Ah, standards. Palm and Nokia know what we’re talking about, which is why they support similar methods of developing native Linux apps, namely SDL 1.2. Add on the hardware similarities between the Palm Pre and the N900 (OMAP3430, PowerVR SGX, Open GL ES 2.0 support) and you have a beautiful recipe for cross-platform gaming. Some hardcore Maemo users have taken this to heart and released a new “Preenv” package for the N900 that allows the phone to run unmodified webOS games. Of course, you’ll need to root your Pre to get at those games, and if you want to make a launch icon for the game on the N900 you’ll have to root it as well. Still, this is exciting beyond the potential for playing Need for Speed on much-lauded Nokia hardware: with easy portability between platforms, there’s all the more reason for a developer to be attracted to MeeGo and webOS in the future.
Whatever else you might say about Nokia, the company knows how to keep a promise. Back in March, we were told there’d be a dual-boot solution for the N900, providing users of the Maemo 5 phone with a taste of the MeeGo life, and, even though it might have taken a while, that firmware is now on the precipice of becoming available. Mind you, there’s quite a distance between offering users the option and supporting the dual-boot experience (which Nokia isn’t doing), but given the choice between some MeeGo and complete NoGo, we know what we’d prefer. Hit the source to get fully educated while waiting on the dual-booting PR 1.3 update to drop.
Two weeks ago you’d have to pay an Australian importer for a specialized USB key. Four days ago open-source software let you roll your own. Today, there’s no need for any of that — you can hack your PS3 with a tethered smartphone. Working closely with the PSGroove team, hacker Kakaroto adapted the same jailbreak to the Nokia N900, and the open-source community lost no time porting it to the Palm Pre as well. If the videos after the break are any indication, both versions work just as well as the original, and you too can get your game on with downloads and detailed instructions at the source links below.
Sadly, the aforementioned Australian importer OzModChips is a casualty of this little story, with all its shipments of the PS Jailbreak dongle seized (and the item subject to injunction) by an Australian court, but we suppose knowing its product has enabled the hardware hacking community thus might somewhat soften the blow.
Well, it looks like you can finally get rid of that less-than-stable pre-alpha release of Fennec (a.k.a. Firefox Mobile) for Android — Mozillla has just released the full alpha release for not only Android (2.0 and later), but the Nokia N900 as well. The big news with this release is an increase in “performance and responsiveness to user actions” (always a good thing), as well as two new features dubbed “Electrolysis” and “Layers,” the former of which lets the browser interface run in a separate process from the one rendering web content, while the latter promises to “greatly improve performance in graphic intensive actions like scrolling, zooming, animations and video.” You’ll also get full support for add-ons, and Firefox Sync built into the browser to let you have a continuous experience as you move between devices. Hit up the link below for the download link, and for a quick video overview of what’s in store.
Say what you will about Nokia‘s strategy (or lack thereof), but there’s no denying that the N900 is one capable gaming machine. Thus, it makes perfect sense for the blokes at Game Gripper to mold a controller specifically for that very handset, no? We’ve already spent a fair amount far too much time with our made-for-Droid edition, and if you’re looking to boost your enjoyment level when playing NES ROMs, you can toss your pre-order in this very second. The company’s offering the complete Game Gripper N900 for €14.95 ($20), or the button set alone for €3.95 ($5), with initial shipments expected in around a fortnight. Head on past the break for a taste of that aforementioned Mario action.
Two months after an impressive beta, Mozilla’s finalized its first full mobile browser for Maemo — beating iPhone, Android and most assuredly Windows Mobile versions to the punch. Though it doesn’t seem to have gained any new features in the interim, what it does bring to the table is sweet indeed: portrait browsing, auto-updating add-ons and the ability to magically convert webpages to PDF right on your phone. If you have a Nokia N900 or N810, do your device a favor and download it right now; if not, you’ll find a handy guide to your burning jealousy at our more coverage link.
While the various and sundry Android manufacturers are all scrambling (or casually strolling) toward official Android 2.2 updates for their manifold handsets, someone managed to get Google’s Froyo running on the Nokia N900. Turns out, the two are a pretty great pair, with some super speedy browsing (like, really fast) and decent hardware support outside of an unfortunate lack of memory card support. Hit up the video after the break to see it in action, the browser starts kicking around the 4:45 mark.
You’ve seen it teased, and now it’s time to shelve whatever you had planned for this evening (or morning, depending on your current coordinates) and slap the first bona fide 1.x MeeGo release onto whatever device you’ve got handy. As of right now, MeeGo v1.0 for Netbooks and v1.0 for Nokia N900 are available for download, with the former supporting Atom-based machines and the latter supporting… well, we’ll let you take a stab there. The API that’s being released includes Qt 4.6, and while the current SDK is tailored for netbooks, the next version — slated to hit devs in June — will support “touch-based devices, such as handsets and tablets.” We’re also told that v1.1 will be outed in October, with the development tree already being open. We’re certainly digging the layout shown here at a glance, but why not give that source link a visit and find out how it suits you in real life? We heard Snooki totally digs it, too.
What do you know, even professional coders like to develop things on the side. Opera‘s mobile dev team has been working on a “hobby project” to bring its browser to the Maemo-sporting Nokia N900 and N8x0 devices, and today sees the first fruit of that labor in the form of a “preview build” release. Fredrik Ohrn warns us that there might not ever be a final version, since this is being done just for fun — and particularly in light of the MeeGo future that awaits the platform — but for now it’s yet another option for your versatile mini-computer. Click the source for the download.
Nokia may still not have brought turn-by-turn navigation to Maemo with its own Ovi Maps, but N900 users can now get their fix courtesy of Sygic, which has just released a version of its Mobile Maps app for the device. Available only in Europe to start with, the app costs €60, and includes maps of both eastern and western Europe, along with the usual “millions” of points-of-interest, speed camera locations and speed limit warnings, and plenty of customization options (including support for multiple languages). No firm word on availability outside of Europe just yet, but Sygic does say that additional regions will be announced “gradually.” Head on past the break for a quick demo video.
