In this edition...

  1. Front Page
    • Nokia N9 PR1.2 now available over-the-air
  2. Applications
    • Avoiding jet lag with continuous clock change
    • Daily Wallpaper is Qt Ambassador project of the week
    • Two new FM Radio frontends for N9
    • ...and 3 more
  3. Development
    • Mer Platform SDK can now build itself
    • Reverse engineered "WhatsApp" client can send messages
    • Harmattan PR1.2 requires Secure APT repositories
    • Qt Components running on BlackBerry Playbook
  4. Community
    • maemo.org Extras Testing/QA refresh
  5. Devices
    • Nokia launch WP, Series 40 & high-end camera phones - no sign of Qt for next billion
  6. Announcements
    • WiFik - WiFi scanner for Harmattan
    • MaeMeeMo - a MeeGo Harmattan Nemo modification pack for Maemo 5
    • Personal Web Server for Nokia N9
    • ...and 6 more

Front Page

Nokia N9 PR1.2 now available over-the-air

The long-awaited PR1.2 update is now available for Nokia N9 users.

Go to Settings > Applications > Manage applications > Update.

Applications

Avoiding jet lag with continuous clock change

One of your editors, Andrew Flegg, has written a blog post about a technique for beating jet lag: I trust a clock when I see it. So if I can convince myself that the time isn't changing in one big jump, jet lag is less of an issue. I used to do this with my watch: every two hours on a ten hour flight with an eight hour time difference: move my watch forward two hours. By speeding up, or slowing down, time I find it excellent for transitioning gradually to my destination timezone. Andrew plans on developing it into an app.

Daily Wallpaper is Qt Ambassador project of the week

Via: @Jaffa2

Daily Wallpaper is the Qt Ambassador project of the week: Every hour (or day, or week or whenever you want), the Daily Wallpaper app downloads new wallpaper from a Flickr group that is particularly known for nice looking wallpapers. Then this downloaded wallpaper is set to be the Nokia N9 device wallpaper and you experience a nice surprise the next time you unlocking your device. The app is available in the Nokia Store.

Two new FM Radio frontends for N9

Via: @Jaffa2

Two new FM radio front ends for the N9 have been released, improving upon Thomas Perl's proof-of-concept. Reviews and information is in the links below.


2G/3G switcher and MediaKeys tweaks for N9

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Ryan Abel

AllBoutN9 has a follow-on to their previous article on "toggle" applications (which essentially replicate the functionality of statusbar plugins of old with application icons) with two new applications, 2G3G and MediaKeys: [2G3G] by Jacobo Guderzo lets you switch between 2G and 3G cellular networks. It's useful, since 2G connection uses less battery consumption and isn't always necessary while you're not using internet actively. 2G3G won't work in any way if the N9 is connected to a Wi-Fi network, nor when only 2G is available. [...] If you use the N9 a lot to listen to you music collection, Jacobo Guderzo's [MediaKeys] might be made for you. It manipulates the two physical volume buttons and gives them an additional function: Switching songs. With MediaKeys you still can change the volume, but also skip or rewind a song by holding the buttons about a second long. There are several option you can choose from - but the application needs to run in the background. Both applications are available from Nokia Developer (links provided at the article, as well as a link to the previous "toggle" application article and its featured applications).

DreamRemote released for the N9/N950

Via: @QtHelex

Michael Muth has released his newest remote application: It's a WiFi Multi Remote Control for the Dreambox (the Linux-based set-top boxes) from Dream multimedia. It supports all Enigma 1 and Enigma 2 based Dreambox receiver, VDR Project with installed vdr-live plugin and the dbox2 with installed neutrino image. The application is available for Harmattan for £1.50 (or local equivalent) in the Nokia Store.

Adobe Flash coming to Nokia N9 through Firefox

Talk user "jolo" is one of the folks behind Fennec, and announces some good news: We have finally sorted out the issues with Firefox for the N9 and have Adobe Flash certified. This means we should be able to get these to the Store quite soon. Sorry for the silence on this topic, but it has been a roller-coaster ride for these apps. The updated Firefox is now in the Nokia Store, for free. Flash is not yet present, but is expected shortly.

Development

Mer Platform SDK can now build itself

David Greaves announced a milestone in the Mer project: The Mer platform SDK can now assemble itself with mic. Build with osc is also working as are ancillary things like spectacle and kickstarter. Updated instructions are in the Mer wiki.

Reverse engineered "WhatsApp" client can send messages

We've previously covered the effort, being coordinated in a Talk thread, to reverse engineer the phone-number based, cross-platform messaging hit app "WhatsApp". Now "tgalal" has hit a major milestone: A quick status update, I'm now able to send messages successfully. Unfortunately, amongst all the progress and technical discussion is a seeming over-abundance of politics, and newbies asking asinine questions.

Harmattan PR1.2 requires Secure APT repositories

Via: @Jaffa2

Talk user "itsnotabigtruck" highlights bug 978 which will affect users using third-party repositories in Harmattan PR1.2: In the upcoming PR1.2 release, the installer contains an issue that will block packages from custom APT repositories from being installed unless they contain Secure APT signatures.

Qt Components running on BlackBerry Playbook

Via: @Jaffa2

Robin Burchell has got the N9's QML Qt Components working on the BlackBerry Playbook: I spent ~2 hours learning how the basics worked, getting a hello world on there, then got QML samegame on there, and then I decided to do something a bit more interesting. I wanted QML components on there to easily write apps for myself (as well as port some N9 apps I've written for myself), so I had a crack at it. Robin's uploaded a YouTube video showing the, very impressive, results.

