adonismobile

Yawn!Youtube! - N97mini

2009-11-28T22:05:00.000Z

A couple of curious videos this weekend I was sent - through the old post no doubt! With the release of the Nokia N97 mini, questions are being asked and comparisons being made as to if smaller is necessarily better? Nokia's Human Research Department have been busy trying to answer that question and it looks like they've made some developments. Or have they? What ever the case, the N97 mini IS slightly smaller than the N97!

Experiment #22 - Museum

Experiment #16 - Restaurant

As usual, if you have video you would like included in next weeks post, just use the e-mail at the bottom of the page or find me on Twitter.

The Messiah Cometh?

2009-11-25T16:09:00.000Z

Went down to find this waiting for me. Had been there the whole day apparently, and nobody decided to let me know! I say the Messiah has cometh? With that question mark on purpose, over the next few weeks we shall find out, exactly if it's true or not.

If you want me to test something on it, or want to know about any specific features and how they perform, anything really. Just leave a comment, or send me an e-mail (found at the bottom of the site) or catch me on Twitter.

For now I'll leave you with that picture, I can already feel the envy aimed at me, my router's lights are flashing green! Were they always that colour?

Have No Fear, The Hero Is Here

2009-11-23T21:02:00.002Z

Having had the HTC Hero for over a week now, I think it's time I put my final verdict on the handset in writing. Although a week may not be a long enough time to get an impression of a handset, the Hero has done a pretty stellar job in finally being able to convince me my Nokia N95 IS in fact out of order. That is quite a feat in itself.

Although I did put my views on it's camera performance already, that was actually the only major negative I could find on the handset itself.

Hardware
The build quality on this is very impressive, there are no cracks, no creaking and everything feels very solid. The curve on the bottom of the device makes it more ergonomic to fit into back pockets. The right-handed design of the device's physical keys may not be one appreciated for the left-handed person, but that's just something they'll have to get used to. The trackball is useful when scrolling and reading documents, although I still found myself using the touch-screen. Never actually got use to the trackball, but those who prefer it will enjoy it.

extUSB
This is quite a nice surprise to find, not only does it support the usual microUSB cable to sync and charge via your PC, but will also charge using a microUSB cable from mains adaptor but you will have to have the device turned off to do so. The extUSB connection has optional audio and video out when used with additional peripherals. Thus you can have audio out and video out to your car, TV or Media Centre.

Screen
The screen on the device is very very nice. It's big enough to be able to watch videos all night (something I've gotten used to) and the capacitive screen which may not be as sensitive as the iPhone's, but is good enough once one gets used to it. This brings me onto the lack of physical QWERTY keyboard. This is something I would have wanted initially and still would, but since I've been using it I have come to a conclusion; it's not 100% necessary, although desirable.

In landscape mode the keys are big enough for most to use, and will be proficiently typing away pretty quickly. In portrait mode there is the choice of full QWERTY, Compact QWERTY or the typical Phone keys found in most handsets. In portrait mode I would advice those with bigger fingers to go for the Compact QWERTY mainly because the Hero contains a very impressive XT9 dictionary, which is 10x more intuitive and better at correcting your typos than T9. With the combination of the XT9 and compact QWERTY typing on the Hero becomes a pleasure rather than a chore, just be sure to watch for those tricky words at times.

Software
The Hero may run on Android, but the SenseUI gives a lot more eye candy (finger candy too) it makes organising the desktop easier, there is also a few more extra screens to utilise, which one would find comes in useful after accessing the Marketplace. The transitions and widgets designed by HTC make it that much more appealing. Android itself is actually pretty bland in comparison. So this is a very refreshing addition. There are also little tweaks which make the UI much more appealing, take for instance the Music player (which shockingly doesn't have an EQ) which is integrated with the lock screen, so whilst the device is locked and the user is listening to their music, they can control the tracks being played without unlocking. The screen also shows the album art, track and artist info. It also scrobbles to Last.fm if you have the app installed.

