Top five free apps you must have on your N95

If your insides are a vast chasm of sneering cynicism for the iPhone and everything it stands for, you're not alone. And while we hold our breath and cross our fingers that the Palm Pre is as good as it promises, those of us who haven't been converted to the wonder of Apple's mobile are going to have to rely on our trusty N95 8GB to see us through.

(Credit: CNET UK)

While one of the key selling points of the iPhone is its large catalogue of useful and not-so-useful software, happily, the N95 has plenty of apps available for it too. Let's run through five of the best and explain what they do and why you should download them.

Twibble

No one's life is complete without Twitter. Twibble is the best little application we've ever used for tweeting the joys and horrors of public transport in London and moaning about the horrendous sniffing that people sometimes engage in.

Download it here

Location Tagger

This app allows you to use the N95's GPS system to tag your photos with the location they were taken. It's especially cool if you go abroad and want to show people where you've been. Just remember that the N95 uses AGPS, which utilises your data connection to narrow down your location. This costs a fortune abroad, so disable it.

Download it here

YouTube

There are few things as boring as being on a train with nothing to do. Luckily, Google has its own app that allows you to search, browse and watch videos from YouTube. This isn't the same as the useless app that comes with the N95 — that's really just a shortcut to a web page. This app is slick, and really works well.

Download it here

JoikuSpot

Ever been somewhere and really wanted to surf the net on your computer, but not been able to because there's no Wi-Fi? JoikuSpot turns your mobile phone, and 3G internet connection into a Wi-Fi hotspot. The free version has some limitations — it won't allow VPN access, for example. But for simple browsing with no need to tether your phone or buy a separate dongle, this works brilliantly.

Download it here

Google Maps

An obvious choice, but Google Maps is really the king of all mobile software. With its most recent update, it now matches the iPhone for functionality. You can search for restaurants or other businesses and get directions to them. There are even graphical niceties like flying pins — just like the iPhone.

Download it here

So next time someone waves their iPhone at you, claiming application superiority, at least you'll be able to use Google Maps to tell them where to go, and what to jump off when they get there.