Community

maemo.org Extras Testing/QA refresh

Via: @Jaffa2

RM Bauer has continued with his efforts to refresh and revitalise the maemo.org Extras Testing QA process, this time on the "Testing Squad" mailing list: We are thinking of reviving this ML for testing/QA purposes [...] If you think we should use the developers ML or other communication mechanism, please discuss in this thread. If you are one of the people listed below, please be sure to reply if you want to remain a tester.

As anybody can be a tester, by just participating in the QA process and enabling Extras-testing, it isn't entirely clear what Rob's final statement means.

Devices

Nokia launch WP, Series 40 & high-end camera phones - no sign of Qt for next billion

Nokia Gadgets has seen a press release from Nokia hyping an announcement with "significant industry news" on Monday, the first day of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: You need to be very careful at not over analyzing these press releases, but what is “significant industry news”? Is an major device release significant industry news? Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft certainly was just that. Meltemi, Nokia’s new Qt based low end platform would certainly be just that. Nokia tablet could be big, but it’s way too early to announce Windows 8 tablet.

As jalys} says - "please be Meltemi". Unfortunately, it was just some additional Lumia and Asha devices; along with the "Nokia 808 PureView" - a 41MP Belle device.

Announcements

WiFik - WiFi scanner for Harmattan

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Ryan Abel

Iktwo Salazar has released a WiFi scanner for Harmattan which provides a front-end for some of the wireless-tools features. It sounds like Developer Mode may be a requirement (or at least will make installing the application easier), those interested in testing can find a link to the .deb in the post.

MaeMeeMo - a MeeGo Harmattan Nemo modification pack for Maemo 5

Via: @Jaffa2

Talk user TransTech has put together an interesting set of modications for Fremantle that attempt to effect thematic and interaction changes to make it fit behave like Harmattan and Nemo. So this (Project) is called MaeMeeMo i.e. Its a mixture of Maemo5, Meego (Harmattan) and Nemo. As you all can see in the screenshots and the Intro Image (below), it has the goodness of Maemo5 (Homescreens), Meego (Harmattan) standby screen as lockscreen, and Nemo look and feel. Although the announcement only features three screenshots and a video so far, both look promising and more is supposed to be coming in the near future.

Personal Web Server for Nokia N9

Thomas Perl has continued with providing a variety of applications for Maemo/MeeGo with his new "Personal Web Server". It will offer files in your MyDocs partition to other machines on the same network - you see a log of all requests, and also have the option to re-generate a new random password. Personal Web Server costs £1 (or local equivalent) in the Nokia Store.

SpotOn: Easily enable WiFi hotspot for N9 users in US

Via: @sonyfever

Some US users of the N9 do not have the "Wifi Hotspot" application available. A new app, available in the Nokia Store in North Amercia aims to change that: Tired of digging into terminal just to enable hotspot? Don't want to mess around with scripts or developer mode? Then this is the tool for you!

MeeSaver - random wallpaper slideshow for Harmattan

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Ryan Abel

Aranel Surion has put together a new application MeeSaver which randomizes the lockscreen wallpaper selection at choosen intervals: MeeSaver is a small app (w/ a daemon), it selects a random lockscreen wallpaper every X seconds from a given folder. It's daemon runs on start-up, so you don't have to have it running all the time. If you have TONS of wallpapers and can't decide which one to use, or just want to see a different wallpaper, give it a try! The app has been submitted to Nokia Store QA, and this editor is looking forward to its acceptance with great enthusiasm.

Battery Percentage widget for N9

Via: @Jaffa2

Talk user "MFaroTusino" announced a new Battery Percentage "widget" for Harmattan. The application displays the battery percentage on its application icon on the homescreen: You may have seen my post a while back about trying to replace the N9's battery icon for a percentage. Well I am half way there. At the moment, I am announcing an app Icon widget. The "app" is still a collection of files, meaning the installation process is a little involved - and therefore risky if you don't know what you're doing.

YouTube video channels in Harmattan Events feed

Via: @Jaffa2

Stuart Howarth has announced the initial release of YouTube Video Feed. YouTube Video Feed allows you to have your chosen video feed publish to the event feed. [...] Currently, tapping on one of the feed entries will take you to the mobile web page, from where you can play the video as per the usual method. I may add an option to play the video directly in the stock player. The binary deb can be downloaded from Stuart's website.

Gigalomania, real-time strategy game, released for N900

Via: @Jaffa2

Aapo Rantalainen has ported "Gigalomania" to Maemo: The gameplay consists of researching and developing new technology with which to conquer your enemies, from rocks and sticks to nuclear weapons and spaceships. You can advance through ten different ages, from the stone age to the future. There are 28 different maps to play through. Currently the app is only available in Extras-devel, so care should be taken as it has not gone through the community's QA process. No other apps should be updated whilst the repo is enabled.

Sharetus - new Harmattan sharing plugin

Via: @setelini

Jason Robinson's first Harmattan application is in the stage where I feel comfortable releasing it to public testing. The application is a kind of bookmarklet launcher since the default N9 browser doesn't support them. Bookmarklets are available for many sites on the net and are very popular in doing things like sharing links. Sharetus currently has a small list of targets which will grow later as I get feedback and requests. Also the list will be made configurable so you can disable sites you don't need from the list and add your own.