calls.  The whole thing measures 143 x 74 x 17.6 mm and Optima reckon you’ll get around 8hrs video playback out of it.

Charbax reckons the VoIP possibilities of the OP5-E are one of its strongest points, together with the size of its screen – the N900 is 3.5-inches, in comparison; however there are some Bluetooth issues and lacks a TV output.  Still, at $500 unlocked (Optima are looking for carriers who might want to subsidize it, but we reckon that’s relatively unlikely) it’s an interesting alternative to the Nokia for those not enamoured with the N900′s hardware keyboard.

The graphic – which compares OS market share for Nokia’s devices in 2009 and then 2011 – suggests that rather than ousting S60, Maemo will instead squeeze in at the expense of S40, the entry-level OS on Nokia’s budget and mid-range devices.  The indication seems to be that S60′s reach – with a new UI, Nokia promise – will be extended down the line-up to contend with users expecting more from their handsets, while Maemo slots in at the flagship end of the spectrum.  Indeed S60 device share actually increases from 2009 levels, rather than decreasing.

Of course, there are no actual figures so it’s hard to tell exactly what Nokia expect to happen.  The company has promised two “major device milestones” in 2010, but earlier rumors suggested that only one new Maemo device was planned for next year.  If that’s the case, 2011 will need to have quite a few more Maemo smartphones on offer if it’s to grab its chunk of pie.

[via Twitter]

They also want to increase the number of touch and/or QWERTY blessed devices, as well as “deliver our first Maemo 6-powered mobile computer, with an iconic user experience, in the second half of 2010″.  It sounds like Nokia’s intent to push S60 down the range into cheaper devices will also come to fruition in 2010, with the company looking to make smartphones more accessible.

Nokia’s UI work has been a common theme among smartphone discussion, with S60′s somewhat tired interface (masking what’s still a very capable OS) often leaving reviewer opinion lagging behind when compared to more visually-rich rival platforms.  Their software teams have not been shy in putting together tempting concept videos, proposals for next-gen UIs and new collaborative functionality, but so far there’s been no timescale for when any of that might transfer over to a shipping handset.

Video demos after the cut

That second preview follows on from October’s first code example, which coincided with the initial confirmation from Nokia that they would be making Qt compatible with the OS running on the Nokia N900.  Before that, developers had been told that Maemo 5 would be bypassed by Qt in favor of Maemo 6, set to debut in late 2010, leaving the N900 in something of a limbo situation.

As well as Qt 4.6, Nokia have updated their Qt Creator tool for cross-platform development.  With them, they reckon it’s easy to create apps with advanced UI and support for multitouch and gestures such as flicking, kinetic scrolling and pinch-zooming (as long as the hardware supports it, of course).

Mobile demos on Maemo and Symbian:

Qt everywhere on Mobile Platforms:

Qt everywhere on all platforms

Qt multitouch and gesture demos:

Qt for Maemo 5 technical preview two demo:

Press Release:

Nokia releases Qt 4.6

Now easier than ever for developers to create great applications for Symbian, Maemo, and other platforms

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today released Qt 4.6, the latest version of the cross-platform application and UI framework. Featuring new platform support, powerful new graphical capabilities and support for multi-touch and gestures, Qt 4.6 makes developing advanced applications and devices easier and more enjoyable.

“Qt 4.6 marks an exciting time for developers, regardless of their target form factor or platform,” said Sebastian Nyström, Vice President, Application Services and Frameworks at Nokia.

“Developers can easily create visually appealing and web-connected applications for desktops or devices, including targeting the hundreds of millions of Symbian and Maemo-based devices,”

“The community will enjoy using Qt’s intuitive programming interface to quickly create powerful, appealing applications.” Nyström added.

More platforms
Qt 4.6 includes support for the Symbian platform for the first time, and also adds Windows 7, Apple Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and the upcoming Maemo 6 to the list of Qt supported platforms. Also available is community support for real-time operating systems QNX and VxWorks. Support for Maemo 5 is also currently in development, with the second technology preview being released today.

Qt support for Symbian and Maemo creates the first opportunity for developers to target both of these platforms from the same codebase. Being able to share code across platforms means that the applications they create will reach the market faster and reach a broader audience of device users.