Android
In my opinion Android does offer a great alternative to those bored with Symbian, Windows Mobile and looking for an alternative to the iPhone. Whilst multi-tasking, and stability are ensured, Android does have a few UI changes it takes time to get used to. There doesn't seem to be a file manager built in (if it does, I still haven't found one,) so looking for files and pictures and moving them to specific folders isn't something I could do with the handset. Other than this one fault I found the rest of the OS very intuitive, the top notifications bar is very impressive, switching between apps, and notifications is easy using this or by long pressing the "Home" button which brings up a list of all the apps running on the device.

Marketplace
It may not have as many as the Appstore, but more isn't always better. The apps in the marketplace are very impressive and finding and installing apps is a breeze. It's simple, can be done on the device and the best thing I found was the uninstalling of the apps and notifications of updates available for currently installed apps. It's a real simple process and one that's been executed almost to perfection by Google. The choices of apps itself is huge, sorted in categories the user can filter by popularity or latest additions or just use search to find a specific application. The apps themselves come with a brief description before install, can be rated using stars, users can post a review of the app and also prompt the user to accept and notify which services it will be using on their handsets.

Performance
What I can say is the device performs amicably. The battery is quite impressive. It gets through a LOT of usage. With regular usage I find I didn't have to charge it until I got home, mostly close to midnight, and there was no rush to get home anc charge it either. The actual battery indicator is pretty accurate, going from green, to amber and then orange and red with the bar decreasing it's pretty accurate in what it says. There is no 5 bars to 1 scenario much like Nokia handsets tend to do.

On the whole the handset is impressive, it's elegant and coped with various tasks which I put it through. The multi-tasking of the device is impressive too. Full HTML Mail, Twitter, Full web browsing with flash - it handles them all with pretty much ease. The lack of 3G video calling is a surprise, but considering barely anyone uses it, I didn't even notice until it was pointed out to me.

Conclusion
If camera isn't a major issue for you, then the Hero should be in any consideration of getting a new device. If Android is your preferred platform then I'd say it's the only choice. This really is the best Android device on the market at this point. The overall design, solid build, UI appeal and choice of apps should make this an easy choice. It's a device that's ready for now and the coming future. This isn't a concept, it's already here and ready to move forward - that makes it easy for me to say, the Hero really is Here!

Spotify For Symbian - Out Now!

2009-11-23T17:45:00.001Z

Last week at the 3Mobilebuzz meetup I got speaking to a few of the 3UK team, who revealed that Spotify would be coming to Symbian handsets this week. They seem to have kept their word and have announced that indeed it is available for Symbian devices.

It was already available on Android and the iPhone and now it will be available to millions more running on Symbian.

To obtain the application for your Symbian handset just head over to m.spotify.com or alternatively you can have an SMS sent to your handset and getting you going with installation. If you are not sure if your handset is a Symbian compatible handset, then you can visit this page to check.

Spotify mobile will require a premium subscription which is £9.99 p/m. This will allow you to:

Stream over WiFi or 2.5/3G
Offline playlists

Play music even without a connection, for example when riding the underground or on a plane.

Access your Spotify account

All your playlists will be made available.

On-the-fly sync

Add a track to a playlist and see it appear immediately on your computer and vice versa.

Yawn!Youtube! Mobile OS Overview

2009-11-21T20:37:00.003Z

In this weekend's Yawn!Youtube! post the topic is Mobile OS. Now Mobile OS' themselves are getting quite muddy lately with Manufacturers and Operators overlaying the OS with their own custom UI, much like HTC and Sony Ericsson did with the Hero and X10 and Orange does with some of their handset's home screens.

So ignoring that and concentrating solely on the bare OS provided, who has the most impressive OS overall, and what's the future hold for Mobile OS' in general? Will we be seeing more custom UIs being developed for OS' and making the UX more linear so the user can't tell the differences between different OS? Much like HTCs Hero (which runs on Android) and HD2 (which runs on Windows Mobile.) The user would get more or less the same experience (from UI point of view) and thus upgrading or changing handsets shouldn't cause the user to adapt to a new UI.

