OK, since news is a bit slow as we approach Nokia World (you do know I will be there, right?) it is a good time to see what is cooking over at Nokia Beta Labs. We are at the tail end of the summer here in Washington State and I am finding that mobile phone photos are not turning out very well with all of the background light. I just read on the Nokia Beta Labs blog that there two new applications for the Nokia N900 that look to take the camera to the next level. The HDR Capture application is designed for those situations when you are taking a photo with an open window with light behind the subject. The Lowlight Assistant is designed to help in situations when there is light, but not enough to give you a good photo.
As much as I love Nokia devices and services, I also get extremely frustrated with them from time-to-time. A couple of years ago it seemed like they were buying up as many services as they could with the hope that a global Ovi services offering would provide you with all you need. We have seen several of these services come and go (N-Gage, Mosh, Nokia Backup, etc.) to the point where I am now very leery of jumping onto any service they launch. I hope Ovi Maps never goes away, but you never know. Today we here that Ovi Files is shutting down on 1 October 2010.
I used the free 10GB Ovi Files cloud solution a few times, but never embraced it since I needed something that was more cross platform. Thankfully, we now have SugarSync on S60 so that I can share across multiple platforms and there really is little need for Ovi Files. I know that some people loved Ovi Files though and am sure they are not happy about this news today. It was a decision that was probably made after evaluating the cost and the benefit, but Nokia needs to now do things to prop up their name and not frustrate smartphone buyers.
I used to be a die hard QWERTY keyboard fan and still find the keyboard on the Nokia E73 Mode to be extremely efficient and effective. However, on larger touchscreen Android devices I have come to embrace Swype and find I am very quick with it. Thus, I was extremely pleased to read over on All About Symbian that Swype is now available from the Nokia Beta Labs site for S60 5th Edition (aka Symbian^1) devices and this means we will most likely also get to use Swype on the Nokia N8. If Swype is on the N8, then any concerns I had for a hardware keyboard and funky text entry are gone.
Swype is a company based here in Seattle and just about every single person I know that has tried it out has embraced it. I plan to install it on the Nokia N97 mini and give it a shot. FYI, one of the best tips I can give for Swype is to slide your finger from the very bottom left corner (where the Swype logo key is) to the right over the Sym key and you will get a directional pad and other cool functions on the keyboard.
Swype for Symbian has been tested on the Nokia 5800, 5230, X6, N97, and N97 mini.
Have any of you tried Swype yet on your Android or S60 5th Edition device?
Interesting that Nokia today announced another new piece of hardware, the Nokia 5250. This is a Symbian^1 (aka S60 5th Edition) device that looks to be a rather low cost device for those who want a touchscreen device. It only supports the EDGE data network and has a 2.8 inch display so it is nothing that anyone here reading Nokia Experts will likely want. However, there are millions of people who only have EDGE connectivity so this may be the perfect device for them.
The good thing about seeing these types of continuing hardware announcements before Nokia World is that we should hopefully see some major news there. I know we will see the N8, but am hoping to see Nokia reveal their next flagship device (maybe the N9) since so many people still have a bad taste from the N97 that could have been so good.
Anyways, the Nokia 5250 has a 2.8 inch 640×360 display, 2 megapixel camera, microSD card slot, Ovi Music support, FM radio, and more and comes in at €115 in the 4th quarter.
Interesting that Nokia today announced another new piece of hardware, the Nokia 5250. This is a Symbian^1 (aka S60 5th Edition) device that looks to be a rather low cost device for those who want a touchscreen device. It only supports the EDGE data network and has a 2.8 inch display so it is nothing that anyone here reading Nokia Experts will likely want. However, there are millions of people who only have EDGE connectivity so this may be the perfect device for them.
The good thing about seeing these types of continuing hardware announcements before Nokia World is that we should hopefully see some major news there. I know we will see the N8, but am hoping to see Nokia reveal their next flagship device (maybe the N9) since so many people still have a bad taste from the N97 that could have been so good.
