Joorin | # 231 | 2010-05-03, 15:54 | Report

ORLY? As soon as I light the screen, friendly widgets look back at me and I can tickle them and they squirm and spray pixels at me.

Of course there are applications for the N900. This teenage style statement about there being NO applications is the worst about the technical attention deficit disorder so many seem to be suffering from.

Hang on now. You just said there are NO applications and now there are plenty? It's just that you don't like what they do or how they look.

Do I agree on many applications not looking the best? Sure. But they are there, you can use them, they do function. If your main complaint is "There are NO pretty applications that I like for the n900!", I'd suggest that you say just that.

Bigger community with, in my view, better tools to develop things. And it's backed by Google which in itself guarantees the attention from big companies wanting to be seen on da Intertubes.

Not pretty enough... ok.

Define "proper development", please.

If you want to help with getting applications into the public repositories, I suggest that you sign up as a tester. Mix your Python coding with testing the applications that would very well be ok to move to Testing. That way you can contribute even though you're not ready to write your own applications.

pwannell | # 232 | 2010-05-03, 19:57 | Report

These points are all very valid, and I agree to have um.....over exagerating the NO apps bit. There are apps and I guess what i wished to say is they are just a little heath robinson and things. I am very much hoping that Qt will solve numerous things.

I must admit that since typing the post i did a bit more research and reading on various articles relating to the 1.2 release and Qt and things do look promising. I also downloaded maesheep which installed the Qt libraries into the phone and I was finally able to install the HyperUI with all its dependencies and tbh.....schwweeeet lord.....that is sexy and I love it. The Sonos is heavy however it controls hardware devices throughout the home so effectively I could walk into a room and turn on my music from napster,rhapsody,deezer or my local music files from my phone....That would be excellent and hope that Qt would enable me to do this, I will be investing some time in looking at coding and maybe trying my hand at making an app to give back to the community.

ndi | # 233 | 2010-05-04, 00:08 | Report

Open Office? Where?

Laughing Man | # 234 | 2010-05-04, 00:09 | Report

Through EasyDebian.

donjoe | # 235 | 2010-05-04, 00:33 | Report

Try the "app" "shortcutd"
You can set the camera focus button to open the Dashboard!

You can find that option after installing the app in the
Settings of the N900.

Donjoe

ndi | # 236 | 2010-05-04, 00:49 | Report

Oh boy. Is it as slow as I imagine? Is it usable (as in functionality)? Is it hard to install, or simply go EasyDebian and the apt-get (sorry, Windows admin here)?

Laughing Man | # 237 | 2010-05-04, 00:54 | Report

You can install the EasyDebian from extras and let it download the image file automatically (or download it yourself from a PC and transfer it over it's fast). Note that if you let it download the image file with the N900, it's slow. (see easy debian thread for more details)

As for speed and usability.

Speed wise it's slow to start up. And you can't multi-task alot with it. I can usually only run a browser, IM, and OpenOffice (and even then it's starting to go into the slow realm). Usable, it's mostly usable. Writer is fine. Impress (Powerpoint) isn't really usable since the various panes take up so much room. I find that it's more useful for editing existing Powerpoints than making a Powerpoint.

Saving is also slow.

woody14619 | # 238 | 2010-05-04, 04:39 | Report

Sorry, but that's bullocks. DRM does not secure things, just ask any company that's used it in the past 20 years. People crack it just as quickly as it comes out, and in the end it's the consumer that loses when the company goes out of business or stops supporting it's DRM. (Just ask all the abandoned media player folks who have DRM music on media players that have no server to confirm with now... there are several.)

The real problem is you have to have something nice that people are willing to pay for, and because OVI can't seem to get it right, you have to do things yourself. After the Angry Birds mess it's no suprise that vendors are shying away from it. In fact, there's a pretty good revenue idea for someone interested in doing it: Setup a better store.

Want to see an example? Head to JoikuSpot.com. They sell an app for the N900 to do wifi-tethering. They setup their own repository, which installs a deb package with an executable bundled to your ID. (It dynamically packages it based on the link name from what I can tell.) Then they e-mail you an application key, which you enter into the app the first time you fire it up. That key activates (now knowing more about your system, like the IMEI) and you can update all you like from that device for that product. But you can't just copy it to friends simply as a deb and expect it to work.

Sure, if someone really wanted to, they could probably figure out how it works and copy it to their friend. But at €7, it's just not worth it to go through that hassle. (Where the $3 vs copying a deb file may be...)

The key to selling anything in a software market is to make it just a little more annoying to copy than it's worth price wise. Opensource has the added disadvantage that several things are already available because it's easier to port than to re-code. Why buy Worms when you can get the linux version for free?

HellFlyer | # 239 | 2010-05-04, 04:51 | Report

So does that mean we will see non free apps in Ovi Store after PR 1.2 gets released right?

woody14619 | # 240 | 2010-05-04, 05:10 | Report

We did with the last update, for a short time anyway. Half the reason I want to get PR 1.2 is so I can rush to the OVI store and finally pay for part 2 of Angry Birds before it gets taken down again.

I think it's going to depend on how/if OVI has tried to fix the issue. The best way IMHO is to update the app manager to send IMEI info in some way and limit access based on that. To do it right though, you also the need to update the executable to have a simple way to plugin that info and check it at run time too. (And even that can be thwarted with enough effort.)

I just can't help but wonder how much Rovio has lost in sales by pulling their app down vs letting the cheepskates pirate it. Personally, I'd be happy to shell out a few bucks for the extra levels, even if it was available free elsewhere, to support their efforts on the N900. But then I'm an odd ball I guess, being a software developer myself that likes to get paid for what I do...