After a month plus of beta testing and the leak using the n810’s firmware, they team from Nokia worked hard to make sure all will be happy before Christmas!

I have to say I like the new finger friendly interface (icons are bigger) and the under clocking has been removed so the n800 tablet feels a lot snappier now.

The new Mozilla Firefox based browser is also a welcome change with updated Flash 9 support. So Google Docs and most AJAX sites work better now.

Downloading the firmware has been reported as really slow.. here’s a bit torrent link of the n800 firmware faster access. http://www.mininova.org/tor/1051742

The file is RX-34_2008SE_2.2007.50-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin about 134mb.

Here’s the official Nokia page – http://europe.nokia.com/A4678158

People have reported to successfully use the Bluetooth headset profile with Skype. And even listen to music thru the headset. Though no stereo music for now.

Rumour has it that the new OS2008 already has bluetooth stereo A2dp built-in already, just that the programmers still have yet to optimize the coding, so that it doesn’t eat up your battery so quickly.

In the meantime, one can use Kagu.

Here’s the link to the new features one can expect from the new OS.

http://europe.nokia.com/A4579471

Below is the post from the author.

This new 1.0.9-3 release includes:
* New theme!
* Added 2-hour option to Sleep Timer
* Made heuristic cover search optional in Scanner
* Artist grouping changed, utilizing the “album artist” tag if it exists
* Artist and album names are normalized to Title Case
* Playlist Save As: Hold thumb at NowPlayingButton and hit the dpad center, only available in Now Playing
* Hold thumb at NowPlayingButton and hit the menu key to jump to artist songs/albums functionality, works almost anywhere
* Added default player selection to main menu (available only if mplayer is installed)
* Cover art load times are faster, and no longer a black screen
* Various other startup time optimizations
* Add scrollbars, toggle scrollbars option, scrollbars default to disabled
* Performance and UI enhancements

Everyone currently running a previous version should upgrade as this release is an all around better performer. Not to mention the orange theme!

(Green theme will be optionally available again in a later release)

Do remember to backup all your settings before doing your upgrade.

Click here for the update.

So far, no official word on what is fixed nor updated, but it does seem more like a bug fix release. Still no video and you can only use the built-in mic/speakers. (No bluetooth headset support).

To get the update, just refresh your Applications Manager and click on the 2 files for the update.

UPDATE :
Find the list of changes on Skype’s website for the update.

New features:

* Call forwarding settings
* Quick option to clear history

Usability improvements:

* Easier navigation when in a chat
* Smoother account creation
* Contact numbers shown in profile
* SkypeOut dialling field has a + sign always and can be easily cleared by holding edit button

In addition to these improvements and new features it also has numerous bugs fixed.

Kagu Music Player is now v1.08, sporting a new coolgreen look. It is still the only player that allows you to use your bluetooth stereo headphones like my favourite Motorola S9 with controls!

with new improvements to the scanning of songs and downloading of album covers. This software just keeps getting better!

Besides the usual software updates and know-hows. I thought I’ll just share how the n800 has become part of my life.

I usually set my n800 to charge over night like my mobile n73. So I actually start using my n800 straight off my bed when I wake up.

I know there is an alarm program for the n800, however I don’t have a use for it (as my trusty n73 and Sony Hifi does the job). However, I have thought it would be nice if the n800 can wake me up and starts playing a series of pictures/music to start the day… Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up to a picture of a sunrise on a beach? Or have some motivational picture to get you in the right frame of mind!

Anyways, when I awake and I do a quick check on my gmail –> gmail.google.com to see if there’s any emails I should read…
And check –> www.sbstransit.com.sg for the latest bus arrival timings using IRIS – Intelligent Route Information System.

Singapore Bus Services, just recently put in this system which I have to say, is really quite good. It gives you the estimated arrival times of the buses you wish to commute on, the one arriving and the one after. So you can plan your timing accordingly. They just need your bus stop number (which if you don’t know, you can use their location system to figure it out) and bus number.

