N9QTweak - an 'idiotproof' collection of mods

N9QTweak is a collaborative effort of several developers and the Nokia N9 community. This is a collection of the greatest tweaks for your Nokia N9 (or N950). Installation of individual mods is effortless and is done with a single press of the screen.

N9 Battery Q and A

It has been over a year since the phone's premiere back in 2011, and chances are people who have been using the phone for that period will soon start encoutering battery problems, and maybe even have to replace it. That's why I thought it would be nice to collect what I (and the N9 community) know about the battery pouch in Nokia N9 - in the form of a simple Q and A.

How to change Nokia N9 user agent

Nokia N9's stock browser seems simple (if not simplistic), but does the job just well. When I started using it, I was hit by its blatant crudity, but with time I noticed it has lots of advantages over other available browsers like Firefox or Opera. The native N9 browser is fast and responsive, while the other browsers for the N9 feel a bit sluggish.

App of the week: Scrobbler

Nokia N9 boasts last.fm support in several applications, with a standalone FlowPlayer (which is a decent app however lags quite badly), QuasarMX beta and an amazing Last.fm radio client by Matiaz Perez to mention just a few. What I've been missing quite badly, however, was a simple way to enable last.fm scrobbling within the built-in N9 music player (which I personally find enough for my needs). I've recently discovered is Scrobbler, a beautiful little app that adds last.fm scrobbling to your N9 music player.

Quake 3 Arena on Nokia N9

This post is to demonstrate how to run Quake 3 Arena on a Nokia N9 device. Please note that this is not a fully functional game, but merely a proof of concept. The video below shows the game running.

Daily Wallpaper - a new N9 wallpaper every day

Daily Wallpaper is a sweet little app for Nokia N9 that allows you to have an automatically changed new wallpaper every hour/day/month/week, which means your device will never look boring again.

Jolla presents Sailfish - a successor to Nokia N9's MeeGo system

Today Finnish company Jolla presented their long awaited Sailfish OS on Slush conference. Jolla is a company created by former Nokia workers in charge of MeeGo Harmattan, i.e. Nokia N9's OS.

Alongside a fancy demo of their brainchild (see the video below), Jolla has finally launched their official website at www.jolla.com, which currently shows just a bunch of recent tweets and the aforementioned video.

Changing Nokia N9 default theme with ThemeChanger

Emboss theme on Nokia N9

Some of you might already be familiar with an app called ThemeChanger, which basically allows you to change the default theme of Nokia N9. This application, funcional as it is, has been useless without themes for download.

Now, since a number of paid and non-paid themes appeared around the internet, it's just high time to give ThemeChanger a try. Each N9 theme provides an individual set of icons and interface design. It also changes the status bar (see screens below) and system icons. The themes are also compatible with horizontal view (if you're using Home Screen Settings for Nokia N9).

Apkenv will run Android games on Nokia N9

Apkenv is a recently developed Android apps compatibility layer for our Nokia N9. The idea itself is nothing new, as there is NITDroid project which allows to install Android as second system in Nokia N9. Installation of Apkenv, however, is much easier and faster. I'm going to show you how to make an Android game work on Nokia N9 in a few easy steps.

Syncing Nokia N9 with Windows Live [UPDATED 26.10.2012]

This way of syncing Nokia N9 is probably my favourite as it keeps full backup of all contacts and calendar in both Windows Live cloud and Outlook 2010, and Outlook 2013 (preview at the moment), and the entries are kept updated no matter where you change them. The possibilities to access your mail, calendar and contacts are plenty. You can e.g. add calendar entries in Windows Live (Hotmail) Calendar, Outlook on your PC, or your Nokia N9. Everything syncs as soon as you sync the Mail for Exchange account.

Nokia N9 screen artifacts

Mobile phone AMOLED displays are great in many respects, as they are able to render high contrast image and saturated colors. There is just a minor flaw that's reported by more and more users of AMOLED users around the world. It does not only happen in Nokia AMOLED, but also in Samsung, LG, HTC, and many other manufacturers' devices.

All-new Ubuntu + Nokia N9 cloud access

The all-new Canonical Ubuntu 12.10 operating system is out now. Go to the official project website to find out more. According to the developing team, Ubuntu is Fast, free and incredibly easy to use. Ubuntu operating system powers millions of desktop PCs, laptops and servers around the world. Ubuntu will work with your existing PC files, printers, cameras, music players and smartphones - and it comes with thousands of free apps.

Before you buy: Top 8 Most Comprehensive reviews of Nokia N9

It's been over a year since Nokia N9 was released in September 2011. I've personally owned the phone for just about 11 months and must admit I'm still far from finding myself another phone. There have been ups and downs, but Nokia N9 just seems to do the job. I do not want to sound like a Nokia geek, but N9 has a number of advantages that make it a perfect phone.