Also released today is a technology preview of new Qt APIs from the Qt Mobility project. These cross-platform APIs provide developers with functionality such as location for navigation-type devices, as well as messaging, contacts, and bearer management.

More eye candy
Qt 4.6 builds upon the graphical improvements of 4.5 and enhances them with the addition of new Animation Framework – including intuitive state machine functionality – plus new advanced graphics effects like opacity, drop shadows, glow, and filtering.

More fingers
One of the most exciting new features in Qt 4.6 is the ability to create multi-touch applications. New multi-touch and gesture based input methods such as flicking and kinetic scrolling make Qt 4.6 a powerful framework for creating dynamic, tactile ways for users to interact with applications and devices.

More horsepower
Qt 4.6 challenges the conventional development notion that advanced UI capabilities normally come with a significant performance cost. Extensive work has been done to deliver the best possible performance while enabling developers to deliver the “wow” effect that is demanded by users.

Key performance improvements come in the form of a highly optimized, re-written Qt GraphicsView rendering algorithm, a new OpenGL paint engine, WebKit, 2D vector graphic support using OpenVG, and new DirectFB support.

Updated tools
Complimenting the release of Qt 4.6 is an updated release of Qt Creator, a cross-platform IDE for Qt development. Qt Creator 1.3 and Qt 4.6 form the Qt SDK which contains everything developers need to create cross-platform applications.

To learn more about Qt 4.6, Qt Creator 1.3 and to download the packages, please visit http://qt.nokia.com/whatsnew.

Despite shortcomings in Symbian S60 (where apps and settings are located appears to have been chosen at random) and a wildly inconsistent touch experience, the 5800 and N97 have sold over 10 million units. Nokia has sold well over 100 million Symbian S60 phones overall, which puts it in a classic case of what Clayton Christensen calls the Innovator’s Dilemma: Nokia’s existing customers are happy with S60, so Nokia has resisted cannibalizing it. However, the iPhone may have launched without 3G or corporate email, but Apple keeps adding features with each new version, so when S60 users are ready to buy a new phone, they are increasingly picking one from Apple or one of Apple’s competitors. (It is also worth noting that arguments against cannibalizing S60 can only be made for Europe – in the U.S., S60 has never had any traction whatsoever.)

The solution to the Innovator’s Dilemma is to fund skunkworks development or a spin-off that attacks the new technology on its own terms. While initially planned as a way to get Nokia’s feet wet in open source software, Nokia does have another OS, Maemo Linux, that it has been quietly using for its line of Internet tablets (770, N800, and N810). At Nokia World in early September, Nokia announced Maemo 5 and the N900, the first Maemo phone. When I first saw Maemo 5 demonstrated just ahead of Nokia World, my first reaction was to question why Nokia would limit Maemo to pricey, high end devices. After all, S60 isn’t competitive, and Maemo looks really, really cool. Why not just kill S60 and switch to Maemo?

After playing with a production N900 for the past couple of weeks, I have discovered the answer: Maemo is nowhere near ready for mainstream consumers.

There was reason for my initial optimism: the OS has power to spare; it is basically a desktop Linux system in a tiny package. Maemo can handle multiple live apps minimized to little cards (similar to Palm’s webOS); the browser is unadulterated Mozilla code and includes support for a full implementation of Flash 9. The N900 has a high resolution 800×480 screen, TI OMAP3 (Cortex A8) processor, 32 GB flash storage plus an empty microSD card slot, forward facing VGA camera, and 5 MP camera on the rear with dual LED flashes and Carl Zeiss branding. There is a sliding physical QWERTY keyboard, and, for watching media, a pull out kickstand. The N900 has WiFi, quadband GSM and Triband HSPA 900/1700/2100, making it perfect for T-Mobile’s 3G network in the U.S.

Unfortunately, the whole is much less than the sum of its parts. The user interface is maddeningly inconsistent and opaque, and while you can learn to live with its quirks after a while, why should you have to? Nearly every mobile OS does a better job of making it easy to navigate; the iPhone is the easiest (at the expense of efficiency) and Palm’s webOS is the most elegant. Nokia needs to add hard buttons or dedicated screen real estate for navigating and launching options menus. For example, touching the top left corner is usually the “go back” area. Except when touching the blank space in between app tiles backs you out. Except when you’re in a web browser, and a link is occupying the top left, then there’s really no way to get back at all without first minimizing the view. The resistive touchscreen is another problem – even when you push in the right spot, it doesn’t always register. I find myself repeatedly pulling out the stylus, and that should simply never happen on a modern smartphone.

