Nokia Tosses Another OSS OS Into the Mobile Mix

Nokia Tosses Another OSS OS Into the Mobile Mix: "
Nokia on Thursday announced the N900 smartphone, a mobile device running the Linux-based Maemo operating system that the company typically uses for its tablets. The device runs a Mozilla-based browser and offers still and video photography, an FM radio and 3.5G and WLAN connectivity. Maemo is the operating system used in Nokia's tablets, and the Finnish handset maker's description of the N900 shows it's moving to converge the computer, the Internet and the mobile phone. Nokia sees the Maemo OS as driving its new technology, and the N900 as merely the hardware to contain the OS."

Nokia's Maemo 5 RX-51 / N900 tablet gets exhaustively previewed

Nokia's Maemo 5 RX-51 / N900 tablet gets exhaustively previewed: "

Eldar Murtazin at mobile-review teased us with that shot of Nokia's RX-51 / N900 Maemo 5 tablet earlier today, and now he's back in force with a detailed preview. We're talking tons of hardware pictures and screenshots of what stands to be the standard-bearer for all Nokia devices going forward, and while we'd love to tell you all about how impressed we are with what we're seeing of Maemo 5 and how disappointed we are in the Rover's resistive touchscreen, we won't hold you back -- hit the read link and dive right in.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia's Maemo 5 RX-51 / N900 tablet gets exhaustively previewed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

New Maemo 5 screen shows fascinating, unique array of settings

New Maemo 5 screen shows fascinating, unique array of settings: "

Nokia may have shot down rumors that it was planning to completely replace its Symbian OS with Maemo, but that hasn't taken all the shine off the mobile OS, and a new, lone screenshot has now surfaced to further stoke those flames of anticipation (it's okay, you can admit it). As you can see above, however, it's not exactly the most exciting of screens to capture, but is supposedly the real deal and not just another SDK sourced image.

[Thanks, Eric]

Filed under: Handhelds

New Maemo 5 screen shows fascinating, unique array of settings originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:13:00 EST.

Turn Your Car's Cup Holder Into a Laptop Stand [DIY]

Turn Your Car's Cup Holder Into a Laptop Stand [DIY]: "

Need to use your laptop in your car? Don't purchase a pricey laptop stand for the passenger seat or shell out for a dashboard mount. With some creative DIY-action you can turn your cup holder into a laptop stand.

Mike Davis needed a way to use his laptop in his truck and have a nice stationary platform to put it on. Unfortunately commercial models ran upwards of $300. After scoping out the cab of his truck and doing some brainstorming he realized he could build his own stand and use the center console cup holder as a base.

With $30 worth of parts—mostly pvc pipes, fittings, and a sheet of plywood—and a single afternoon of work he had a laptop stand for his truck that holds his laptop so well it doesn't budge even when swinging the truck around corners.

Check out the full build guide below to see step by step photos and additional information. Have a unique in-car DIY hack like Mike's laptop stand? Let's hear about it in the comments.

DIY In-Car Laptop Holder [via Hack a Day]

Arduino 017 is now available

Arduino 017 is now available: "

The Attic Playground [Featured Workspace]

The Attic Playground [Featured Workspace]: "

Most people think of attics as a place to stash boxes of Christmas ornaments and dusty boxes of mementos. Follow the example of today's featured workspace, and the attic becomes a place for 8-core workstations and Rock Band sessions.

If we had to guess how Lifehacker reader edgefactor627 came about the idea of having such a pile of goodies in his attic, we'd have to go with him having a strong desire to serve as a beacon of fun for the whole neighborhood, drawn to the signal of condensed awesomeness in the highest room in his house.

No matter what the motivation, the end result is a workspace that has plenty of personality—tartan carpet anyone?—and lots of space for work and play. On one end of the room is a MacPro 2009 with 8 cores, hooked up to dual 24" displays and a Wacom Intuos tablet. On the other end of the room is a couch, 1080 HDTV with surround sound, and a Rock Band station complete with drum set. Check out the pictures below for a closer view and the link to his Flickr set for additional photo notes.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.

The Attic Playground [Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool]

More Google Reader "Send To" Tricks [Feed Readers]

More Google Reader "Send To" Tricks [Feed Readers]: "

Google Reader added custom 'Send To' options to its feed reading service, and at least one blogger quickly patched together a Save as PDF trick. Now others have Send To links for Instapaper, default email clients, Google Calendar, and more.

Jordan Running sends us his tip on sending Reader feed items to Instapaper, the article-saving, text-extracting webapp we find pretty indispensable for set-and-forget mobile reading. I'd thought using my email address as my Instapaper account would trip up Running's URL hack, but, despite landing on a 201 error page, the full article—pulled from a partial feed item—arrived in Instapaper just fine.

Over at Google Operating System, blogger Alex comes up with hacks for Google Bookmarks and Add to Any, while his commenters chime in with tricks for adding Google Calendar events, triggering your system's default mail client, like Outlook, instead of Reader's built-in Gmail sender, and a few others worth checking out.

