The latest PR1.3 update for the N900 is now available to download. No surprises here as the existence of the PR1.3 repository hinted at the up coming release. An official announcement indicated that the update was just days away, 12 days to be exact.

The update itself (version 20.2010.26-2 or PR1.3 for short) is available as both an 87.5MB OTA update or a very large 200MB full firmware update through Nokia Software Updater. The difference is that the first just ads the necessary pieces, while the second option is the complete new firmware. There’s another option which I’ll discuss below.

What’s new?

-Ovi Suite support to access and sync files and messages

-Ovi Music Store is now accessible through the N900

-Performance Improvements

-General bug fixes

-Aligns the Qt application and UI framework with the planned version for the MeeGo 1.1 platform (Qt 4.7). Qt Mobility 1.0.2 APIs for mobile development are also included.

-Email widget now displays the number of unread messages in Nokia Messaging

Overall, the N900 feels much faster and the slow down after heavy multi-tasking doesn’t seem to come at all. But I’ll have to see how it holds up after prolonged heavy multi-tasking.

Manual Update

After a major firmware update it’s always a good idea to start clean, and do a hard reset, which can lead to faster performance. After installing or uninstalling programs, updates and now a major update on top  can lead to OS slow downs. That’s why we highly recommend doing a hard reset. As always remember to backup! Instruction on how to do this can be found here.

Did you see any new features? Let us know!

These are perhaps the best bits of N900 related news a N900 user could hear. The official MeeGo website is announcing that the N900 will soon be getting the PR1.3 update that will hopefully fix bugs, increase performance and add new features. Maybe there is still some chance for that Flash 10.1 on Maemo or even some OVI Maps 3 love.

What’s an even better news, is the fact that todays announcement leaves no doubt about the N900′s future: the final public release of MeeGo is coming to the N900, hopefully by the same time the first native MeeGo devices are released.

We’re extremely happy with these bits of info, as things were starting to look a bit sad for the tablet device. It looks like good times are ahead for N900 users.

By now we know that N900, probably won’t be getting Flash 10.1, even though it can support it and was one of the first devices to do so. Some sites require Flash 10.1 to run the Flash content, even though they should run just fine on devices with Flash 9.4 such as the N900. If they detect a lower version they simply refuse to run.

TweakFlashver alters the Flash plugin so that it reports a custom version to sites, basically fooling them into detecting Flash 10.1 installed on the N900. As result sites that required version 10.1 run just fine on Flash 9.4. The application has a few preset profiles like Flash 10.1 for Android or Flash for the Linux OS, but also the ability to set custom version. The application can be downloaded from the standard Maemo repository, a must-have if you watch a lot of Flash videos online.

When you’re done, point your browser www.playerversion.com to check your Flash version.

It’s been a while since the N900 got its last PR1.2 update. The N900 was a very rough black diamond, but the last firmware and updates to several applications have made the N900 quite a polished device. As always, there’s room for improvement. Last year we wrote The N900 Fix list and we’re happy that several items were fixed in one way or another: OVI Store for the N900 has been enabled through the firmware update, Nokia Messaging now works in more regions and even though we didn’t get the full portrait mode support, the browser now fully supports it.

We also asked for Better Podcast support in the Music Player. On Symbian devices like the N97 the Music Player correctly identifies Podcasts and creates a Podcast folder. With the N900 there is no way this can be done other than using Playlist. What’s also missing is a resume feature, for Podcasts. Technically it wasn’t a firmware that fixed this, but rather an update the best podcasting app for the N900:gPodder. It now fully supports auto-resume, so we can remove that from the list. Lastly support for more IM services was our the list and even though we didn’t get that either we did get superb Skype video support. We have been hearing rumors that another update is in the  works. One year later,here are a few updates that could make a big difference on the N900:

1. Flash 10.1: The official word was that the N900 won’t be getting the Flash 10.1 update, but we’re still hoping that it will. Flash 10.1 means support for more Flash sites, hardware acceleration for Flash content and several enhancements for mobile devices. The N900 was actually the first device to run the Flash 10.1 before it’s official release. We don’t see why this can’t be added now that the final version is out.

2.OVI Maps with voice guided, turn-by-turn navigation. It’s seemed almost to good to be through. Free, voice guided, turn-by-turn navigation, for life. All the latest Symbian devices have it, except for the N900. The N900 does have OVI Maps and it does show you your exact position, finds you places and gives you direction. Sound good right? Except that it lacks voice guidance and many other enhancements that have made OVI Map a must-have feature.

3.Email Widget should work with Nokia Messaging. PR1.2 introduced us to the Email widget, but unfortunately it doesn’t work with Nokia’s own Nokia Messaging service! It’s a well documented bug that Nokia is aware of and hopefully they’ll get it fixed soon.

4.Equalizer: The N900 has a great finger-friendly and beautiful Music Player, and good sound quality and volume headroom that could make an audiophile proud,but strangely missing is one of the most basic features: the Equalizer.

