My Top 5 N900 Applications |
| Posted: 27 Apr 2010 10:09 PM PDT Apps, apps, apps! They make or break an operating system (mobile or otherwise). I've had my N900 for over four months now, and I use it at least four or more hours per day. The following are my top five application picks that are not included on the N900 by default. #1 Firefox - Easily my favorite way to surf the web, on the N900 or otherwise. If you want more of my thoughts on this one check out my Firefox Mobile Review. #2 fMMS - This application steps up to fill one of the biggest mess-ups Nokia made when they released the N900: lack of MMS support. fMMS currently supports sending pictures and receiving all types of media messages. Since I discovered this wonderful application I no longer have to hear my friends say "your phone does all that, but can't get a picture message?" #3 TweeGo - Easily one of the most professional looking applications in the repositories that was created just for the N900. The UI is pleasing to the eye, easy to navigate, and provides everything you need to fully use twitter. #4 FaceBrick - Currently still in development, FaceBrick just recently released its 0.3 version. It supports viewing your news feed, posting/viewing comments on posts, and posting your own status updates. This is for sure one to keep your eye on and I have no doubt that within a couple of months it will be just as polished and feature rich as TweeGo. #5 Conky - Ever wonder what application is eating up all your system resources? Or maybe want to quickly check exactly how much rootfs space your device has left without having to crack open a terminal? Conky is your one stop application for all system monitoring related tasks. And finally, because I want to include a good N900 game on this list, I'd like to include my girlfriend's pick for best N900 application: Angry Birds. Seriously, if you own an N900 and haven't downloaded and tried this one yet, stop reading this and go get it now. At least an hour of classic video game fun in that one there :) What are your favorite N900/Maemo applications that you use everyday on your device? ~Jeff Hoogland  |
| Posted: 27 Apr 2010 09:35 PM PDT The N900 is my handheld of choice and as I've stated before it is by far the web browsing phone currently on the market. The most wonderful thing about FOSS is choice, just like a desktop computer the N900 provides you with a variety of web browsers to choose from and the Mozilla cooperation choose Maemo as the first platform to release their mobile browser for. I've been using firefox as the primary browser on my N900 since just prior to it's 1.0 release, the following are my summations of what I think of Mozilla's mobile browser. Firefox Mobile navigates the web wonderfully, what few pages MicroB (the default N900 browser) Firefox handles like a dream. I have yet to find a website it fails to render properly. Zooming in and out in firefox mobile works well. Double tapping on a section of the screen zooms to that portion for you. If this zoom scopes in too far or not enough for you holding control and pressing your plus/minus keys will allow you to have a more controlled zoom in the browser. In general I find the double tap zoom more than gets the job done and I rarely manually scope in/out. Another nifty feature is that when you select an entry box on a website firefox auto zooms so the entry box fills the screen (width wise). It also provides you with next/previous buttons to jump between entry fields (for instance from a username box to a password box):  Speaking of password fields - firefox mobile displays the character you have entered for a moment when typing in a password instead of just displaying a star by default. This way you can be sure you have entered the proper character (always nice when you are dealing with function and shift keys on a tiny keyboard). Also present in firefox mobile is the non-intrusive offer to "remember", "not now", or "never" store a username/password combination when it is entered:  Then there is one of the things firefox was famous for first innovating on desktop browsers: tabs. The setup of firefox mobile is designed to keep the navigation features out of the user's way except for when they want to use them. By default when you are viewing a page it is full screen on the device:  To access the various navigation features swipe right, to see your open tabs:  Swipe left, to access back and forward buttons, plus your options:  or do either of the before mentioned motions to access your URL bar, application switcher, and exit button. I like the placement of the back and forward buttons, they are quickly accessible but as I stated out of the way when you do not need them. Another firefox staple is of course addons. Firefox mobile is packed full of addons you can choose from, customization is the spice of life:  Right below plugins in firefox mobile is your download manager, nicely laid out the download manager lists all files you have downloaded in chronological order:  It also gives you a small notification in your browsing window when a download completes. We all know you cannot have the good without the bad, there are a few things I would like to see added to firefox mobile. Firstly, there is no option of choosing where downloaded files are saved to - something that greatly irks me. Secondly, there is no way (at least that I have found) to select text on a page you are viewing (for instance for copy and pasting). Finally, the greatest trouble with firefox mobile I must say (and this may be a deal break for some) is the startup time. My N900 is over clocked to 800mhz and with no other applications running it takes firefox on average elven seconds to fully load. All in all I think firefox mobile is the best browser currently available for the Maemo platform and thanks to the browser-switchboard it is the default browser on my device. Did I miss any key points about firefox mobile? Is there another reason you use it or perhaps do not use it that I don't list here? Let me know by dropping a comment below. ~Jeff Hoogland  |
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