Killer apps

See also the Task:Remarkable_community_projects and Fremantle Stars.

Contents

[edit] What is a Killer App?

Before we decide what suits the definition we must define the definition. Therefore, we answer the question: what is a killer application? The Nokia Internet Tablet is versatile and flexible. It allows the user to run applications from a wide pool unlike most other platforms. A killer app(lication) is an application which adds substantial value to the NIT making the purchase of the NIT (more) worthwhile. Imagine an internet tablet without a browser. A newly added (good) browser for this internet tablet would potentially be defined as a killer app because it allows the user to do something worthwhile (surfing the web) which task she was otherwise unable to perform on the NIT. Please note that the application doesn't have to necessarily be popular or cater to the masses.

[edit] Killer Applications for the next Nokia internet tablet (and for the current one too)

Following on from Quim's calling out for ideas about applications which should be pushed by Nokia as part of the release of the next tablet and Fremantle software release, we should have a think about what would make a killer app. Please be fairly realistic.

To those submitting ideas - please give as full an explanation of the idea as you can. To everyone else, please comment if something similar already exists, any problems or added features you think might be cool, etc.

To everyone, please give your name & time/date of your comment/addition

[edit] New Applications

  • Photogrammetry: For a system with a built-in camera such as the N900 and others, a program to image and quantify objects seen through the camera would make the device extremely useful for performing onsite measurements and even (possibly) to make 3D models of objects. Such a program as http://insight3d.sourceforge.net/ is limited to images but with the built-in camera this could be done in real-time. Even just a simple app to show distances and/or single dimensions would be nice. --theonelaw 2010.12.26+23:49UTC.
  • Handwriting recognition: From what I hear some of the older models (e.g. 770) had this. Handwriting is much faster than typing, so it would be great if this could be implemented (perhaps by modifying the virtual keyboard?)
  • games: could astraware be persuaded to port some of their games to Qt? there are some cracking games and I would be very happy to pay their very reasonable license fees.
  • usenet reader with offline storage. could this be added to either the mail application or maybe the RSS reader could be adapted? Dejanews might cut this for now. There are various good news readers (even in GTK2) for Linux; e.g. Pan. For binary downloading there is NNTPGrab, but requires a lot of I/O.
  • sportstracker - http://sportstracker.nokia.com - port the S60 application to the tablet!
Ecoach does similar function to sportstracker. Take a look: http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/ecoach/
Doesn't do the google maps mashup or the sharing.
  • offline/online calendar and notes application (see google, yahoo, ovi or any other service)
This exists: mcalendar - khertan is building it :) (url here: https://garage.maemo.org/projects/mcalendar/)
mCalendar is an simple editable agenda summary, NOT a calendar app (e.g. month view?). We need much more.
Compare to Agendus on Palm or Pocket Informant on WinMo. Add syncing to those to get a killer app.
mCalendar isn't a simple editable agenda summary, it a calendar app. Maybe not like you like it, for example i don't like Agendus.
Anyway, this is my point of view, and i post this to say that yes. Event of a months is displayed in list at this time,
but as many users ask it, i m currently writing a month view like the one on Palm.
The Main features is :
- Usable with finger only
- Using alarmd so alarms works when device is shutdown or sleeping
- Google Sync

Let's take this to the discussion page...

  • a good/intuitive/smart etc ... alarm clock (custom alarm sounds?)
This one now also exists/is in active development (just going through the final stages of testing at time of writing): See FlipClock in the maemo Garage or extras-devel repository:

https://garage.maemo.org/projects/flipclock/ FlipClock Garage Page

(Currently utilizes native alarmD stuff just like the built in clock, but allows for nice large clock display, custom alarm sounds, power management, etc)
  • Tube (underground) map with routing, timetable and journey times (could also apply for overground trains). Add feature to go from closest station (gps, etc) to somewhere. --lardman 23 Oct 2008 17:47 BST
metromap (in Garage) does this for tube/underground journeys quite nicely. A later version allows you to select from a tube map.
Will upload that one. Is for multiple cities, see here: http://metromap.antex.ru/ --lardman 29 Oct 2008 09:32 UTC
Live views of train times and delays. In the UK these are available from the National Rail Website, so adding a bookmark might be sufficient. --alan_peery 18:05, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
  • Touchscreen PIM; a PIM usable with fingers.
  • A GTD-style application similar to iGTD for the Mac.
Zim-like deep/wiki note app is a killer app in this market if it implements a killer UI. A portable device that uses gestures, keyboard, camera, mic and even accelerometer (motion) as inputs to take and organize notes quickly and effortlessly would be the killer device for many, many people. It would create a whole new market...--flandry 17:34, 6 October 2009 (UTC)
  • MobileOrg like UI to emacs org files (see http://mobileorg.ncogni.to/ ) --sami00sami 23:18, 9 December 2009 (UTC)
  • Touchscreen browser; Fennec?
  • Full phone integration over bluetooth. The NIT can fully remote a phone (and act like one), plus some other features like recording, playback? Imagine a scenario in which you have a slim phone (6500 or 5310 - or better) forgotten in a pocket and you can make all the calls/management etc, etc just using the NIT. --iancumihai 24 Oct 2008 10:23 EEST
  • Not sure how it can be implemented, but would be very convenient to be able to sync the contacts between the NIT and BT-phones and laptops. I was shocked to see that I can't push my contacts from Mac to N810 (especially after using S60 phones for a while). --stangri 24 Oct 2008 01:45 PST.
You'd need some kind of advanced SyncML framework, and/or iCal support. Former is 3rd party for current Maemo versions. Latter will be included in Fremantle. Nice GUI like Swim for Symbian--allnameswereout 13:23, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
  • Would also be great to see support for PPTP VPN built-in, like Windows and Mac OS X do. --stangri 24 Oct 2008 01:45 PST.
  • Finally, an alternative GPS-navigation application would be great. And not just the mapping application, but the navigational one, which could plan the route from point to point, ideally have a database of POIs, etc. And do it all not depending on the WiFi/GSM connections. Maybe Nokia/Garmin can support Navit GPS project. --stangri 4 Nov 2008 03:14 PST.
    • Maemo Mapper, if it has a more intuitive / touch screen based interface suitable for new NIT users.
      • If the Maemo Mapper comment was a response to the request for an alternative navigation app -- I've expanded the request above. --stangri 4 Nov 2008 03:14 PST.
  • ability to send a document as a fax using a bluetooth connection to a phone, or usb(host) to serial adaptor to serial modem. yes, there are people in the world who still use fax machines. this could be an add-on to file manager's "send" function!

