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In this edition...

  1. Front Page
    • Diablo community SSU up and running for beta-testing
    • Nokia stressing importance of Maemo Community Council elections: stand now before time runs out
  2. Applications
    • JoikuSpot 1.0 for Maemo released
    • RaeMote: desktop widget for turning N900 into Apple Remote
    • Erminig-NG: 2-way sync with Google Calendar with GUI configuration
  3. Development
    • Dummy and USB network modules for icd2 open sourced
    • Bug tracker requirements for Extras packages: discussion about valid entries and requiredness
    • Qt Creator 2.0 alpha includes Maemo support
    • ...and 2 more
  4. Community
    • MeeGo community working group status update
    • UK midlands (Birmingham) N900 meetup
  5. Devices
    • N900 vehicle mounts now available
  6. Maemo in the Wild
    • Interview with Peter Schneider, head of Maemo marketing
    • Interview with Peter Schneider, head of Maemo marketing (pt. 2)
    • Ari Jaaksi explaining MeeGo at Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit in San Francisco, April
  7. Announcements
    • Randall Arnold (Texrat) running for council
    • Andrea Grandi (andy80) running for council
    • Andrew Black (andrewfblack) running for council
    • ...and 3 more

Front Page

Applications »

Diablo community SSU up and running for beta-testing

After months of discussion, a community-run update site for Maemo 4 devices like the N800 and N8x0 is now available for beta-testing. If successful, this will provide a mechanism for providing application bug fixes and updates to Diablo users without requiring Nokia to ship an update. Lucas Maneos has set up and signed an initial repository so that the kinks in the process can be worked out: Note also that this is not the final repository and depending on how testing goes you may have to reflash back to the official 5.2008.43-7 in order to install the "official" community SSU when it arrives (though I will try to avoid that if at all possible). Testing this is vital to ensure that the upgrade path for end-users is seamless (the "S" in "SSU"). If successful, it should pave the way for the community to pick up upgrading other superseded devices in future.

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Nokia stressing importance of Maemo Community Council elections: stand now before time runs out

The nomination period for the next Maemo Community Council ends on Wednesday, 17th March. With only four names in the fray, the number of candidates is the lowest it's ever been. Quim Gil, Nokia's community manager, explained the importance of the community council to Nokia, The council is seen by Nokia and the people pushing the MeeGo project as a very interesting asset and characteristic of the Maemo community. It can't be translated directly to the MeeGo context but everybody agrees that having an elected body canalizing an agenda complementing the strategy and work of the MeeGo technical infrastructure would be useful and worth trying. There are hundreds of eligible candidates, and the only responsibility is to carry on what you're already doing!

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Applications

Development »« Front Page

JoikuSpot 1.0 for Maemo released

JoikuSpot, an application that allows users to share their cellular data connection through AdHoc WiFi, is now out of beta for Maemo. Joiku will be running a introductory special: Unfortunately it's still not available through Extras or the Ovi Store, so users will need to add Joiku's repository with the provided .install file to install the application.

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RaeMote: desktop widget for turning N900 into Apple Remote

Thomas Perl has released RaeMote a new desktop widget that allows the N900 to emulate an Apple remote. RaeMote is a Desktop widget for Maemo 5 that allows you to use your N900's CIR (consumer infrared) port as an Apple Remote. RaeMote is currently available in Extras-testing (standard disclaimers and warnings apply), testers and contributors are welcome.

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Erminig-NG: 2-way sync with Google Calendar with GUI configuration

Pascal Jermini has released Erminig-NG which synchronizes your Google calendar with Maemo 5. It is currently available in Extras-devel (standard warnings and disclaimers apply), testers and contributors are welcome.

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Development »« Front Page
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Development

Community »« Applications

Dummy and USB network modules for icd2 open sourced

Patrik Flykt has announced that both the dummy network and USB modules for icd2 (the Internet Connectivity Daemon 2, Nokia's proprietary networking daemon) have been made available on Gitorious. The dummy network module for icd2 has been open sourced. [...] Nowadays there also exists an USB network module for icd2. If the interface 'usb0' can be found, the USB network shows up as a selectable connection in the connection dialog. The code is available on maemo.gitorious.org, these plugins should make USB networking simpler and provide a nice way to select additional unsupported network interfaces through the icd2 UI.