Album art the easy way

You have probably wondered why some of the albums do not have proper covers on Nokia N9 and whether it is possible to make your Nokia N9 music player display all album covers correctly. Nokia N9 reads the album art embedded in mp3 files, so to make the album artwork display correctly in the music player, you must either:

Phone in water - Nokia N9 emergency procedure

In terms of phone+water accidents, Nokia N9 users actually have a problem, because you can not "immediately" remove the battery and dry the inside of the phone without special tools. I'm not particularly experienced in this topic as I've drowned my mobile just once in my life and it was a Sony Ericsson. Anyways, let's have a look at a few basic steps that should be taken when anything like this happens.

Nokia N9 sample photos

Many people keep asking me (as a phone gadgetboy) whether it's actually possible to go on holiday without a Canon compact camera, and just take your cameraphone with you. Well, it is. I just did so while travelling around France and Switzerland in the summer of 2012. So, let's take a closer look at the sample photos I took and some information on Nokia N9's camera then.

Nokia N9 + Outlook 2013 Preview + 365 Account

I guess every Nokia N9 user might be a bit interested in Office 365 mailbox as it is the easiest way to get a relatively cheap Exchange Mail with your own company domain, together will all its benefits, i.e. mail, calendar, to-do's, and contacts, everything cross-synced in all your mobile devices and desktop computer.

Well, truth be said, Google Apps for Business also offers similar benefits, but it uses ActiveSync, which does not allow you simple syncing with Outlook 2010/2013 and your Nokia N9.

How to use Nokia N9 to control YouTube on your TV

Playback of YouTube videos is available on a variety of TV sets and other WiFi and/or LAN enabled multimedia players, like my DENON DBP-1611UD Blu-Ray. On top of that, YouTube has introduced a possibility to control your TV YouTube with a mobile phone. Let's have look at how to enable it for your Nokia N9.

Removing native Nokia N9 apps from home screen

Basically to remove any apps from Nokia N9, you need to go to the applications list view, touch and hold, and press the red "x" button next to an app you want to remove.

This method, however, does not allow you to remove particular apps e.g. YouTube (which is basically just a link to m.youtube.com). To remove all the native apps which do not allow uninstalling via "touch and hold", follow these instructions.

Alternatives to native Facebook app on Nokia N9

Nokia N9 offers nice integration with social networks, i.e. all messages from Facebook, Twitter and Skype are displayed in one screen in the phone's news feed. The native Facebook app on Nokia N9 isn't exactly
up to scratch and you might be better off using... the regulare mobile Facebook in your phone browser.

Changing default QML Facebook app to HTML5

How to substitute your native Facebook QML app with a link to HTML5 Facebook Touch link (touch.facebook.com)? Follow these instructions.

Nokia N9 gets taken apart on video

Almost a year after its premiere back in 2011, it might be about time the users of the phone start wondering if its even possible to replace the battery, the scratched touchscreen, or any other components yourself. Nokia N9, which is essentially a non self-serviceable device, poses a challenge in terms of any home repairs, even minor replacements. Nothing is impossible though. The video below features a comprehensive set of instructions on how to take your phone apart and then assemble it back again without any screws remaining.

FasterN9 will make your Nokia N9 silky smooth

There are two ways to make your Nokia N9 less laggy at the moment, OPPtimizer overclocking app and FasterN9. While OPPtimizer tampers with processor's frequency and I wouldn't recommend it to beginners, the FasterN9 installation is very easy and yields much better effects than OPPtimizer overclocking your 1GHz clock to 1,2GHz.

Nokia Drive Automatic Night Mode and Live Traffic Information

This entry will show you how to introduce two small tweaks to Nokia Drive on Nokia N9. The modifications will give you traffic information and automatic day/night mode. These are available in other Nokia devices out-of-the-box, but are somehow missing on our Nokia N9.

Changing default SMS message for rejecting calls

In Nokia N9, just like in Symbian phones, you may reply to a call with a text message.

How to do that?

1. When a call arrives, select Mute > Headset icon , and edit the message, informing that you
cannot answer the call.
2. To send the message, select Send.

  

LED Notifications for Nokia N9

LED Notifications mod for Nokia N9 is a modification developed by arcean, the founding member of www.meegoforum.pl, who is also active on www.maemo.org. The modification, as the name suggests, introduces LED modifications to Nokia N9. And yes, your N9 does have a white LED light in the bottom left corner. You've phobably never paid much attention to it as it only glows while charging or starting the device.

The mod allows you to make the LED lamp in the corner flash on missed calls, new instant messages, new text messages, voicemail, email, Facebook events, Twitter and calendar reminders. All of which can be set on and off, individually.

For any additional help and discussion with the author: link to the mod's thread on www.maemo.org.