Anyways, the Nokia 5250 has a 2.8 inch 640×360 display, 2 megapixel camera, microSD card slot, Ovi Music support, FM radio, and more and comes in at €115 in the 4th quarter.
Do you have a Symbian S60 5th Edition device and longingly look at your iPhone and Android brethren thinking you could have a backup, sync, and cloud sharing service like Dropbox, Zumodrive, or SugarSync on your beloved device? Well, I have some excellent news for you then as SugarSync just announced their Symbian client that is available now for free and includes 2GB of cloud data capacity. We do have the Ovi Files client and it is decent, but services like SugarSync offer even more functionality that is cross platform and provides better access support.
With SugarSync for Symbian you can edit documents (with supported Symbian apps) and have the files synced back to the cloud. Documents, photos, music, video, and other file types can be shared, managed, and accessed with SugarSync. I have been looking at several different cloud storage and sharing solutions and now that SugarSync has a Symbian client I have decided they are the service I will be going with for all of my devices moving forward.
Simply point your S60 5th Edition web browser to www.sugarsync.com/symbian and download the free client. You can also purchase higher capacity on the servers with 30GB plans starting at just $4.99/month, but you do get 2GB for free to try out too. They also have a referral program that lets you increase your capacity between 500MB to 10GB of storage when a friend is referred by you.
You can access your SugarSync storage drive via a web browser or iPad, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Mobile device too.
Nokia has been pretty clear that the upcoming Nokia N8 device is NOT its next flagship product. That said, we haven’t heard any official word about what actually is the next flagship to follow the Nokia N97. I am hoping we hear something about this at Nokia World in a few weeks and according to what was posted by Clinton Jeff on ZOMGitsCj it may just be the Nokia N9 MeeGo device. If it is, then that will be quite exciting as these leaked pictures show a device with a QWERTY keyboard that reminds me a lot of my MacBook Pro keyboard. You know if it runs MeeGo then I will be buying one to replace my N900. It is pretty clear this is an actual Nokia N9, but it still is not clear if this is some kind of prototype or if it is the real deal.
It looks like it builds on the N8 metal form factor with that cool N97/N97 mini slide and tilt up display. The keyboard looks awesome to me with well spaced keys, large space bar, directional arrows, dual Shift keys, and more. I WANT THIS, do you?
Do you live in the LA area or do you happen to be passing through this weekend? If so, then make sure to sign up for and attend the Nokia E73 Beach Party put on by Nokia. I’ll be heading out camping here in Washington State with my family, but thinking about you all on the beach Nokia puts on some good parties and there will be food and drinks provided, along with lots of fun. They will actually be loaning out E73 Mode evaluation units so if you are interested in checking one out make sure to swing on by.
Speaking of the Nokia E73 Mode, make sure to check out our Starter Guide that collates my posts on the device and links to the full review and my extensive keyboard shortcut post. As you know, the E73 Mode is my daily driver that should stay that way until the N8 appears.
As I plan my trip to Nokia World next month I have continued thinking about Nokia and finally posted an article on ZDNet that I have been thinking about for a few months. I write this Nokia Experts site so of course I am a fan of Nokia and their devices or I wouldn’t spend hours writing here for free. I try to give you my honest take on things and am both positive and negative here and in my other writing. However, it seems to me that the media and smartphone enthusiasts in the US are unfairly slamming Nokia when other smartphone operating sytems get by with more. Am I being overly sensitive or do you too feel that Nokia doesn’t get the respect it deserves in the US?
In the past we have seen announcements in advance of Nokia World so that Nokia could then announce other new and exciting products at NW. Today we see the announcement of the Nokia X3 Touch and Type device (X3-02). This device has something of a rare form factor with a standard 12 button phone keypad and a 2.4 inch resistive touchscreen display. It is a low cost phone, MSRP of EUR 125, that is designed to give those who love using phone keypads the chance to also experience the touch user interface.