There are no SEND or END keys (Motorola’s DROID has this problem, too), and there is no permanent place for the soft keys – depending where you are in the UI, it can be awfully hard just to find the dialer. This is the first phone I have used in a while where making a phone call isn’t just a secondary use case, but is barely a use case at all.

Web browsing is good, though navigating around a web page is not as smooth as Apple’s Safari. Still, this is one area where the N900 can do things no other phone on the market can do, at least until Adobe rolls out Flash 10 support broadly next year. YouTube videos play smoothly, and navigating around Flash-heavy sites is possible. (Theoretically, you should even be able to watch Hulu on the N900. Practically, it doesn’t work, even over WiFi – the video loads, slowly, then… stops.)

While I encountered system messages that would terrify non-technical users (do you want to update your phone’s SSL sockets? Who knows?), the N900 is better than previous Maemo Linux devices. For example, downloading and installing applications is a simple process now. But there aren’t that many apps yet, and Nokia’s Ovi Store still has a “Coming Soon” banner. Nokia is providing for cross platform (Symbian and Maemo) development with upcoming versions of its QT tools, but Nokia’s focus with developers is still on Symbian.

This leaves Nokia with some tortured market positioning: Nokia told me it is firmly committed to Symbian as its smartphone platform of choice, while Maemo will be relegated to high end devices and aimed at consumers who want more of a computer and less of a phone. The latter description fits every iPhone, Android, and webOS user (and those handsets start at just $100 after carrier subsidies). Nokia needs something better than S60 with touch. Maemo Linux could be that thing, but it isn’t yet, and it doesn’t look like Nokia really wants it to succeed broadly.

Delivery of the much-anticipated smartphone begins today, and will apparently be fulfilled on a first-come, first-serve basis.  Anybody who didn’t plan ahead – or who quite sensibly wanted to wait until they could play with an N900 in-store – will have to wait almost a week and a half before they can do so.  The Nokia N900 will be priced at £499 including VAT in the UK.

Full statement after the cut

“While it is our policy not to disclose details of our product roadmap, we’d like to explicitly communicate that we remain firmly committed to Symbian as our smartphone platform of choice. Any speculation on what our 2012 roadmap, including operating systems and product branding, are completely premature.

As we have stated earlier, Nokia has multiple platforms to serve different purposes and address different markets. Symbian is more successful than ever in bringing smartphones to the masses. Maemo is our software of choice for devices based on technology that you’d typically find inside a desktop computer. It delivers a different user experience and enables us to widen the market we can address.” Nokia statement

While at first glance the statement appears to disagree with the earlier speculation, there are still a few wriggle holes in place.  Nokia have already gone public regarding their intention to filter S60 down through the ranks of devices, just as S40 did before it, catering for different and evolving user models in an ever-maturing user ecosystem.  In its place will come Maemo, though they’ve also been open about the fact that, in its current form at least, the OS is targeted more at enthusiasts than the mainstream.

So, calling the death of S60 as a smartphone platform might be “completely premature”, but that doesn’t mean it’s not accurate; it just means Nokia don’t want to talk about it today.  Will Maemo be consumer-friendly by 2012 and ready to take up position in Nseries handsets?  We’d certainly expect so.

But all good games must come to an end (and we’ll just start chasing HTC Dragon rumors again, so no need to worry about whether our days will be occupied) and as of this morning the pre-order shipments of US N900s are supposedly shipping out.  It’s actually over a week since Nokia told us the N900 was officially out for distribution, so we’re not sure whether they mean buyers should expect a delivery today, or if the Maemo 5 smartphones are just leaving the warehouse today.

Either way, the N900 is on its way and you should be able to pick one up from the Nokia Flagship stores in New York and Chicago, priced at around $649.  Alternatively it’s worth shopping around online; Amazon are already listing it for just $509.99 after discounts and rebates, though there it’s not showing up as available as yet.

