Do you remember mobil.se - the site that showcased the stunning game Bounce? They have recently "reviewed" the N900. Obviously they didn't have the final firmware, but I think they at least had the latest one.

In their review, which was more like a review than a preview, they openly admitted that the software wasn't final, but the harware was. And the interesting part here is that they mentioned very clearly that the N900 will have a digital compass, and that they tested it, and it worked really well. The good part here is that if the N900 happens to not have a compass, then we know that the simulated directions will be at least as good as it'd be if it'd have a "real" compass.


But now I happen to believe that there might be more than a slim chance of an appearance for the compass in the N900. Why? And why didn't the other (p)reviews mention it?

The thing is that mobil.se has a very close relationship with Nokia. To name the latest example, they reviewed an "almost" finished version of the N86 3 whole months before the official release date. This means that Nokia must be supplying them with not only the latest "final prototypes", but also with stable software in a state that can be reviewed.

However, it must be mentioned that they couldn't test the battery life, since it wasn't the real final firmware version, and unlike other sources **cough** Eldar **cough, they did mention it.


Another interesting thing with this review was the mention of built-in games. All previous (p)reviews, like my-symbian.com's (which was great by the way, I feel sorry for him that Google bought the domain name "my-maemo.com" before him), mentioned 4 built-in games, not including Bounce. This review did not only mention the existance of a fifth built-in game, but they "almost" reviewed the game itself, due its stunning graphics.

This must mean that the firmware version was "newer" than the previous (p)reviews. This means that it's possible that a digital compass exists in the hardware, but it wasn't enabled by the software yet, just like the FM radio. Maybe.

Of course I'm going to provide the sources, but there's a slim chance that you'll understand them (becuase they're in a foreign language). The whole review was only published in their magazine, so the web version is kind of useless to link, since it doesn't even mention a digital compass.


Here are some scans of the magazine:

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/3016/del1.jpg
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/9311/del2.jpg

And no, unfortunately you can't use Google Translate on this, made by the great company behind the highly successful and very famous Google Search, because Google doesn't have magazines in their database... yet.


What do you think? Is the existance of a digital compass possible, of did they confuse it with the stimulated one?

Looking at the game here I think it would use the accelerometer rather than a digital compass.

I really like the look of the N900 but I won't buy it if it lacks a good compass (not the crappy n97 implementation). I usually buy a phone for two years and I think augmented reality applications will become a lot more common in that time.

Not to throw wood on the fire, but when the same magazine interviewed a swedish representative from Nokia he (the representative) did actually mention the N900 having digital compass. Iirc It wasn't clear however if he was referring to the function ("simulated" compass) or an actual magnetometer. He might also have been making premature and uninformed assumptions.

Probably the latter, since other Nokia sources have claimed the n900 does not have a magnetometer?

Nice to know that whatever it is works well, though.

EDIT: A link to the interview, if anyone is interested. At about 6.17 he says in passing "..., you have digital compass in it, ..."
http://tv.mediaprovider.se/sa_funger...065242875.html

Still seems inconclusive to me. The text in question, typed in by yours truly and fed into Google Translate:

http://translate.google.com/translat...story_state0=#

It's not clear if they're just talking about the existence of a compass icon on the map that can be manually rotated, or the existence of a real hardware compass chip/circuitry.

Well, this video is better than many other handling videos, mainly because I do get the impression the rep knows how to use the N900 fluently and actually seems to know what he's talking about.

And time will tell if the hardware exists or not. Some of the first devices probably get disassembled quickly anyhow.

would be nice..perhaps it has one afterall..who knows..

Chess, Mahjong, Blocks and Marbles - exactly the same as their Maemo 4 counterparts.

Bounce.

They got confused.

As a native swedish speaker, that sentance states that the nokia n900 not only has gps, but also a built-in digitial compass so that the user can easily keep the map oriented in the correct direction.

Google translate sucks. Either the mag is inventing their own specs for the n900 or someone at nokia told them it has a digital compass.

Aren't there already a few dozen N900s in use by people on Maemo.org? Wouldn't the reports it doesn't have a compass have been quashed long ago if it did?

I'm eager to be wrong, but i don't see how we can suddenly believe there's a compass at this late date.

Well for one thing there are NDAs and for another whether it has a proper compass or not would only be obvious from the software.

I think it's most likely there isn't one but I'd be pleasantly surprised if it turned out there was.