Hello everybody.

The press is writing a lot about a "post-PC ecosystem" these days, and while many dismiss tablets as simple toys, I think the world of computing is undergoing a major shift. Tablets may not be good for writing, but they are good, probably better than PCs for a lot of other things. And it turns out, people want to be doing these other things.

The Nokia N9 has captured the attention of the technology press and blogosphere more than any other recent Nokia device. This is the first phone built on the MeeGo operating system (well, 'MeeGo Harmattan'). However, the device faces an uncertain future with Nokia firmly stating it will not return to MeeGo for future devices. There is even no clear message about which international markets in which the device will be released. There are many unanswered questions. We at All About MeeGo have done our best to compile the information you need by putting together a definitive frequently asked questions article about the Nokia N9.

Front Page

Rumours of Intel "pausing" MeeGo work - not true they say

A number of sites have picked up a news story quoting unnamed "industry sources" saying that Intel will temporarily halt work on MeeGo, to focus on OEMs requiring Android and Windows. CNET quote an unnamed "Intel spokerperson" saying they remain "committed" to MeeGo:

"Intel plans to "temporarily discontinue development of its MeeGo OS due to a lack of enthusiasm for the platform from handset and tablet PC vendors." Instead, Intel will focus on hardware that is paired with either Android or Windows Phone in 2012, according to the report, citing industry sources."

""We remain committed to MeeGo and open source, and will continue to work with the community to help develop and meet the needs of customers and end users," an Intel spokesperson told CNET"

Although denied by Intel, such a move would make some sense: MeeGo's brand has been tarnished by Nokia's change of strategy and the openness - touted as MeeGo's unique selling point over Android - has disappeared as Intel have withdrawn from public, and open development, into corridor- and watercooler-based discussions in Intel offices (along with private mailing lists and bugtrackers).

Although MeeGo still remains open source, its promise of open development processes and open governance has fallen apart.

Read more (news.cnet.com)

Public Maemo Community meeting to be held on September 6th

RM Bauer calls attention to the upcoming Maemo Community meeting

"A September Maemo community meeting has been scheduled for September 6, in #maemo-meeting, at 15:00 UTC. It appears this will be the last meeting before the next election. The tentative agenda for the meeting is: Election *operation* (so election runs smoothly and *not* to discuss issues that may be debated in the election); *Current* status of maemo.org"

There is also a need for a trusted community memember (skilled in SQL) to learn the opertation of the election from Dave Neary for use in any future elections.

Read more (lists.maemo.org)

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • Rumours of Intel "pausing" MeeGo work - not true they say
   • Public Maemo Community meeting to be held on September 6th
2. Applications
   • RC Flyers Toolkit Box
3. Development
   • javispedro gets the N950 FM radio working
   • Proposed patch to add colour theme support to Qt Components
4. Community
   • Nokia N9 hackathon in Vienna next month
5. Devices
   • MeeGo developer devices
6. Announcements
   • Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard for Harmattan
   • Orientation game for Harmattan

A Quick Look at Extras in Bugzilla
2011-08-29 through 2011-09-04

Is that empty chair yours? Credit: Fleury.

Yesterday the contracts were signed to acquire Infigo as part of Nemein. Infigo, is a consulting company focused on mobile development and web using open source tools. You'll probably at least know their CTO, Jerry of the USB finger fame.

Even in the ten years of history of our company this is quite a significant move - it allows us to combine Nemein's traditional expertise on content management with Infigo's mobile offerings. As smartphones and tablets are becoming popular, more and more services we build will have a mobile element, which is now easier with lots of in-house expertise.

This also means more focus on the interplay between the Midgard content repository, NoFlo workflows, Node.js and Symfony web services, and mobile applications built in Qt.

Petri Rajahalme (with me in the photo) will be the CEO of the merged company, and I will focus on leading the R&D efforts.

Qt developers have a lot of new tools to explore and play with over the weekend, as Nokia has announced a major update to the Qt SDK. The headline change is the introduction of Qt Creator v2.3 (full details on Creator 2.3 can be found here), other changes include Qt 4.7.4, a new UI and features in Qt Simulator, updates to the notifications API, and the various components for running Qt apps on Symbian, MeeGo and the desktop. Existing Qt developers can update from within the SDK application folder, otherwise the links are in the Qt Labs.

Control the white ship to fill areas.Last December, I started to work on a new game: qw ("cuvée"), an area filling game similar to Qix. Since the tech demo has been released, I've been working on a fancy QML menu, a balanced scoring system, nice rendering effects for enemies and the player's trail and obviously some more levels, which results in this new release, version 1.5.1, with 13 high-definition images that are waiting for you to get their colors back.

The game is now available from Ovi Store for N950 and N9 users, and also for Symbian devices - the advantage of the MeeGo version being that it has higher-resolution artwork (it fully utilizes the higher screen resolution) and sound effects (for some reason Qt Mobility's QML SoundEffect has its problems on Symbian). Both versions use the feedback motor of the device for feedback when you draw, fill or die.

Here's a gameplay video of the first 3 levels, so you can get a feeling of how the game plays:

If you attended either of my talks at the Desktop Summit or COSCUP (or both! Although I think only the British Citizen Bastien Nocera might have done so, assuming he was sober enough to go to the former) you might remember my somewhat failed attempts at demoing the new web application mode in Epiphany. Although there are still some improvements to do I’ve landed the bulk of the code for the upcoming 3.1.90 release, so I figured it would be useful to give a brief overview of how this thing works for the global audience of the intertubes.