In this edition...

  1. Front Page
    • Nokia N900 gamepad hack
    • First Qt application accepted to Apple's App Store
  2. Applications
    • Installing AIM/ICQ/Yahoo!/MSN/Vkontakte and QIP chat accounts, with GUI, on Nokia N9
    • Kheweeteur 0.7.1 promoted to Extras-testing for testing
  3. Development
    • Qt Creator 2.4.0 released with improved coding style and quick fixing
    • PhoneGap porting to MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan
  4. Devices
    • Adding additional languages to N900 welcome screen
  5. Announcements
    • Fully open source flasher
    • Nokia Live View augmented reality available for Nokia N9

Front Page

Nokia N900 gamepad hack

Engadget covers Emyrth's slide-on, USB-based, gamepad for the N900: Nokia's internetting tablet that simply refuses to quit has already run the multi-purpose gamut, standing in as a brain scanner / replacement, OS dual-booter and Ice Cream Sandwich biter -- just to name a few.

Now, a homebrew mod from Polish hacker Emeryth, has that soon-to-be retro QWERTY slider sporting a custom gamepad to make those long hours logged into video game emulation that much more thumb-friendly. The exposed overlay is based on an ATmega8A microcontroller and plugs directly into the device's USB port, giving gamers an eight button solution, plus a PSP-like analog stick. It's a handy, albeit ugly, add-on that'll help get your gaming heroes of old through well trodden enemy lines.

A video is presented, and schematics and code is available to download from Andrzej's blog.

First Qt application accepted to Apple's App Store

Qt was always intended as a cross-platform development framework. Nokia took it to Symbian, Maemo, MeeGo and Harmattan. Open source Necessitas took it to Android. Now, Qt4iOS on Twitter says THE question has finally been answered... The first Qt Widget app to be submitted to Apple has been accepted for the App Store... :)

This means a Qt developer can now target Android, iOS, Symbian and MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan with a single code-base.

Applications

Installing AIM/ICQ/Yahoo!/MSN/Vkontakte and QIP chat accounts, with GUI, on Nokia N9

Editor: Andrew Olmsted

Though we covered this a bit last week, an even easier method of adding unsupported chat accounts to Harmattan has surfaced. This method involves installing three separate packages to give you access to many more IM providers: Here the full guide for enabling AIM / ICQ / Yahoo / MSN / QIP / Vkontakte chats and integrating it with the Accounts services on Nokia N9.

Your editor installed these packages and everything went smoothly and looks good. I didn't test adding a new account through the interface, though.

Kheweeteur 0.7.1 promoted to Extras-testing for testing

Benoît HERVIER's Twitter client for Maemo 5 has been updated in Extras-testing. Benoît reports lots of bug fixes have been contributed by Neal Walfield; who has also added Woodchuck support for more intelligent network usage.

Development

Qt Creator 2.4.0 released with improved coding style and quick fixing

Editor: Andrew Olmsted

Right around the time that Qt 4.8 was released we got version 2.4.0 of Qt Creator. We are happy to announce that finally Qt Creator 2.4.0 is ready to be published. [...] Around 1300 commits have been accepted since 2.3.1. Lots of thanks go to the contributors, you find a list at the end of the change log You can download the full installation for your operating system, or if you already have a previous version installed you can update from within Qt Creator by going to "Help" and "Start Updater".

PhoneGap porting to MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan

Kamen Bundev has been porting PhoneGap to Harmattan. PhoneGap is an HTML/JavaScript-based cross-device development platform. There are still some things to finish, but what works: Camera; Device; Events; Compass; Storage; Connection; Geolocation; Notification; Accelerometer. What doesn't (yet): File; Media; Capture; Contacts.

Devices

Adding additional languages to N900 welcome screen

Pali Rohár has dug into how the Maemo 5 welcome screen shows localised mesages: you may noticed that Maemo 5 Welcome screen (which appears after instering battery or flashing) does not show all extra installed Maemo 5 translations. Problem is because, osso_startup_wizard (Welcome screen application) read language table from library libi18n-locale-resolver0. And that library read languages from binary file (and not try to check which translations are installed).

I created small shell script which can modify (add/delete) language strings (e.g en_US) to that binary file and thus Welcome screen show/hide other languages.

The script is available, and Pali suggests translators could include it in their message packages to have it automatically invoked when the user installs it.

Announcements

Fully open source flasher

Pali Rohár has reverse engineered the final piece of the puzzle to have a fully open source flasher for the N900. Cold-flashing is the process to flash NOLO bootloader when bootloader in RX51 is damaged - when normal flashing not working.

I successfully patched pusb (from omap-u-boot-utils) to send 2nd x-loader image to RX51. This was easy because protocol is same as for omap3 TI borard - only double ASIC ID reading does not working on RX51, which caused error. Full details of Pali's approach are included in the Talk thread.

Nokia Live View augmented reality available for Nokia N9

Editor: Andrew Olmsted

Nokia Live View brings augmented reality to your Harmattan device. This program uses the camera to display your surroundings and overlays points of interest using the GPS and electronic compass. Following on the success of the Live View app for Symbian, we have developed another Qt version specifically for the Nokia N9. Your editor has been wanting to try a program like this, but now I wish I had more interesting surroundings. The package is downloadable from the Beta Labs site, but as this is an early release it may still have issues.