There are millions of people who have become quite proficient at one handed, no looking, SMS with a standard phone keypad and this device lets them continue this behavior. The X3 is only 9.6mm (0.38 inches) thick and still packs in 3G, WiFi, FM radio, microSD card slot and 5 megapixel camera. It is powered by S40.
The other X3 device announced at Nokia World 2009 is labeled the X3-00 and has a slide down keypad without a touchscreen display.
I put together the Nokia Messaging reference guide to try to help you understand the different clients available for S60 and I am an avid user of Nokia Messaging for Email on the Nokia E73 Mode and N97 mini. As you know I pre-ordered my Nokia N8 and actually keep scouring the Internet trying to find any that might be available to purchase sooner and am currently quite obsessed with my desire for a Nokia N8. Thus, I was pleased to read Davis Fields’ article on how Nokia Messaging will function on the N8 and my desire for one is even stronger now.
There are several enhanced features that will be supported on the N8 that are actually now available on the C6 device, but I don’t have one of those to check it out on. Check out the video below and the full list of improved features coming to the Nokia N8.
With a functional email experience, outstanding camera, and more I think I will be quite happy with the N8 when it arrives.
I went to the Nokia USA to pre-order my Nokia N8 and saw you can now do so for $549. I may eventually place this order just to ensure I get one to write about here, but I really want an orange or green or blue model with the orange being my first choice. Thus, I may try to find one from outside the US since they all have penta-band 3G support and should be the same around the world. It may cost me a bit more, but $549 for a SIM-unlocked powerful device like this is very reasonable. For comparison, the iPhone 4 is priced at $599 for 16GB and $699 for 32GB with no support for T-Mobile 3G.
I hope Amazon kicks off their N8 pre-orders soon too since I have some gift card cash sitting there waiting to be spent on a device. Any readers going to pre-order this dark grey model?
UPDATE: I placed my order ($611 with tax and shipping) and can’t wait for it to arrive. I will be getting some hands-on time with it at Nokia World in September so stay tuned for that coverage too.
My main T-Mobile phone is currently the Nokia E73 Mode (see our Guide) and I just can’t give it up because it is so pocketable, focused on messaging, and gives me everything I really find essential on my smartphone. I started eating healthier and exercising more a few months ago and have lost over 20 pounds so far with my primary exercise of jogging. I have been using an Andoid device with Runkeeper for tracking my running, but was just sent an email that will have me using the Nokia E73 soon. The newly revamped Sports Tracker service and application is now up and running so get on those shoes and start sharing your workouts.
You can find the Sports Tracker application for your compatible S60 3rd and 5th Edition device in the Ovi Store. The Sports Tracker application can be used with the GPS in your smartphone to track things like calories burned while running and cycling speed over altitude changes. You can find a compatible heart rate monitor in the Sports Tracker shop so you can keep track and ensure you are reaching your heart rate goals as you workout.
Nokia is having a Sports Tracker competition launch contest where the first place winner gets an exclusive Ovi skateboard deck. Other prizes include heart rate belts, Ovi t-shirts, water bottles, and more swage. I like the looks of that green to white t-shirt and will be entering soon myself.
The competition is rather interesting since you need to make a funny or interesting shape with your Sports Tracker workout and share it publicly. This means you need to run, walk, skip, bike, skate, etc. in a unique route to create an interesting shape for the contest. I am going to have to give this some thought before heading out on the road to track my workout. They will pick the top 10 and then have you vote in a poll on the Ovi blog. You have to do this quickly as the contest ends in one week on Thursday, 19 August.
We saw the release of Gartner’s Q2 2010 worldwide smartphone data report that contains both encouraging and discouraging news for Nokia. Let’s start with the good news and this is the HUGE growth in the smartphone market from 41 million units to 61.6 million in one quarter. This shows that more people are buying smartphones and thus the potential for Nokia customers is growing. We also saw that Nokia’s worldwide market share went down only 2.6% in the quarter. This actually is not that bad considering we saw no flagship device release and haven’t seen such a release since last year’s Nokia N97 that did not even do as well as hoped. Nokia has been able to stay pretty flat with few new devices hitting the market and still sold 111.5 million devices, of which 25.4 million were running the Symbian OS.
