I love this device...I use it more than my laptop some days...

Here is what I have found useful so far.... (see screenshot):

- Personal Menu: for one-screen access to most used applications/games grouped in sections I can name myself

- Personal Launcher: Love this application. It allows me to put small icons of my most used apps on my homescreen!
(As you may see, my most used apps are:
Tear, Skype, Mauku, Pidgin, QuickNote, gPodder and mCalendar).

- Stylus RSS Reader: I really like the more compact look of this reader and it works well for reading cached RSS posts when I'm off-line.

- Homecalendar Applet: Nice looking on-screen display of what I got coming up today and tomorrow based on my gcal/mcalendar entries

- QuickClip: Pretty great small status-bar application that allows for snippets of text to be saved for later

- mnotify: I have this set to check my gmail. Works great.

- Advanced Backlighting: Didn't know how much I needed this until I had it installed

- OMWeather: The best weather applet I've found. Woot..84 degrees F in San Jose tomorrow

- YellowNotes: Probably one of my most used/valued applets. LOVE it.

What it all comes down to is that this device is SO much more than an email/browser device...it's an office in my pocket

(Second screen is my, now favorite background, where my girlfriend is showing me what she really thinks about my gadgets :-)

This is so awesome, you seem to really have it down... thats why I can't wait to get my n810 (waiting to get paid this week and I'm placing my order) i think I'll be as in love with the device as much as you and will use it more than my laptop some days as well, since its so much more portable ( although the point of a laptop is to be portable lol but my laptop is very big so its treat like a desktop almost ). what exactly does mnotify do, is it just for gmail or for all your e-mail clients u assign to it... and i thought the second screen shot was a background pic, you have a model for a girlfriend... j/k lucky man, but any way having two personal menu's doesnt get to be to much? i would only guess it does make things go faster when you dnt have to pull up several menus to launch things... are there any tips you could give me as a newbie that hopes to get the most out of my device.... thanks

Hey, yeah I love this device and when it comes to tablet vs laptop - just today I was in Oakland and needed to look up an email to see where the heck I was going as I had forgotten one piece of the address. I just walked up next to a Tully's coffee shop and stood outside of them on the sidewalk. Pulled out the N810 out of my pocked and literally two minutes later I was on-line and retrieving my email, copied and pasted the info into YellowNotes on the main screen and..continued walking. :-)

mnotify is just a small app that puts an icon in the status bar ontop. You can configure it for your most used email account and, if you want to, it will periodically (say once every 30 mins) go and check if you got new mail and notify you. With one click on the icon you are taken straight to that inbox

The personal menu is where I put all those games and applications that I've downloaded and either am still trying out - or are using on a regular basis. It's really the only way I know of to put some structure to how to list your downloaded apps.

Other tips? Hmm..

1) Buy, or download a free, Linux book. I know NOTHING about Linux but it's really fun to slowly learn more about it and feel that you can do more and more at the command-line.
If you see a previous post from me I also outlined really simple steps for how you can connect your PC to your N810 and basically get a window on your PC straight into the Maemo/Linux OS so you can 'play with it' from your PC

2) Hang out on this site a lot - very friendly and knowledgeable people here.

3) You may wanna get: a case (I've seen a great one here that people like that is about 3-4 dollars), a screen protector (the one for the ipod touch can be made to fit and shouldn't be more than one dollar off ebay - and you may want to start prepping some movies to put on the N810 when you get it

4) As far as particular applications goes I really still like many of the ones listed above. Try out a lot and find what works for you


P.S: Thanks, yes I also think my gf is cute - what she sees in me beats me :-)

Quick question silvermountain - is there a way to configure the text colours on the home calendar applet?
I notice you have "Today" and "Tomorrow" in yellow text.

There sure is. Just go to the menu on the main page and select 'applet settings'

Oddly I don't get an option for homecalendar when I select "applet settings" .

Anyhow thanks to your post I tried out Personal Launcher and Yellownotes (was already using most of the others). Very handy apps .

Neither do I.

Not sure how to explain that.
I have an option for homecalendar when I go to applet settings...and it allows me to change font and background color.
According to Application Manager it's version: 1.0.0-3

Ah you have the one from the Extras Devel repository.
The version in maemo.org downloads is version 0.2.6-1 and doesn't have the applet settings option .

You'll want to get tethering to your phone done. Not having to seek a hotspot or illegally using someone's wifi (which may be not secure) opens up far more possibilities. I feel I wasted 2 years with this tablet not having it tethered.