9 must-have apps for the Nokia N9

PORTLAND, OR, United States – As readers may know, I’ve been using the Nokia N9 for the better part of four weeks. I found the out of the box experience on the N9 to be very adequate with native support for Skype, Twitter, my numerous email accounts and even Flickr, all on board. 

When it came time to find must-have applications for the Nokia N9, I found no shortage of awesome choices in the Nokia Store. What has popped up in my must-have list? Let’s dive in.

Foursquare client: 4squick. I was very happy to see my favorite N8 Foursquare client 4squick in the Nokia Store for the N9. Being a Qt app, 4squick is cross-platform and runs fluidly on the N9. With 4squick, I can check-in to locations, see where friends are, responds to requests and even upload photos along with my check-ins.

Podcast client: gPodder. I’m a huge podcast fan and like a typical American, I have plenty of time during my commute to listen to them. gPodder handles my podcasts, including subscribing, automatic downloads and upkeep of my nine or so favorite podcasts. gPodder supports YouTube and SoundCloud subscriptions, as well

Music while on the go: Spotify. Spotify, as I wrote last week, has a very capable app for the Nokia N9, with this application, I can easily download playlists for offline playback, view and add to my music inbox and consume all the music I want, because I have a premium subscription. AMericans who have hopped on the Spotify bandwagon will love the N9 app.

DropBox access: DropN9. DropBox is my cloud-based storage locker. I keep so many files in DropBox and it’s a great way to exchange images, music and videos with your mobile without having to use a USB cable or Bluetooth exchange. Check out DropN9 – a fully featured DropBox client for our MeeGo phone.

Google Reader: NewsFlow. I’m an avid Google Reader user as RSS is my main way to keep up on the mobile universe. Mobile clients for Google Reader are hard to come by, so we’re lucky to have NewsFlow as a good Qt based option for news reading.

Enrich your life: TED. TED videos are updated daily and every one brings a unique perspective or challenging viewpoint. TED hasn’t been forgoten about on the N9 and the TED application lists and gives useful summaries of each video. Then, playing the full video is a matter of a click.

Find your car: Parking. When I go to my local mall, sometimes I lose track of my car. My wife bears with me and is a good sport, but it is annoying to forget where your car is. Parking serves three amazing uses: geo-tagging where your car is, finding your car, and a timer to help track how long you left on your meter. 

For the health nuts: Sports Tracker. Sports Tracker is a legacy application that I’ve been using since my N82 days. this application lets you track and manage your workouts, whether it’s biking, walking, skiing or some other action-packed sport. For me, I track my cycling trips and compare my times from outing to outing.

Google Voice usage: qgvdial. While qgvdial has the worst name of any application on this list, this handy little utility will be a boon to any Google Voice user who is utilizing an N9 as their main phone. With qgvdial, you can dial out and SMS from your Google Voice number, check your Google Voice voicemails and SMS messages, and even view your Google Voice contacts, with avatar images. 

I must attribute credit to to Matt Miller for pointing me to this amazing application.

What say you? What are your favorite Nokia N9 applications?  Let’s compare notes below in the comments.