ReSiStance RSS reader updated with updated GUI and Google Reader support
Sergio Villar Senin has updated his RSS reader, ReSistance: I managed to find some time during Xmass to advance some work and to review a couple of pending patches. The most important ones were by far, the Google Reader support ones.It all started with some sensational work done by Chus Picos. She did almost all the research regarding the status of Google Reader API (check here if you’re interested) and cooked a very nice set of initial patches. The latest version is now in Extras-devel. Usual cautions apply.
Media Bar for Maemo 5 (XpressMusic-esque)
Nokia's XpressMusic series of phones included a media bar which could be activated to show a list of primary applications. On the 5800, this button was an off-screen touchscreen area. Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh has implemented this functionality for Maemo 5 (and other platforms with Qt Mobility): Most of you have seen this on XpressMusic devices running Symbian S60V5, and I have to admit, it's cool to have a way to quickly access some apps. Well, there's an always-on proximity sensor on the N900 (yes, it's always on, whether in use, or not), so why not put it to use. It's activated by holding the proximity sensor for 1.2s, and of course, this is configurable. Media Bar is currently available from Extras-devel, so only the foolish or particularly downtime-resistant need apply.
TV-out control home plugin
Ville Syrjälä has released a TV-out control widget for Maemo 5: I was bored one Saturday night last year, and wrote this little HD home plugin to control the TV out on the N900. The code is currently available on Gitorious. Thomas Perl has packaged it up and pushed it to Extras-devel.
Mokomaze: accelerometer ball-bearing labyrinth game for N900
When he was younger, your editor always enjoyed wooden games where a ball bearing had to be steered around a maze, avoiding pits. Damian Waradzyn obviously did as well: N900 was really lacking a decent Labyrinth clone. This one is backed by Open Dynamics Engine and features very realistic physics as well as quite attractive graphics and a lot of fun (48 levels). It works smoothly on N900 and vibration feedback makes it even cooler. The package is in Extras-devel; so be careful as usual. Hopefully, it'll reach a point to be promoted to Extras-testing shortly.
Empty Frequencies Finder GUI application for N900 radio transmitter
BLIZZARD has released a GUI version of his "EFF" script: E.F.F. (Empty Frequencies Finder) is a utility that lets you choose a range (only 87.5 FM - 108.0 FM) to scan from, for empty/unused frequencies, using the reciever of N900 and headphones as its antenna. For example you can use this utility to find empty frequencies, so you can easily transmit from your N900 to your radio. If you are not satisfied with the emptiness of the frequency scanning results you can select between modes, to find a better one. Your editor suggests extreme caution when installing random binary debs, attached to a forum post. Especially when they interact on a relatively low level with hardware.
Gmail touch interface wrapper
Talk user "gregoranderson" has updated a Symbian WRT widget which launches Gmail to work on Maemo 5: It does nothing other that create an application icon and launch the existing GMail touchscreen interface. Pretty useless if you already have a bookmark Despite depending on Qt Web Runtime, the wrapper justs launches the normal web browser; rather than wrapping up Qt's WebKit-based browser making it more like a bookmark than a dedicated browser wrapper like Macuco.
QRadio - FM radio application
FM radio reception on the N900 has long been a community-supported feature. Martin Grimme was the first to leverage the N900's unsupported hardware with his FM Radio application, but now a new competitor has entered the market with the new FM radio application QRadio, by Giovanni Grammatico: QRadio is an FM Radio application written in C++/Qt. It uses the QtMobility/Multimedia library and has a "digital" look. QRadio is currently available as a beta in Extras-devel, so testers should take care. Playing with the radio involves changing mixer settings, leading to potential bugs including silent rings or phone calls.
DiabloTurbo - experimental kernel & modules for N8x0
Miguel Angel Alvarez has released a set of experimental kernels for the N8x0: In the past, there have been some attempts at improving the user experience in the N8x0 by turning some sysctl knobs in the kernel, without much success. So, what could be done with a such old kernel? Attempts by others to get a newer kernel seem to have failed, may be because it is too much work due to the big divergence between kernel releases, the need to port modifications made by Nokia in the Diablo kernel needed by the dammed closed source propietary system utilities, and the dammed closed source propietary kernel modules in the wifi stack. It goes without saying that extreme caution, and backups, should be taken.
FRuMMaGe Aircrack Script
Talk user "FRuMMaGe" has posted a script to help streamline use of the aircrack-ng suite on the N900: Back when I used Ubuntu as my main OS (before I discovered the N900) I made a very simple shell script to automate many of the functions of the aircrack-ng suite. Since packet injection has now been brought to the N900, (thanks lxp) I have ported it to work in Maemo. I am currently working on a GUI for this, which will be MUCH more user friendly, however this script is still far easier and faster than using aircrack directly (particularly for new users). The script is currently not packaged, and cracking WiFi keys requires quite a lot of experimental software (and may be a criminal offense depending on your municipality) so users are advised to attempt it only at their own risk.
procalc - programmer's calculator
Maemo's calculator portfolio has improved again (which may make it one of the best on a mobile device with Marat Fayzullin's excellent AlmostTI85 emulator) with the release of Konstantin Stepanov's new programmer's caculator, procalc. I were looking for programmer calculator for N900 for a long time. I found a lot of drawing calculators, simple calculators, complex math/symbolic calculators, RPN calculators, real world calculator emulators etc, etc, etc... But none of them could show me number in hex/oct/bin (not to tell about floating point numbers in any other numeral system but decimal), and none of them could do bitwise operations on numbers (and it is really critical feature for me, as I have to work with bit-masks from time to time in my practice). So I asked myself: “Am I a programmer or what?” And here it is: meet procalc, a programmer's calculator. It is in extras-devel and my garage already. Again, as it's currently available in Extras-devel, users should take care if they wish to try it out.
Puzzle Master - dragging jigsaw game
Timur Kristóf has released a jigsaw-style game for Maemo 5: It is a jigsaw puzzle game. It works on the N900 quite nicely. It contains a bunch of built-in images, plus you can open any of your own images too. It is possible to change the puzzle size in the game settings menu. There is also piece snapping (so they don't have to be aligned pixel perfectly), a timer and an option to have the pieces slide around, but not lock together, using the accelerometer. As it is the first release, it is currently in Extras-devel so the usual caveats about bravery, backups and avoiding upgrading any other application whilst having the repo enabled, apply.