ABI break, new SDK, extras fork with PR1.2

Maemo 5 PR1.2 will bring with it an ABI break between Qt 4.5 (in PR1.1) and Qt 4.6 (in PR1.2) that will require some fiddling to bring as seamless transition as possible to both users and developers. * Maemo 5 PR1.2 will ship with Extras enabled by default but will use distribution: fremantle-1.2

* 'older' devices will continue to fetch from distribution: fremantle

* Autobuilder will be updated when PR1.2 is released and promotion will Discussion about the specifics is still underway, so interested contributors should make sure they're subscribed to the Maemo Developers mailing list.

Maemo 5 Extras repo reaches 3.5m downloads

The Maemo 5 Extras repository has reached 3.5 million downloads. We see the number of downloads grow every day. This makes the maemo.org Extras repository a great place for developers to get their software in the hands of end users. If you are interested in publishing your software through maemo.org, please visit the wiki. The maemo.org Extras repository offers a robust distribution infrastructure for developers, which, considering Nokia's continued issues with the Ovi Store, is especially useful for both developers and users.

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • ABI break, new SDK, extras fork with PR1.2
   • Maemo 5 Extras repo reaches 3.5m downloads
2. Applications
   • Great & fast google reader application:
3. Development
   • Developing Qt desktop widgets on Maemo 5
4. Community
   • MeeGo website & community meeting minutes
   • Shared sign-on between meego.com and maemo.org using OpenID
5. Devices
   • Using Unison to get automatic seamless syncing between N900 and iPhoto
   • Nokia's Explore and Share concept uses super fast, mystery wireless
6. Maemo in the Wild
   • PUSH Nokia N900 MOD in the USA Finalists Announced
7. Announcements
   • Official level pack 1 for Angry Birds now available and pulled again in Ovi Store

Maemo and Moblin "merge" to form MeeGo

On Monday, just after the release of our third issue, Nokia and Intel held a joint press conference to announce that the roadmaps of Moblin and Maemo were converging. The resulting operating system, MeeGo, would target phones, tablets and netbooks and be held under the stewardship of the Linux Foundation as a fully open source OS: We are taking the best pieces from these two open source projects and are creating the MeeGo software platform. Both teams have worked for a long time to support the needs of the mobile user experience - and MeeGo will make this even better. We want it to be fun, focused, flexible, technically challenging and ultimately, something that can change the world.We all use mobile devices every day. The power and capability of handhelds has reached astounding levels - netbooks have been a runaway success - and connected TVs, tablets, in-vehicle infotainment, and media phones are fast growing new markets for devices with unheard of performance. Our goal is to develop the best software to go with those devices. The teams behind Maemo and Moblin have plenty of experience and even more ideas on how to make things better - and together we will create something special. The announcement dealt with the technical and governance aspects but the large Maemo community was thrown into turmoil. What was the impact on Maemo 6, due out later this year with pre-release SDKs expected shortly? What about the Maemo Community Council and the summit? What about talk.maemo.org; was MeeGo just for "techies"? The timing was unfortunate for our issue, but we never claimed to be timely - just to try and encompass the broadest range of news about Maemo! So, the last week has provided many of the answers:

Nokia Qt 4.6 to replace Community Qt 4.5 in PR1.2

Nokia will be launching official Qt 4.6 support for Maemo 5 with the PR1.2 release. Nokia intends to deploy the currently in Beta Qt 4.6 to all devices via software update — most probably already with the next major update PR1.2. This may signal an accelerated timeline for pushing Qt support in Maemo 5, which will give a clearer migration path for existing applications to Maemo 6 and allow developers to start preparing for the transition to Harmattan.

Given that the largest criticism for the transition to Qt as the mainstream supported toolkit came from the lack of a developer migration path, this goes a long way in continuing the moves made at the summit to ease that transition. Combined with tools like Qt Creator and MADDE, cross-platform development and deployment with rich tooling support is finally becoming a reality for Maemo.

Council election timeline

Dave Neary has posted the timeline for the March 2010 Maemo Community Council election, with 2nd March being the deadline for electorate karma, and 23rd March marking the opening of voting. Since we're announcing the election dates now, anyone who does not yet have 10 karma, or hasn't let linked their maemo.org and talk.maemo.org accounts, now has a few weeks to do so before the election process starts. Users interested in voting should be sure their Talk and maemo.org accounts are linked before 2nd March - indeed, given it can take 26 hours for a full karma recount, the sooner the better.

