Top 5 Hacks for Nokia N900.
The Nokia N900 has finally proven to all critics and admirers that
the mobile phone company is still head and shoulders above its peers.
With stiff competition from Android and BlackBerry devices, Nokia’s move
on the chessboard, promoting and rewarding ‘hack-tivity,’ is a bold
step in the mobile phone industry.
Hackers are not only allowed to manipulate the Linux based Maemo
software, they even get rewarded for it.
Recently, Nokia rounded off the PUSH N900 competition with five winning
proposals rewarded with an N900, funding and support to deliver on their idea.
The five best Nokia N900 hacks are, no particular order, listed below.
Tilt ‘N’ Roll.
So you think you can skate?
This amazing script is designed to track all your skills and moves as
you pump adrenaline on a skate board.
Six skate board lovers came together to design what they feel will be an
advance for the skating community.
The script has a unique playback that can record and later show you
the skills as you performed them.
It helps rate your performance on a daily basis and can even be
used for skate board coaching.
This was designed by Solderin Skaters group.
Wearable Direction Guide.
This is a unique inter-city guide designed to be worn on the body and the controls
come directly from the N900 hardware.
The cell phone’s map has been modified to not just hold information on direction,
but tell you exactly where to turn, the distance to the next restaurant, etc. It’s
like the next generation robot, but built in a device as small as the Nokia N900.
The Haptic Guide crew built amazing piece of technology.
Kite Aerial Photography.
Using a simple kid’s toy as a concept, this team of four have designed
a masterpiece with materials from things we see and pass by every day.
The script was written to control the kite which has an built-in
camera that can snap interesting pictures from high up in the sky.
All the owner needs to do is the N900 and take a stroll.
The kite is designed to do surveillance military drones do; it’s far cheaper…
and more creative.
Photography and Light.
This one is particularly off the hook.
Merging light, photography, and in one piece is just awesome.
The three Australians called Light Hack Crew have done something
unique and wonderful with the N900’s 5 megapixel camera abilities.
The N900 is used to control the light in the background, manipulating the
image to suit a particular art form the user has in mind, and the result
is just a wonderful work of art…
graffiti.
Etch A Sketch.
This team of four have, over the years, emerged from many trials and errors
to pick up one of the best five hacks in the Nokia N900 PUSH competition.
With an amazing hack that allows you use the touch screen of the N900 to draw
and do never before seen simulation.
The script allows the device to real-time objects and images.
It is quite flexible and can be in any way to suit the occasion.
A great piece of ingenuity, deserving of one of the top prizes.
Some More Hacks.
1980s Radio Playback: This Nokia N900 texts a band’s name into the N900.
The N900 pulls their tracks off Last.fm and pushes the audio to a radio
giving the listener 1980s mono sound.
Control Spell ‘n’ Speak: Using an open source script, the N900
can be made to control the screen keyboard and speech synthesis of a
Speak ‘n’ Spell voice synthesizer.
Create 3D Images: This hack connects the Nokia N900 to a View-Master,
creating a 3D image which can then be viewed on the device.
This is accomplished by moving the View-Master left and right which
triggers the N900 to take two pictures.
The two images are combined into one by an open source script which
results in a 3D picture on the N900.
Sync a Rolodex: The Sync a Rolodex hack uses a special code to synch the N900’s
contacts with a retro 1980s Rolodex by using Arduino and Bluetooth technology.
The finished result is that when going through a Rolodex, the N900 goes through
the corresponding contacts on the device.