It has become a habit for me to check if I have enough time to rush to the bus stop for my bus or have a quick skim through the morning Strait Times or not.

Sometimes, I would think I missed the bus, but checking the website on the myIRIS system, I find out that somehow the bus was delayed and I still have a chance to get my ride on it. MyIRIS needs you to register but once you have, you can store all the bus services you use and check on their timings.

This system is also available via SMS or GPRS on the mobile phone (though it costs you extra). I highly recommend all in Singapore to check it out if you take the public bus service. It really beats reaching the bus stop and not knowing if you just missed your bus and had to wait for 15-20mins for the next one, when you could have chilled at home, watch the extra segment on Channel News Asia or read the funnies from Strait Times’ Life section.

Before I step out of the house, I would load up 2 pages worth of RSS feeds to read on my way to work. As I can’t get any reliable signal from WirelessSG on my route, so this is the best way instead of spending money on GRPS/3G data charges.

Using –> https://readermini.com – which is a mobile version of Google’s Reader program, runs on the Nokia n800 Opera browser nicely. I usually pick the folder, so it displays as many entries as possible. I’ll open 2 windows in Opera to have 2 RSS feeds to read.

Then a final check on myIRIS for my bus timing’s and I’ll be on my way… or not…

On my walk to the bus stop, sometimes I would have stored an audio book the night before to listen on my n800. This is the time when I use the built-in Media player on the n800 to play my audio books.
Why I don’t use Kagu or UKMP or Canola, is simply because I really just need a simple player with a time line to know where I stopped or moving it forward/reverse. I don’t need the fancy album covers or playlists as usually my audio books last me all the way to work.

Using my Sony headphones MDR-KX70, I find this is the better way to listen to audio books then using my Motorola S9. I love my S9 paired with my N73 and frankly I think the quality is quite good even when I use the eAAC compression (which a normal 5mb mp3 files is now about 2mbs only!) codec!

I alternate some days with music and some days with the audio books on my journey. Sometimes I change mid way. Especially if I have a book I wish to read. I usually read my RSS feeds on the MRT train (because it’s hard to have an open book when you are squeezing with lots of other passengers! and flipping the pages with your fingers while holding the book, while your other hand struggles to get a grip on that silver cold pole).

Ok, I’ll share the rest of my day’s experiences in the next posting.

Nokia introduces yet another wonderful application to the N800. This time it’s called Video Center. I happen to do a routine ‘Check for Updates’ on my application manager and it then appeared part of the regular list.

It used for downloading, streaming, storing and playing video clips from different sources (e.g. RSS feeds)

So now you can get video casts, Internet TV videos on your n800 using this app!

Here’s the official application page.

And from Morpheuz’s blog, here’s a quick video to show you how it works

and how to get MythTV to work on this new application software. Check it out here.

Please note, it’s still in beta, so some things may not work very well yet.

Anyways, for those programmers out there, Vala is a new object oriented programming language that is suppose to be a high level language like BASIC or QuickBasic. It will convert your program to C.

The latest version 0.1.3 has built-in hildon support. In other words, you can start writing programs for our beloved n800 using this.

Check out this post.

To go straight to Vala to check out the software. Click here.

1. Kagu Media Player – is now version 1.06
   • Ability to view album covers seperately (i.e. zoom in)
   • Editable playlist support: Enqueue whole album, individual song, and clear playlist buttons
   • Improved album seperation logic: Support compilation albums
   • Filename parser as a fallback to the ID3 parser
   • Initial OGG support (requires ogg support in the system, upstream ogg on n800 may be broken)
   • Fix installation/run problems on Nokia 770
   • On screen Volume button
   • Plenty of bugfixes
   • Performance and UI enhancements
   • Updated theme
2. FM Radio – version 1.4.6
   • The most visible new feature is to download all the radio stations inform(frequency and names) direct to your n800.
     [I tried for Singapore but wasn't successful... yet....]