The market share of Symbian devices fell significantly over the year from Q2 2009 to Q2 2010 with a 51% market share going down to a 41.2% market share. This is disappointing, but given that S60 is getting long in the tooth while Symbian^3 (and ^4 and ^5) is being developed this is not that unexpected. The Symbian Foundation and Nokia have to do a good job with these upcoming Symbian devices and encourage developers to create apps for their platform.
Android took off like a rocket over the last year, but it looks like people are becoming bored with RIM and iOS while Microsoft works to get Windows Phone 7 out the door. Given that Nokia devices are available around the world in different form factors, I think there is serious potential for Nokia to recapture market share with the release of Symbian and MeeGo products later this year and moving forward. I hope that the N8 is as successful as the Nokia N95 was and want to see Nokia get back up to that 50% smartphone market share in 2011.
I know I wrote about hesitations of getting a Nokia N8 here before, but forget all about that since I will be getting one for sure. I want to get an orange one, but would buy a blue or green one too so it just depends on what becomes available and where. I just read over on The Handheld Blog that they had a chance to unbox a Nokia N8 retail package at an event in India. It looks like Nokia is using that great slim, low profile packaging that we saw with the N900 and other recent devices. I also like seeing the HDMI converter and USB-to-go cable so that people can get up and running right out of the box.
There are rumors of 26 August UK release date and if that is the case I may be able to buy one in the UK when I go back to Nokia World in mid-September. I just purchased my flight tickets late last week and am taking my wife and oldest daughter along too. I imagine that we will see more hardware announcements at Nokia World given that the N8 should be launching before Q3 ends and I am hoping I can cover the event with the assistance of a Nokia N8 too.
Last week I wrote about the Game Gripper accessory for the Nokia N900. As I said I ordered one right away and a couple of days ago the Game Gripper arrived. I really did not know what to expect from the button design because it wasn’t that clear to me how the buttons were inserted into the rubber piece. I ordered the SNES style of buttons since that looked like the most traditional type for playing games and I enjoy SNES games on my N900. I ordered an extra set of buttons and now wish I would have purchased the orange ones I was thinking about.
Design and installation
The Game Gripper is composed of the main body and inserted buttons. The main body is thick black rubber that seems like it will last forever. The rubber has openings on the top for the button inserts with a small “gg” over on the right for Game Gripper. On the right side that leads down and around the right side of the keyboard you will find a rubber piece with a round opening for the 3.5mm headset jack. On the left side you see a square opening for the microUSB port.
The game buttons are hard colored plastic and do have movement in each of their openings. The opening they fit through is small than the nub on bottom side so they should not just fall out with standard handling. It takes a bit of effort and stretching remove and replace a game button, which is what you want for such an accessory.
The buttons is designed to fit perfectly over selected keys so that the proper actions are taken when you play games.
Setting up your emulator
As you can see in my video, you do have to go through each emulator and setup the Game Gripper to get the best game playing experience out of your N900. I didn’t cut out my mistakes from the video and as you can see just popping it on there and hoping the keys were mapped did not work for the Colecovision or SNES emulators.
However, after proper setup and calibration within the emulator, game play was excellent. I like that you can customize the buttons to your liking, which should help you play the games better than if you just used the defaults. As you can see towards the end of my video, Donkey Kong Country was much easier to play with the Game Gripper on the N900 than when I played it before having to remember the buttons to press.
Should you get one?
If you like to play classic games on your N900 and enjoy the emulator experience on the N900 then you should definitely pick one of these up for just $14.99. I plan to carry it with me in my gear bag when I travel so I can have a full gaming experience and web browsing experience with a single device on the go.
You will find a warning slip in the package that says heavy game play may wear away selected keys faster than others and may void your warranty if you have a problem with the keyboard in the future.
