How to: AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo! QQ, GaduGadu, Sametime, Google Talk, Ovi Chat on N900’s inbuilt messaging client

[To download, you will need Extras Level Catalogue for the app manager. Click here for instructions.

As well as Instant Messaging style texts, you also get IM built in. However, there are only a few clients available by default (Google talk, Ovi Chat). When I saw “Pidgin protocols…” highlighted below, I thought it was for the separate Pidgin messenger app and ignored it. Then I saw zehjotkah‘s video  (scroll down) which showed this was actually for the built in IM client on the N900, so you can add accounts from: AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, GaduGadu, Groupwise, QQ and Sametime.

Then you just go back to Conversations>Accounts>New and you’ll get some new IM account options. You just

MyNokiaBlog Weekly Post Roundup (Ep 3) Nokia Soars, N90000 and #symbiancountdown

Some highlights of the final week of January 2010: we saw a fantastic game for the N900 called Numpty Physics, and Hiren showed us how to send MMS from the N900. WOMWorld played guess who with 40 Booklet 3Gs whilst Symbian put out a mysterious countdown (still ticking down – iz gonna be big apparently) and Apple announced a feminine hygiene solution.

Nokia set the record straight for Steve Jobs about definitively being number one in the mobile industry, exceeding expectations with increased market share and profits. We also saw some MS paint mockups of a 4/row, tilted screen N900, as well as the tablet N90000 and N900 XL :p. Out of 198 votes, you guys crowned the Laptop as the most productive device, second was the N900/Smartphone. iPad came last with a shameful 8% of the votes…across the web, even die hard Apple fans couldn’t see the practicality behind it.

Finally, FireFox 1.0 became available for N900 users.

1. Video: Numpty Physics on the N900 – Incredible interactive drawing puzzle game January 24, 2010
2. N900 Video: Send & Receive MMS (using fMMS) January 24, 2010
3. If N900 had a 4-row keyboard and/or a tilted screen? January 25, 2010
4. Video: 40 Nokia Booklet 3G and a game of guess who. Robbie Vs Chris at WOM HQ. January 25, 2010
5. YouTube advertising counterfit Nokia N900 (Clones!) Fake N900 unboxing?! January 26, 2010
6. News: New Nokia today?…is it true?…(It’s the X6-16GB) January 26, 2010
7. Countdown.Symbian.Org: 108 – Secret over at Symbian #symbiancountdown January 27, 2010
8. N97 Ovi Maps Free Navigation Officially Available [UPDATE via N97 itself] January 27, 2010
9. Just announced: Apple iPad Specifications (Should smartphones and netbooks be scared?) January 27, 2010
10. iPad vs Booklet 3G/Netbook vs N900/Smartphone vs laptop: Which is the most productive device? January 28, 2010
11. Presenting, the new Nokia N90000 (And N900 XL) :p January 28, 2010
12. Nokia climbs to 40% smartphone market share! 65% Profit increase in Q4. [Apple shares down?] January 28, 2010
13. Results: iPad vs N900/Smartphone vs Booklet 3G/Netbook vs Laptop. Functionality wars – iPad loses. [iPad Rant] January 29, 2010
14. Nokia X3 landed in o2 shops! January 29, 2010
15. Trusted Review’s Video Review of the Nokia N900 – 9/10 performance…but… January 30, 2010
16. Firefox for Mobile Now Available on Nokia’s N900 Maemo Platform! [Default MicroB browser still better] January 30, 2010
17. Video: Paris 3D ported from iPhone to N900! January 30, 2010

Video: Paris 3D ported from iPhone to N900!

This visually mesmerising app first seen in the iPhone showing of Paris in 3D will soon be available for the N900. mobile3dcity shows us a 2 minute preview of what that’ll look on the N900.

Pinch and Zoom is missed, but you have buttons instead to zoom. It’ll be interesting to see if the final version will be as smooth in panning and also if it will contain city guides like the original.

(Maybe we’ll get an update and more iPhone ports when we get the multitouch capable Maemo 6 device?)

Firefox for Mobile Now Available on Nokia’s N900 Maemo Platform! [Default MicroB browser still better]

FireFox has announced that it is now available for the N900 and Maemo 5. It’s been available a while as a Beta but now it’s ready. I’ve found the default MicroB To download, point your N900’s browser over to firefox.com/m

Your N900 will add “Mozilla Catalogue” to app manager and it’ll proceed to  download and install the 12.8MB of Foxy goodness.

There are some nice little UI tweaks,

• such as zooming in to places of text entry, (like log in areas),

• the left swipe for tabs and
• right swipe for settings, back/forward, favourites (I love having a simple back/forward button on touch!)
• You also get Add ons.
• All tabs stay in this app (could be negative for some)
• “Awesome Bar”. Gets more awesome the more you use it.
• Not sure if some sites render better with FF, the only one that seems to be better with FireFox is Gmail and related google software. Not thoroughly checked though…
• Great password manager. Same as FF on desktop.

However…

Trusted Review’s Video Review of the Nokia N900 – 9/10 performance…but…

Back in December, Trusted Reviews published their review of the N900. There were some concerns with the review (commissioned, no live photos at the time) after apparently seeming to be no more than a preview (it was a commisioned review, originally  without any pictures), not fit for a gadget oriented site.

Over a month later, the video review has been added, with actual in house pictures for the written review too:

You’ll have to head over to trusted reviews to check out that video.