The Community Council are the primary interface between the Maemo community and Nokia but, beyond that, they're also responsible for facilitation within the community; making sure that a random developer on IRC is connected with someone on talk.maemo.org or the mailing lists.

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • Nokia Qt 4.6 to replace Community Qt 4.5 in PR1.2
   • Council election timeline
2. Applications
   • Maemo 5 themeing on Windows for dummies
   • Video how to on using MSN, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, ICQ and more with the Maemo 5 Telepathy system
   • How to use Facebook Chat via the built-in instant messaging
   • ...and 5 more
3. Development
   • Battery status graph for analysis using battery-eye
   • TI collaboration on getting 3D acceleration drivers for N8x0 progressing
   • PySide (Python + Qt) tutorials
   • ...and 5 more
4. Community
   • How to avoid "me too" replies to bugs
   • Should maemo.org have a "mascot" in addition to the community-sourced logo?
   • Efforts to launch a maemo.org store of branded caps, mugs etc.
5. Devices
   • Desktop stand for N900
   • XMPP credentials vulnerable to MITM attacks
   • Mer with working 3D acceleration on N900 with open source kernel (closed libraries)
6. Maemo in the Wild
   • maemo.org group on LinkedIn hits 1,000 members
   • Running Windows 95 on the Nokia N900
7. Announcements
   • Diablo & Fremantle openness reports
   • Quick Brown Fox font viewer in Testing
   • wizard-mounter allows browsing of remote filesystems (incl. SMB & NFS)

BBC tech correspondent covers Nokia still ruling in face of iPhone & iPad

Rory Cellan-Jones is the BBC's senior technical journalist and, as with all the mainstream media, is often engrossed by Apple's product launches. However, he takes a closer look at the figures and points out that Nokia - as a worldwide company - are hoping to sell around 21 million smartphones in a quarter - as many as Apple might hope to sell in a year. Also note that mention of "mobile computers" in this category - Nokia is trying to point out, ever so quietly, that it's already in that new category described by Steve Jobs on Wednesday. He hasn't yet played with the N900, but mentions it as a sign that Nokia don't want to "get caught out again". The comments on the article also feature largely positive comments about the N900.

PUSH N900 US competition launched for hardware hacking

Following on from the success of the PUSH N900 invention competition in Europe (see the articles in the 'Wild' section for more), we’ve swung open the virtual doors once again, launching a whole new PUSH project dedicated to all the US hackers, modders and designers. [...] Now we want to see what the American hacker community can come up with. A panel of judges will choose the top three ideas from everything submitted, after which the finalist teams will be provided with a Nokia N900 and support from Nokia, to actually build their mod. Then, in March, a representative of these three winning teams will be flown to CTIA in Las Vegas, where they’ll get the chance to demonstrate their hack for final judging and the chance for their team to win cash prizes of $10,000, $5,000 and $3,000. Submissions can be made until noon (Eastern), 15 February 2010.

In this edition...

1. Front Page
   • BBC tech correspondent covers Nokia still ruling in face of iPhone & iPad
   • PUSH N900 US competition launched for hardware hacking
2. Applications
   • Ken-Young on Orrery, bringing more stars into view than you can see
   • Hands-on Mozilla's pocket-sized Firefox mobile
   • Browser Switchboard makes it easy to define alternative browsers as default
   • ...and 8 more
3. Development
   • Forum Nokia Developer Conference, 2nd March, Sydney Australia
   • Akademy KDE/Qt conference call for papers
   • Debian Etch rebuilt for Maemo
   • ...and 3 more
4. Community
   • Testing Squad for maemo.org Extras created
   • February maemo.org sprint meeting minutes & actions online
5. Devices
   • Porting Maemo's base to other chipsets/devices
   • Device quality assurance inside look
6. Maemo in the Wild
   • 2009 Engadget awards - N900 nominee in 2 categories
   • A quick round up of the PUSH N900 Showcase last night
   • PUSH N900 London party pole-dancing robot video
7. Announcements
   • Subscribe to MWKN to ensure you never miss an issue
   • Marina theme for Maemo 5
   • Hoops Frenzy available for $1.99
   • ...and 5 more