Below are videos of the "naked" OS' from Apple, Nokia, Google, and Microsoft respectively;

iPhone 3GS Guided Tour
by mixerX

S60 Touch UI
by S60online

Android 2.0 Official Video
by androiddevelopers

Windows Mobile 6.5 on the T-Mobile Shadow
by pocketnowvideo

Looking at those videos, it's clear to see they all have a very distinctive and different approach to the UI of their Mobile OS. The interesting point to note here is there is only one OS which was designed to compliment the hardware it would be running on, Apple's iPhone. The rest would be on many different handsets with varying features, so customising the look of the OS could be beneficial to both the manufacturer and the OS parent. Making the UI look and blend with the hardware would give a different impression. Customising UI to match hardware may work to the advantage of a particular handset manufacturer if they could keep it linear, thus making the user constantly stick with a familiar UI and purchase their products.

The same could be said for an OS' UI which isn't favourable is outdated and needs a revamp, a minor UI facelift could enhance the appeal of the OS - much like Sony Ericsson and Samsung have done with Nokia's Symbian S60 5th edition with the Satio and OmniaHD respectively.

What will the future of Mobile OS be? Who will control how it looks? With the trend of open sourcing OS to manufacturers will we be seeing more variants of the same OS and how far will customising go? Will the open source Mobile OS become much like Linux, one too many different variant which eventually ends up confusing the majority and eventually one Mobile OS to rule them all becomes the de-facto in the industry? And will that be Maemo;

That ends this weekends video selection for Yawn! Youtube! Come back next weekend for hopefully more videos.

As usual, if you have video you would like included in next weeks post, just use the e-mail at the bottom of the page or find me on Twitter.

Mobile Geeks of London VII

2009-11-19T17:11:00.004Z

It feels like ages since we've had a Mobile Geeks of London, whilst organiser James Whatley has been busy organising his life he's also managed to organise the next Mobile Geeks of London. What a talented fella he is!

The venue is the same place, All Bar One on New Oxford Street - I wonder if Brian May will turn up again? He did gatecrash the last one, even after we insisted no celebrities! Especially famous rock-stars with big hair!

The details are below, and if you are on Facebook you should join the Group and RSVP to the event - there's no messing around with any other 3rd party event organising here, lets keep it simple and in one popular place.

That's it, turn up, grab a drink and mingle with like minded geeks. I don't think even Carlsberg could organised it any better, if they tried they'd probably do it this way, except with free beer of course!

Venue: All Bar One (New Oxford Street)
When: Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 6.30pm - 11.00pm

What May Or Not Have Occurred.

2009-11-19T00:01:00.004Z

In carrying in this week of leaks and misinformation I have some information which may or may not be true and events which may or may not have occurred, make what you will of these allegations, accusations and intoxicated rumour gathering;

Spotify will be coming to Symbian in native form as early as next week. Spotify and Java did not work, so in order to get it on Nokia's Symbian platform it will be coming in native form. From what I hear it will be a very slick application. As usual you WILL require a premium Spotify account to get access to it.
Sony Ericsson X10 is very slim and sexy. It's actually a typical piece of Sony Ericsson sexy design running on Android. The HUGE screen is really imposing. Whether this will be making its way to 3UK is open for debate, for now it probably doesn't even exist in 3UK's offices.
The INQ Chat is another seriously slim and sexy device. Probably the same slimness as the Nokia E71, but a lot more curvaceous and obviously has tons more social connectivity options. This may or may not be available by January at the earliest.
The Nokia N900 most definitely may not be coming to 3UK. Mainly because it's a niche product and Nokia will be using it as a test to see how it actually embraces the market. Mobile enthusiasts will surely be grappling for one, but with it's price point and the unfamiliarity of the OS and UI for consumers, it's a risk which may not be worth taking.
The Nokia E72 is not coming to 3UK mainly because it's too expensive and doesn't offer enough to topple the price and performance of the E71 in comparison. If Nokia offer the device to operators at the same price as the E71 then it's a viable option.