Press Release:

The Nokia N900 is now available to US consumers

November 18, 2009

A computer in your pocket – The Nokia N900 is here!

WhitePlains, N.Y., USA — Nokia today announced that the highly anticipated Nokia N900 is now on sale in the United States and shipping to consumers who jumped on the opportunity to be among the first to pre-order the Maemo-powered mobile computer. With the Linux-based Maemo platform and with multiple ways to connect to the Internet, the Nokia N900 enables users to be online as it happens with a powerful computer in the palm of their hands.

“Consumers from every segment of the population are looking for more out of their mobile device – more power, more ability, more connectivity. The Nokia N900 ushers in a new era with a very powerful mobile computer,” said Alessandro Lamanna, Vice President, Retail Sales, Nokia. “With an open source operating system, incorporated technology like an OMAP processor, and real time web widgets, the Nokia N900 delivers the experience of a pocketable computer that has the information you’re looking for right there waiting for you thanks to the ability to be connected just about anywhere.”

With the Linux-based Maemo operating platform, 32GB of storage and multiple options of connectivity including access for 3G data networks, consumers no longer need to leave everything that makes them them – their email, favorite websites, social communities, images, music – anywhere but on their Nokia N900. With the Nokia N900, you don’t have to worry about missing that next great moment.

Additionally, with the ability to multitask several applications or web browsers at once, the Nokia N900 allows for users to eliminate boredom wherever they go. Surfing several web pages while listening to music while talking on instant message with friends – all at the same time – couldn’t be easier.

Maemo software is based on an open source platform and allows for a variety of different applications to be developed – from home brew to commercial and everything in between; such as podcasting, Twitter and instant messaging applications. Consumers and developers can join the conversation with other members and Nokia employees by visiting http://maemo.org.

With a web browser based on Mozilla technology, the Nokia N900 allows consumers to access a world wide web that is more computer-like than before. Consumers can view their favorite websites, use drop down menus, watch Flash videos and access the web on a mobile device screen thanks to support for Adobe Flash 9.4 and gesture support within the Nokia N900 web browser.

The Nokia N900 comes with a 3.5-inch touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard and enables consumers the ability to personalize up to four different home screens as they wish. One can be work related with a calendar widget and contacts application while another can be favorite bookmarked web pages while yet another can be set to show popularsocial networks.

The Nokia N900 retains Nokia’s legacy of high quality imaging with a five megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss optics and a dual LED flash along the ability to share those images and videos straight from your device to services such as Ovi Share. With Ovi services like Maps and Files, the Nokia N900 allows users access to their Ovi account right from their device.

The Nokia N900 is available in a black finish and will retail for USD 649 through Nokia Flagship stores in New York and Chicago, nokiausa.com and various independent retailers and e-tailers including Amazon.com. For more information and high resolution images, please visit http://www.nokia.com/press.

For more information on how to develop for Nokia N900 and Maemo, please visit http://forum.nokia.com.

The Nseries has been Nokia’s flagship technology range, usually the place where new and high-end functionality debuts before filtering down to the rest of the company’s devices.  Up until now the Nokia Internet Tablets have been the only Maemo devices with the N-prefix, with the rest of the line – which includes media-centric handsets as well as more traditional smartphones – using Symbian S60.

As recently as back in September at Nokia World, the company was still talking about Maemo being a test bed to gauge consumer opinion, and coexisting alongside Symbian.  Even then, Nokia did say that the older S60 platform would begin progressing down the range, just as S40 has done before it.  The company is apparently “surprised” by response to the N900, which may have accelerated their plans somewhat.

For instance, if one person attending a concert tweeted about it from their mobile device, and another person at the concert retweeted that message, or added a photo to a public Flickr feed, then other users at the concert might be matched up with them.  That way users would build and encounter different bubbles of collaborative content, discovering crowd-shared media and opinion that they might otherwise have missed.

Unfortunately, as with last week’s video – which you can find here – you’re unlikely to see contagious content on a Maemo device any time soon.  Schneider told us that “there’s no plan on when it might be built”, instead showing us a page of current and upcoming widgets, UX plug-ins, codecs and other tweaks to the Maemo 5 platform.  More on those tweaks in our video demo.

