DropN900: Dropbox on your N900

Sure, the N900 is billed as a Mobile Computing device rather than a Mobile Phone.   But it lacks a lot of functionalities present in a normal computer. One of them was a proper Dropbox client.

In case you didn’t already know, Dropbox is a service that lets you store, access and share files across multiple computers and mobile devices. It’s a very useful service, especially since you get 2GB free!!

Well, thanks to the awesome, active maemo developer community, that’s one more thing you cross off your list!! DropN900 is just that, a basic (for now) dropbox client for the N900. It’s in the early development stage, despite which it is very stable and user-friendly. The UI is a little plain, but that’s ok, because it’s so very easy to use!! Check out the gallery at the end of this post for more shots of the application.

Read more about the application over at the Talk Maemo thread.

Installation

You can download it from the extra-devel repositories. In the App Manager,  just search for DropN900 under the Network category. All the usual warnings apply for extra-devel applications. There are a few dependencies for this app and they should be installed automatically, if not here’s what it depends on: python2.5, python-simplejson, PyQt4.QtCore, PyQt4.QtGui, PyQt4.QtNetwork and PyQt4.QtWebkit.

If you want to install this from your terminal without browsing around in , just type in the following :

sudo gainroot; apt-get update; apt-get install dropn900;

Setting up extra-devel repository

If you don’t have the extra-devel repositories setup on your phone, here’s how to do it:

Application manager –> Application catalogs –> New
Catalog name: Maemo Extras-devel
Web address: http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel/
Distribution: fremantle
Components: free non-free

Usage Tips for DropN900:

• There are not sufficient network connection checks in place yet. Be sure to have a ready internet connection when you start the app to make things easier before I can fix this.
• When you auth the first time, give it some time after you have clicked the authenticate button. With 3G getting the initial folder listing from root takes ~10 secs, be patient. Same applies when you start the app on next sessions.
• App main menu also has reset auth button that will remove the current auth and logout. You can then re-login with same or another DropBox account.
• When downloading items the app will default to /home/user/DropN900 to store files. You can always change this on the upcoming file dialog. Uploading files takes you by default to /home/user.

What else is missing from your N900? Let us know, comment below, or catch us on twitter, we’re @myportableworld. You can also visit our Facebook Page.