[edit] Existing applications which would need work/tweaks

[edit] calendar

Should have an option to repeat an event daily. Also should have an option to edit a single occurrence of a repeating event

Alarms shouldt't only be set by time an date.

Qalendar provides a front end to the existing calendar database that provides these functions.


It should be possible o activate an event while getting X meters to an gps position (buy milk if you get to a shop). Also should there be the posibility to get a reminder to anything if a custom contact is ringing (remeber to ask mom for the book). Also combined things would be great (if i ever get to munich, than call sandra and bring her this present).

[edit] contacts

should synchronise with window's address book, exchange data with winmobe, palm and blackberry... needs pluggable messaging functions so can be extended by third parties, just like the IM client's telepathy suite. also it should sync with system independet desktop clients like thunderbird and so on. therefore the syncml client should worked over.

[edit] kismet

hopefully the open-source driver will make a proper version of kismet work. also see Mickey Lauer's Wellenreiter which is a very nice tool for scanning wifi networks. It's not just for blackhats, we whitehats use them to watch out for unauthorised access points connected at work (yes, this really does happen!).

[edit] pluggable codecs in media player

current media player should have pluggable codecs - use the mplayer ones? - to support flac, ogg, dirac, various WMV and ASX flavours.

( http://maemo.org/downloads/product/Maemo5/decoders-support/ anyone? )

[edit] maemo-barcode

--lardman 23 Oct 2008 16:00 BST

Use camera to scan 1D barcodes; automatically lookup barcode information on the web - provide description, prices and places to buy; for things like CDs and DVD provide track listings, reviews, etc.

Maintain a number of database tables (wishlist items, shopping list, currently owned items - I have troubles with books, I can never remember which I have, must be getting old ;))

Expand to scan datamatrix and QRcode 2D barcodes (and pdf417 stacked 1D barcodes) - these can contain text, urls (in which case allow the user to open a browser to the scanned url), etc.

(An existing hardware project is mentioned on Thinkgeek; this is however quite pricey.)

[edit] mplayer

add a touch interface for mplayer (progress bar, volume control) - iphone like

I don't see why this would be a killer app, can you explain? It also sounds more like a port to me than a maemo-specific app (and who wrote this idea too?) --lardman 23 Oct 2008 16:36 BST
I I should add that applications such as Canola and Kagu exist with pretty iPhone-like interfaces and use mplayer as their backend, is there something missing from these apps that this proposal would bring? --lardman 23 Oct 2008 16:45 BST
right it's a port (sorry, you can move it. this is what i mean scroll+volume as overlay. i dont' quite like a mplayer canvas resize while controling the video.

how about kmplayer? needs a re-skin to be touch friendly.

[edit] mYTube

ui and other improvements. with a better mplayer (see the touch interface suggestion) the user experience will change.

[edit] Tear

Tear (a currently beta WebKit browser) will be modified to use a more finger-friendly Clutter GUI (or maybe not Clutter, I'll think of how to support both Fremantle and at least Diablo) after the release of a more final SDK.

[edit] Carman

Doesn't officially support much (OBD-II compatible hardware) yet even though these support BlueTooth 1.2, 2.0 or USB.

Is this really a killer app? I can't see many people using it TBH --Lardman 29 Oct 2008 09:35 UTC
I would use this constantly. I always have my cell when in my car. Integrating GPS, tracking, and engine stats would rock. --Woody14619

[edit] Emulators

[edit] Symbian/UIQ/S60

This is unrealistic and equally, is it really something people would consider to be a killer app? What does the S60 have that we couldn't write natively? --Lardman 29 Oct 2008 09:37 UTC
Complex topic. There are tons of + and - on either side. I'll give one example though: navigation software. On S60 you can pick Garmin, Wayfinder, Nokia Maps, McGriver, Google Maps, TomTom Navigator... you name it. Yes, most are proprietary. Able to run your application on the NIT which you previously ran on S60 while you own a legal license is awesome though.--allnameswereout 13:17, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Windows Mobile/PocketPC/WinCE

probably very difficult to do, and would probably violate all of MS's licensing

[edit] Palm Virtual Machine

it's a really neat package and one which many people overlook. What would be good is if the Palm vm could communicate with the N800 to exchange stuff, e.g. contact information, share a file store (even if only one way). Perhaps if the virtual palm had a virtual network device (like wifi on palm TX) it could communicate that way?

It turns out that it is possible to let Garnet VM see an SD card. See [1]. With this setup you can share data via files, and also install Palm applications on a card.

[edit] Android

It's a subset of Java (so that's the first hurdle), but getting Android apps running would open the entire Android appstore up to Maemo devices. That's the killer app that would establish the platform.

It's mostly open source and shares the same kernel, so the only real stumbling block is hooking up the UI to the underlying Maemo UI and enabling the hardware devices. (I make that sound so trivial).

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