I used My N900 as my main music player; indeed 22gigs of my memory is dedicated to Music.

Prior to this I had an iPod touch and two of the simplest yet great feature that I loved on the device was 1) the ability to change volume without having to wake the player and 2) The ability to change tracks on the standby screen without going into the player.

Currently the N900 has neither of those and I think there is already a brainstorm idea for the 1st feature I mentioned above.

Here is my idea of how the 2nd feature could be implemented on the phone.


Currently when the phone screen is off and the power button is pressed, you get the time, date and the “Wipe to Unlock” bar.

Also if you are listening to a track and the phone is in your pocket with the screen off. When a track comes on that you don’t like you have to either use the slider to switch on the screen or use the Power button then “Wipe to Unlock”.

Although this is no big deal, if you have to do this a number of times during the day it does get very annoying.

How about this:
1) If you are listening to a track and a song comes on that you don’t like.
2) Pressing the power button to reveal the “Wipe to Unlock” bar.
3) Behind it filling the screen will be the Album Art are of the track you are listening to.
4) Below it will be the music controls
5) All in portrait mode for effective 1-hand use.

Now you don’t have to go into the home screen to change tracks with the widgets

Did my best to show in the pic.

would be a neat idea, the n900 is my main music player and i agree. Switching songs constantly or frequently sucks on the n900.

Or even trying to change volume if display is locked :/

We do want something like this... But I was saying that we need portrait mode only for media player, and web browser (microB); which is already kind of implemented. and a T9 virtual keyboard support..

This isn't that bad either though.. Kind of weird, but it isn't bad.

i like the way my palm pre handled this. it used the button on the mic. on press for play/pause, and a double press for skip to next track. obviously this wouldn't help if you're in headphone mode, but when you are in headset mode its a really nice feature. would this be possible to implement on the N900?

Someone somewhere suggest using long presses on the volume button for skip forward/back. I think that's a great idea, since you wouldn't even have to look at the screen. I would add using the camera key for play/pause.

This would all be in addition to displaying the controls on screen like you suggested.

can you guys please check the WH-701 Nokia wired headset and if one of you has this, please let me know if it does what this thread is expecting? I agree, there has to be a UI interface for the same features, but I'm just curious if anyone else here has also used this headset and if it works well with the N900. If it does, I plan to buy it.

What would be cool, is if we pressed the power button, and then there was the slide to unlock button, and maybe a second button saying "walkman mode", which would enable a UI to control music. Well, I don't know, it seems cool in my head.

My Zune HD got something like this where you got one button on the left side that shows track and all the functions(forward, next song, volume and so on)even if the device is locked. Very handy and works better than my old ipod touch 1G.
N900 will soon be my only MP3 player as i get rid off the Zune HD so hoping to see something like this at some point.

Most important thing would still be portrait mode for media player. I really don't care about portrait in the menus or in the browser(i already did hold my Omnia HD and 5800 mostly in landscape), but at least to me who is most of the time moving when i'm lisening music from MP3 player, having portrait there makes sense to me as i don't need to use two hands for something very simple like selecting new track or whatever.

nokia should make this remote working on the n900 That would be a great improvement.

This is how my old Sony-Ericsson w810i did it and it was truly a great feature. That would definitely get my vote.

The camera key for play/pause seems like a sensible idea as well (the w810i had a dedicated button).