Community PowerPack for Nokia N9

It's amazing that the seemingly stillborn Nokia N9 is still getting such big support from the community. The eponymous PowerPack serves a great example of the power of Nokia N9 community.

The PowerPack is a collection of performance and usability fixes that, while don't change your world around, are still very valuable. The pack mostly improves the performance and interface of Qt-based components. It also introduces landscape mode to settings menu. The pack has been prepared by arcean, an active member of www.maemo.org and founding member of Polish www.meegoforum.pl.

Qt Drumkit for Nokia N9

Qt Drumkit is one of the Nokia Developer projects that are available for testing at Nokia Developer website. I've already posted a YouTube presentation of the apps capabilities. This application is truly remarkable as it's one of few official Nokia Developer projects we've witnessed in a long time. The application allows you to play finger drums on your Nokia N9, it uses multitouch and offers two views: realistic drumset and convenient black pads for touch-drumming. You can also record your beats and play them back later. It is also possible to play on top of your last recording.

How to install non-Store applications

The easiest and definitely most convenient way to install applications for Nokia N9 is obviously visiting the Nokia Store and pressing Buy or Download on particular application screen.

There are, however, some applications that did not make it to the Nokia Store, i.e. such that are in early development stage or involve potentially risky modifications to the phone's system and thus aren't widely available to the public. Installing the software may then require a completely different procedure.

Top 10 websites Nokia N9 user should not miss

Apps for Meego

Apps for MeeGo is an online MeeGo applications catalogue. This website has particularly nice design and interface, but it seems nothing much has been happening there for the last few months.

HarBox - unofficial Box.com client for Nokia N9

HarBox is the first (and only) Box.com client for Nokia N9. It is currently in development stage, but a beta version can already be downloaded and tested at Nokia Developer Projects website. 

Cloud services and Nokia N9

The cloud services market seems to be much populated by now, and it is quite ignorant to think that Google is the undisputed leader of the race and the only reasonable cloud choice. When your mobile phone is Nokia N9, choosing a cloud service should not be motivated merely by the amount of available cloud space, but also the availability (and quality) of applications for downloading and uploading files to and from your phone. Many of the client applicatons available for Nokia N9 are unofficial and don't lack glitches.

How to sync Bookmarks between Nokia N9 and your PC

There are several ways to sync bookmarks between your Nokia N9 and PC, I am going to discuss three of them here.

Method 1. 

Mozilla Firefox Sync

Mozilla Firefox sync seems to be the easiest way to sync bookmarks with your PC but... It only works in Mozilla browser. If your not using Mozilla on either your PC or Nokia N9, you must settle for other syncing methods (see methods 2 and 3 below).

Did you know: Swype

 

Swype is a very fast text input method, but there are situations when is is easier to type using regular keyboard. To install Swype, go to Settings -> Time and language -> Text input and change "Swipe" to on.

Inception - Expanding Nokia N9's possibilities

One of the key advantages of the MeeGo Harmattan system in Nokia N9 over other mobile platforms is its unmatched openness. Without any modifications, there is a possibility of easy access to the sytem terminal, root permissions, and all system resources, etc. In other words, the system virtually begs for tampering with it.

This does not mean, however, that there are no restrictions whatsoever. There is a system component called Aegis to protect you . It's a kind of a guard that is designed to not allow destructive modifications of the system, by overseeing the installation of packages and reduction of permissions (even for root). This is mainly due to security reasons. 

Did you know: Changing default mail attachment size

The default limit for Nokia N9's email attachments is only 5 MB - not much by modern standards. The limit does not even regard the size of individual file, but the size of all files attached in the mail. There is no possibility to change the size in system settings. This blog entry will show you how to increase it up to 50MBs.

Krogulec, a polish blogger from http://www.dobreprogramy.pl/Krogulec, showed a simple trick to do it.

Dictionaries for Nokia N9

To use a variety of good dictionaries for Nokia N9 you will need to download a program that supports StarDict format databases. I found two such programs for Nokia N9 on Nokia Store. The first, DictionaryStar is free, and the other, QStarDict costs peanuts. They both offer basically the same functionality, but I liked the paid one more. While it costs a dollar, QStarDict Dictionary has a slightly nicer user interface.

Top 10 Must Have Apps for your Nokia N9

Nokia N9, the esteemed "abandoned child" of Nokia, is a great device, and for an experienced user like me there's nothing I miss more than availability of popular games and applications. There are, however, precious jems that are worth every user's attention.

Please have a look at the list of my favourite must have applications for Nokia N9.

Drumkit YouTube video features Nokia N9

Watchful eye of an N9 fanboy spotted an interesting video. Nokia Developer Projects presents official YouTube video featuring Nokia N9 running a Multi-Platform Drumkit Example App.