5.Support for Live Messenger and Live Drive: Would it be great to have built-in support for Live Messenger and the ability to upload files to Live Drive’s 25GB storage?

6.More Application memory. There’s a 2GB partition where all the software is installed. That’s just 2GB! Considering that many Maemo apps can be larger than 10MB, it’s easy to see that 2GB can fill up fast. This storage space should be set more around 4GB or at least be user selectable among 2, 4 or 6GB of space.

7.OVI Sync support. I’ve got my contacts, appointments,meetings and notes all synced in the clouds on OVI. But I can’t access them! OVI Sync currently doesn’t support the Nokia N900 and as a result there’s now way of backing up or accessing data stored on OVI using the N900. If you’re thinking of selling your previous smartphone, be sure to sync it with the N900 to get your data on your new device. It takes a bit for Nokia to support new devices, but eventually they do get it working. What’s the point of data stored in the clouds if you can’t access it.

8.Better support for OVI Suite.OVI suite has been updated and fully support the N900, now the N900 should do the same. An update has to be done, to enable support on the device itself for OVI Suite.

9.Support for Instant Messaging and Social Networking. Messaging on Nokia devices is more than email (Nokia Messaging). Symbian devices not only Nokia Messaging (email), but also Instant Messaging and Social Networking, the N900 lacks these. It would be handy to have these functions in one single app.

What features do you think the next firmware will add to the N900?

If you use the N900, you probably know gPodder, an extremely good podcasting client for the Maemo 5, so good in fact we that we picked it as 1 of our top 10 must-have apps for the N900.

The developer behind gPodder,Thomas Perl, has integrated notification support into the latest gPodder as you can see from the image above. Another welcome addition is MAFW support. What this basically means that:

“gPodder now listens to MAFW and also talks to it at times. MAFW is the backend of the Media Player application, and you profit in two ways from this integration:

• The last playback position and duration of an episode are displayed in gPodder and synchronized to gpodder.net
• Playback can be resumed even with the Media Player application”

The updated version is still in the Extras-Testing catalog, but judging by the popularity of the app, testing should in record time releasing out of the testing phase.  In the mean time, test, review and vote on the package.

There’s also a gPodder application for Windows and MAC, which has been my podcasting client of choice for Windows 7. You can download that here.

So, you bought the N900, what’s next? With news about MeeGo devices being announced soon, the obvious question remains: Will the N900 get MeeGo? Or will I need to buy a new handset to enjoy MeeGo? Here are are reasons why we think it the N900 might get the full MeeGo treatment.

1 Valtteri Halla, MeeGo Technical Steering Group at Nokia said: “N900 is a natural tool for Nokia to drive MeeGo support or our designs and for the ARM CPU architecture in general.” He also went on to say that:

We want to have baseline HW that is powerful, easily available for anyone and form-factor stuff so that one HW works for most platform and application development needs.
That said, please do not take this yet as a commitment to fully productise MeeGo on N900. I am quite confident that we will end up having a really good developer distro for N900 already but committing to stabilise a consumer-grade MeeGo 1.0 (first half this year) for N900 is another story. That is a product business decision beyond my scope. Also, we do not yet know about MeeGo 1 release content. I am not yet sure if I would be personally ready to let my Maemo5 go for the first MeeGo release in my daily N900 use. Let’s see.”

2.Ray Haddow, Senior Manager within Nokia Communications said that the: “the door is not closed”.

3.Quim Gil, Marketing Manager, Open Source at Nokia: “Yes, MeeGo will take the N900 as first ARM reference hardware. So yes, there will be MeeGo support for the N900 since day 1.” (Source)

4.Different than Symbian, Nokia Internet Tablets have been know to get updates to the next major OS release. Take for example the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, which was released with Maemo OS2007. Later it got not one, but two updates: Maemo OS2008(Chinook) and OS2008 Feature Upgrade (Diablo).

5.Nokia N900 is running early version of MeeGo just fine. Even better is that anyone can download the image and install the VERY early build and the repositories are up.

As you can see from the above, the N900’s hardware is more than capable of running MeeGo and is even serving as the baseline hardware, this means that technically there is no reason why it could not get full MeeGo support. But there are no guarantees here, as Nokia is not committing to the project and might, due to a business, not technical reason, still decide not to give the N900 official MeeGo support.

What do you think, is the N900 getting official MeeGo support from Nokia?

One of the N900’s biggest feature has to be it’s browser, promising the full desktop experience. Here at The Nokia Guide we tend to agree that it indeed does live up to this promise and one key component that enabled this was the excellent Adobe Flash support. When the N900, it came with Flash 9.4 pre-installed and all was well.

In the mean time Adobe released Flash 10.1, which brings many improvements like hardware acceleration and other mobile-related improvements such as pausing the Flash Player when there’s an incoming phone call. Several mobile devices received the update, as expected many of which are Android devices. Nokia has been pretty quiet about the issue, while the Maemo community has started to wonder if the N900 will ever get this crucial update. The lack of a Flash 10.1 update for the N900 strikes us as very odd, and here’s why:

1.The N900 was one of the very devices demoed with Flash 10.1 As you can see from the video above, the N900 is smoothly running Flash 10.1.