Video demo of N900 Maemo 5 enhancements after the cut

Meanwhile, Peter Schneider of Nokia devices research & development pulled out his own N900 at the TWWLN3.0 conference to demonstrate a few of the newest enhancements to the Maemo platform, and we grabbed a quick video of the smartphone in action.  Among the functionality is an app which periodically pulls down contact profile photos and automatically syndicates them out to the various social networking and address book databases across the Maemo handset.

Incidentally, this also demonstrates one of the N900′s frequently unsung skills: it ships with a video output cable in the box, ideal for big-screen presentations or entertainment.  Curious as to what your first experience with the N900 will be like?  Check out our unboxing video below, together with some hands-on first impressions here.

Nokia N900 enhancements:

Nokia N900 unboxing:

Video demo after the cut

The app is the handiwork of Qt developer Eskil, who took the open-source despotify client and then created his own custom GUI for Maemo 5 in Qt 4.6.  The end result is, unsurprisingly, named qtspotify, and available for anybody with early access to an N900 to download here.

despotify (and therefore qtspotify) use the official Spotify API, and as such require a premium account in order to gain access to the streaming media catalog.  Still, you’ll need the same thing in order to use the Android or iPhone clients, so no great loss there.  We’ll be testing qtspotify out on our own N900 review unit, and will follow up with just how easy it is to use.

In fact, at time of writing Amazon’s launch date has slipped into November, to be precise November 2nd.  That’s only just outside the October window, certainly, but for people who’ve been sitting on their N900 preorders for some time now it’s another few days pain to endure.

Amazon US, meanwhile, are not even giving a release date, only accepting preorders, but they’re offering a not-insignificant $66 discount compared to Nokia’s official $649 MRSP and free shipping to boot.  $66 buys quite a few bags of popcorn, so we’d be tempted to suck up what could be a few days’ delay and save money where we can.

Nokia N900 unboxing:

[via N900 Blog]

However, Nokia are at pains to point out that the software this N900 is running isn’t final, so we’ll be holding off on our full review until we get the final build.  That doesn’t mean we won’t have plenty of hands-on articles, feedback and video demos before then, however, and if you’ve any questions about the N900 then we’d love to hear them; anything we can’t answer, we’ll put to Nokia to get a definitive reply.

The Nokia N900 is currently available to preorder in the US and UK, priced at $649 and at £499 respectively.  Early suggestions tipped a late-October release, though Nokia UK are currently suggesting the N900 won’t arrive until November 2009.  Until then, enjoy the unboxing video and gallery below!

Nokia N900 unboxing video:

Nokia are describing Maemo 6 as delivering an “iconic user experience and integrated internet services in one aesthetic package”, which smacks of PR hyperbole – I’m sure Apple, Google, Microsoft, Palm and all the others would describe their own mobile platforms as offering the same.  Still, there are some interesting advancements on top of Maemo 5, such as the idea that the device screen is a window on the desktop, otherwise known as the “canvas principle”.

As shown in the image above, the desktop is filled with widgets and controls and the device screen pans over it, showing different elements.  Nokia also intend both portrait and landscape support for Maemo 6, which up until now only supports the latter.  Unfortunately this will all be some time in coming; Maemo 6 isn’t expected to launch until late in 2010.

Video demo on the N900 after the cut

In fact the port is based on Qt v4.6, which isn’t set for a final release until Q1 2010.  Nokia have already revealed that it will deliver such niceties as multitouch gesture support to Maemo 6, but right now it means that applications coded for Qt will run not only on the N900 but Windows Mobile and Symbian devices.  It should also make the road from Maemo 5 to 6 more straightforward for developers, which had been a point of contention during Nokia World back in September.

The Qt for Maemo project has developed from a community-driven port, which Nokia has used in no small part for their official code.  The port is available to download from http://qt.nokia.com/maemo; there’s a demo video from Qt themselves of the port running on the N900 below.

Press Release:

Nokia announces official Qt port to Maemo 5
October 09, 2009

Developers will be able to target the Nokia N900 and upcoming Maemo and Symbian devices.

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced the creation of the official Qt port to Maemo 5 and published an initial Technology Preview release. This port to Maemo 5 means that developers can now use Qt to target the upcoming Nokia N900 device and also ensures that applications can be easily ported to all Qt’s supported platforms including the next Maemo 6 release as well as Symbian and Windows Mobile.