Well there you go. All the exclusive rumours which should add to the already busy weak of speculation. Who, what, where, when? Who knows. One thing's for sure, it's all clear as carbon.

Live Qik Nokia N95 vs HTC Hero

2009-11-18T09:50:00.004Z

Last night at the N900meetup I decided to demonstrate really how bad the HTC Hero's camera is. The rest of the device is actually very good, it I would say beats my N95 hands down on everything else, except one key feature for my needs; the camera.

The N95 may be over 3 years old now, but it still holds it's own against the new fancy Hero which has won various awards this year - mostly from those with an opinion who can live without having a decent quality on the go snapper to take some pictures and maybe some video. The results can be seen below;

Nokia N95 Qik Streaming

HTC Hero Qik Streaming

The Hero's camera sensors fail to pick up any light in what was a pretty decently lit room, whilst the software struggled to compensate and was pretty slow and jerky to even try and capture pictures, in the end I gave up and took some snaps with my N95.

When it comes to the camera, the Hero really is a zero in this case. If you are looking for handset with a decent camera, you should look elsewhere; Nokia N86 8MP or the Sony Ericsson Satio and C905 will be better choices. But overall the rest of the Hero is living up to expectations, so stay tuned for on the Hero's other features.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Live Pics!

2009-11-17T17:06:00.006Z

Want to check out some Live pictures of Sony Ericsson's latest handset the Xperia X10, then you should click through to Hell! Yes Thoughts From Hell have a few awesome live shots of the previously leaked and then announced "Rachael" handset running on Android.

The X10 packs an 8 Mega Pixel camera with autofocus and various other software enhancements to be able to take some great photos. Also included is a huge 480 x 854 pixels (WVGA) LCD screen - that's a whopping 4 inches! Also included are 3.5mm audio jack, micro-USB and the usual connectivity options found on handsets of today. There are no propriety connections here from Sony Ericsson - did I just hear chants of Hallelujah?

For the full specs check out the press release, but for now check out these live pics and head over to Thoughts From Hell for more!

HTC Hero - Initial Impression

2009-11-17T03:29:00.002Z

The HTC Hero has been out for a while now, I've played around with it before and to be frank wasn't THAT overly impressed with it. But since I played around with it, it's feasted on some Cupcake and the difference in speed is easily noticeable.

So with this 3Mobilebuzz loan unit I'll try and give it a proper review and actually make the effort to post my experience. I'm not going to do an unboxing or anything like that, there are thousands out there for you to find and mine won't have any surprises installed either.

Having had the handset for a day roughly and using it for half a day I can say getting used to having no physical buttons to type is (as I expected) going to be a transitional period I won't want to experience again. The capacitive screen and keyboard layout are fine, getting used to typing on it is a different story. I'm sure over time I'll get used to it, but for now I wish I had something like voice to text or a physical keyboard.

What has been a surprise is the battery performance of the device. I'd say it's been pretty heavy usage on it throughout the day, it always is when friends all around want to play with it. But Approximately 2.5 hours of constant Youtube streaming via 3G, GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi on all the time and it's lasted around 8 hours. That's not counting when I've been using it whilst on charge to install apps, setup my accounts and generally playing around with it.

The camera I have to say has been the biggest disappointment, I expect a much better result from something boasting 5 Mega Pixels with autofocus and such. Having no flash doesn't help it's cause but even in daylight it's slow and pretty awkward to use. Especially considering what a 5 Mega Pixel camera can achieve with the right sensors and hardware this has to be the major downfall of the Hero.

One things for sure, this won't be taking any "stonkingly" good pictures.

Expect more in the coming days. For the moment the Hero is still a Hero (overall.)

Yawn! Youtube! Video Revolution?