A couple of days ago I mentioned that Sygic sent out an email letting us all know Mobile Maps 10 was available as a free upgrade to N900 owners. I went on a short camping trip and wasn’t able to test out the latest version until last night, but shot the video embedded below and took the screenshots you see below in the image gallery. I am going to do some more extensive testing over the next couple of weeks and will post a review here when I finish checking it out. Here are some initial thoughts on my experiences, along with the video of the program in action.
What is improved?
Even though I have only spent a few hours with Sygic Mobile Maps 10 for Maemo I can tell you already that it is much improved over version 9 that I found wasn’t very useful at all. Here are the following improvements found in Mobile Maps 10:
A new and better look and feel with default full screen mode.
Online services for speed traps, traffic (not yet enabled), and incident reports.
Navigation to addresses stored in your contacts database.
Improved finger scrolling support.
Updated maps with more detail.
Auto & instant rotate between portrait and landscape.
Initial experiences
As you can see in my video, I was sitting in the back seat with my Nokia N900 (in default configuration mode) held between my knees and the N900 seemed to secure a GPS signal within a minute. This time Sygic tracked my position accurately where the last time it kept jumping around on the screen and couldn’t seem to find my actual location.
The user interface was quite fluid and it was easy to navigate around the software. I jumped to Navigate to… and entered an address down in Seattle and then a couple seconds later the route was calculated and shown. You can select your country and the voice you want to use for navigation. You can change settings to customize your experience, including how you want the main navigation panel to appear as you drive around. Other settings include 2D/3D toggle, dynamic control settings, day/night control, sounds, online settings, online services, advanced settings (similar to what we say in Sygic Mobile Maps 9), planning preferences, toll charge settings, language and voice selector, and more.
There are some extra utilities in the application, including a world clock, calculator, unit converter, and weather.
The one issue I seem to be having issues with is the selection of POIs as you drive. For example, as I am riding along and see a POI appear I tapped on it, but was just taken to the first settings menu. I would think that tapping on the POI would tell me what that location is and give me the option to choose to navigate directly to it or call the location. You can go back to the navigation setup and choose a POI in the area, but this requires several steps and I was thinking of something easier to find an interim stop.
Mobile Maps 10 is a free update for Mobile Maps 9 owns or EUR49.99 for new buyers. I will post a more detailed written walk through the application as I take a few more trips with it. In the meantime, if you have any questions please post them below and I will try to answer them all in my review.
My favorite application on my S60 devices is clearly Gravity as the application shows just how good an application can look and perform on the Symbian platform. In addition to Twitter support, Gravity’s latest betas provide support for Facebook, Foursquare, and Google Reader so you get all your social networks and Google Reader RSS news in a single application for one low price. I just read over on jkOnTheRun that a new Twitter client appeared in the Ovi Store for free.
Trill gives you Twitter support and looks to be quite functional with some design elements that mimic what you see in Gravity. For example when you select a Tweet a menu of actionable options appears under that Tweet just like in Gravity. There are fewer options than you see in Gravity, but the most common are there so this may be just fine for most people. I am a big fan of thread or conversation view and do not see that in Trill. I also do not yet see support for uploading photos to Twitter. Trill looks like a decent option for free, but if you are a power user then Gravity is still the best Twitter client available for Symbian.
If you are reading this site, then you have at least some interest in Nokia. Thus, I highly recommend you head over to Twitter in about 5.5 hours to check out and send questions and comments to Niklas Savander (@NiklasatNokia). As stated on the Nokia Conversations site Mr. Savander, head of sales and marketing, is visiting New York and was asked to take part in this live Q&A hour on Twitter. It will run from 10-11 am Pacific Daylight Time/1-2 pm Eastern Daylight Time so start prepping your 140 character questions, I know I am.
Since it will be virtually impossible for Niklas to answer all of the questions on Twitter, he will take a few of the best ones and respond to them in a video that will be posted on the Nokia Conversations site. He won’t spend the entire time taking questions, but will also be sharing his thoughts on the mobile industry.
