Every Flavour Beans

“The time has come…to talk of many [technologies].” –Lewis Carroll(’The Walrus and the Carpenter’)
Development Tools. Web Frameworks. GNU/Linux. Nokia N800. Video Encoding.

January 8, 2008

Make OS2008 for N800/N810 Look Beautiful

Filed under: N800 — tabrez @ 8:12 pm

The first change you notice after updating from OS2007 to OS2008 on your Nokia N800 Internet tablet(or after buying N810) is that it looks remarkably good and comes with a better set of themes and background images. At least that is my personal opinion. If you are more of a ‘use the device to get the work done’ type of person then here are a bunch screenshots with OS2008 running on an N800 device to get you motivated to spend ~5 minutes with your device and change its default look to make it look even more beautiful. Not to say that the default look isn’t beautiful(I did include screenshots with the default look too), but you would get bored having the same look on the device for more than a month, wouldn’t you?

1. Changing the default desktop layout.

When OS2008 is installed, by default only a couple of applets are visible on the tablet screen. You can add more by going to the Home menu and selecting “Select applets…” option. After adding the applets to the desktop, you can drag them around until you get the desired layout. Dragging can be done using a finger nail too but I recommend using a stylus in this case. I have these applets on my tablet desktop:

Default theme and wallpaper 'Echo' on N800/OS2008

What you see in the above screenshot are default theme and default background image(Echo).

2. Changing the default Theme.

OS2008 comes with five themes installed by default. You can select one of them by going to the top menu and selecting “Set theme…” option.
How to select a new theme in Nokia Internet tablets - N800 and N810

Try out all the available themes and decide which one you like the best. The screenshots below give you an idea about all the five default themes available in OS2008. (Each theme uses its designated background image as provided in OS2008.)
See all on one page on Flickr
Echo Theme and Wallpaper
Felicia Theme and Wallpaper
Glasser Theme and Wallpaper
Hendrika Theme and Wallpaper
Plankton Theme and Wallpaper

Unfortunately, not many themes are created by the Nokia Internet tablet community. Not many that I know of anyway. Some user created themes can be installed from the Application Manager, so see there if you can find any.

3. Changing the default Wallpaper.

OS2008 comes with six wallpapers by default. Maemo UI team released 10 more on their weblog. That gives you around 15 wallpapers to try and match with your selected theme. You can download more from other websites or create your own. Couple of my favourite combinations are Hendrika-Lauttasaari Sunset and Glasser-Driving in Vermont but it all boils down to your taste.

To change the background image/wallpaper, go to the Home menu and select “Set background image…” option. Select one of the provided background images from the “Image” dropdown box or select an image from the memory card by clicking the “Browse” button.
How to select a new background image/wallpaper in Nokia Internet tablets - N800 and N810

You can download more wallpapers from these websites:
Tim Samoff’s Christmas present, Maemo UI Teams’s Christmas present part 1 and part 2.
[via itT]

End Notes:

Here are some more screenshots of my tablet’s screen with different themes and wallpapers and my selected applet layout. Enjoy!

Hendrika Theme and Abstract Wallpaper:
Hendrika Theme for Nokia Internet tablets N800 and N810(OS2008)

Glasser Theme and `Lauttasaari Sunset` Wallpaper:
Glasser Theme for Nokia Internet tablets N800 and N810(OS2008)

Felicia Theme and `Driving in Vermont` Wallpaper:
Felicia Theme for Nokia Internet tablets N800 and N810(OS2008)

Glasser Theme and `Driving in Vermont` Wallpaper:
Glasser Theme for Nokia Internet tablets N800 and N810(OS2008)

Hendrika Theme and `Lauttasari Sunset` Wallpaper:
Hendrika Theme for Nokia Internet tablets N800 and N810(OS2008)

Felicia Theme and Echo Wallpaper:
Felicia Theme for Nokia Internet tablets N800 and N810(OS2008)

Media Player in Echo Theme:
Media Player looks beautiful in Echo them for Nokia Internet tablets N800 and N810(OS2008)


If you want to receive future posts by email, enter your email address here:

Related Posts:

  • OS2008 For Nokia N800 Released - Links to Reviews, Resources and First Impressions
  • GNU/Linux Users vs Rest of the world :)
  • N800 vs N810 or Who Should Consider Buying Nokia N810?
  • Installing Ubuntu & Kubuntu Dapper(6.06 LTS) For NVidia GeForce Cards
  • Unboxing Chumby and My First Impressions
  • Accessing UPnP Streamed Media in Nokia N800 using MediaStreamer
  • Java on Gentoo

  • No Comments »

    No comments yet.

    RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

    Leave a comment

    Subscribe without commenting


    Copyright (c) 2006, 2007 Tabrez Iqbal.
    Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".


    Powered by WordPress
    This website is hosted by Dreamhost