2009-11-14T18:16:00.004Z

This weekends Yawn! Youtube! video we have a collection of videos captured using the actual handsets themselves. In the last decade video capture on mobile handsets has improved vastly. Some handsets now even boast on being able to capture HD video, which frankly is awesome news for the user!

Lets take a look at how things have improved along the way. (This isn't going to be a chronological list of videos)

First up we have Phoneboy who shot this video using a Nokia E70, the actually video quality isn't too bad. Some handset manufacturers today should take a look at themselves and put their head down in shame.

Nokia E70 - Powerless on Planes
by Phoneboy

Next up we have a video shot using the new and highly anticipated Nokia N900. It's had much of the hype recently and has finally started to ship. This video was taken with a pre-release device without final firmware. Mark tests out the autofocus capabilities of the device.

Nokia N900 Video autofocus
by The Nokia Blog

Now compare this to Nokia's flagship imaging device of yesteryear and current models of N93i and N86 8MP. Both devices were designed for the camera enthusiast market. Both have impressive imaging capabilities. James has done a good job testing out both of their abilities, he tests the zoom and autofocus on the N86 8MP and N93i respectively.

Continuous Autofocus on the Nokia N93i
by James Burland

Nokia N86 8MP Digital Zoom Examples
by James Burland

And here we have some beautiful footage two very different devices with very different imaging capabilities (on paper) anyway. The Samsung Omnia HD and the iPhone 3GS. Again some more videos from James who captured these.

Samsung i8910 HD Seaside Colour Project in HD!
by James Burland

iPhone 3GS to YouTube via iMovie
by James Burland

Finally we have a new handset looking to create some waves in the market. Sony Ericsson's Android device sporting an 8 Mega pixel camera; the X10. This video is an official release from Sony Ericsson's product blog.

X10 first sample video
by SE Product Blog

The videos used this week come from;
The Nokia Blog
Phoneboy
Nokia Creative
SE Product Blog

That ends this weekends video selection for Yawn! Youtube! Come back next weekend for hopefully more videos.

As usual, if you have video you would like included in next weeks post, just use the e-mail at the bottom of the page or find me on Twitter.

The Nokia N900 - The Journey Starts Here

2009-11-10T16:24:00.002Z

There is something happening with Maemo and the N900, something very intriguing...

Yawn! Youtube! N900 Videos

2009-11-07T17:41:00.002Z

This hopefully will be a regular weekend post which will contain interesting videos on Youtube. Weekends are usually slow and boring when it comes to news regarding mobile handsets and content. Perusing Youtube does bring in some interesting results.

This weeks videos are all N900 related. Enjoy.

iDon't

Bounce Evolution

N900 vs HTC HD2

If you have an interesting video you think should be included just let me know via e-mail using the contact info at the bottom.

Come back every Saturday evening for the next instalment!

3UK Network Improvements - Don't Get Caught Out!

2009-10-29T16:52:00.003Z

3UK are doing maintenance work on their London network infrastructure to give users a better experience with their network. This should result in a better service overall for mobile handset and broadband users across London.

In order to give notice to those that will be affected, they have put up a map showing in which areas users will experience downtime in.

If you're in an affected area your service may be interrupted for a short period, usually no more than 6-8 hours. If you're a Mobile Broadband customer you won't be able to connect to the internet during this time. For mobile phone customers, calling and texting shouldn't be affected. However, Mobile Internet will be slower and some Mobile Internet services will be unavailable.

Users can also opt to have text notifications of service disruption throughout their areas. The work is expetced to be completed by Christmas and the resulting quality of service improved by Summer 2010, when the final work has been completed.

Visit the 3UK website to find out more.

Mysterious Maemo

2009-10-20T21:56:00.025+01:00

I received the following image via e-mail from WOMWorldNokia - I didn't know anything about it. So I posted it on my posterous seeing others on Twitter had also received it.

Later on in the day, @WeAreMaemo tweeted a link to http://www.maemoproject.com/ - which when clicked resulted in the following flash video being displayed on loop. Which resulted in THIS post.

