Entertainment is the lifeblood of any decent smartphone, and the Nokia N900 is no different. It’s about keeping in touch, expressing yourself and enjoying media of every kind. Let’s look at the 10 entertainment apps that have hit the ground running on the Maemo Select app store…

1 Fring
Fring is hot property right now, and for good reason. It brings together the best in instant messaging and VoIP in one package, letting you use services such as Skype and MSN Messenger from your N900’s 3G or WiFi connection.

2 Bounce Evolution
A beautiful game that showcases the graphical power of the N900 and its superb screen in a simple idea well executed. Use the N900’s superbly sensitive tilt motion control to guide a ball down an immaculately rendered track in a race against time, or just enjoy watching it in the non-interactive demo.

3 Facebook for Nokia
We won’t waste time by telling you what Facebook is – we’ll just tell you that the dedicated Maemo 5 app uses the in-built Share via Service function to allow you to connect with your Facebook contacts directly in the Camera, Photo and Media Player applications.

4 Pixelpipe Media Gateway for Nokia Share
Pixelpipe is an incredibly versatile tool that helps you upload text, photos, video and audio through a single media gateway to over 100 social networks, photo and video sites and blogs. The sheer scope of its coverage makes it a no-brainer for any media-happy user.

5 Qik
Making use of the N900’s fast web connection and excellent video recording credentials, Qik lets you instantly share your personal moments live with anyone around the world. You can choose to make clips available publicly or privately, and adjust various other settings too, but recording itself is a simple one-button affair.

6 Hermes
Named after the Greed god of communication, Hermes is all about filling in the gaps and enriching your social networking address book of friends and contacts. It works across the likes of Facebook and Twitter to pool information and fill in any gaps it finds.

7 MaStory
A blogging app designed specifically for Maemo. At present it supports Wordpress, Blogger, Livejournal and Drupal blogs, and you don’t even have to be online to prepare or edit posts. It’s compatible with popular photo services such as Flickr and Picasa too.

8 Amazon Widget
Get the latest information of Amazon’s bestsellers right on your N900’s Maemo 5 desktop. Not only can you instantly select titles you’re interested in with a tap of a finger, you can also customise and personalise the information Amazon brings to your attention to suit your needs, with feeds updated hourly.

9 Hex-a-Hop
A puzzle-based mobile game in time-honoured fashion, where you have to bounce around on screen and break all the green tiles on each hexagonal map without backing yourself into a corner. With 100 levels of increasing difficulty and no time limits, be warned: Hex-a-Hop is addictive stuff.

10 TuneWiki
A community-driven music player app, TuneWiki displays lyrics to any song you’re listening to on screen, contributed and edited by other users around the globe. You can even see where they are too, thanks to the MusicMap, which displays the rough geographical location of other people listening to the same music you are.