New N900 user, need help on choosing apps
 

Hi everyone. I have just recently bought N900. I was using Symbian for years, and kinda wanted to try something else. Maemo is awesome, although little rough around the edges.

Anyway, coming from Symbian, I'm used to some apps that I don't have on N900 so I need help on finding a replacement. I'm not completely new to linux, so I know my way around, but won't be doing any hacking to the N900 for now...

So here we go:

Twitter app - I have tried Mauku and Khweeteur. Both of them give me errors like "Unable to connect" or "Rate limit exceeded". Any suggestions? I like Mauku. On Symbian I used TweetS60 and never had the slightest problem

Mail client - Is there some better mail app than the stock one? It takes FOREVER to update, it's unusable.

Games - They are waaaay better than Symbian crap. Angry birds and Zen Bound are great!

Last.fm client - This one is quite important to me... I'm used to Mobbler on Symbian, and can't seem to find comparable replacement. Which is strange, I thought there would be dozen of open-source Last.fm apps...

Youtube - is there an app for Youtube? I don't really like loading youtube.com website every time.

Maps - They are POS. I guess I'm better off with installing Sygic?

Task manager - I installed Htop, but it's a little confusing. Any other suggestions? I used KillMe on Symbian and it works great.

IM - I installed Pidgin but it seems that it leaves some services running in the background even when I quit the app. Maybe I'm just bette off with stock conversations app.

I have also installed Petrovich, battery eye, OMweather, Opera, Joikuspot, FM radio, FreOffice... and they seem to be working fine.

Also, do you have any suggestion for the new N900 user? Some tweaks or whatever?

Thank you!

Re: New N900 user, need help on choosing apps
 

For Twitter there is also at least TweeGo and witter (not a Twitter user myself so can't give any more information about these).For youtube there are many options, Mediabox and @scene to name a few. For navigation I would suugest to buy Sygic Mobile Maps, 100x better than the default Ovi Maps.I myself don't have use for task manager wery often, but if something seems to be slowing down your phone write "top" to X Terminal and then if some program is using too much resources kill it with "kill" command.For IM's the default Conversations is pretty god IMO. Additionaly I would suggest you to install this and swapolube to make the user interface a bit more fluent. And for the email client search the forums for "modest fixes". Also searching this thread is a good way to get known to good applications. Be aware that many of the applications I was speaking about are from Extras Devel, read about it from the Maemo Wiki before enabling it.

Re: New N900 user, need help on choosing apps
 

LastGo is a last.fm client for listening to Last.fm channels - you must be a paid Last.fm subscriber to use it, though. This is due to last.fm's rules and no fault of the author. Last.fm mobile API forbids non-subscribers from listening. You can (or could, last time I tried) use the last.fm website just like if you're on a computer.

For scrobbling, there are a couple different scrobblers which add onto the N900's media player.


Pidgin doesn't leave anything running if you quit the app - you're not quitting it properly is all :) If you close it, it really minimizes instead (just like it does on a desktop PC). There's a pidgin status area icon thing which lets it minimize to there, similar to how it mimize to tray on a PC. To actually quit, uou have to choose quit from the menu within the program.

Mail app should be faster if you've got PR1.2 installed. If it's really slow you may be experiencing a bug. The only one I know about is a result of long-time use, which you shouldn't get if you're a new N900 user

Maps - do you want maps or do you want satnav? There are many options for maps on N900, not so many for satnav. Sygic is probably the only commercial-quality satnav but it is not free.

For task manager your N900 is basically a linux computer. All the standard linux commands are there. top, ps, kill, and so on. :) To kill the running app in foreground you can tap the power button and choose "End current task"

Re: New N900 user, need help on choosing apps
 

I've found sygic the best of them all

Look tor a thread called 'Modest fixes'.

Try the emulators, tony hawk on psx4all with a ps3 controller outputting to a 37" tv is great.

Faster App Manager

Mohammed AG modified hildon desktop
Fixed Modest
PulseAudioPatch

Programs worth getting:

Extras-testing and extras-devel
rootsh
Faster app manager
Power Kernel [warranty voiding warning..yada yada...]
conky
swappolube
transition control
ssh + winscp
ApMeFo
RDesktop
x11-VNC
leafpad
KOffice
Bounce
filebox
sygic
fmms
fcam
flashlight
tuxrace
lens cover switchboard (cant remember exact name)



Hope that helps

HINT: install Faster app manager first, you can then install all other applications in 1 or 2 go's.