The Qt port to Maemo 5 is designed specifically to work within the Maemo 5 environment, which will power the upcoming Nokia N900 device. The port itself will be based on Qt’s upcoming version 4.6 and is scheduled for final release in Q1 of 2010.

“With this announcement and our upcoming port of Qt to the Symbian platform, we will quickly see Qt established as a leading framework for mobile application development. Developers will be able to use Qt as a framework to create powerful native applications and with Qt’s Webkit integration, it also provides them with a platform for creating web applications and services,” said Sebastian Nyström, Vice President of Application Services and Frameworks at Nokia. “Qt’s support for Maemo 5, Maemo 6, Symbian, as well as Windows Mobile makes Qt the most sensible choice for developers looking to target multiple devices and achieve the broadest reach with their innovations.”

This port of Qt will incorporate the community-driven ‘Qt for Maemo’ project that was created as result of substantial contributions and enhancements. The community project provided a strong foundation for building the official port, and because of the open nature of the project, Nokia was able to base the official port on this code. The change from a community port to an official port was necessary to ensure that applications developed with Qt will be compatible with both future versions of Qt, future versions of Maemo, as well as Symbian and the other platforms Qt supports.

Developers looking to support the Qt port Maemo to Maemo 5 are encouraged to visit http://qt.gitorious.org and participate in its further development. Since May 2009, Nokia has received over 400 contributions into Qt and Qt-related projects, which has helped ensure that Qt remains a stable, robust framework for developers to innovate on.

Developers looking to learn more about Qt 4.6 should visit http://qt.nokia.com, as a beta release of Qt 4.6, including the Symbian port, will be launched next week at the Qt Developer Days conference in Munich.

Download information
To download the Qt port to Maemo 5 technology preview, please visit http://qt.nokia.com/maemo.

The handset – which has a 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3.5G and WiFi b/g – will only be compatible with T-Mobile USA’s 3G network, not that of AT&T, something worth noting before you slap down around $700.  A true North American edition (N900 NAM) is likely to follow on after, but there’s no timetable for that device’s launch.

We were reasonably impressed by what Nokia managed to pack into the N900′s compact casing, but we’re not 100-percent convinced by the hardware keyboard or the touchscreen.  For more on the Nokia N900, check out our hands-on video and gallery below, or follow the N900 tag for all our coverage.

Nokia N900 hands-on:

[via BGR]

Video demo after the cut

The N900 lacks a D-pad, but can be controlled using the accelerometer by simply tilting the smartphone around.  Nokia’s N-Gage game download service has plenty more titles than the two pre-loaded on the N900, but unfortunately the company has already confirmed that N-Gage access won’t be present when the handset first launches.

Still, there’s already a distribution network for Maemo Internet Tablets, and titles like Doom have been ported over to the open-source platform, so getting hold of games shouldn’t be an impossibility.  The N900 lacks the same graphics grunt as the iPod touch 3G (or iPhone 3GS), yes, but its higher native-resolution 800 x 480 display (the Apple devices run at 480 x 320) may give it some advantage.  More on the Nokia N900 here.

[via UMPC Fever]

Video demos of the N900 after the cut

“Very clearly Apple, Android … are a whole lot less about providing customization to the operators and a whole lot more about providing a really cool, compelling value proposition to the end-consumer” David Rivas, VP for device R&D, Nokia

The benefit for Nokia is obvious: by refusing to modify the N900 they reduce their own development costs and can better position the smartphone as their own product rather than have it subsumed in the carriers’ brands.  Handsets such as the iPhone and platforms such as Android have shown that this can certainly be beneficial for building brand awareness.

However, given competition between networks the carriers are also keen to differentiate their cellular offerings, and customizing devices is one straightforward way to do that.  Analysts are already predicting that the Finnish company will suffer because of their reluctance, predicting that Nokia may even fail to get the N900 through the door and onto subsidized shelves if they don’t accommodate modifications.

