Hack my mobile, please! The PUSH project shows what the Nokia N900 is capable of.

Here’s a fascinating idea that a friend of mine notified me of. The N900 is an extremely powerful little mobile device from Nokia, which runs on a mostly open source operating system called Maemo. In order to show what the N900 can achieve, Nokia has invited hackers to build the most interesting mods to the device that they can. This is called the PUSH project, and some of the results are extremely cool.

The device:

The N900 was officially announced in September of last year. Unlike most other smartphones on the market, it is running an operating system that is actively supposed to be tinkered with – and with the PUSH project, Nokia is actively encouraging modification.

As far as Nokia is concerned, the N900 isn’t really a phone. It’s a very small Internet tablet. Rick Simonson, Nokia’s executive VP and head of mobile phones, said that Maemo is the operating system that Nokia uses for “mobile computers” – which gives you an idea of the kind of capabilities that the N900 is supposed to have. No mere smartphone this, but intended to be a small computer.

The PUSH project:

Let’s be clear about something. We are talking about hackers here, but not the Hollywood stereotype that “hacks into the mainframe… through a backdoor left in the program”. These are real hackers: hobbyists who heavily modify both the hardware and software of electronics. They do this in order to make them better; or to make them do something different; or for art; or just for the hell of it.

Nokia has invited any hackers who want to to modify the N900. It has provided what information the hackers will need, and let them get on with it. Initially Nokia received hundreds of responses, which it has since whittled down to 5 different teams who are beavering away at their different projects. Some of the initial ideas that were completed were extremely cool (I particularly love the 3D picture mod with the Viewmaster):

What are the five final projects?

The Haptic Guide – a tour guide that doesn’t require you too look at the phone. The N900 is to be connected a belt that you wear… a belt with little vibration motors on it. The vibrations of the motors will let you know which way you should be walking without ever having to check your device.

The Light Hack crew – this is an artistic application. You set your N900 up with the camera running, and use an electronic spray can to “paint” strokes of light in the air that the N900 will pick via long-exposure.

The Solderin Skaters – the N900 picks up signals from a micro-controller glued to the bottom of your skateboard. This micro-controller contains a bunch of accelerometers, gyroscopes and bluetooth technology. The end result is that your N900 can measure every move you pull on your board, and give you stats and points on them!

Sketch Your World – this mod will let your N900 transform any picture into an etch-a-sketch picture. And not just by making it black and white and adding a line effect – it actually decodes the picture in such a way that it can be drawn as a single line, just like an etch-a-sketch.

KAPing – KAPing is a photographic hobby. It stands for Kite Aerial Photography, and it involves attaching your camera to a large kite in order to get aerial photographs. This project is aimed at turning the N900 into a controller for a more complex KAP system, allowing you to remotely view what your camera is seeing, control which direction it is pointing and take pictures.

What we think?

I want to start by saying that I absolutely love this. I think it’s a great idea, and that some great stuff is going to come out of it.

But I’m a massive nerd.

And that’s the problem with the N900. It can be as nerdy as it wants, but that’s hardly going to translate into big sales. The PUSH project itself has bee around for months now, and there’s very little publicity for it. I just don’t think that making powerful and niche devices like this is going to be a successful model in the smartphone market. In form and function, smartphones tend to look and act the same way. N900, iPhone, Nexus One…. same difference, really. The devices themselves are not differentiated. It’s the services that will win the day.

And therein lies the genius behind the PUSH project. What better way is there to try and foster new, innovative services than to completely open your devices hardware and software to a community that loves nothing more than to build new things? Nokia might actually get something very valuable out of all of this.