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Bug tracker requirements for Extras packages: discussion about valid entries and requiredness

Valério Valério is pushing discussion to help clarify some points of the Extras QA process (particularly requirements for the bug tracker field), since many maintainers are facing confusion about what is acceptable. Since some developers aren't taking seriously the QA rules and there's a lot of room for different interpretations in some cases, like the validity of the bugtracker fields, the Testing Squad decided to write some additional rules to clarify dubious situations. The current revisions are available on the wiki. Discussion and input are welcome.

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Qt Creator 2.0 alpha includes Maemo support

Daniel Teske has announced the alpha release of Qt Creator 2.0. Qt Creator is Nokia's strategic IDE available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux for Qt development across multiple platforms (including Windows, Symbian and Maemo). The latest version leverages the work pioneered with MADDE and provides out-of-the-box support for compiling for Maemo and remote debugging: Just over a year ago we released Qt Creator 1.0 Today we are releasing the alpha for Qt Creator 2.0. And the 2.0 release is shaping up really nicely. I'm feeling as excited about the 2.0 release as for the 1.0. We have something awesome and hopefully I can convince you to try the alpha and see for yourself! Qt is the strategic toolkit for MeeGo, so these exciting tools will only grow over time.

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$50,000 prize for "best" application in Nokia's "Calling All Innovators" contest

Nokia has launched the 2010 Calling All Innovators contest, which seeks to highlight the "best" applications on Nokia's mobile platforms. For the third year in a row, Nokia's Calling All Innovators contest is all about inspiring creativity and developing change.

Inspiring creativity in the projects submitted by developers working on mobile applications and content for use on Nokia's latest devices.

Developing change in the ways we continue to think about how we use our mobile devices today, and how we may be using them in the future. Previous years' winners include applications like Pixelpipe and Florin Finance Tracker. Submissions will be accepted until 18 May 2010.

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ExtUnDelete: recover deleted files

Brian McKenzie has fully ported "extundelete" to Maemo; a tool to recover deleted files from ext file systems: Extundelete works by reading inode tables on a journalized filesystem (ext3 or ext4) to help in recovering deleted files/directories. It's currently under development and, as with all tools which manipulate the lowest levels of your filesystem, care should be taken in its use.

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Community »« Applications
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Community

Devices »« Development

MeeGo community working group status update

Last week, a group of Intel and Nokia employees - including Quim Gil and Tero Kojo - met in the US with their Intel counterparts (Dawn Foster and Michael Shaver) to formalise the creation of MeeGo's Community Working Group. The group is here to help with the web infrastructure and online communication of any community team. We will help the TSG organizing and handling the bi-weekly IRC meetings, to start asap with the first one. The setting initially discussed includes a public agenda, a process to propose topics and a moderated IRC channel with Imad and Valtteri with writing permissions, Dawn posting questions received via PM and Quim playing with the bot in order to generate nice meeting minutes automagically. The newly formed group is forging ahead, hopefully with enough consensus building in these initial stages to meet the lofty goals of MeeGo being an open system and community. One hopes the "moderated IRC channel" is not to enforce a barrier between the community and the Technical Steering Group; and that concrete work will be undertaken by the TSG in the open. It would be a shame if the first steps of MeeGo were dominated by closed-door meetings between select employees of the two corporate sponsors.

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UK midlands (Birmingham) N900 meetup

Details are currently scarce, but an N900 users/developers/interested folk get together is being planned on Twitter with the #N900BrumMeetup hashtag. Current plans have it on Saturday, 27th March in the early evening (say 6pmish).

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Devices

Maemo in the Wild »« Community

N900 vehicle mounts now available

ProClip USA emailed Reggie Suplido to let him know that their N900 vehicle mounts were now available. The mounts advertise the following features: Custom fit to your device; Holds device securely; Keeps your device upright for better reception; Keeps your device safely at hand; Easily slide device in and out; Neat and discreet design blends well with vehicle's interior. The mounts, part of the "Brodit" range, are also available in other parts of the world; including the UK.

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Maemo in the Wild

Announcements »« Devices

Interview with Peter Schneider, head of Maemo marketing

Peter Schneider, head of the global Maemo marketing team, has been interviewed by Sanjeev Visvanatha on a number of topics; including the Maemo community, MeeGo and Maemo Devices: I'm working now almost for 10 years at Nokia. After several product management and software marketing jobs at Nokia, I started to head the Maemo marketing team in November 2007. The Maemo marketing team is responsible for reaching out to platform developers, to application developers, to operators, to service and apps partners such as Skype, lead users, and industry analysts in regards to Maemo. Part two is below.

