Tag: apps

N9 Apps #4: My Moves

When Nokia removed the home button and implemented the swipe gesture to control the N9 (and outsimplified the iPhone in the process) it was only a matter of time before the community developed things that also used gestures. One of the most intriguing thus far has been the ability to open the gallery without actually touching the device, instead it uses the proximity sensor to register the gesture. But something else also hit the Nokia Store, called My Moves.

This app utilises the N9’s ability to register gestures as commands to do various things. For example, you can set it so that swiping up, down, left, right, zig-zag or diagonally does certain things. You can swipe down to compose a new message without opening the messaging app, or make a phone call, launch other apps and so on, from wherever you are in the phone without having to scroll through the homescreen to find the app you’re looking for. It’s a simple idea with flawless execution, and gives the inkling that this is the future of interactions with our mobile devices.

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.