As generated by Wordle from the maemo.org intro

A new version of the OS 2007 hacked edition for the Nokia 770 is now available for download

The hacker edition is not a end-user ready release. It’s a tool to allow developers to continue working on the 770 moving on to the OS 2007 software platform, bridging the gap between 770 and N800.

This latest version updates the software to the level of the latest feature upgrade release for the N800 to the extent possible. Joni Valtanen is still working on improving it but he has already done a great job covering the basics.

Unfortunately it was not possible for us to provide in the Hacker Edition these new developments coming from third parties:

• Skype client support
• Adobe Flash 9 browser plugin

This is due to licensing and hardware constraints.
In the case of the Flash plugin the Hacker Edition is shipping without any version of it.

We’re still using the OS2006 initfs so the kernel and device drivers are the old ones.
There is no support for larger memory cards.

On the up side, all the user space libraries have been updated as well as all the applications, so we expect application portability across N800 OS2007 and the 770 hacker edition as long as code is not compiled specifically for OMAP2.

Here are the main things that are still broken or not available:

• Internet call has problems
• Boot process might not work every time
• Bluetooth keyboard and file storage connectivity

These things have improved since the latest Hacker Edition release:

• Filemanager can handle files properly
• Certificates work with browser
• Working Media player, though still with some bugs
• SDL sound
• Correct device information
• Device locking and starting with or without powersupply

We’re continuing to work on the hacker edition. New releases will follow in the coming days.
These are our current goals:

• Update to Chinook release
• Further bug fixes

Over the next days we will populate the bug tracker in the OS 2007 Garage Project with the bugs carried from OS 2006 (many of them now fixed).
Problems with the hacker edition should be reported there.

Yesterday I was playing a bit with Mugshot.
I thought it would be great to have a Maemo group there. Unfortunately I only found that there was indeed a Maemo group after I had already created another one .
So if you were wondering how come there’s a second empty Maemo group, now you know . I couldn’t figure out a way to delete it. Maybe it will be garbage collected after some time?

Nokia’s Maemo / Internet Tablet team is hiring in Helsinki.

A couple of positions are open in the Desktop team. We are focused on the development of User Interface and Data Management building blocks and frameworks.
The GNOME Mobile platform and the Hildon Application Framework are the most visible parts of what we work on.

To check out these positions or apply follow the links:

Technical Project Manager - Address Book, Search, Backup,…
Error Manager / Q.A - Lead the way in bug squashing (fixed term August 2007 to April 2008)

Are you using Sardine?
Sardine is for Maemo developers interested in following the development
of the Maemo Platform, particularly the Hildon Application Framework.
That’s not a large crowd, but still fewer people than we hoped are using
Sardine.

We’ve got some ideas why but we’d rather hear from you. This is important for the future of Maemo.
If that’s important to you please take one minute to answer this really short survey.

A Garage account is required but the survey is anonymous.
I will summarize and post the results here and in the maemo-developers list.

Last Monday evening I got back after three weeks out of the office.

FOSDEM

FOSDEM is this weekend. This year’s schedule is even better than usual. And this year I’m not missing it. . Tomorrow I’m flying to Brussels.

There’s a lot more going on than any single person could cover. I’m personally interested in X / UI / graphics, embedded, GNOME, metadata/search, and that’s far too much.

But it’s OK since there’s a bunch of other Nokia Maemo people going as well.

Sunday I’m participating in an open discussion about Company Involvement in Open Source Projects representing Nokia. I’m looking forward to that even though I will unfortunately miss a few cool presentations because of that.

Overall I expect to spend quite a bit of time in the GNOME and Embedded devrooms.

Hiring Maemo Core Developer

We are looking for a software engineer to join our Maemo / Internet Tablets development team.
This is a core developer position with a focus on Maemo platform development.

If you are interested and will be in FOSDEM drop me an email to carlos_AT_maemo.org or Jabber me on carlos.h.guerreiro_AT_gmail.com so we can arrange to meet.

An update to the OS 2007 / 770 hacker edition is now available for download.

The main news is that sound is now working including media and system sounds.
Video works to some extent, though not the sample clip that comes with the image which is intended for the N800.
VOIP calls work too.

This time it’s a fiasco image. You can flash it in the same way as official releases.
This is described in Markku’s notes which are up-to-date with the latest developments.

There are still many glitches here and there, instability and performance problems, but with media capabilities this image is much more attractive.

Help is appreciated. Markku’s notes are open to contributions. Additions and corrections are welcome, including suggestions for addressing the remaining issues.

Problem reports specific to this release are welcome as well and should go to this Garage project. Not to the Maemo bugzilla and definitely not to any Nokia support. There is no official support for this.

Finally, patches are most welcome, preferably attached to the Garage project’s tracker.

A first release of the OS 2007 / 770 hacker edition is now available for download.

Similarly to official IT OS releases, the download is offered to product owners only.
You will need to enter your Nokia 770 product identification number to download.

But this is not an official release. It’s not a end-user ready release. It’s a tool to allow developers to continue working on the 770, moving on to the OS 2007 / Bora software platform, bridging the gap between 770 and N800. It’s less than alpha. No Q.A. was done on it and who knows what it might do. It should not brick your device but then again, we can’t be totally sure of that either. I’m running it on my 770 and so far it’s doing fine

Multimedia is still quite broken, but there’s still hope.

Have a look at Markku’s notes if you are interested in the gory details. You will also find there instructions for how to flash this release on your 770. Markku is updating these notes as he continues to work on this. Help is appreciated. The wiki page is open to contributions. Additions and corrections are welcome, including suggestions for addressing the remaining issues.

Problem reports specific to this release are welcome as well and should go to this Garage project. Not to the Maemo bugzilla and definitely not to any Nokia support. There is no official support for this.

Finally, patches are most welcome, preferably attached to the Garage project’s tracker.