Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Hi all,

By way of intro, I work for Maemo in Mountain View California, and have been working on the initial set of applications for the N900 (not the community stuff). Obviously, we had some challenges to get things ready before the device was officially announced. We are working on getting some more really cool apps with Nokia partners.

However, I'd be interested in getting some comments on the stuff thta is already available - what you like and what do you not like.

thanks,
John

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Even though the selection is pretty small at this moment, all apps there seem to be very high quality ones.

About the themes and wallpapers, what will there be in future? Official Nokia-sanctioned themes and wallpapers or "best of community" -ones? And is there any way for developers to get their apps in the Nokia Select? Like the best and most useful community apps or something along that line?

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

You mean those at http://maemo.nokia.com/maemo-select/applications/ ?

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

@jouppu: we will be getting more apps in the future, these are the first batch. We are also working on themes and wallpapers. For stuff from the community, I would assume we would follow the same process for apps, thought I would need to check.

@pelago: Yes those ones (minus the Fremantle Stars).

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Amazon Widget
Not very useful. Too simple should have more options.
I would give it 6 in 10 because it has nice graphics.

AP Mobile news widget
Nice idea. It’s simple but useful. There should be other news agencies for people that don’t see themselves in AP approach.
I’ll give it a 7.

Bounce Evolution
Amazing game. Incredible graphics. More like these one needed.
10 points.

Documents To Go Viewer Edition
This is a very useful program. It’s a pity that you can create doc on this one. If this is linux why not open office?
I’ll give it an 8

eCoach application
I like this one. You can add a few more screens to the presentation.
8

Evernote
Don’t like this one.
I prefer that to do all this things without going online. I don’t see the point.
A waste of time.
3

Facebook widget
Very useful. Too simple should have more options. You can add a few more screens to the presentation.
7

ForecaWeather widget
Very useful. You can add a few more screens to the presentation.
8

Fring
Very useful. Graphics are better of other platforms. Ask them to make it better, because they know how to do it.
Personally I prefer nimbuzz. When will they make a maemo version?
6

Mauku
Nice and usefull.
7

OMweather
It’s very useful, but you already have ForecaWeather widget. There are so many app missing in maemo that you should focus on priorities.
8

Pixelpipe Media Gateway
Looks interesting but I really don’t understand how it works.
7

Qik
The same has the above. The graphics could be better.
7

Skype
A very significant app.
9

TuneWiki
Amazing idea. You can add a few more screens to the presentation, if possible bigger ones that you can see.
9

Nokia we:offset
Didn’t understand the idea, but I guess it has nice intentions.
7

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

eCoach, Mauku and OMweather are from the community, i.e. aren't things that Jolo looks after. He's looking after http://maemo.nokia.com/maemo-select/...ons/ovi-store/

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

shouldn't questions like this be reserved for when the end users get the n900 in there hands to see whats good as they are the ones that matter,
at the minute its just respected community members and bloggers who have the n900 in there hand, who's idea of useful is much different to the normal user, who will make or break maemo 5 and beyond

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Well I’m a symbian (nokia 5800) user. I’d like to buy an n900 but I never used linux. Sorry for sending my opinion.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Well OK. Either way, it’s my opinion. It will not hurt.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

drm my comment was not aimed at you, it was aimed at nokia for starting such a stupid thread before the end user even knows how good current apps on meamo select are to give an opinion as they aint used them.
after all maemo select is for the end user to find and discover, so only makes sense to wait for them to get n900 to see what they make off the apps before gathering feedback

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Thank you for your feedback. You are welcome on the Talk.

Don't be afraid to contribute to this platform however if you decide to contribute you could expect other people to build on your contributions (sometimes, including criticism). Should such occur, assume it isn't meant as personal attack. Instead, assume goal is for greater good (Truth).

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

I don't like that the sections are wrong on nearly everything in Nokia Downloads. ;)

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

I don't get the amazon widget at all. Are there really people who want to see what sells best on amazon and then buy that?