Isn't that amazing to see your favourite phone in action once again? To see what other applications developers' community is up to go to official Nokia Developer Projects website.

How to fix Evernote sharing app on Nokia N9

Evernote is a great solution, but it somehow lacks a properly running application on Nokia N9. The one you can find in the Store is just an icon link to Evernote webpage with a sharing plugin. As long as the sharing plugin is quite useful, the link is rather useless to me. Here I'm going to show you how to fix Evernote on your N9 so that you get its full functionality back.

How to display music album covers on Nokia N9

Have you ever encoutered problems displaying album covers on your N9? Well, here is a solution.

720p HD video playback on Nokia N9 (with subtitles)

Official specs Nokia N9 say that the phone is able to play the following video formats, including HD files at 720p: WMV 9, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, XVID, Matroska MKV, 3GPP formats (H.263), AVI, VC-1,  Video Flash, ASF.

The list looks impressive, but the reality is not as colorful. Unfortunately, it is hard enough to find an HD 720p file encoded in a way that Nokia N9 could deal with it without sweat. More on this topic can be read in the "epic" thread in the forum Talk Maemo.org. The thread is rather lengthy, so I'll try to summarize what is most important.

Did you know: Pinch to resize video

Did you know that pinching the screen when in video playback mode lets you change the movie aspect ratio? You can toggle between full screen stretch and actual size.

Did you know this feature?

Can't read media error in Nokia Link

My Nokia Link software tends to crash with "Can't Read Media" error message. This bug commonly occurs together with desktop platform crash and keeps you from syncing anything to your N9.

The easiest way to deal with it is to scan your computer thoroughly with SpyBot Search and Destroy, and uninstall and reinstall Nokia Link.

It helped me.

Did you know: Dynamic calendar icon

Did you know that Nokia N9 PR1.2 update brings dynamic calendar icon? It always displays the correct day of the month. Amazing it took me a while to notice. Great improvement, innit?

Upcoming Flash support for Nokia N9?

According to a recent thread in Maemo.org, there are plans to release a Flash capable Firefox browser for Nokia N9. The exact date, however, is not known yet.

Follow the thread in the link to get more details:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?s=5d167867cf5b6aeaf5d6792c66b81d7a&t=74438

A collection of official Nokia N9 videos

Here's a collection of official Nokia N9 videos. Which one do you like best?

Home screen settings app will allow you to configure orientation of menu

Home Screen Settings allows orientation locking of the home screen to be configured through the Settings application. Harmattan PR1.1 or later is required.

Opera Mobile now officially available from Ovi Store

 

The famous Opera Mobile Labs Browser is finally available on Ovi Store. Go grab it from: http://store.ovi.com/content/255196? . The Opera browset might be a nice improvement on the standard Nokia N9 browser. One nice feature to note here is the 360 degrees accelerometer functionality, which actually means you can browse the web with your N9 upside down.

MeeGo PR1.2 update on its way, behold!

The mighty PR1.2 update will be available for your N9 towards the end of February. According to GSMArena.com, the list of updates that will come with MeeGo PR1.2 will include the following:

Many bug fixes and tweaks (lots of them!)
Software update notifications for content in Nokia Store
Five new languages

N9 vs N8 - why should (or shouldn't) I switch

I am one of these guys who switched to Nokia N9 from the fan favourite N8. I did not really need to do that as the N8 (with the recent Belle update) was an amazing piece of hardware and I did not really feel I needed to change it. Why did I change the model then? Well, I guess I just wanted some new shiny gadget and Nokia N9 looks so gorgeous I just couldn't resist. If you are still wondering whether to switch to N9 from your N8 or stay with the good old model, I am going to help you out a bit. Please consider the pros and cons that I've prepared for your consideration.

Nokia N9 Wallpapers

Please  follow the  link to download these sweet 30+ original Nokia N9 wallpapers. My N9 somehow did not come with these on board out of the box. Enjoy!

http://www.mediafire.com/?tmvjnmxjw1tkyim

Syncing Google calendar with Nokia N9 using CalDAV

This is probably the easiest way to make your N9 calendar sync with Google Calendar. You may stick with this method if you don't need Outlook syncing.

1. Go to Accounts > Add Account > CalDAV
2. Username is your full Google Calendar (including @gmail.com) username and password
3. Server: www.google.com

It syncs only your primary calendar.

How to sync your Nokia N9

I must admit setting up the syncing was nightmare... Various solutions found on the web were ranging from ridiculous to utterly crazy, like installing ancient versions of OVI Suite and stopping it from updating itself (once it updates everything's lost). I really started missing my good ol' N8 and the convenience of Nokia Suite. Syncing contacts, calendar, messages, music, videos and stuff like connection to mobile internet with your phone as a modem.

There are, however several ways you can sync your sleek Nokia N9 mail, calendar and contacts. I am going to list some of them,