I got an email from Nokia today, reminding me that the Nokia N900 I received a few months ago was only a review unit and that I need to return shortly. At first, I was rather sad – sending a device back is almost always a sad affair, for obvious reasons. However, the more I’ve thought about it, the less upset I am, mainly because I haven’t really been using it much. I used the Nokia N900 as my primary device for a full 3 weeks when I first got it, and spent another full week with it a few weeks ago, to see how the experience had changed since its launch. Unfortunately, not much had changed.

While I still find the Nokia N900 a bit limited for my use, there’s no doubt that developers are quickly coming to the table with new applications all the time. Today’s little nugget of gold is a video from Qt Studios showing off a Qt 4.6 application that they have running on the Nokia N900. This little app ties into the despotify library to stream tracks from Spotify, and is definitely the closest thing to a native Spotify app for the Maemo platform that I’ve seen.

Unfortunately, as you can see in the video, the UI needs some help, as the person showing the application off is forced to use the stylus, which is just awful. However, using the Nokia N900’s 3G cellular connection, he’s able to easily (and nearly instantly) stream tracks, just like Spotify does on other mobile platforms such as Symbian. This does, however, require a premium Spotify account, though again, that’s the same as other mobile platforms, as well.

This application is not currently available through any of the repositories on Maemo just yet, though you can get more information about it from the Trolltech blog.

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One of the cool things about the way the phonebook and messaging is built on the Nokia N900 is that it’s easily extended by 3rd party plugins. One such plugin that was recently made available is simply called the Twitter plugin. This plugin allows you to interact with multiple Twitter accounts on the Nokia N900 without having to run an additional application – it’s fully integrated into the phone!

There are likely over a thousand Nokia N900 devices in the wild now, a number that is steadily increasing, judging by the readership of this site. Many of you are likely wondering just how you can help get more high-quality applications released on the Maemo platform, and that’s great. In fact, your help is greatly needed in testing applications, if you’re up for it.

One of the biggest things missing from the Nokia N900, in my opinion, was support for streaming Last.FM stations. I use Mobbler on my Symbian-powered smartphones to cover this, and it’s a really well written application. Unfortunately, none of the Last.FM applications from the Nokia N810 worked on the N900, until now.

Our pals on the Vagalume project have just announced the latest update, complete with full support for the Nokia N900 and Maemo 5! They’ve updated support to include the new Last.FM API, and have also added Libre.FM support, which should make plenty of folks very happy.

There is also a fancy new icon, so it’ll look pretty on your N900’s menu and homescreen, which is appreciated. Vagalume v0.8 should be available through the Extras catalog on your Nokia N900.

What do you think of the updated client? Are you a Last.FM user or have you switched over to Libre.FM?

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While Mauku used to be an awesome tool for Jaiku on Maemo, its usefulness as a Twitter client on Maemo 5 is pretty limited, mainly because it wasn’t really designed to be a powertool. Thankfully, there are some talented developers in the Maemo community, including Daniel Would, who has built Witter, a new Twitter client for your Nokia N900.

Witter is in extras-devel for the time being, which means it’s not quite ready for normal consumers, but if you’re up for being a tester, you can follow the instructions here to set it up on your N900.

One of the best parts of Witter that Mauku doesn’t currently have is a variety of special views, similar to what you would find on any other Twitter application. You can choose to browse your timeline, your mentions, direct messages, or your own tweets. You can also search with Witter, something that Mauku doesn’t currently support. Along the top of the main screen, you have a row of buttons offering quick access to the various views, along with a Tweet box and the Refresh button.

There is also a drop-down settings menu that lets you perform a number of tasks, including posting photos via Twitpic, changing your username/password, and activate a few other views.

If you’re a Twitter user with the Nokia N900, this is, by far, the best solution that I’ve seen yet. Unfortunately, there are some limitations to Witter that are not fixed just quite yet:

For starters, it doesn’t support multiple accounts. This is a necessity for me, though you can, quickly and easily, change your username and password, so that’s a small workaround.

Second, there’s no autorefresh. Of course, the refresh button is readily available, but I would still like to be able to have the application refresh itself every few minutes. Given that there is no autorefresh, there are also no notifications available, so you’ll need to check each view to find out if you have any updates there.

What other features would you like to see? You can chime in on the thread at Talk.Maemo.org here.

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There’s so much technology crammed into the Nokia N900, no doubt you’ve wondered just how Nokia fit it all in there. While I’m certainly not brave enough to rip my loaner unit apart, our friends at Tehkseven.net did the dirty work for you. They say all you need is a philips screwdriver, Torx 6 screwdriver, and a bit of patience. They’ve put together the video below, showing you step-by-step how to pry your precious apart.

Keep in mind this is not an official walkthrough, nor is this in any way recommended for you to try on your own. That being said, it’s still pretty cool to see the full breakdown, don’t you think?

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Yesterday I shared a short list of things that I really hate about the Nokia N900. Fortunately, it’s not all bad – today’s list includes things that I absolutely love about this touchscreen device, and hopefully you’ll think they’re pretty cool, too. Today’s list isn’t comprehensive – there are plenty of cool things about the Nokia N900, but rather these are things that really stand out, to me.

I already gave you my first impressions, but now after using the Nokia N900 for a few more days on production firmware, I’ve come up with a list of things that really bother me about this powerful little gadget. I’m going to ignore the fact that it doesn’t support AT&T’s 3G, because, well, I am. Not that I’m not annoyed by that, but I don’t think it’s pertinent to this part of my preview. Also keep in mind that this isn’t a comprehensive list of bad things about the N900 – it’s just my list of things that annoy me, in no particular order.

Not that this should really surprise anyone who has been in the Maemo community for a while, but ‘sources close to Nokia’s 2010 roadmap‘ have revealed that there will only be a single Maemo device released in 2010. Of course, this device will likely run Maemo 6, the next version of the Maemo operating system, and will hopefully add some hardware improvements over the N900, such as support for AT&T’s 3G network, perhaps a higher resolution camera, and at the very least a bigger battery.

Don’t forget, though, that this is an un-official rumor – Nokia has not confirmed it, so take it with a grain of salt. However, ever since they first launched the 770 Internet Tablet, Nokia has only released new Maemo-powered hardware roughly every 12-18 months, with the exception of the N810 Wimax edition, though that hardly counts as ‘new’ hardware.

What improvements would you like to see in the next Maemo device?

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