Like every other review, size/keyboard/resistive are big sticklers for them. However:

1. Keyboard, “bad layout, negates the purpose of having one” – you won’t instantly be typing at break neck speed, but after a couple of weeks USE, you can type really fast and without having to look at the screen. It surprises me at times that I might be replying to a text on the N900 but reading an email on my computer at the same time, without paying attention to the N900’s screen. Actually, I find that I can type faster if I don’t look at the keyboard at all. It isn’t the best layout, but it’s certainly not as bad as Ed makes out.

Nokia X3 landed (Only on o2)

Just thought I’d let you know that the latest in the new Nokia X Series, the Nokia X3 has landed in o2 shops and I’ve had a brief play and it is a very nice phone. It’s going for £100 + £10 topup and it’s only in the stores for now, not online yet as is always the case with o2’s phone’s.

The phone has good build quality, like the X6 (speaking of which O2 will be getting the X6 soon…maybe as early as in a week or two and I believe have confirmed it will be the 16GB version). The keypad is metallic and feels nice, it has the dedicated music buttons and as the video below shows, the phone can actually play radio without the headphones connected. I know I keep saying this, but it really is the little things like this which make Nokia the biggest and best phone manufacturer to date and why Nokia will always be top in my books!

Video from Nokia Conversations a while back

I don’t thing I will be able to get one to review unfortunately but if I do I’ll post on here! (If anyone in Leicester has one I could borrow to review let me know!)

Results: iPad vs N900/Smartphone vs Booklet 3G/Netbook vs Laptop. Functionality wars – iPad loses. [iPad Rant]

Yesterday we asked which was (or would be, since iPad is not available) the most productive device for you

• iPad
• N900/Smartphone
• Booklet 3G/Netbook
• Laptop

The results after one day so far:

Voting is still open.

[Apologies, this oddly became longer than expected. The post was originally just the above. Yes it’s not available yet, but this is just a rant of pure speculations based on the specifications]

41% of you crowned the laptop with 70 votes. Hot on its heels with 30% was smartphone (it was on par with laptop for a while) at 52 votes. Netbooks came out third at 21% with 36 votes and with at 8%, the iPad gets last place with an unlucky 13 votes.

Is it a surprise? iPad is not about functionality or practicality. Just like your girlfriend or wife might appreciate some Prada shoes or Gucci handbags, when she could have gotten cheaper, better value ones at the high street; the iPad is about brand. The Apple Factor.

When Jobs sold us the “Internet in your hands, eBook, videos, email, games” he didn’t sell you the iPad, he sold you the concept of a tablet. Right now we can see much better alternatives in terms of functionality

Nokia climbs to 40% smartphone market share! 65% Profit increase in Q4. [Apple shares down?]

Good news from Nokia as they announce increased profits and market share in the fourth quarter of 2009.

• Nokia’s smartphone share has INCREASED despite fierce competition, from 35% now to 40%.
• Worldwide phone share has INCREASED from 37% to 39%
• Profits have increased 65%
• Although Steve Jobs claimed yesterday that they were bigger even than Nokia in terms of profit, it’s good to be aware that Jobs lumped in Macs in this figure, not just iPhone and that Nokia’s profit included the loss from Nokia-Siemens.
• Since the news, Nokia share price is up 10%
• Ovi Store has >1,000,000 downloads daily.

You can see the results from Nokia’s interim report.

Is this a sign of Nokia bouncing back?

Seems Symbian or Nokia’s impending doom and death has been greatly exaggerated.

Keep doing what you’re doing, Nokia. Just polish things up a little bit more.

Let’s hope 2010 brings us an iconic, high demand device from Nokia that will bear a flagship to be feared.

[In other news, Apple’s stock fell today (-3.59% last check), erasing any gain made in yesterday’s iPad announcement. As are HP, MS, Dell and Google]

Presenting, the new Nokia N90000 (And N900 XL) :p

It’s over 9000.

• 8mp Camera with xenon flash
• 2mp Front camera
• 3.5G + WiFi
• Can make calls
• 1.6Ghz Custom Processor N5
• 2GB RAM
• Maemo OS [Can boot other OS]
• Can multitask
• Has flash support
• 10.1″ screen
• 1600×960 AMOLED capacitive
• 20 hours battery life with everything turned on
• 0.4″ thick
• 128GB
• Memory card slot
• Priced at $399 :p
• [insert exaggerated feature here]

Alternatively there’s the N900 XL.

iPad vs Booklet 3G/Netbook vs N900/Smartphone vs laptop: Which is the most productive device?

Imagine you could only have one device on a day’s work.

Steve Jobs criticized netbooks yesterday saying netbooks aren’t better than anything.  Apple are now trying to carve yet another new niche (the path pre-paved by iPhone) or at least make people think that’s what they’re doing.

Really, they’re just polishing, adding sprinkles of BS (and some genuinely good stuff) so people will think this is something they need. I can see where it would be cool to have one. It seems to start at a great price point too.

As it stands though, there seems to be no multitasking. It might come. But right now, it’s not there. I’ve taken multitasking for granted on the N900, juggling tasks is what helps me to be productive. Pity there’s no GPS, it would have made a killer 10″ sat nav (if you can find a clamp big enough to stick it to your car). Guess that’ll be in the upgraded iPad.

There’s no camera either. Not entirely sure if there’s flash. No memory card. No cellular calls (not that there’d be any point). Don’t really get the same portability (at least pocketability) of smartphones so you lose the convenience of always being with you.

[YOUTUBE=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltyML-9HdR4]

Typing is another concern if I were to swap this with a netbook. There’s a keyboard accessory but you’d have to lug that around. A nice compromise would be an iPad case 2.0 where the protective case is also a keyboard. So you have essentially a netbook looking device but it can detach as a separate tablet when necessary. But both can still be carried together in convenience. Booklet 2 maybe?