With the power kernel (used to overclock, among other things) read the wiki first.

Re: New N900 user, need help on choosing apps
 

Claws Mail as a mail client could be good...
Games... I just play open-source... If you like games like Worms, Wormux is good.
For IM, why don't you use the one Maemo has? It's really better than Pidgin!

PenPen, and Xournal for note-taking... EasyDebian, to have Debian in your pocket... Or if you don't know how to use it, to just open and use a few apps inside, and show it to others and show off! lol
Also, power kernel if you are a power user, and want to overclock maybe?

I suggest you overclock! There are many guides available... Here is one:
http://tinyurl.com/39zsldt

Also, I suggest VIM, QCPUFreq, etc.
If you actually know how they work and what they are for....

For painting, a great app, is mypaint!

Also, if you install EasyDebian, you'll have GIMP which is great!

I seriously suggest you install EasyDebian.... You can run Debian apps inside it! If you had questions regarding DEBIAN, you may ask them on Debian Forums or http://ask.debian.net/... But as I said, only Debian questions... Not ones related to N900...

Don't forget that your N900 is not a phone... It's a mobile computer... Don't forget to do whatever you can with it! lol
I mean, don't do what you can do with a 1100 with an N900... Use all features!

Good luck!

EDIT: Forgot some of my favs here:
ThemeCustomizer, Flashlight, LED pattern editor, cpu and memory usage applet, Carbon Theme, FM Boost, Airtux Sounds, bash 3, Bootscreen, Conky, CuteExplorer, Droid Fonts, Easy Chroot, eSpeak, Extra Decoders Support, fMMS, Here and Now, KMPlayer, Sib, ukeyboard, Wi-Fi Signal Applet, X-motto, Yellow Notes Applet, tweakr, Shariks, QtIrreco, qlister, Pidgin protocols plugin for Conversations and Contact, Personal Photo Frame, Nameday applet, Midnight commander, mbarcode, Mappero

Re: New N900 user, need help on choosing apps
 

Manually install the fixed version found here:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...ghlight=modest
...or just wait for the PR1.3 update to be released. It should fix things.

Have you tried Last.fm scrabbler, LastGo or Scrobbler?

Zoutube.

Up to you. I use Ovi maps a lot, works fine.

I've never needed anything but top and a terminal. I don't know of a GUI-style task manager.

Uneeded since the PR1.2 update. The functionality of Petrovich is now built-in to Maemo.

Overclock it with the kernel for power users.
Install Filebox.
Install Leafpad.
Install Conky.
Install Browser Switchboard.
Install Firefox.
Install Font Changer.
Install other goodies that float your boat or turn your crank.
Enjoy your nothing-else-like-it N900.

Re: New N900 user, need help on choosing apps
 

Thank you for replies! You are a great help :)

For the power kernel part - I'm a bit afraid to overclock, mainly because of the battery life. It's pretty bad as it is, it barely gets me through the day...

Re: New N900 user, need help on choosing apps
 

The idea is to enable overclocking but not use it constantly, only when it's needed (eg. when you are not ideling). That way you actually get to spend more time ideling than with a slower frequency since the tasks will be performed faster.

Read the overclocking articles in the wiki. Basically there is no reason not overclock your N900.

Re: New N900 user, need help on choosing apps
 

I'd strongly recommend shortcutd - it allows you to control the device in more ways to your taste.

On the games front I only use EightyOne (for sudoko) and unnethack.

If you use the FM transmitter, the combination of FMRDSNofify and the stock media player widget is quite good. On the other hand I think Nicolai's Calendar Home widget is much better than the stock Maemo one. I've also installed his Scout device search app, but not used it much.

I have OMWeather installed as I like it's customisability.

If you want to do much hacking, you'll need a text editor; I like PYGTKEditor, which has syntax colour coding. I also like Quicknote for, er, taking notes quickly...

If podcasts are your bag, the gPodder/Panucci combo's pretty hot.

As for tips, have a look at the wikilinks in my sig.

Re: New N900 user, need help on choosing apps
 

Thanks for recommending Unnethack! I'd love to see ADOM on the N900 but I guess that won't happen,so I'll keep playing it through SSH :)