I'd rather have a widget which tracks stuff I ordered at amazon :)

AP widget seems cool, would be even cooler if there were other news providers one could choose, ap is just to US centric for me, I'd rather have the dpa newsticker, for example.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

I agree about the amazon widget. I'm a huge fan of amazon (and intend getting my n900 there!) but this just seems like an invitation to spam and advertising. I'd rather have somethung that blocked spam than streamed it.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Yes, a package tracking widget would be most welcome.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Not possessing an Internet Tablet so far, I mostly agree with drm's votes and comments. :)

to see what people wants, I may also suggest to give a look at this thread: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=31353

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Maybe that would be a generic front-end widget with documentation for how to develop data carriers. FedEx also provides package tracking, so does Danish post, etc.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Just copy this and you're golden. ;)

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

The widget isn't 1.0 until there's a button you can press to make the deliveries travel faster. :)

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Is the source going to be available for some/all of these apps? I know the Ovi store is going to carry some proprietary software, but there's surely no reason to keep things like the Amazon widget closed.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

@ NvyUs - we don't have time to fix things before sales start, but we are planning application upgrades, so early feedback can help us prioritize what we can fix now. Please note now 300 devices were given out at the Maemo Summit, so there are people with the device now.

@ drm - thanks for the feedback. In general, most of the widgets are pretty simple and straightforward. We were not trying to overload them with too much functionality, as we have a great browser on the phone, we want people to use that. Also, we spent a lot of time getting power consumption right, you don't want widgets to kill your battery. About Nimbuzz, that's a good point, I have to drop them a note!

@ GeneralAntilles - that will be fixed. There is a small platform bug that should be fixed and integrated soon, that will fix some part of this, and then we have other things that will resolve the other issues.

@ range - for AP News, you can change the region for the news that the widget shows. But there will be other widgets coming to cover other news sources.

@ ewan - since most of the applications are from third parties, the decision to open or close them reside with the third parties.

But in general, thanks for you feedback, I am happy finally to be able to talk about these publically, and looking forward to getting the device into everyone's hands.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

sorry for the blah post. just wantted to subscribe to the postings. if there is a way to do this without a bad post as such, please educate me.

it is much simpler on the my-symbian site.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

I like the open source question... Since seeing the source of some well behaving widgets would certainly help developers to create other similar widgets to the Home screens. There's probably some details in the code one might miss otherwise.

John, would asking them for open sourcing be out of the question, and/or would we then be able to (or have we already) publicize the source of a few mock example widgets, for Acme company?

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Some feedback:

1) Amazon widget - pretty much useless (for me at least) but nice to see big names on the platform

2) AP News - Quite good widget but the website is even better (the one which is launched from the widget). It seems to be tailored for the N900 and is very finger friendly. Obviously a lot of effort has gone into this...wouldn't mind if other news services had similar widgets ;)

3) Bounce evolution - Nice little demo, not much content but still something nice to show friends and family. More quality games needed for sure...

4) Documents to go - seems to work ok, just don't like that 30 day evaluation period. I would prefer viewing being "free" and editing being something to pay for...

5) Evernote - the sharing service is integrated flawlessly, easy to use and might be a nice way to introduce evernote for new users (I'm one at least). As it is integrated to the share functionality, I could imagine other applications on the phone being able to utilize it in the future. Now it seems to be just for photos...neat trick is to email your evernote account with messages that automatically turns into notes. The webpage works pretty ok on the device as well...

6) Facebook widget - useless for a "power user" who has 100+ friends. I wouldn't mind if it had a turn on off button on the widget (similar to the ovi maps widget).

7) ForecaWeather widget - Pretty good (haven't checked how accurate it is for my location). The application it opens is nice and fingerfriendly with added value from the weblinks to see current rain etc on a map.

8) Fring - haven't used so no comment. Nice to have I guess if you get your friends to use the same service...

9) Pixelpipe media gateway - awesome, fully integrated and works as it should. Who needs MMS when you can easily share pictures on facebook etc? :)

10) Qik - haven't used but I can see the value of this app.

11) Skype - awesome and very nicely integrated seamlessly to the device.

12) TuneWiki - Rocks! Widget just right size to go to geather with the media player widget. Finds lyrics for pretty obscure stuff as well.

13) We:offset - er...right, not my cup of tea

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

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Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

them 300 people are people in media, bloggers, developers and linux geeks, how does there opinion represent what the end user wants, they have very different opinion of useful thats all i'm saying

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Fair enough. However, that being so, it would be useful to be able to tell from the page whether or not a particular widget is open source, and if so, where to get the source from. If nothing else you're going to have to do something to at least point to the source code to comply with the licence of anything under the GPL.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Yes, clearly unless you're the perfect stereotype of the average user your opinion is completely invalid.

