N900 Crib sheets

Created by: Lester Caine, Last modification: 15 May 2011 (12:33 BST)

Useful bits for use with my N900 phone ... must get around to reading the manual some time!

Master reference on maemo

Useful links page on nokiaexperts

Their hardware summary is nice ...

In addition to the added phone capability and Maemo 5 OS, powered by Linux, the N900 gets a big bump up in processor speed to a 600 MHz TI OMAP one. Here are some of the other key specifications of the N900:

  • ARM TI OMAP3430 Cortex-A8 600 MHz processor
  • PowerVR SGX with OpenGL ES 2.0 support
  • Quad band GSM/EDGE with 850/900/1800/1900 MHz support
  • Tri band WCDMA with 900/1700/2100 MHz support
  • 3.5 inch 800×480 pixel resolution display
  • 256MB RAM and 768 MB virtual memory
  • Integrated 32GB flash drive
  • microSD card slot for expanded memory
  • Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP stereo support
  • Integrated GPS with A-GPS
  • Integrated FM transmitter and FM radio
  • 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and Carl Zeiss optics
  • 3.5mm headset jack with TV-out support
  • BL-5J 1320 mAh battery

From Mathew Miller

Notification light colors

The notification light found on the front of the N900 (upper left corner) changes colors to indicate different states. As stated in the User Guide:

  • Blue is for application triggered notifications (received text, IM, or email)
  • Orange is for battery charging
  • Green is for battery full

You can also go into Settings>Notification light to select when to use the notification light. Turning it off should save you some battery life too.

Keyboard shortcuts

IMHO, keyboard shortcuts are needed on QWERTY keyboard devices to help justify the compromise in size of the device and the N900 has a few shortcuts that you may find useful. Did you notice in my photos that there is a real Ctrl key on the N900? Kudos to Nokia for including this since so many times we see this missing from QWERTY keyboard devices. Here are some shortcuts found in the User Guide:

General

  • Ctrl + Backspace: From within an application this will take you back out to the visual task manager. (Thanks to Chanse for that one.)
  • Ctrl + C: Copy text
  • Ctrl + V: Paste text
  • Ctrl + X: Cut text
  • Ctrl + A: Select all
  • Ctrl + O: Open (if available)
  • Ctrl + N: Create a new item (if available)
  • Ctrl + S: Save (if available)
  • Ctrl + Z: Undo (if available)
  • Ctrl + Y: Redo (if available)
  • Ctrl + F: Open search bar (if available)
  • Ctrl + Right arrow: Move the insertion point to the end of the word
  • Ctrl + Left arrow: Move the insertion point to the beginning of the word

These are all great Matt, but how the heck do I select text in the first place? You can use the shift key (far left) and the directional arrows on the keyboard to select text. Or you can use the stylus and double tap for a word or triple tap for all words in a document to select.

Web browser

  • Ctrl + N: Open a new window
  • Ctrl + R: Reload the current page
  • Ctrl + B: Open a bookmark
  • Ctrl + D: Add a bookmark

Email

  • Ctrl + Enter: Send a message
  • Ctrl + R: Reply to a message

RSS Reader

  • Ctrl + R: Refresh the feed

Screenshots

  • Ctrl + Shift + P: Capture a screenshot. Warm up those fingers first to try this out. (Thanks Nokia Experts reader Matti for the tip.)

Miscellaneous tips

Circle zooming: I found that a double tap on text in the web browser zooms you into that text and reflows it for the display. However, I also found you can spin your finger clockwise on the display to zoom in or counterclockwise to zoom out through multiple zoom levels. I plan to show this in a video soon so you can understand what I am talking about here, but it is pretty slick.

Browser history swipe: You can quickly view your browser history (virtual history supported) by simply swiping your finger from the right off outside the viewable display to the left onto the display.

Smart dialing with QWERTY: The N900 supports smart dialing with the QWERTY keyboard so you can simply start entering a person’s name on the keyboard and have your Contacts filtered to that name. You then simply tap the selected contact you can interact with them how you desire (call, text, Skype, email, etc.).

Make a call from Conversations: You can tap and hold on a text message conversation to see a pop-up appear so you can initiate a call with your contact.

Use Nokia Maps without data connection: Just like Nokia Maps for S60 devices you can load up maps into memory and use Nokia Maps and your GPS without a data connection when traveling.

User Guide - seems to have gone off line, need to find a copy again.

N900 Modem Port