To prep for the Twitter Q&A you may want to check out the previous video between my buddy Phil and Mr. Savander.
I previously wrote up my first impressions of Sygic Mobile Maps 9 for the N900 and covered most of my thoughts in the 13 minute video. I found the application to be decent, but could not recommend it for EUR49.99 based on the fact that it kept jumping around the map, required too many button presses to navigate around, and did not seem to be quite ready for primetime. I was going to follow-up with a full review, but did not find the software useful enough to do so. Thus, I was pleased to receive an email this morning that Sygic just released Mobile Maps 10 for the Nokia N900 and I will be taking a closer look at it over the next few days with a full review coming here so you can decide if it is now worth the
According to the email I received Mobile Maps 10 for the N900 includes the following:
The app has new look and feel.
While all maps and content are stored on the phone, we added online sharing of speed traps or road incident locations and within few weeks also real-time traffic.
Navigation to addresses stored in phone’s Contacts is available.
Scrolling through menus, lists and map zooming supports touchscreen gestures so that no buttons are needed when using Mobile Maps.
Recent state or country is stored automatically, new destination entry is easier and non-relevant cities from various states will not pop up. If you want to pick a destination from a country other than the one you used the last time, just tap Back button on the keyboard to display the list of all available countries.
Maps have also received an upgrade. Now with more detail, safer and easier navigation.
There is a detailed upgrade process for those with Mobile Maps 9 that includes a few manual tasks that are just fine with us geeks who like to tinker, but may be a bit of an issue for newbies. The download for US maps and the application was 1.28GB so it took quite some time to download the update. Make sure to follow the directions specifically to complete the upgrade process.
I will post some quick first thoughts here with an update after I get the huge download to finish up and get the update installed. Nokia did upgrade the Ovi Maps client for the N900 in the last firmware update, but you still cannot get offline maps with Ovi Maps so this is one area where Sygic Mobile Maps 10 is better for sure.
Now that I am back to using my Nokia N900 much more I was excited to read the news on Engadget this morning that the Game Gripper is now available for pre-ordering for the Nokia N900. I just ordered one with an extra set of buttons for my N900 since I have my N900 loaded with SNES and ColecoVision games.
I grew up with the ColecoVision as one of my first gaming system and still vividly remember when my brother and I stayed up most all of that Christmas night playing games. I now have Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, Zaxxon, Frogger, Galaxian, Pitfall, and Star Wars loaded on my N900. I also was a big fan of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and have Donkey Kong Country, Pitfall, and more loaded with this emulator. Emulator games play very well on the Nokia N900 and as an old-timer I am really loving it as a gaming system. With the Game Gripper I should be able to enjoy the games even more.
Do you enjoy playing emulated games on your Nokia N900 too? If so, what are your favorite games?
Now that I am back to using my Nokia N900 much more I was excited to read the news on Engadget this morning that the Game Gripper is now available for pre-ordering for the Nokia N900. I just ordered one with an extra set of buttons for my N900 since I have my N900 loaded with SNES and ColecoVision games.
I grew up with the ColecoVision as one of my first gaming system and still vividly remember when my brother and I stayed up most all of that Christmas night playing games. I now have Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, Zaxxon, Frogger, Galaxian, Pitfall, and Star Wars loaded on my N900. I also was a big fan of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and have Donkey Kong Country, Pitfall, and more loaded with this emulator. Emulator games play very well on the Nokia N900 and as an old-timer I am really loving it as a gaming system. With the Game Gripper I should be able to enjoy the games even more.
Do you enjoy playing emulated games on your Nokia N900 too? If so, what are your favorite games?
