Did you pre-order a Nokia N900? You’ll want to check your mail for a tracking number today because Nokia confirmed that the first shipments of its Maemo phone are on the way. SlashGear got the official word at a Nokia event earlier today and also got a sneak peek at the latest new features and functions. Check out the video presentation they captured, which is actually most impressive — the on-screen presentation is done with a Nokia N900 using the included video-out cable.

In the demo, you’ll see how the N900 pulls down contact pics from Twitter and Facebook so that your Address Book has a nice photo of your fave friends. There’s also a quick look at the podcatching application, although all of the examples were YouTube video feeds. I suspect that the app will grab audio-only podcasts as well. All in all, the N900 hardware is looking pretty polished and offers a unique user interface. But is that enough for widespread success? In some cases, it’s close, but not guaranteed.

The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and it’s always a delight when companies give back to us in the spirit of the season. Our friends at GottaBeMobile are pointing out not one company giving back, but three. It seems that Google is filling up 47 airports in the U.S. and flights on Virgin Air with free Wi-Fi through Jan. 15. Yahoo is lighting up Times Square all year in NYC with Wi-Fi action, and Microsoft is partnering with JiWire to give Wi-Fi in airports, as long as users make at least one search with Bing. ‘Tis the season to stay connected.

Looks like you can add Toshiba to the ranks of netbook brands going the subsidy route. Over the weekend, jkOTR reader Hector Gomez and I both saw the deal in this week’s Best Buy circular — which is actually square, not circular at all. The standard $399 price for a Toshiba NB-205 looks like it got jacked up by $100 because the netbook alone is advertised at $499. I suspect that’s simply to make the subsidy deal look more attractive, because this configuration is routinely $399. In any case, you can nab the NB-205 for $299 with integrated HSPA service through AT&T for the next two years. If you’d rather go with integrated EVDO on the Verizon or Sprint network, you’ll pay $229. In either case, you’ll be paying $1,440 over the next two years for your service, so don’t overlook that budgetary point.

More interesting is the netbook’s configuration because it’s the same as what I bought in August of this year. This is the Windows XP Home version of the NB-205 with the 1.66GHz Intel Atom and 160 GB hard drive. Now that Windows 7 is available, I would have expected this deal to come with Microsoft’s latest operating system. Of course, that would likely be the Starter Edition, which does have a few limitations.  Does anyone else find it odd that this deal features Windows XP and not Windows 7?

I use the task manager Remember The Milk on all of my devices, computers and phones alike, and the Verizon Droid I am evaluating is no exception. RTM has been available on Android phones for a while, and it is a nice application for those handsets. Android supports widgets on the home screens, and RTM has a widget in addition to the application. It sits on the home screen showing your task list, and the full app is just a screen tap away. Android has a Quick Search feature that is powerful, and this new version of RTM integrates your tasks with the search feature so your task list can now be searched universally.

The RTM folks were ready for the launch of the Droid last week, and updated the Android app to support the handset’s high-resolution screen. I am using it and it works fine, so those of you with RTM Pro accounts should get the update if you are using an Android phone. This new Android version also supports the lower resolution of the HTC Tattoo.

There are product recalls and there are major product recalls, and this one by Nokia is in the latter category as the company admits 14 million products are affected. The chargers affected are AC -3U, AC-3E and AC-4U. According to Nokia:

Nokia has announced an exchange program for a limited number of Nokia-branded chargers manufactured by a third-party supplier. We have determined that the plastic covers of the affected chargers could come loose and separate, exposing the charger’s internal components and potentially posing an electric shock hazard if certain internal components are touched while the charger is plugged into a live socket.

If you purchased your 3U or 3E before June 2009, or your 4U before April 2009, then your charger is not subject to the recall.

In a side-by-side comparison, one could argue that pics from the iPhone 3GS look better than those from a Droid. That doesn’t mean you can’t make the Droid photos a little better. Adobe released a mobile Photoshop app for the iPhone a few weeks back, and the same title hits the Android Market today. The free software is limiting in terms of what picture qualities you can change, but I find myself using it on most of my pics. In fact, just yesterday I tweaked this little number using Photoshop for iPhone.

Harvesting the feed corn

What I like about the app is how simple it is. You just choose what function you want and then slide your finger left to right for the adjustment. You can save the photo locally or save and upload to Photoshop.com where you have 2 GB of free storage.

Image Credit: zol.com.cn

Is the venerable ThinkPad name getting slapped on a large netbook/ultra-light notebook? All signs appear to be yes, although many of them are speculation and rumor. Most of these thoughts are coming from ThinkPadToday which states that Jan. 5, 2010 is the date we’ll see the ThinkPad X100e with these potential specs:

• 1.6 GHz AMD Athlon Neo or 1.4 GHz Intel CULV
• 12.1-inch display at 1280 x 800
• 3 GB of RAM
• Integrated mobile broadband options
• Corresponding Ultrabase

With Lenovo’s current IdeaPad line, I’d expect such a device to cost north of $600, if it does indeed appear. I’d chalk this one up to complete rumor except, there have been a fair number of photos floating around. With the legendary ThinkPad keyboards, I’m sure many would like to see this rumor come true.

We recently told you about Connectify, a beta program that turned any Windows 7 computer with Wi-Fi into a virtual hotspot. The program creates a hotspot that is easily shared with others. The company behind Connectify stated it worked on Windows 7 only. It turns out that the virtual router capability is baked right into Windows 7, and the latest Wi-Fi drivers from Intel enable the capability without any other software needed.

It is only logical, but we should point out that the Intel Wi-Fi components must support this capability. Intel’s latest components seem to support it just fine once the proper drivers are installed. You can see the virtual network connection appear once everything is in place. Just follow the simple three-step process outlined in the link above to get a virtual router up and running.

Image courtesy I started something

You’d almost have to have been sleeping under a rock to not have caught word of the other Droid handset coming to Verizon, the HTC Droid Eris. Everybody outside of Verizon, HTC and Google has been talking up the Eris for a few weeks. The three companies are coming out today with the official announcement of the Droid Eris phone coming to Verizon on Nov. 6, as we already knew.

The Droid Eris is Verizon’s second phone in the Droid line, thus the name, and it is basically a more budget-oriented Android phone for Big Red. There may be some confusion with both the Droid (or is that the Droid Droid?) and the Droid Eris launching on the same day, and no doubt some customers will find the Droid Eris’ lower price makes it the preferred phone to buy.

The Eris appears to be an updated HTC Hero, and it packs the HTC Sense interface like the Hero. While the Droid comes stocked with Android 2.0, the Droid Eris (this is getting confusing, isn’t it?) runs on Android 1.5. HTC has stated that it will update the Droid Eris to 2.0 when the Sense interface is compatible with the latest OS version.

The Droid Eris will cost Verizon customers $99 after a $100 rebate, with a 2-year contract.

One of my mobile mantras — No. 4, actually — is to turn off wireless radios and work offline when I can. Solutions like Google’s Gears allows for that approach, but sometimes you don’t need your entire mailbox with you when you’re offline. Starting today, you get a little more control.

Google has now implemented a way to choose which mail you want to use offline with Gmail. Now you can tell Gears to only pull down mail from specific labels and from certain time periods. Only want your Inbox and two other labels from the past week? No problem. Once you have Gmail setup for offline use, just hit the Offline tab in Settings to pick and choose.