My good pal Michal Jerz of My-Symbian.com has just released his extensive preview of the Nokia N900. He provides a detailed run through of the hardware, software, side-by-side pics with other devices, and provides sample images and videos from the N900.

Interestingly, he mentions about playing videos from flash based sites. From some of the videos I’ve already seen online, YouTube, for example, was a bit choppy playing videos. His experience was quite opposite however:

“I have tested it with various Flash sites, including Flash videos. I’m glad to report that I haven’t found a single Flash video that wouldn’t play on the N900. While YouTube (the “full” version of it, not the mobile one) videos play 100% smoothly and with full frame rate…”

He also provides some screenshots of the software that I have not seen before like the rich-text email editor, calendar views, phone portrait mode screens, PDF reader app, and Documents To Go (Word, Sheet, and Slideshow) .

Sample Video:

Michal ends his review with this note:

“Even now, at the previewed unit’s early development stage, the N900 truly impressed me with its FANTASTIC PERFORMANCE, STABILITY (it was really ROCK STABLE, take my word), BEAUTIFUL and ADVANCED user interface, very high quality and full integration of TELEPHONY and INTERNET CONNECTIVITY, fast and powerful web browser, great support for VoIP (especially Skype), high quality camera and video recording and, actually, ALMOST EVERYTHING ELSE. I don’t remember being that excited with any mobile device since the first Nokia Communicators and UIQ 2 phones. Really! Multiple questions posted on the forums about how the N900 compares to existing Symbian OS phones can only get one answer: they just DON’T compare, the N900 is a wholy different league. If any of the existing mobile devices can be (honestly) called a mobile computer then the N900 deserves such a name in the first place.”

Great review Michal!

Read Michal’s full review.

Discuss this at talk.maemo.org.

*Image and video courtesy of My-Symbian.com

BY ROGER SPERBERG

This is the second in a series of posts called “3 New Things About the Nokia N900.” Link to first post.

Here is a video made in London in which Gary Birkett explains the Identity controller’s features. Note that the first and last sections, showing the Identity projection, were taken on an N900 (and the middle section by a simple POS camera):

EDIT: Here is onedotzero’s official video with Karsten and Gary:

The onedotzero festival is about the moving image, not computing or mobile telephony, which made it a non-obvious showcase for the N900. It combines “collaborative music, film and live performance, and playful interactivity, digital arts and culture,” and it inhabits a creative space exciting to the Wieden+Kennedy London advertising agency. (They explain that “the ideas and curiosities of Wieden+Kennedy inevitably overflow outside the traditional world of advertising. We are constantly experimenting with new forms of communication and creative expression.”)

So it seems really natural that W+K would attempt to express the identity of onedotzero this year by visualizing all the online discussion about the event on Twitter and the blogosphere, as well as at Flickr and Vimeo. To instantiate their idea, W+K turned to programmer Karsten Schmidt, who collected the various feeds, processing them in real-time using six powerful computers (and programming in the Processing language) to stream ribbons of text, very Matrix-y in its feel, into the shapes of letters.

To accentuate the real-time and interactive nature of, well, everything, the shapes formed by the text-ribbons were actual SMS messages texted from cellphones to the system. And to make it emphatically interactive (and mind-blowingly fun), the letter-shapes and text-ribbons could be stretched, twisted, revolved, animated, enlarged and frozen interactively.

To transform this conception from a mere artistic expression on a computer screen into festivalgoer-involved experience required those six HD projectors and an easily accessible (and easily used) controller.

That’s where Gary Birkett, our own lcuk, came into the picture. That and the events of 13 November 2008.

That’s the date that Wieden+Kennedy London was named “lead global strategic and creative agency for Nokia’s Nseries business.”

So instead of utilizing a Wii remote or Apple iPhone, both familiar, handheld devices with accelerometers in them, W+K opted for the jaunty, new soon-to-be-released N900 from its client, Nokia.* And Gary created an interface for the N900 for the accidental gameplayer handed the device. His app interprets a user’s twirling or shaking or screen-drawing for a seventh computer in Karsten’s array, which causes the huge projection to respond instantaneously.

To manage this, Gary used his own liqbase framework to create his application. And, like other liqbase modules, this controller will be distributed as open-source software.

Discuss this at talk.maemo.org.

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* That’s the real world, and I’m not complaining or ruing the events that led to my being invited to London to see the whole thing come together. Thanks to WOM World / Nokia, in fact! But the uniqueness of the N900 will come across more clearly when the PUSH project winners appear.

BY ROGER SPERBERG

I got my hands on a Nokia N900 recently — for which I had to travel seven thousand miles and endure the company of five cellphone-addict bloggers for 48 hours, both courtesy of Nokia’s word-of-mouth marketing efforts — and I was utterly dazzled.

At one point I was explaining why we word-of-mouth-spreaders were performing professional work for no pay and little chance of recompense. As it happened, the question arose while we were standing outside the British Film Institute, just as evening was slipping in, using a cellphone to manipulate Matrix-like text being projected on the wall of the National Theatre opposite (the “Identity Project” of the BFI’s onedotzero festival).