2.Nokia is partner of the Open Screen Project led by Adobe.

3.ARM fully supports Flash 10.1. The N900 uses an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU.

If we put all the pieces together there is no reason why the N900 won’t get Flash 10.1, hey it was even shown running it! But we suspect that suspect that as all resources are pushed towards MeeGo, this will eventually happen, but not as quick.

Do you think that Adobe Flash 10.1 is essential for the N900?

Daniel Would, developer behind the impressive Witter app for the N900, writes an in-depth article about what he thinks could be improved in the Application distribution system used on the N900.

Maemo uses a three-tier application system, to host application according to the phase they are. These tiers are called  Repositories:

1.The top level is the OVI and  Maemo.org (former Extras) repositories. This is the normal tier that comes pre-installed on the system. These application are considered consumer friendly and safe to install.

2.Than there’s the Extras-testing repository, a place for apps that are not quite ready for prime-time, but are past the early testing phase.

3. Lastly there’s the Extras-devel repository, this is where applications that are in their early testing phase sit. It’s important to note that these apps can cause lots of damage to the device and are not recommended for most users.(Here a quick guide from The Nokia Blog, showing how to enable these other repositories.)

When people start activating Extras-testing and Extras-devel repositories andthe updates start rolling in, Daniel thinks that the problem lays here because it “doesn’t really differentiate when showing updates, which repo they are from” and suggests “a simple red/amber/green identifier to show which repository this update is from”

We couldn’t agree more as it could cause a lot of damage, but the system by itself works really well because and the advantages are numerous:

1.It offers automatic updates, no need to hunt for updated apps

2.Applications are categorized by repository, giving adventurous users a taste for the bleeding edge, while protecting the average user from damage and system instability.

3.App are automatically into categories

4.Informs you of application packages that need to be installed or that will be installed

Do you think that the Maemo needs a clearer distinction among repositories?

Nokia enthusiasts didn’t have much choice when it came the OS, either you went the basic S40 route, or as any true Nokia power user would, get Symbian. But that’s about to change. With the N8 launching soon and MeeGo devices to follow shortly after, Nokia fans are in a unique position of having the choice between 3 different operating systems: Symbian, Maemo and MeeGo. Yes, Maemo will hang around for a while, but eventually will be completely replaced by MeeGo, leaving the choice between it and Symbian.

With the impending release of the N8, Nokia powers users have  the choice of either buying now or wait for the very first MeeGo device, an OS that most of us have yet to see the final product. While only a lucky few can get both devices, most of us will have to choose where our hard-earned cash will go for the next months or years, making the choice even more critical.

The N8 sports impressive specs and Symbian is a proven OS, but its dated UI might leave you wanting for something more 2010. MeeGo on the other builds on Maemo, which has a lot of eye-candy and multi-tasks like no other, but it will certainly have less apps compared to Symbian and the uncertainty behind any new OS is sometimes hard to swallow.

Are you in the MeeGo or Symbian camp? And why?

By checking up on the facts at www.dialaphone.co.uk you can compare phones and see which operating system is best for you.

Ask a Google Nexus One owner why they chose it over the other Android offerings and chances are they’ll tell you it’s because of the frequent updates. Back in the day you had to take your phone to a Nokia repair center to get a firmware update, that’s if you were lucky. Most of the time the firmware you had the day you received the phone, that’s exactly the firmware it will have at the end of it’s life cycle. But with the increasing popularity of firmware-over-the-air (FOTA) updates, updating using your PC is becoming less popular. The best example of this is the Nokia N900, which got all of its updates using FOTA. So what exactly should can Nokia learn from Google?

The Nexus One not only provides the vanilla Google experience, but also gets lots and lots of updates. Big or small, as soon they’re available to the public, they are available for the Nexus One. This gives you the ability to quickly address issues and give your customers their most requested features that didn’t make it in the initial feature list. The latter is especially important for the mobile enthusiasts that wants the latest features and bugs fixed. Other Android devices with similar specs get the updates many many months later. Better yet, the Nexus One even gets all the major releases. I never heard of a Symbian device getting an update to the next major release.

In the case of the N900 there has been a lot of improvement when compared to Symbian devices. First of all, because every single update has been done using FOTA, it’s more user friendly. There’s even an early build of MeeGo for the N900, arguably the next major release to follow Maemo. Despite Nokia’s lack of commitment to fully support MeeGo on the N900, we still see the early build for the N900 as a step in the right direction.

A lot is at stake with MeeGo and Nokia should treat it like it’s only child, giving it frequent updates. Listening to community and knowing what they want and putting these in frequently released FOTA’s is a big lesson they could learn from Google.

Do you value frequent firmware updates?