Tag: nokia n9

N9 Apps #3: ShotMee

ShotMee is another shining example of MeeGo’s open glory. One thing many N900 users noticed on the announcement of the N9 was the omission of a few neat features, like an FM transmitter and the ability to take a screenshot. While Nokia Store for MeeGo may not be crammed with half a million apps, the ones it does have tend to be important and useful, and that’s exactly what ShotMee is.

The app is a free download and is simple enough: open it, minimise it, and you take a screenshot by double-tapping the side of the phone. If you’ve ever taken a screenshot on the iPhone and found it quite frustrating having to readjust how you hold the phone and try not to let go of the power key too early, lest you lock it instead of taking a picture, you’ll appreciate the simplicity on offer here. Regardless of how you’re holding the phone, just take one hand and double-tap it on either side or bottom of the phone (the actual physical side, not the screen), and a screenshot is saved in the gallery. Tap the notification bar immediately after taking the shot and you’re able to share it or use it as wallpaper, and even set it as your avatar.

Free, easy to use, and its intuitiveness means you don’t need to find the gallery to use the photo. What more could you want?

N9 Apps #2: Firefox

By and large, a browser is a browser. Especially when it comes to mobile phones; some are better in that they display Flash content, others allow you to view pages as you would on your computer rather than a mobile version, and the N900’s stood apart by featuring a fully-fledged cursor that allowed the user to interact with drop-down menus. The difficulty isn’t so much in using a browser on a phone, but given the amount of time many people spend on their home computers we all have a list of favourite websites and the problem is remembering what they are to access on a phone.

The beauty of Firefox for the N9 (and indeed Android) is that it syncs beautifully with your Firefox profile on your computer, giving you immediate and full access to open tabs, history and bookmarks. Book a train ticket on your computer, leave the tab open and when you get to the station you can have the reference number and other information at your fingertips by opening the same tab.

On the N9, Firefox loads quickly and is responsive to use. Coupled with the plugin from the Nokia Store, it also allows users to view Flash content, so you can watch the videos on the BBC website for example, instead of being greeted by the notorious grey box informing you that you can’t see it, as happens on so many devices.

For standard browsing, there’s little benefit to be had from choosing Firefox over the default browser. However, if you want to have easy access to your computer’s browsing information wherever you go and keep your browsing habits synced, and view anything you want on your phone, then it’s a definite must-have for any N9 user.

N9 Apps #1: Inception

I’m as much of a fan as Nokia adopting Windows Phone as the next person. It’s intuitive, easy to use and all information is there at your fingertips. But as a former N900 owner, there’s something to be said about the fun that can be had on an open-source platform with community support. When Flash wasn’t updated on the N900, a community workaround was released to allow new videos to be watched in the browser. When Nokia didn’t introduce portrait mode to the tablet, the community did it. That level of support and development kept the platform fresh and exciting, and with the N9 also being an open Linux platform the fun continues with MeeGo.

Nokia has lent me an N9 to trial and while it’s in my possession I will be doing app reviews, and the first one will be looking at an app that embodies the community spirit and the power of an open-source platform: Inception.

The thread at talk.maemo.org describes Inception thusly:

The Nokia N9 is an amazing piece of hardware running an amazing mobile OS. However, advanced users have often been frustrated by its sometimes-limiting Aegis security system. Aegis, like many other security frameworks, blocks many legitimate tasks beyond truly dangerous activity, and makes it difficult to customize your N9 to run on your terms.

This problem is one of the past: INCEPTION allows you to assume direct control and liberate your Nokia N9’s full potential.

INCEPTION is:

  • Easy. INCEPTION allows you to open up your N9 in less than five minutes, with no need for a PC.
  • Safe. INCEPTION makes no major changes to your N9 on its own – it merely unlocks the door so that you can use your own discretion. INCEPTION can be uninstalled at any time with no side effects.
  • Effective. With INCEPTION, the only limits on what you can do with your N9 are your own. INCEPTION turns the N9 into what could be the most powerful and open handheld device on the market.

INCEPTION doesn’t disable or remove Aegis by itself – it just puts you in the driver’s seat.

In other words, Inception allows developers to create apps and modifications, and users to install said apps and modifications, that take full advantage of having open access to the N9.

While iOS and Windows Phone can’t dream of such a capability, and Android still masquerades as being open-source, the MeeGo community has stepped forward to show its true potential.