After a little chat with @bvlad and @nokiaaddict it was revealed by @bvlad that it had something to do with a competition to win a Nokia N900.

Congrats to ~~@Bvlad~~ Vaibhav from TheSymbianBlog on having the patience to find out how to solve the mystery. The funny thing is I was there in the studio, see below! How strange!

So can we expect some developments with the Nokia N900 release or some sort of Maemo developments? One can only wait and see.

Maemo Project

2009-10-20T17:27:00.003+01:00

[Update] Mobbler 0.07(6187)

2009-10-20T16:40:00.006+01:00

Just been notified on Twitter by @Mobbler that there is a new update out which enables native scrobbling for the Nokia N97, 5800XM and similar models running S60 5th Edition - that means from the Music Player, like other S60 3rd Ed devices.

Just check for updates by running the App itself or head on over to their Google Code Page to download.

3 Announce Hero With Spotify

2009-10-19T15:02:00.007+01:00

3UK have announced their first Android based handset, the HTC Hero boasting a 5MP camera, capacitive touch-screen, Wi-Fi and GPS.

I was on hand to watch the handset recently being voted "Gadget of the Year" at the recent T3 Gadget wards 2009 and also scooped "Phone of the Year". Whilst Spotify themselves scooped "Innovation of the Year" - not a bad combination is it? Especially considering 3UK were awarded the "Mobile Choice Consumer Awards 2009," this then, is essentially the best services put together to give the user the best available services currently on offer in the market!

Spotify Mobile will initially be available only on the HTC Hero. For £35 a month over 24 months and an upfront fee of £99, the package includes;
Unlimited Spotify Premium for mobile and PC for 24months (worth £240)
750 minutes to other mobiles
Unlimited texts
Unlimited 3 -to - 3 calls
Unlimited email, internet browsing and Facebook®
Free Skype™-to –Skype calls

To find out the latest on when you can get this service, you should register your details HERE to be notified of release and the latest developments.

The Symbian Exchange & Exposition 2009

2009-10-17T02:51:00.004+01:00

The annual Symbian Exchange and Exposition (formerly the Symbian Smartphone Show) is almost upon us (10) days and counting. This year will see a new Symbian with a different brand and many partners since last years overhaul of Symbian itself and the establishment of the Symbian Foundation.

As usual the event is FREE to attend and available for all. There will be many pro Symbian developers, manufacturers and enthusiasts in attendance. AdonisMobile will also be attending to get the latest gossip and interesting developments within Symbian and it's many partners.

The event is a 2 day long exhibition of Symbian, taking place at Earl's Court 2, during the 27th-28th October 2009. If you'd like to attend the event you should head on over to REGISTER and get your tickets in advance.

Qt Demoed On Maemo5 Running on N900

2009-10-10T04:18:00.003+01:00

Nokia has said Qt will be coming to the N900 and Maemo5. Here is a nice demonstration showing the sort of animation and transitions we can expect from developing using the platform. There are very good eye catching animations and smooth transitions.

Haven't ordered an N900 yet? What are you waiting for?

Nokia N900 Hands On - Multitasking And More

2009-10-10T03:52:00.002+01:00

Here's a great video by Intomobile of the N900. A very good HD clip of a hands on showing of the multitasking capabilities of the N900, which is to be released very soon.

The N900 is powered by the same 600Mhz ARM Cortex A8 processor that you'll find crunching numbers inside the iPhone 3GS. Nokia uses that awesome processor to bring serious multi-tasking to the Nokia N900. Take a look at the video below and you'll see that the N900 we were playing with was running no less than six apps at the same time - no saved-state nonsense, this was legitimate multi-tasking. One of the apps (a game) even displayed an animated thumbnail showing the game in action while running in the background.

Hands-on the Nokia N900 from IntoMobile on Vimeo.