We were all grinning maniacally, twisting and turning and shaking the device gleefully in our turn, playing what was essentially the world’s largest video game — 138 feet wide, 10,204x1080 luminescent pixels** cast by six 18,000-lumen projectors ["the Rolls-Royce of projectors" I was told authoritatively*]. “Sheer childish enthusiasm,” I explained. “Sincere enthusiasm. It’s the blogger form of professionalism, and it’s the kind of pay that regular jobs don’t provide.”

Later that evening, I had a rematch with Identity, as evidenced in the accompanying video, and you’ll note that although I was the one who needed the video made and the app’s developer on the N900, Gary Birkett, was there to show it off, I insisted on driving and making Gary take the video. Something really exciting was occurring and I felt myself in the very center of it.

##

NOTE: I need to describe both the events I attended and what I discovered about the N900, so I will put these into separate posts, starting with Identity. But as I have two videos for that, I’ll put the first one here:

Also, note that the video made of the Identity projection was taken by an N900 — pretty good for a cellphone camera at night!
_______________
* Compare that to the typical home projector’s 3-4 lumens.
** That’s 11,059,200 pixels in the overall display.

You’ve seen the U.S. Amazon.com $589 Nokia N900 deal. Well U.K. folks, it’s your turn. Mobile Phones Direct is now offering the Nokia N900 (pre-order) on Vodafone and T-Mobile for FREE(!) on a new 24 and 18-month contract respectively (link).

Discuss this at talk.maemo.org.

Thinking of creating an app or widget for the Nokia N900? The official Maemo 5 User Interface docs are now at forum.nokia.com detailing usability principles, device orientation, controls, icons, dialogs, etc. There is also a GUI design interface template in PSD format, so User Interface / Experience designers out there can start mocking up apps.

The docs are in three parts:

• Hildon 2.2 UI Style Guide
• Hildon 2.2 Widget UI Specification
• Fremantle Master Layout Guide

Additional documentation is also at the maemo.org wiki.

Discuss this at talk.maemo.org.

You’ve seen Ari Jaaksi and Peter Scheider’s interviews. This time, Jussi Makinen, Nokia Maemo Devices Marketing Manager, along with Andrew Flegg and Gary Birkett of maemo.org, answer questions from bloggers, including Maemo Talk’s Roger Sperberg, during the onedotzero_advetures in motion event in London.

My good pal Jay Montano of My Nokia Blog, posted a 52-minute(!) video of the session. If you don’t feel like watching the video, Jay has summarized the Q&A session, emphasizing the important points on his blog (link).

Full video:

Discuss this at talk.maemo.org.

I wish there was a video of  Nokia VP for Maemo Devices, Ari Jaaksi’s presentation at OSIM World 2009. His nine slides (below) talk about making Open Source more user friendly, how Maemo is inspired by the consumer’s insights, and how Nokia is working with the community from day one. The last slide summarizes it perfectly though:

“We want to concentrate on user experience and work together on things that are generic.

This is how we can create value for our customers.”

Full Slides:

EDIT: It looks like it’s either Amazon made a mistake or the N900 is all sold-out. That was fast!
EDIT #2: It’s back!
EDIT #3: Now $6 lower at $582.99 (from $588.99).

For anyone in the U.S. looking for a good deal on the Nokia N900, Amazon.com has the N900 listed right now for only $588.99 $582.99 (no taxes with free 2-day shipping). This saves you about $60 from the original price plus it’s tax-free, but you don’t get the free Bluetooth headset that the Nokia online store offers.

Pre-order the Nokia N900 now from Amazon.com.

Discuss this at talk.maemo.org.

Need to take wide-angle photos and videos with the Nokia N900? All you need is an inexpensive fisheye lens and a rubber band (link).

Sample video:

More information.

If you are into hacking and modding, here’s the chance for you to start thinking on how you can connect the Nokia N900 to any device that you love, and possibly get your project funded by Nokia.

On the onedotzero_adventures in motion event in London, Nokia launched a PUSH project called Nokia PUSH N900 (@PUSHN900):

The brief is simple: tell us how you would hack and mod the N900 & Maemo to connect the N900 to something you love.  An expert judging panel will be selecting winning submissions and the groups behind them will receive N900 devices, funding and support to develop their PUSH idea. And once they’re complete, we’ll share them with the rest of the world with a series of installations in Nokia Flagship Stores across the globe.

During the London event, sample projects were on display, connecting the Nokia N900 to the Arduino, Speak and Spell, Rolodex, Last.fm, and a View-Master. Checkout PSFK’s coverage.

Nokia is now accepting PUSH N900 submissions until October 5. An expert panel will judge the submissions, and the winners will be announced on October 25. Submit your idea now.

EDIT:  Download the Hacker’s Guide.

Discuss this at talk.maemo.org.

*Photo courtesy of PSFK