Nokia's Maemo Ovi Store looking rickety, 'beta' label well-deserved
By Chris Ziegler 
posted January 13th 2010 8:05PM
posted January 13th 2010 8:05PM
Bugs are to be expected in brand-new apps and platforms -- particularly when they're clearly marked with a "beta" sign -- but it starts to get a little hairier when there's money involved. One of the early crowd favorites in Nokia's Ovi Store for Maemo appears to be the game Angry Birds, which is available with a €3 level pack -- problem is, plenty of folks have discovered a way around actually paying the cash, which becomes a big problem for the developer very, very quickly. The level pack has since been removed, probably the best move until Nokia can figure out what's going on here and issue a patch. In the meantime, looks like it's back to the ol' repositories.
That game from the thumbnail reminds me of this awesome flash game: http://www.kongregate.com/games/inXile_Ent/super-stacker-2
@doutorpiranha Dude, I went there and am stuck on "Wobble wobble, nice hat!" It's very addicting.
@Lucas Glad you enjoyed Lucas. I finished the game the day i found it but cant recall any specific level by name, so i ain't of help.
Keep working it , its worth it :)
@Lucas Same here! agreed on the addicting part
Poor Nokia. They just can't catch a break. Shame, too..I really liked their stuff when it was pro-user and affordable.
AND ENGADGET: I'm gettin tired of having to re-login after every single comment. Engadget, seriously...fix this plz?
@psycros perhaps it's just a problem on your end, i'm not having any trouble..
are you signed in on another browser automatically?
@psycros
Check the remember me box. Dugh!
bit of topic, but where's the n900 review?! Please and thanks.
@joelv
my thoughts exactly. the nexus one gets a review BEFORE IT COMES OUT. whats up zeigler??? push come to shove ill do it for you guys. im an awesome writer (dead serious)
my n900 kicks ass. and i know im not the only one who thinks people need top know about this phone. its not for everyone, but its damn good i know that much.
@skyblaze
You don't make a very good case for yourself.
@SilverSurfer
wasn't trying to. im not gonna bother attempting to prove myself through an insignificant comment i type that no one really cares about. waste of effort, ya digg
Fuck the ovi app store. They should just use an existing tool like synaptic and just write some code to have payments. Companies that want to embrace open source and Linux should follow its philosophy.
@a12ctic
It's rather hard to incorporate payments and DRM into something like synaptic. Really the only way I can see paid apps on Linux is via licenses tied to something very hardware specific like MAC or a built in serial and considering it's Linux, there's the possibility of spoofing that as well.
Nitpick time: a harrier is either a bird, a dog, or an aggressive attacker. I'm sure you meant hairier.
Perhaps the grammar validation app you tried to snag off the Ovi store but couldn't because it's all broken and sucky is to blame, though? :)
@doubleyewdee Indeed - fixed!
Um, I'm gonna be that guy... It's "hairier" not "harrier".
I'm not even surprised. Engadget posts anything negative/dull about Maemo/N900 - but if something interesting happens, like recently when developers released working Playstation emulator, or ran Quake 3 or Starcraft smoothly on the phone, no news.
Um, you guys do realize that the Ovi Store content is HOSTED on a repository, right? That's the whole reason people were able to grab the for-pay packages. They were hosted on a repository and only hidden from the GUI package manager. apt-get could install them without payment.
"...things start to get a little harrier...", eh engadget?
surely you meant "hairier"...
Angry Birds is absolutely wonderful. After this and Bounce Evolution, I'll buy anything Rovio has to sell.
I just wish I knew how to buy the level pack; I can't find it in the Ovi Store, and clicking the link from the game just sends me to a "this application has been removed" page.
*sigh*
I should stop posting while drunk. Maybe then I'll read the full article first.
Nevermind.
Big surprice.
There's a bug in Beta
Stop the press.
I bought the level pack. It's great. I guess it wasn't a very good idea to have the app store distribute via a repository; it's easy, but vulnerable. Don't be so harsh on Nokia all the time Engadget, this only happened because people like stealing...
Interesting set of post regarding Angry Birds. I am not sure where you folks found the quoted price as €3. From my N900 OVI icon, I was able to find the Angry Birds application as a stand-alone offering with an official price of FREE... This is from a N900 purchased from Amazon for use in the USA.
@frankhowley It usually pays to read the article.
The game itself is free but the additional level pack wasn't.
Engadget how hard do you have to work to find all these negative news about Nokia, not once you write some positive and where is the REVIEW on n900?
@Iceen
Nokia used to buy a lot of ads and sponser a lot of engadget events. Not lately. Don't hold your breath for anything pro Nokia, or a positive N900 review even tough it is probably the most versitle handset out there.
Engadget is constantly bashing and deliberately reporting negative things about all products made by some other brand but Apple.
I've got Angry Birds on my iPhone and it is a really fun game. Highly recommended!
Seriously, they didn't announce it in any way, the link on phone didn't even work. When somebody stumbled on it, there weren't any payable apps. They put a single payable app there for a short while, probably to simply test the OVI part of the payment system.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that engadget is already giving this a sentence. How about a review on the phone first?
@Rev
Exactly. The Ovi Store for the N900 isn't in beta yet - it hasn't been officially announced available by Nokia, but a couple users found access to the store and reported it: http://thenokiablog.com/2010/01/11/video-ovi-store-nokia-n900/
Chris, I think this is something that you could correct now. Writing about a solution that's not officially available yet and calling it broken just doesn't sound right.
Ricketier than a poorly constructed bridge with a vitamin D deficiency.
just [i]testing[/i] if [b]we[/b] have [s]any[/s] markup [del]here[/del] at all
or maybe it works with these
bollocks