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Interview with Peter Schneider, head of Maemo marketing (pt. 2)

Following on from part 1 above, the second part of Sanjeev Visvanatha's interview with Peter Schneider: Harmattan work is on track. However, you will not see us using the term "Maemo 6" anymore but we will continue the work on Harmattan under the MeeGo brand as evolution to MeeGo. We continue to build flagship experiences with the Harmattan release that include an iconic homescreen design, support for DRM, and multi-touch gestures on capacitive WVGA displays.

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Ari Jaaksi explaining MeeGo at Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit in San Francisco, April

Ari Jaaksi, VP of Maemo Devices at Nokia, will be giving a talk about MeeGo at the 2010 Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit in San Francisco 14 April 2010. Join Ari Jaaksi as he talks about the MeeGo platform and its role in the Linux marketplace for netbooks, handheld computing and communications devices, in-vehicle devices, connected TVs and media phones.

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Wayfinder shutting up shop on all platforms

Engadget is reporting that Wayfinder, previously "Navicore" and now owned by Vodafone, is closing down; unable to compete in the free navigation marketplace. So there we have it, the paid navigation services deathwatch has its first fatality, and it's the unfortunate nature of the beast that plenty of others will be following suit, unable to resist the destructive effects of the free and ubiquitous services now on offer. Wayfinder on the N810 was criticised as slow, bloated, expensive and cumbersome. However, in your editor's opinion, it was still orders of magnitude better than the slow, bloated and very cumbersome Ovi Maps shipped with the N900.

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Announcements »« Devices
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Announcements

« Maemo in the Wild

Randall Arnold (Texrat) running for council

Randall Arnold has announced he is running for a spot in the Maemo Community Council: As a council member I championed the welcoming of new members and rolled out a volunteer program called Maemo Greeters with a very simple goal: ask members to include helpful links in their talk.maemo.org signatures, thus easily propogating helpful info throughout the forum. The program was more successful than I had even imagined, growing through user suggestions to include multiple languages and a variety of resources and approaches. I see value in continuing this at MeeGo. He is the only member of the current council who has signalled his intention to stand, at the time of writing. Randall graciously answered a series of questions posed by your editor in his announcement thread.

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Andrea Grandi (andy80) running for council

Andrea Grandi has announced he is running for a spot in the Maemo Community Council: I joined the Maemo Community since the first Maemo device was out (Nokia 770) and I've been always so excited for being able to contribute to this project. In the past I've attended at both Maemo Summit doing a short talk. During last summer I collaborated with PyMaemo team during a stage at Igalia and at the moment I'm developing a couple of applications using Python and Qt. Andrea kindly answered a series of questions posed by Andrew Flegg in his announcement thread.

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Andrew Black (andrewfblack) running for council

Andrew Black has announced he is running for a spot in the Maemo Community Council: I have been in the Maemo Community for about two(2) years now and I have jumped right in wanting to find a way to give back. I found this way in theme making. In the past year I have created and released over a dozen themes. I have released themes for every Maemo device including the 770 which I did not get until after I already had my N810. I have tried to help get more people interested in theming for Maemo by publishing how-to guides and helping answer any questions I get from new theme makers. Despite his announcement over a week ago, he has yet to answer the questions posed by Andrew Flegg in his announcement thread.

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Steven Yeager (YoDude) running for council

Steven Yeager has announced he is running for a spot in the Maemo Community Council: I believe that the Community Council we elect should have some representation from the average customer/user base. I also believe that the forums are, and will continue to be the communication means of choice for many engaged users. I also believe that some of the future leaders of our community will come from within the ranks of these engaged users. At the time of writing, his nomination is only four hours old, so he has not yet answered the questions from Andrew Flegg.

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Arek Stopczynski (hopbeat) running for council

Arek Stopczynski has announced he is running for a spot in the Maemo Community Council, after being nominated by Kathy Smith: Why I would like to become part of the council? I can provide user&developer insight plus I don't often get emotional: I believe in listening to others (and telling them they have no idea what they are talking about, if this is the case; but not before they are heard) Arek has kindly answered the series of questions your editor is asking of all the candidates. His answers can be found later in the thread.

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Javier Pedro (javispedro) running for council

Javier S. Pedro has accepted Arek Stopczynski's nomination and is running for a spot in the Maemo Community Council: The biggest issue to solve when you have a set of volunteers is how to make the most of the limited amount of time they are willing to contribute to a project. However, instead of attacking this problem, one can decide to try to increase this amount of time -- developers (and I guess most people :) ) tend to "always find more time" for tasks they like. Javier has kindly answered the series of question asked of the other candidates by Andrew Flegg as part of his acceptance.

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