INQ Mini 3G Now On Sale

2009-10-09T15:13:00.005+01:00

The latest INQ handset the Mini 3G is now officially on sale from 3UK. The INQ Mini 3G follows in the footsteps of the award winning INQ1 handset which somewhat put a benchmark down for what to expect from "Social" orientated phones.

The Mini 3G goes on to add to this benchmark with the addition of Twitter making staying up to date with the social world on the go whenever and wherever even more appealing.

The new Twitter application lets customers make the most of the ‘always on’ capability that the applications on the INQ1 are known for. Like Facebook, IM and Skype, after the first log in, Twitter stays ‘on’ in the background, letting customers send ‘tweets’ and ‘retweet’ using the phone’s application.

There are many choices for obtaining the INQ Mini 3G - it can be found on Pay As You Go for a very affordable £59.99.

There has been a specific contract created for the INQ Mini itself, the £15 p/m "Internet Texter Plan" offers free internet, free 3-to-3 calls, free voice-mail and 75 minutes of calls. The handset is free on all Mix & Match contracts.

The INQ Mini is a great handset for the younger generation, it's appeal is easy to see. An affordable handset with many features and services offered for free and many affordable tariffs and the best Pay As You Go deal in my opinion.

Full specs and details on the ING Mini 3G

MotoBlur Ported To HTC G1

2009-10-08T19:47:00.005+01:00

A video demonstrating the porting of the Motorola Cliq ROM (which includes Motorola's custom Android UI) ported to work on the HTC G1 android handset. This is very much a beta, and there are features missing which may be fixed in the coming days.

It seems the HTC G1 is becoming the handset to mod and test hacked Android builds on at the moment.

It will be interesting to see how Motorola reacts to this hacked ROM, which most likely will be offered around the internet for users to try out. Google wasn't fond of it's apps being shared around the internet recently and sent out an injunction to CynagenMod to cease distribution of their "Google Experience Apps."

The bigger question here maybe "How open is Google's (Open Source) Android OS?"

via [AndroidAndMe]

Fennec 1.0 Beta 4 Released

2009-10-08T16:13:00.004+01:00

Mozilla has released the latest Beta build for Fennec, which will be compatible with the soon to be released Nokia N900, but also will work on the latest current Maemo platform (Diablo). This latest build brings the following updates, changes and tweaks:

Improved touch-friendly theme
Improved panning and zooming performance and behavior
Add search providers from the site identity panel
Manage search providers from the Add-ons Manager
Simplified the Download Manager (removed searching and find file on disk)
Streamlined the bookmarking process
Simplified the bookmark management
Popup notification when background tabs open
Bookmark list now displays the URL and tags associated with a bookmark
Added a product information page (about:fennec or use the button in Preferences)
Support for add-ons options in the Add-on Manager
Support for updating add-ons
Support for the HandheldFriendly meta-tag (support for the viewport meta-tag is coming)

The team notes they have worked on making the browser compatible with the N900 and it's default theme styles.

We have spent some time making sure Fennec runs well on the N900. Some of the changes include adding task and close buttons to the Fennec URLbar when in fullscreen and making some theme changes to handle the default N900 themes.

To try out the brwoser on your current Maemo device(Diablo) or a desktop equivalent, just head on over to Mark Finkle's Weblog for download links and info.

Maemo 5 Apps Now In Downloads

2009-10-08T15:58:00.003+01:00

As the N900 release date is eagerly anticipated and there is much debate to it's release date and possible delay, the good news is when it does eventually become available there will be some apps already in the repository for download.

At the moment of writing there are a total of 9 apps which are compatible with Maemo 5. Most of these are pretty basic but do offer functionality to the platform. The ever present OMWeather is one on offer, users of older Maemo OS' will be familiar with. There is also GPodder which is a podcast catcher optimized for the N900 UI. If you're into podcasts you will need this.

To check out the rest of the apps on offer, just head on over to the Maemo.org website, and bookmark and subscribe to their RSS feed whilst you're there to keep up to date with the latest on Maemo.