Opera on my N900

I’ve never been using Opera a lot, but nice to see they now have a Maemo port. And it’s blazing fast! Granted, it’s still an alpha, but this might be my new default browser on the N900. Woohoo!

If they only included Firefox sync (formerly Weave)… 😦

Things I love about the N900

Other than the fact that it supports multi tasking, and the more geeky stuff, like the fact that it has got a shell…

– If a call comes in, I can turn it face down to silence it
– It has Gnupg encryption by default
– It has Pidgin, thus MSN, Facebook chat, etc. Nevermind, the default IM service is even better
– It is beautiful…
– It has an FM transmitter, making it super easy to listen to music in the car
– Multitasking lets Gtalk, Skype, MSN all run in the background, ready for incoming calls. Take that, iPhone
– Firefox
– It has multiple calendars, meaning I can remove from sight the work calendar when I’m not at work
– I can use SSH to log into my other computers
– Headphone Daemon pauses media player if I unplug the headphones
– Ogg and Flac support

Things I miss:
– Can’t get last.fm scrobbling to work. Works
– No MMS yet (but it’s being worked on) Works fine with fMMS

Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx on Ubuntu

Yesterday I got a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx GPS unit for my 31st birthday, and I’m happy to report that it works fine for me on Ubuntu 9.04 — Jaunty Jackalope (the final 9.04 is available April 26th). Granted, the software does not have GNU/Linux versions (shame on you Garmin!), I turned to my good friend VirtualBox 2.2.0. I keep a virtual XP install, and using Garmin Mapsource with my USB-connected GPS unit works like a peach. The unit is picked up within seconds by Ubuntu. I have to enable the USB interface in VirtualBox, and then it installs itself in XP. All I did was transfer maps from Mapsource to the unit, but I would be surprised if any functionality was lost.

OpenMoko-based consumer edition announced: Neo Freerunner

Gizmodo reports that a consumer edition of the Neo 1973 will be available this spring. It will be revealed on the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas next week.

“The phone will have the same “overall look and feel” as the developers’ product, but it has a faster 500MHz processor, 3D graphics, and a new lineup of open-source mobile apps. It’s a GSM tri-band world phone with either 850MHz or 900MHz on the low end, and it has 802.11b/g as well for hotspot action. Oh, and it will also have motion sensors for gesture-based activity.”

A Norwegian report is here.

UPDATE: Here is the official communication from OpenMoko.

I can only say: GREAT NEWS!

Nokia n810, lazyweb?

I’m playing with the idea of getting myself a Nokia n810 internet tablet. I’ve googled and read many reviews, but I’m still left wondering if it will provide all the tools I need:

• Will I be able to make it play Ogg Vorbis?
  I’ve seen some enhancements here, but I’m unsure if this works on the n810. If it doesn’t, will it do so soon?
• Will I be able to read pdf, odf, doc, xls, etc?
• How does the keyboard match up? I’m not thinking of writing a book, but will it sustain me for an hour or two with non-stop typing? What typing speeds can I expect compared to a regular keyboard?
• Will I be able to ctrl+c and ctrl+v
• Will the browser let me use some of the tab extensions, adblock plus and signature addons that I rely on?
• Will it work on all sorts of encrypted wireless signals? (Of course I have the passwords and things)
• Are there GPS maps for Norway? Good ones?
• What kind of storage will it be able to provide? (Is 8 GB max? Even so, it might replace my iRiver E10)
• Will it run Compiz Fusion?