I only just got my N900 and I love it, but I seem to hear alot about "hacking the device".

So my question is this...

What does hack the device actually mean?

I usually only use a mobile for normal use but the N900 has many more possibilities so what are they?

Thanks

"A critical vulnerability exists in Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45.2 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems, and the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX operating systems. This vulnerability (CVE-2010-1297) could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against both Adobe Flash Player, and Adobe Reader and Acrobat. This advisory will be updated once a schedule has been determined for releasing a fix."

Flash Announcement
http://www.adobe.com/support/securit...apsa10-01.html

In the meantime it's been advised on the Nokia forum that you disable Flash in your browser.

Disable Flash on N900
http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/...00/td-p/699699

Hopefully we'll see a fix soon. And hopefully it'll be available "Globally"

But
when u say "Hacking" u might mean flashing your N900. as alot of VF users are stuck on the old update and not 1.2.

Check out the Mods thread:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...168#post703168

One meaning is the ability to overwrite files within the device to change it how you want- with the N900 the possibilities (in terms of user interface modification) are endless.

D4rKlar

Ummm..... no. It is a common misconception that "to hack" means to gain unauthorized access, to break into or generally to do bad/illegal stuff to computers. In geek talk (and afaik also in the dictionary), to hack also means "to make a device do something it was not intended to do". For example, usb host mode for n900 (which is now being worked on - search for the thread and thank the people!) is a mighty hack
The n900 (and it would seem the earlier n8xx too) allows for a lot of hacking to take place. Just look around and see what other managed to do

One of the most successful and loved "hacks" are the abillity to overclock the n900 using a custom kernel. http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=39753

Now you can make the phone use 125mhz or 1150mhz depending on what you do and need. You can also change the voltage to make the battery last longer.

Do a power search (the sarch bar is usles) and check out th "share your MOD's" thread

Hackng just means modfying your n900, because of the open nature of the device you can modify almost every aspect of it.

You will find the comunity really helpfull as long as you try and find things out for yourself before yo ask questions, and search before posting new theads as there is usualy already one on the subject. And remember to use the thanks in the bottom right of any posts you find helpful

Hacking away at a device usually means grabbing a large machete (in this case, Perl) and slashing away at it until you make it do what you want, regardless of what it was originally designed to do.

So, if you scan this forum and skip the 10000 posts about how people hate or love the n900 or Nokia, you'll find some fun hacks people have done to make it do neat things.

THIS.

my definition is getting a piece of hardware or software to do things it was not originally intended to do.

This might qualify as a nice hack:
http://www.slashgear.com/niko-n900-b...video-1878169/
I guess Nokia did not intend the n900 to be used to control a LEGO robot via twitter

Or maybe this one too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3pvdFpA1II
(You'll have to imagine the knight rider theme song playing in the background yourself).

On the other hand, given the definition "Do stuff the device is not intended to do", neither of this is actually a hack... Maemo is based on Linux, which has the intention of making everything possible.
Therefore, we can not do something not intended

Anyhow, if you come from a lesser operating system, you might have heared the word "hack" in a different context. For example "hacking" the device to avoid having to use the official media player to instead use a proper application.
Just check out http://maemo.org/downloads/Maemo5/ if that is what you want. No actual hacking required.

Or maybe, if you are a programmer, hacking might mean to write your own programs to realize the devices full potential, become rich & famous, save the whales and have a thousand virgins kneel before your Holy Awesomeness' feet.

Hacking might also mean to overcome security measures of the device/operating system, for example if you "have found" a n900 somewhere, the device is locked by some number code and you want to check the adressbook in order to find out to whom this device belongs. See http://blogs.sans.org/computer-foren...c-cheat-sheet/



So anyway. Hope your are thoroughly confused now.

You can for instance install Android on your N900. It doesn't do many useful things currently, though.