I'd ask that you take your bitterness somewhere where it wont impede productive discussion. :)

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

This was a major stumbling block in trying to get Advanced Backlight to behave like the Nokia-provided statusbar applets in Maemo 4. The example provided didn't provide anywhere near enough information to implement a solution and it required a lot of time and effort from a number of people to get things working correctly.

This should not be something people have to go through to implement cool addons and Nokia would be wise to consider what not providing good examples will do to the variety in their widget selection. :)

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

i'm not saying others opinions are invalid just that its not good to get feed back for a end user site from non normal users only which is what will happen here
its just totally where nokia have been going wrong for years they never ask the people who matter
its the equivlent of Gordan brown going to the BBC and getting policy ideas, we all know BBC is full of middle/upper class who's views dont represent the working class commoner, kinda like on here if peoples opinion dont fit those of the elite they stoned to death. seen it many times already only been here 2 months

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Good point. I will see what I can kick-off. Some of the learnings have already been published under the The Widget UI Guidelines and also in some of power management guidelines. But before you say it, yes I do understand that sample code is a great deal more useful.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

It is not wrong to get feedback from folks on this list, but I do agree that if this was our only source of feedback, then the feedback we got would be awfully skewed to one end of the user spectrum.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Not just specific sample code, but real code that's free software. It's usually a lot simpler to take something that does part of what you need and modify it to suit you than it is to create something from scratch.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

As someone who doesn't have a device yet, and won't till they're available commercially, I think your asking the 'geeks' first is entirely sensible, since you're doing it in in a public place where I can read and learn. (Forgive me, clever technical peoples for calling you 'geeks' but...)

An awful lot of what is said here goes clean over my teddy bear head. But I can actually work out when people are struggling with something. If 300 experts look at an app for download and find it problematic, it's pretty fair bet that I shall when the time arrives. If they all say it works smoothly, they I have hope that it will for me too.

Certainly what the tech-genii want may not be exactly what I want from a device. I shall have my turn as commenting eventually. And contrary to other's experience I've been made entirely welcome here despite my complete ignorance and tendency to ask for explanations in short words. I said there was an app I really, really want - and a bunch of developers polled for interest and are now working on it. (Hopefully it will eventually make it to the app store too!) I don't think you can ask for better than that.

So far the responses will be from the people with preview devices. Over time, opinions will be more varied. But if you want the full range of opinions, I don't think I'd ask in a specialist internet forum. ;)

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Fair enough, you call the N900 an internet tablet with added cellular connectivity... But since that is the case, I wont be connected via WIFI all the time but using the cellular network to transfer data. Now bear in mind that the facebook front page - and not only the facebook frontpage but several frontpages of other sites - with all scripts, ads and such is quite heavy and puts a HUGE STRESS on my 250MB chunk of free data per month. Unfortunately thats the biggest amount available from my provider and if I have to rely on the browser and it loading the full desktop experience for everything, those 250MB will be depleted in a weeks time, at most. And after that thats 10 cent per MB started. Ouch...

So speaking of getting the power consumption right, you should maybe, just maybe ;) also think of getting the data consumption right. Having the full desktop like internet experience at hand is awesome, but I'd like to chose when to fire it up, please.

Although I guess I'm way to late with that request as the Firmware is most likely already finalised at exactly this moment and it would require quite some programming to spit out clients/apps for several mobile services/appliances which one has to rely on the browser for now. Altough you could also spend the browser a mobile option so it identifies itself as a mobile device, as the user whishes it to do so. Quickly done and would help the data consumption massively until those apps pop up, if they ever do...

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

I really hope cooliris will run on the n900, maybe some sort of Ebay widget for tracking bidding / time left?

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

Question for Facebook Widget.
This Widget adds the plugin for uploading photos to Facebook, my question is if this plug-in includes the option to Create a new Album and/or ability to select existing albums in which your photos will be uploaded.

If yes then thumbs up. If not please add this function immediately. Uploading photos in un-organized masses means nothing to me and makes the plugin practically worthless.

Re: Feedback on N900 apps on maemo.nokia.com
 

I can't comment on these apps because I still don't have my N900.
What would be nice to know, really, is whether these applications (and here I am thinking about skype and evernote) will continue to be maintained (bug fixes, new features). Or will they be like the original skype and rhapsody that shipped with the n800 that were never updated.