As noted in yesterday's post, share any Reader 'Send To' URL tricks you find or devise, and we'll round them up for a meatier post in due time.

Instapaper 'Send To' button for Google Reader [Jordan Running]
Google Reader's 'Send to' Feature [Google Operating System]

PDF Mod Edits Multi-Page PDFs in Linux [Downloads]

PDF Mod Edits Multi-Page PDFs in Linux [Downloads]: "

Linux: Linux is fully capable of scanning, processing, and otherwise working with PDF documents, but some of the default tools aren't exactly new-user-friendly. PDF Mod is a straight-forward tool for adding and subtracting pages, exporting images, and other document tweaks.

The software, written in just over a week last month, lays out all the pages of a PDF in a grid, then lets you click on a page to rotate or remove it. You can select even, odd, or matching pages throughout a PDF, extract images from a document into a folder, and re-save your document as a new, fixed PDF. That's all it does, but for those whose spirits droop a bit when faced with the myriad options and buttons in XSane or other PostScript/PDF tools, you'll dig PDF Mod's simplicity.

PDF Mod is available as a free source package for Linux systems that's fairly easy to compile; the Lazy Ubuntu blog linked below has a copy-paste terminal guide for Ubuntu users.

PDF Mod [Gabriel Burt's Blog via Lazy Ubuntu]

Backup and Search Your Friends' Tweets with Google Reader [Twitter]

Backup and Search Your Friends' Tweets with Google Reader [Twitter]: "

Thanks to a combination of RSS magic and Twitter API, it's possible to search the tweets of everyone in your Twitter network with Google Reader. Here's how to do it.

First, though, why would you want to do this? The native search tool provided by Twitter only tunnels back about a week and a half. Anything beyond that is lost in the ether. Thanks to a handy little tool created by Dave Winer, you can turn your follower list into an RSS feed and import that feed into Google Reader, which turns the data from the Twitter feeds into a search-friendly mountain of feed items. How do you do it? From ReadWriteWeb:

It couldn't be much simpler. Just put your Twitter username into this link, instead of mine, and load it up in your browser: http://tw.opml.org/get?user=marshallk&folder=1

It may take just a minute, but the end result will be an OPML file. You can either go up to your browser's File menu and select 'save as' or you can View Source and copy and paste the source of the page into a text document. Save it with a memorable name and either .xml or .opml as the file type. It's really quite easy.

Now if you want to put this puppy into Google Reader just log in, click on 'manage subscriptions' and find the import/export button. Import that file into Google Reader and you're ready to rock and roll!

In our test of the service, we were able to mine all sorts of things from the feed we created. How much did our band of followers talk about Texas? Quite a bit more than we expected. Check out the full article at the link below for additional information or use the technique quoted above to jump right in. Have a favorite Twitter-centric hack of your own? Share it in the comments.

How To: Backup And Search All Your Friends' Tweets In Google Reader [ReadWriteWeb]

Boxee locks up additional funding, plots route from underground to mainstream

Boxee locks up additional funding, plots route from underground to mainstream: "

We're not sure how this affects the zero-dollar revenue goal for 2009, but popular media player software Boxee announced it has closed a $6 million round of financing including a new partner, General Catalyst. We'll let the money men assess value, the key point for users is how this affects the company's plan to take the platform from underground darling to mainstream hit - embedding the software in connected TVs, Blu-ray player, game consoles and set-top boxes. With a Windows alpha release in the bag and latest support from MLB.tv Boxee seems well on the way towards reaching larger audiences, CEO Avner Ronen says to look forward to the beta release this fall, more content deals and extending the App Store and API support. Our advice is to avoid tearing an ACL itself dancing on stage like another recent independent performer turned-mainstream star, what would you like to see from Boxee now that the company has more resources to provide it?

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Boxee locks up additional funding, plots route from underground to mainstream originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Reader Adds Social Sharing and Mark as Read Controls [Feeds]

Google Reader Adds Social Sharing and Mark as Read Controls [Feeds]: "

The Google Reader team's been busy of late, adding social network sharing and friend following features, but also giving power users a (long-awaited) ability to mark items of a certain age as read.

Most noticeable, on an item-by-item basis, is the new 'send to' menu. Head to Google Reader's settings, click off the social networks you want to add access to (or manually add a URL, if you're hack-friendly like that), and they'll appear on the send to menu. Reader will also notify you when friends you're following in Reader have web sites with feeds attached in their Google Profiles.

But the most important changes, for those using Reader to get their news reading done, are the Mark as Read tweaks. It's not a custom search by date, exactly, but it does let you skip through a huge pile of unread items after, say, a long weekend, week's vacation, or general absence from your feed reader. You get the ability to mark items older than one day, one week, or two weeks as read, which is a pretty good start.

A few other changes are in effect for mobile users and note sharing, so hit the link to learn about them, and share what you're able to do now, or what you don't really like about Reader's changes, in the comments.

A flurry of features for feed readers [Official Google Reader Blog]