It was the year 2011 and Nokia was still the largest phone maker in the world. Android was just getting some traction but the Finnish giant was still sticking to its own Symbian OS. With its market share dwindling, Nokia decided to try out a new OS called Meego. This gave birth to the one and only Nokia N9 – the first and the last commercially available Meego smartphone from the company, all thanks to its newfound relationship with Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS.

While many know the N9 as a failed but beautiful phone running Meego, there was one feature that we all might have missed. On this day, we take a look at the weird secondary camera of the Nokia N9. It could have been one of the first smartphones to actually feature a bottom right corner front-facing camera. Definitely, the inspiration for Xiaomi’s first premium full-screen smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi MIX.

Back in 2011, when selfies were not exactly invented (I mean popularized), it was simply a secondary VGA camera with very little purpose. In fact, if you read a GSMArena post about the Nokia N9, you would see that many didn’t even know what it was at first.

I mean, you can’t blame folks back in 2011. Selfie cameras were not mainstream back then, and the placement was the weirdest of all. Without leaksters like Evan Blass or Roland Quandt or Steve Hmmerstoffer (OnLeaks) in the industry, very little was known about a phone before it was launched. In fact, even after a phone was announced, there would still be a few details that were left unrevealed. So you usually had to wait for a review to know exactly what’s what!

Another highlight of the N9 was, of course, its Meego OS. While the operating system didn’t really catch on, it was definitely way ahead of its time. Everything in the OS was gesture based (what we call swipes today), very similar to what we see in Android and iOS smartphones. It’s really a shame that the OS didn’t catch on, probably because it didn’t have any strong backers. Well, Intel did back it for a while, but Intel wasn’t into making smartphones. Nokia ditched Meego after the N9’s release and switched to Windows Phone.

After the Nokia Lumia 800’s release – its first Windows Phone-powered smartphone, the end of Meego was nigh. Google was supporting Android while Microsoft was backing its own Windows Phone platform. With these two giants focused on their own operating systems, hardly anyone else could have survived. And today, we are left with Google’s Android dominating a major chunk of the smartphone space followed by Apple’s iOS.

So, in this episode of Throwback Tech Thursday, let’s remember the Nokia N9, not just as the first and last Nokia phone with Meego, but also as the inspiration behind the legendary Xiaomi Mi MIX series’ camera placement!

Despite its tragic fate, the Nokia N9 was definitely ahead of its time! What are your thoughts?

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The post Throwback Tech Thursday: Nokia N9’s Weird Selfie Camera Revisited appeared first on Gizmochina.

HMD Global Oy’s Nokia rode on the crest of nostalgia when it released the rebranded Nokia 3310 last year as a replacement for the evergreen and rock-solid Nokia 3310 of yore. The feature phone was an instant hit with fans who have good memories about the maiden 3310. The success even spurred the launch of a 4G version and later on, the company pushed the Nokia 8110 another feature phone with a long history. The company may be planning to play that card once again with the Nokia N9.

This bit may have been revealed unknowingly by Google at CES 2019. Google mounted a giant booth located just outside the Las Vegas Convention Centre where it displayed all the devices that support Google Assistant. One of the stands at the booth, Google displayed three smart feature phones powered by KaiOS. The phones include the JioPhone, and Nokia 8110 4G and a third device which looked similar to Nokia N9. This was spotted on a picture of the booth posted on KaiOS technologies’ official Facebook page.

The unannounced phone also had the Nokia logo which isn’t to clear as a result of the distance from which the photo was captured.  Since the device was listed by Google under the category of Google Assistant-supported device, we can assume it is running KaiOS, a modern operating system aimed at feature phone users. While all Android smartphones come with Google Assistant by default, these feature phones running KaiOS are the only other devices to support Google’s digital assistant. However, the first Nokia N6 was a MeeGo-powered phone and didn’t feature KaiOS, buttressing assertions this is a new model.  In addition, the design looks very much like the iconic Nokia N9 and bore the cyan color which was one of the color variants of the initial N9.

Read Also: Ulefone Armor Mini vs Nokia 3310 durability test (video)

As a reminder, the Nokia N9 (codename Lankku) was first announced in June 2011 and released in September. It was the first and only device from Nokia with the Linux-based MeeGo “Harmattan” mobile operating system, partly because of the company’s alliance with Microsoft announced that year. It was available in four colors: black, cyan and magenta and white. We can’t say when the new N9 will be released but it is doubtful if it will elicit the same level of interest as the Nokia N9 and 8110 4G.

(via)

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