Nokia N900 hands-on:

Nokia N900 browser demo:

[via Engadget]

“The Qt WebKit Integration has been extended with an API to access and modify the contents (DOM) of Web pages being browsed, as well as performance improvements and a new JavaScriptCore based backend for QtScript” Nokia

Meanwhile Qt 4.6 applications will also run faster and smoother, thanks to overall improvements to the code.  In addition to the Qt 4.6 port to Symbian it will also support Windows 7 and OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

At Nokia World last week, the company discussed its new approach to webapps and how it would bridge the divide between native software and web-based functionality.  The initial push is for navigation-based software, using new APIs for GPS functionality.  More on Qt for S60 here.

[via InfoSync]

In describing the differentiation between Nokia Internet Tablets as we’ve known them to-date (the 770, N800 and N810), Jaaksi highlighted the most obvious change as being the UI.  However, the underlying business plan is also different, since the N900 will find gaining public attention – through cellular provider stores – far easier than its non-connected Internet Tablet predecessors.  It also makes good use of that connectivity, supporting OTA (over-the-air) downloads and upgrades for everything bar the cellular radios.  Undecided is whether N900 owners will be able to access OTA updates from Maemo 5 to 6, however.

What may present a headache is courting developers.  While kicking off any new platform can be difficult, Nokia of course benefits from the fact that Maemo 5 is open-source based and could, in theory at least, run desktop Linux apps with only minor tweaking.  However that misses the importance, Jaaksi pointed out, of tailoring the UI to a mobile device.

Throw into the pot that Nokia are already working on Maemo 6, set to launch in around a year’s time, and the fact that the new version will use Qt whereas Maemo 5 uses Gnome.  That could lead to incompatibility issues, or developers ramping up to code for the current release but finding those skills aren’t so useful when the next-gen OS arrives.  While he couldn’t describe the full pathway – likely because it’s still in development – Jaaksi did confirm that they would be working with developers on an upgrade pack that takes apps from 5 to 6.

Jaaksi also confirmed some more minor details about the N900.  It will support USB Mass-Storage mode when plugged into a computer, and while they’re not finished fettling the power settings the aim is a full day’s use per overnight charge.  At launch there won’t be N-Gage or Comes With Music support (the latter since the N900 doesn’t support the Microsoft DRM necessary) either.  Interestingly, the hardware design of the handset followed on from the software, rather than the more traditional way round; Maemo 5 was developed, and then Nokia looked at what hardware they’d need “to let the features shine”.

Uncertain right now is whether earlier Internet Tablets will see upgrades to Maemo 5.  Nokia are looking into it, apparently, but the differences in connectivity, hardware and acceleration in the N900 might make this impossible.  Similarly, the reason for the Booklet 3G using Windows 7 rather than Maemo is the oft-quoted netbook justification that customers generally prefer a familiar OS.

The N900 is certainly looking intriguing, and our hands-on earlier today did nothing to change that opinion.  It’ll hit the market in October, priced at €500 pre-subsidies.

There are some definite perks to this device. While we aren’t so excited about a resistive touchscreen, especially on something as advanced as the N900, from the videos we are seeing, that doesn’t seem to be that big of an issue. The multi-tasking seems to be second to none, especially considering the multiple desktops. And, just in case you watched the video but missed it, those are live streams updating in real time, right on the front page.

The ability to drop back every running application, then pick and choose what you want to run at any given time is a necessity in feature-packed phones at this point, but it looks like Nokia has tapped Maemo 5 to do it in style. Not only can you tag photos or videos right from the phone, in a ridiculously simple manner, you can also embed it within a social media site, such as Facebook. Although, the way the zoom-in and zoom-out functions seems a bit strange, we’re sure that it could be pretty easy to get used to. We’ll be seeing more about this device in the coming days from Nokia World, so keep your eyes peeled.

[via Engadget]

Yes, we’ve got videos of the thing running in the live, but some times a cool, loud, and vibrant visual aide doesn’t hurt. Especially in this case. We think it’s about time for Maemo 5 to get here, so we’re basically counting down the days until October, when the Rover “finally starts” to see its way onto shelves, and into (more) people’s hands.

We like the transitional desktop that they’ve got going for the Rover, and the fact that we can supposedly keep every application running, all the time. If this actually pans out the way Nokia intends it to, then this could be a very compelling piece of technology. Of course, price is always a factor, so let’s hope that $700 price tag finds its way down the ladder, and quickly. Are you getting one? Or has Nokia run its course for you?

[via Boy Genius Report]