As I mentioned last week one of the pieces of software that I have been waiting to see released for the N900 is an Office editor and creator. I actually am a bit surprised that DataViz launched this software for such a small Maemo 5 community when the larger Palm webOS community has been clamoring for something from DataViz or Quickoffice for quite some time. The Nokia N900 is a good fit for such software due to the QWERTY keyboard, large display, Bluetooth keyboard support, and TV out capability, but I am not sure how many copies they will sell at $29.99. If you purchaed their Viewer Edition, version 1.0, then the upgrade to Premium is free so that is worth the $10 you paid for the Viewer. You do get 30 days to test it out and if Office editing and creation is essential to your work then the $29.99 price may not be much of a concern and it certainly wasn’t back in the days before the iPhone forced software prices to drop like a rock.
Documents To Go for Maemo 5 currently supports viewing, editing, and creation of Word and Excel files with support for PowerPoint editing and creation under development. PowerPoint support will be released as a free update to DTG Premium Edition owners.
Key features
I use Documents To Go on my iPad and Google Android devices and so I was pleased to see a very familiar interface and icon/menu system here on the N900. Check out my video below for a walk through the software to go along with my written feedback on the software.
As stated on the DataViz website, the key features of Documents To Go for Maemo 5 include:
View, Edit & Create Word 97-2010 files (.doc / .docx)
Keep original formatting thanks to InTact Technology
Mult-level zoom support
Live embedded hyperlink support
Interact with Table of Contents and web hyperlinks in your files.
Password protection of files
Installation and initial setup
The first thing you need to make sure of is that your Nokia N900 is upgraded to the latest version 1.2 Maemo 5 operating system. The install file is sized at about 9 MB and there is currently no desktop companion software for synchronization. After installation, you then will see Word To Go, Sheet To Go, and Slideshow To Go icons on your N900 launcher screen. There is no global, centralized Documents To Go application on Maemo, which I think would be nice to have. After you tap on Word or Sheet To Go you are walked through a registration process with the options to Buy Now (takes you to their website), enter activation code (if you already purchased), or continue with the 30-day full version trial. After you enter your registration code for one of the products, it is applied to the database across the others so you only need to enter it once.
You will then land at a page (the file browser) with buttons to Open a document or create a New document. You can also tap the top central menu and see options for clearing recent files, about, settings, and activate features. The only thing here in these settings is to determine what format new files will be created in, either MS Office 97-2004 and XP or MS Office 2007-2008. You can top Open to browse for a supported file or tap New to create a new one.
Supported file types include the following:
Word 97, 2000, X, XP, 2003, 2007, 2010 for Windows
Word 98, 2001, 2004, 2008 for Macintosh
Excel 97, 2000, X, XP, 2003, 2007, 2010 for Windows
Excel 98, 2001, 2004, 2008 for Macintosh
Text (.txt)
You can use the Slideshow To Go module to view PowerPoint presentations and they do look good on the N900 display. There is currently no editing capability here though. You can use the TV out capability of the N900 to present on the road.
Using Documents To Go for Maemo 5
I am going to break this section down into the three modules of Documents To Go and include the available menus and options in the software. Much of the functionality in the first module applies to the others and I will not repeat myself for each section below. I also tested out the InTact Technology and from my experiences so far all of my special formatting (headings, logos, etc.) stayed just as they were on the original document even when transferring via a USB drive connection. You can also email documents directly from within the application, as you will see.
Word To Go
After tapping the New button you will see a blank white page with your cursor at the top left of the first line. There is no support for portrait orientation, which is fine since the keyboard works in landscape mode and the landscape display is optimal for Office document editing and creation. You will see the menu options and software functions along the bottom of the display. Moving from left to right along the bottom, we see nine icons for document control, editing, and more. Tapping the first five icons opens up a submenu with icons or selector boxes appearing above these icons. The first one is for saving the document, the second is for character formatting (bold, italic, underline), the third for paragraph formatting (left, center, right, and justified), the fourth is for text color selection, the fifth is for indent right or left, the sixth is for zoom levels (50%, 100%, and 200%), the seventh is to find and replace text, the eighth is to email the document, and the last one on the right is to toggle full screen on and off. You can also use the volume button to zoom in and out in Documents To Go.
