PORTLAND, OR, United States – I’ve had the luxury of having a Nokia N9 in my pocket for the last two weeks. The button-less interface, known as Swipe, has taken a little getting used to, but once you’ve adapted to it, it’s hard to imagine going back to any other phone.
After a fair amount of usage, some of my Twitter friends have asked me about top tips for the Nokia N9. Here’s a list with descriptions and time-savers.
Don’t fumble with the power button: To quickly unlock the Nokia N9, don’t bother reaching for the power button on the right hand side of the phone. Instead, tap the screen twice, then swipe in any direction to unlock the phone. Fast, simple, easy.
Navigating between emails: In the email application, what happens if you are reading a message and you want to swipe from message to message, without having to go back to the main message window? To do this, from within a message, swipe left or right to go back and forth between messages. This is a real time saver when you’re scanning email.
Launch the camera application: The Nokia N9 has a few minimal buttons. With this, getting to the camera to quickly snap a photo is a challenge. However, use this tip to get around the picture snapping dilema. From the standby screen, swipe from the bottom up, revealing 4 launchers, including the camera. You can then snap photos or shoot video easily.
Turn Bluetooth on, fast: Got in your car and want to turn your Bluetooth on fast? First, unlock the Nokia N9, then, tap once on the bar at the top and a status bar slides down. Tap on the Bluetooth menu and you can easily turn on Bluetooth and pair the N9 with a device at your will.
Customize the quick launch bar: If you want to customize the apps that are in the quick launch bar, this is accessible via an application. By default, the phone application, messaging, camera and web browser are set by default. However, with the Shortcuts application, you can customize this useful menu.
Quickly quit applications from the running apps screen: if you do a long press on the running applications screen, you can rearrange the open apps and also quit applications with one button press with no swiping involved at all.
Hiding Twitter or Facebook news items in the notification screen: Do a long press on an item from the feed you want to hide and choose “Clear <feedname>” (for example “Clear Facebook”). This removes currently displayed feed items from the screen and makes it easier to see what’s new in your various feeds.
Fastest way to access your calendar: From any screen, swipe to the right to reveal the notifications bar. Then, click on the date in the upper left and your calendar application is launched. Alternatively, click on the temperature reading in the upper right and Accuweather is revealed.
What are your favorite shortcuts or timesavers for the Nokia N9?