You can also tap the top center toolbar and see options for formatting (character and paragraph), Go to, Properties, About, and Help. Character formatting includes font (4 available by default), size, bold, italic, underline, text color, and highlight color. Paragraph formatting is the same as the icon with left, center, right, and justified. The Go To options include top, middle, and center.
Word To Go works well, especially with the dedicated Ctrl button on the N900 giving you easy access to copy and paste functionality right from the keyboard. The arrow keys work just fine, but using a program like this does make me miss having a Tab button. If you try to leave the document without saving then you are given the option to save or close without saving.
Sheet To Go
Starting a new spreadsheet in Sheet To Go takes you to a blank spreadsheet on Sheet 1. By default you are zoomed into 50% with options to jump to 100%, 150%, and 200%. 50% is a bit difficult to work with, but it lets you see columns from A to Q and rows from 1 to 35 by default. Similar to Word To Go there are icons along the bottom to format and navigate the application. There are eight icons in Sheet To Go, including save, text formatting, cell formatting, number formatting, zoom slider, find/replace, email, and full screen toggle. Cell formatting options include font selector (3 fonts), font size, bold, italic, underline, text color, cell color, and alignment (general, left, center, and right). Number formatting includes category (general, number, currency, date, time, percentage, scientific, and text).
Since this is a spreadsheet with calculations you will want to spend time working in the cell formatting area. After tapping in a cell you then tap in the top cell input box and will see a red x, green check, and fx icon. Tapping fx pops up the function category selector from ten possible categories. Tapping on a column pops up a menu for fit, hide, unhide, insert, and delete. Tapping on a row pops up a menu for hide, unhide, insert, and delete. You can press and hold shift and then use the arrow keys to select multiple cells, rows, or columns in the spreadsheet. Up in the top right you can tap the visible button to jump to other sheets or edit sheets (insert, rename, and delete). You can also tap the cell name in the upper left to quickly jump to another cell.
There is no chart creation capability in Sheet To Go and I couldn’t figure out how to link cells between sheets. There are a ton of functions available and the software does cover just about everything you would do on your phone with Excel.
Slideshow To Go
DataViz stated that PowerPoint slideshow editing and creation will eventually be coming to Documents To Go, but for now it is only available for viewing slideshows. After opening up a PPT or PPS file you see a few controls on the bottom for find, email, arrow forward or arrow back, and jump to a slide. There is also a full screen toggle over in the bottom right corner. Tapping the top center toolbar gives you buttons to view slides, outline, and notes. You can also see options to open a slideshow, save a copy, view the slideshow properties, and view the software version.
When you jump into full screen mode you will see large navigation arrows on the left and right side of the slides. Slideshow To Go can be valuable for reviewing slideshows and preparing yourself to present on the go.
Conclusion
DataViz Documents To Go is a functional application that brings Word and Excel creation and editing to the Nokia N900. It is as powerful as most other mobile Office applications on other platforms and knowing DataViz they will add functionality to make it even better. Their InTact Technology does a great job of maintaining your original document formatting too.
Interesting that Nokia today announced another new piece of hardware, the 
The good thing about seeing these types of continuing hardware announcements before Nokia World is that we should hopefully see some major news there. I know we will see the N8, but am hoping to see Nokia reveal their next flagship device (maybe the N9) since so many people still have a bad taste from the N97 that could have been so good.
Credit:
Do you live in the LA area or do you happen to be passing through this weekend? If so, then make sure to sign up for and attend the 
Nokia puts on some good parties and there will be food and drinks provided, along with lots of fun. They will actually be loaning out E73 Mode evaluation units so if you are interested in checking one out make sure to swing on by.
As I plan my trip to Nokia World next month I have continued thinking about Nokia and finally posted an 
I put together the 
I went to the Nokia USA to 
My main T-Mobile phone is currently the Nokia E73 Mode (see our 
We saw the release of 
My favorite application on my S60 devices is clearly 
I previously wrote up my 
Now that I am back to using my Nokia N900 much more I was excited to read the news on 
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